American tabloid

50

Pete turned forty on a speedboat run to Cuba. He led a raid on a militia station and took sixteen scalps.

Ramon Gutiйrrez sketched up a Cadre mascot: a pit bull with an alligator snout and razor-blade teeth. Ramуn’s girlfriend sewed up mascot shoulder patches.

A printer fashioned mascot calling cards. “FREE CUBA!” roared out of the Beast’s mouth.

Carlos Marcello carried one. Sam Gi carried one. Santo Junior handed out dozens to friends and associates.

The Beast craved blood. The Beast craved Castro’s beard on a stick.

Training cycles pushed through Blessington. The invasion plan mandated new ordnance. Dougie Frank Lockhart purchased surplus landing craft and “invaded” Alabama once per cycle.

The Gulf Coast simulated Cuba. Trainees hit the beach and scared the shit out of sunbathers.

Dougie Frank trained troops full-time. Pete trained troops parttime. Chuck, Fulo and Wilfredo Delsol ran the cabstand.

Pete led speedboat runs into Cuba. Everybody went along- except Delsol.

The Obregуn kill snipped part of his balls. Pete didn’t judge him-losing blood kin in a flash was no picnic.

Everybody sold dope.

The Cadre supplied spook junkies exclusively. The Miami PD implicitly approved. Narco Squad payouts served as disapproval insurance.

A redneck gang tried to crash their turf late in August. One geek shot and killed a Dade County deputy.

Pete found the guy-holed up with seventy grand and a case of Wild Turkey. He took him out with Fulo’s machete and donated the cash to the deputy’s widow. -

Profits zoomed. The % system worked slick as shit-fat stipends went to Blessington and Guy Banister. Lenny Sands ran the Hush-Hush propaganda war. Purple prose bopped the Beard every week.

Dracula called weekly. He spouted broken-record bullshit: I want to buy up Las Vegas and render it germ-free! Drac was half lucid and half nuts-and only really cagey where coin was concerned. -

Boyd called bi-weekly. Boyd was Bad-Back Jack’s security boss and head pimp.

Mr. Hoover kept chasing him with phone calls. Kemper kept avoiding them. Hoover wanted him to slip Jack some hot-wired pussy.

Boyd called it a sprint: Avoid The Man until Jack becomes The Man.

Hoover hot-wired Boyd’s L.A. hotel suite. Kemper shot him some spicy misinformation: Jack the K is banging Marilyn Monroe!

Hoover bought the lie. An L.A. agent told Boyd that Monroe was now under intense surveillance: bug/taps and six full-time men.

Said agents were baffled. Jack the Haircut and MM have not been in contact.

Pete laughed himself silly. Dracula confirmed the rumor: Marilyn and Jack were one hot item!!!!

Boyd said he skin-searched all Jack’s girls.

Boyd said Kennedy and Nixon were running neck-and-neck.

Pete didn’t say, I’ve got dirt. I can SELL it to Jimmy Hoffa; I can GIVE it to you to smear Nixon with.

Jimmy’s a colleague. Boyd’s a partner. Who’s more proCause-Jack or Nixon?

Tricky Dick was hotly anti-Beard. Jack was vocal but still short of rabid.

John Stanton called Nixon “Mr. Invasion.” Kemper said Jack would green-light all invasion plans.

Boyd’s key campaign issue was COMPARTMENTALIZATION.

Ike and Dick knew the Agency and the Mob were Cuba-linked. The Kennedys didn’t know-and might or might not be told if Jack bags the White House.

Who decides whether to spill?-Kemper Cathcart Boyd himself. The deciding factor: moralist Bobby’s perceived influence on Big Brother.

Bobby could scut all Mob/CIA ties. Bobby could scut the Boyd/Bondurant casino incentive deal.

Jack or Dick-one very tough call.

The smart bet: Don’t smear seasoned Red-baiter Nixon. Not so smart, but sexy: Smear him and put Jack in the White House.

Vote Boyd. Vote the Beast. Vote Fidel Castro’s beard on a stick.

DOCUMENT INSERT: 10/13/60. FBI memorandum: Chicago SAC Charles Leahy to Director J. Edgar Hoover. Marked: CONFIDENTIAL/DIRECTOR’S EYES ONLY.

Sir,

The pro-Communist derogatory profile on SA Ward J. Littell is now complete. This memo supplants all previous confidential reports pertaining to Littell, with Itemized evidence documents to follow under separate cover.

To brlefly update you on recent developments:

1.-Claire Boyd (daughter of SA Kemper C. Boyd and longtime Littell family frlend) was contacted and agreed not to tell her father of the interview. Miss Boyd stated that last Christmas SA Littell made obscenely disparaging anti-Bureau, anti-Hoover remarks and praised the American Communist Party.

2.-There are no leads in the Littell assault investigation. We still do not know what Littell was doing in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

3.-SA Littell’s mistress, Helen Agee, was spot-surveffled for a two-week period last month. Several of Miss Agee’s University of Chicago Law School professors were quizzed about her political statements. We now have four confirmed reports that Miss Agee has also been publicly critical of the Bureau. One professor (Chicago Office informant #179) stated that Miss Agee railed against the FBI for their failure to solve a “simple assault case up in Wisconsin” and went on to call the Bureau “the American Gestapo that got my father killed and turned my lover into a cripple.” (A U of C dean is going to recommend that Miss Agee’s graduate school grant funding be rescinded under provisions of a student loyalty statement that all law school enrollees sign.)

In conclusion:

I think it is now time to approach SA Littell. I await further orders.

Respectfully,

Charles Leahy

Chicago SAC

DOCUMENT INSERT: 10/15/60. FBI memorandum: Director J. Edgar Hoover to SAC Charles Leahy.

Mr. Leahy,

No approach on SA Littell until I so direct.