The Cold Six Thousand (18 page)
Read The Cold Six Thousand Online
Authors: James Ellroy
(Los Angeles, 1/9/64)
H
e bought Jane a wallet. Saks engraved it.
Soft kid. A lowercase “j.f.”
Jane fanned the sleeves. “You were right. I showed them my Alabama license, and they gave me a new one right there.”
Littell smiled. Jane smiled and posed. She leaned on the window. She jutted a hip out. She blocked off the view.
Littell pulled his chair up. “We’ll get you a Social Security card. You’ll have all the ID you need.”
Jane smiled. “What about a master’s degree? You got me the B.A. already.”
Littell crossed his legs. “You could go to UCLA and earn one.”
“How about this? I could divide my studies between L.A., D.C., and Vegas, just to keep up with my peripatetic lover.”
Littell smiled. “Was that a jibe?”
“Just an observation.”
“You’re getting restless. You’re overqualified for a life of leisure.”
Jane pirouetted. Jane dipped low and stood on her toes. She was good. She was lithe. She’d studied somewhere.
Littell said, “Some people from the safe house have disappeared. That’s good news more than bad.”
Jane shrugged. Jane scissored low. Her skirt brushed the floor.
“Where did you learn that?”
Jane said, “Tulane. I audited a dance class, but you won’t see it on my transcript.”
Littell sat on the floor. Jane scissored up to him.
“I want to find a job. I was a good bookkeeper, even before you improved my credentials.”
Littell stroked her feet. Jane wiggled her toes.
“You could find me something at Hughes Aircraft.”
Littell shook his head. “Mr. Hughes is very disturbed. I’m working against him on some levels, and I want to keep you out of that side of my life.”
Jane grabbed her cigarettes. “Any other ideas?”
“I could get you work with the Teamsters.”
Jane shook her head. “No. That’s not me.”
“Why?”
She lit a cigarette. Her hand shook.
“It’s just not. I’ll find a job, don’t worry.”
Littell traced her stocking runs. “You’ll do better than that. You’ll excel and upstage everyone you work with.”
Jane smiled. Littell pinched out her cigarette. He kissed her. He touched her hair. He saw a new gray.
Jane pulled his tie off. “Tell me about the last woman you were with.”
Littell cleaned his glasses. “Her name was Helen Agee. She was a friend of my daughter’s. I got in trouble with the Bureau and Helen was the first casualty.”
“She left you?”
“She ran, yes.”
“What kind of trouble were you in?”
“I underestimated Mr. Hoover.”
“That’s all you’ll tell me?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Helen?”
“She’s a legal-aid lawyer. The last I heard, my daughter was, too.”
Jane kissed him. “We have to be who we decided to be in Dallas.”
Littell said, “Yes.”
Jane fell asleep. Littell feigned sleep. Littell got up slow.
He walked to his office. He set up his tape rig. He poured some coffee.
He nailed Doug Eversall. He called him yesterday. He threatened him. He crossed the line.
He said don’t call Carlos. Don’t tell him what Bobby said. Don’t rat out Bobby.
He warned him. He said I’m working freelance. Don’t fuck me or I’ll retaliate. You’re a drunk driver/killer. I’ll expose you for that. I won’t let Carlos hurt Bobby.
Bobby suspected the Boys. That meant Bobby KNEW. Bobby didn’t say it flat out. Bobby didn’t need to. Bobby sidestepped the pain.
Mea culpa
. Cause-and-effect.
My
Mob crusade killed my brother.
Littell spooled the tape—tape copy #2.
He’d doctored a dupe. He pouched it to Mr. Hoover. He retained the small talk. He layered in static. He x’d out Bobby’s Mob talk.
Littell hit Play. Bobby talked. His grief showed. His kindness showed through.
Kind Bobby—a chat with his clubfooted friend.
Bobby talked. Bobby paused. Bobby said the name “Littell.”
Littell listened. Littell timed the pauses. Bobby faltered. Bobby
KNEW
. Bobby never said it.
Littell listened. Littell
lived
the pauses. The old fear came. It told him this:
You believe in him again
.
DOCUMENT INSERT
: 1/10/64. Verbatim FBI telephone call transcript. Marked: “Recorded at the Director’s Request”/“Classified Confidential 1-A: Director’s Eyes Only.” Speaking: Director Hoover, Ward J. Littell.
JEH: Good morning, Mr. Littell.
WJL: Good morning, Sir.
JEH: Let’s get to the tape. The sound quality was very poor.
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: The text was unenlightening. If I wish to discuss Airedale dogs with the Dark Prince, I can dial his direct line at will.
WJL: My plant fidgeted, Sir. He moved and caused distortion.
JEH: Will you try again?
WJL: That’s impossible, Sir. My plant was lucky to get one audience.
JEH: Your plant’s voice was familiar. He sounded like a handicapped lawyer the Dark Prince employs.
WJL: You have a fine memory for voices, Sir.
JEH: Yes. And I have a few plants of my own.
WJL: Myself among them.
