Target Manhattan

O’Brien (Cont’d)

Sergeant, at what time did it become evident to you that there was a good chance the bank might not be able to raise the money in time, despite its best efforts to do so?

Pretty early, sir. We could all see that. It was a hell of a lot of money to get up in a couple of hours. Money doesn’t have habit of moving fast, not unless it’s crime money.

When we were setting up this commission, the Mayor threw out the suggestion that Craycroft and Ryterband must have realized that.

Yes, sir. I think a lot of us thought about that at the time.

Did it lead you to a particular conclusion?

I wouldn’t call it a conclusion. It wasn’t definite.

A speculation, then.

(Laughter) Sir, you don’t have any idea how many times I’ve been stopped dead in court by a lawyer who jumps up and yells an objection about “speculation on the part of the witness.”

We’re not in court, Sergeant. I’d appreciate having your views.

Well, sir, I was talking with Jack Harris-you know, the reporter who was up there with his television film. I know Harris for a long time. He’s a real reporter, one of the good guys. He talks, you pay attention. Now there’s a big crowd of us in the room there, and after Captain Grofeld got there and the FBI was swarming all over Ryterband, there wasn’t a hell of a lot for me to do there. I was over by the window with Harris, we were watching the damned B-17 circle over. We got to talking. You know how it is.

Yes.

Well, they’d worked this caper out in fantastic detail, you know. We could see that right away. They weren’t just bumbling around. They’d figured just about everything. They weren’t dumb.

And?

It was kind of hard to believe that anybody who’d gone to all that trouble would forget an item as important as the time it took to raise that much money.

What did you deduce from that?

Well, sir, we kind of figured maybe they didn’t really expect anybody to come up with the money in time.

Oh?

Yes, sir. They were nut cases, that was self-evident. And it seemed to us it was just possible they didn’t want us to be able to come up with the money in time.

Why?

Because if we didn’t produce the money, it would give them the excuse they were looking for. To bomb hell out of New York.