JEH: I wouldn’t call you a “plant,” Mr. Littell. You’re too gifted and diversified.
WJL: Thank you, Sir.
JEH: Do you recall our conversation of December 2nd? I said I needed a man with a “fallen liberal” image, and hinted that it might be you.
WJL: Yes, Sir. I recall the conversation.
JEH: I’m miffed at Martin Luther King and his egregiously un-Christian Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I want to further penetrate the group, and you’re the perfect “fallen liberal” to help me accomplish my goal.
WJL: In what way, Sir?
JEH: I already have a plant within the SCLC. He has established his ability to procure dossiers on policemen, organized-crime figures and other notables that left-wing Negroes might consider adversaries. My plan is to provide him with a dossier on you. The dossier will portray you as an ousted Bureau man with leftist tendencies, ones which you have frankly yet to outgrow.
WJL: You’ve piqued my interest, Sir.
JEH: Your assignment would be to appear sympathetic to the civil-rights cause, which I know will be no great stretch. You will donate numerous allotments of marked Mob money to the SCLC, in $10,000 increments, over a sustained period of time. My goal is to compromise the SCLC and render them more tractable. Your goal is to convince the SCLC that you have embezzled the money from organized-crime sources, in an effort to assuage your guilt over working for mobsters in the first place. This will also be no great stretch. I’m sure that you can tap the ambivalent aspects of your nature and front a convincing performance. I’m equally sure that you can justify the continued expense to your mobster colleagues, as a proactive means to avoid civil-rights trouble in Las Vegas, which will please them and Mr. Hughes.
WJL: It’s a bold plan, Sir.
JEH: It is that.
WJL: I’d appreciate some more details.
JEH: My plant is an ex-Chicago policeman. He possesses chameleon qualities similar to yours. He’s ingratiated himself with the SCLC very nicely.
WJL: His name, Sir?
JEH: Lyle Holly. His brother was with the Bureau.
WJL: Dwight Holly. He transferred out, I think.
JEH: That is correct. He’s with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in Nevada now. I think he finds the assignment enervating. A brisk dope trade would be more to his liking.
WJL: And Lyle is—
JEH: Lyle is more impetuous. He drinks more than he should and comes off as a hail-fellow-well-met. The Negroes adore him. He’s convinced them that he’s the world’s most incongruously liberal ex-cop, when in fact that prize goes to you.
WJL: You flatter me, Sir.
JEH: I do anything but.
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Holly will portray you as a Chicago law-enforcement acquaintance and present the SCLC with documents pertaining to your Bureau expulsion. He will point you to a Negro named Bayard Rustin. Mr. Rustin is a close colleague of Mr. King. He is both a Communist and a homosexual, which marks him as a rara avis by all sane standards. I’ll send you a summary on him, and I’ll have Lyle Holly call you.
WJL: I’ll wait for his call, Sir.
JEH: Do you have other questions?
WJL: On this topic, no. But I would like your permission to contact Wayne Tedrow Senior, on Mr. Hughes’ behalf.
JEH: You have it.
WJL: Thank you, Sir.
JEH: Good day, Mr. Littell.
WJL: Good day, Sir.
DOCUMENT INSERT
: 1/11/64. “Subversive Persons” summary report. Marked: “Chronology/Known Facts/Observations/Known Associates/Memberships in Subversive Organizations.” Subject: RUSTIN, BAYARD TAYLOR (male Negro/DOB: 3/17/12, West Chester, Pa.). Compiled: 2/8/62.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
must be viewed as a cunning subversive with a significant history of Communist-inspired alliances & as a pronounced security threat, due to his alliances with perceived “Mainstream” Negro demagogues, such as
MARTIN LUTHER KING
&
A. PHILIP RANDOLPH. SUBJECT RUSTIN’S
radical Quaker background & his parents’ association with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) point out the extent of his early radical indoctrination. (See Addendum File #4189 on
RUSTIN, JANIFER & RUSTIN, JULIA DAVIS.)
SUBJECT RUSTIN
attended Wilberforce College (a Negro institution) 1932–33. He refused to join the ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) and led (abetted by numerous Communist sympathizers) a strike to protest the allegedly poor quality of food served to students.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
transferred to Cheyney State Teachers College (Pennsylvania) early in 1934. It is believed that he communicated with numerous notable Negro subversives while at the institution.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
was expelled in 1936. It is widely assumed that a homosexual incident resulted in his expulsion.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
moved to New York City circa 1938–39. He became a member of the so-called Negro “Intelligentsia,” studied the philosophy of
MOHANDAS “MAHATMA” GANDHI
& described himself as a “Committed Trotskyite.”
SUBJECT RUSTIN
(a gifted musician) fraternized with numerous white & Negro subversives, including
PAUL ROBESON
, who have since been identified as members
of 114 certified Communist-front organizations. (See “Known Associates,” Addendum File #4190.)
SUBJECT RUSTIN
became a member of the Young Communist League (YCL) at New York City College (NYCC) & was a frequent visitor at a Communist cell on 146th Street. He fraternized with Communist folk singers & led a YCL-inspired campaign to protest segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces. In 1941
SUBJECT RUSTIN
became acquainted with Negro labor agitator
A. PHTLIP RANDOLPH
(b. 1889) (see Randolph Files #1408, 1409, 1410).
SUBJECT RUSTIN
helped to organize the aborted 1941 Negro March on Washington & joined the socialist-pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) & the War Resisters League (WRL). During this time he became a skilled orator and disseminator of Socialist-Communist propaganda.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
registered as a conscientious objector with his (Harlem, N.Y.) draft board & was ordered to appear for a physical examination on 11/13/43.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
sent a letter of refusal (see Addendum Carbon #19) & was apprehended on 1/12/44. He was tried & convicted of violating the Selective Serv. Act (see Addendum File #4191 for trial transcript) & sent’d to 3 yrs in the Federal Penitentiary at Ashland, Ky.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
led several attempts to desegregate the prison dining hall & was transferred to Lewisburg Penitentiary (Pa).
SUBJECT RUSTIN
was paroled (6/46) & became a traveling speaker for the FOR. In 1946 & ’47 he participated in numerous Communist-inspired attempts (the “Journey of Reconciliation”) to desegregate interstate bus lines. In 11/47
SUBJECT RUSTIN
joined the “Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service & Training” & counseled Negro youths to avoid military service (see Addendum File #4192 for list of members & cross-referenced Communist front-group memberships).
SUBJECT RUSTIN
traveled extensively in India (1948-’49), returned to the U.S. & served a 22-day jail sentence for his subversive activities in the “Journey of Reconciliation.” He spent substantial time (thruout 1950, ’51, ’52) in Africa & studied insurgent & Negro nationalist movements there. On 1/21/53,
SUBJECT RUSTIN
was arrested on a morals charge in Pasadena, California (see Addendum File #4193 for arrest rpt. & trial transcript).
SUBJECT RUSTIN
& 2 white youths were engaged in a homosexual tryst in a parked car.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
pled guilty & served 60 days in the Los Angeles County Jail.
SUBJECT RUSTIN’S
homosexuality is well
known & is considered to be an embarrassment to the alleged “Mainstream” Negro “Leaders” who utilize his skills as an organizer & orator.
The 1/21/53 incident resulted in
SUBJECT RUSTIN’S
expulsion from the FOR.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
moved to New York City and cultivated friendships in the heavily bohemian & leftist-influenced Greenwich Village district. He rejoined the WRL & again traveled to Africa & studied Negro nationalist movements.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
returned to the U.S. & met
STANLEY LEVISON
, a Communist-indoctrinated advisor to
MARTIN LUTHER KING.
(See Files #5961, 5962, 5963, 5965, 5966.)
LEVISON
introduced
SUBJECT RUSTIN
to
KING
.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
advised
KING
per the staging of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–56. (See Central Index for individual files on boycott participants.)
SUBJECT RUSTIN
then became a trusted advisor to
KING
& is credited with influencing
KING’S
Pacifist/Socialist/Communist program of planned disruption & social disorder.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
drew up a document for the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) &
KING
adopted it at a (1/10-11/57) church conference in Atlanta. (See Addendum File #4194 & Electronic Surveillance File #0809.)
KING
was elected leader of the SCLC on 2/14/57 & has remained in power to this (2/8/62) date.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
joined the American Forum (classified as a Communist front group in 1947) & planned the SCLC/NAACP “Pilgrimage of Prayer” March on Washington (5/17/57). 30,000 people attended, including numerous Negro celebrities (see Surveillance Films #0704, 0705, 0706, 0708).
SUBJECT RUSTIN
organized the “Youth March for Integrated Schools” in 10/58. Per this march: associate
A. PHILIP RANDOLPH
publicly attacked
DIRECTOR HOOVER
for his comment that the march was a “Communist-inspired promotion.”
SUBJECT RUSTIN
staged a 2nd youth march in 4/59. (See Surveillance Films #0709, 0710, 0711.)
SUBJECT RUSTIN
rejected (early 1960) an offer to work full time for the SCLC. He has remained to this date (2/8/62) a vociferous critic of democratic institutions & has continued to support
MARTIN LUTHER KING
and his socialist designs, serving as an advisor & organizer of SCLC activities.
SUBJECT RUSTIN
is considered the leader of the SCLC braintrust & the mastermind behind
KING’S
rise to prominence as a demagogue and fomenter of social unrest. He has strategized & deployed white & Negro demonstrators in the “Sit-In” & “Freedom Ride” demonstrations of 1960–’61
& has retained documented friendships with a total of 94 members of certified Communist fronts (see Known Associate Index #2). In conclusion,
SUBJECT RUSTIN
must be classified as a Top Priority Internal Security Risk & should be subjected to periodic surveillance & possible mail & trash cover operations. (Note: Addendum files, films & tapes require Level 2 Clearance & Deputy Director Tolson’s authorization.)