American Tabloid - James Ellroy [163]
Dear Howard,
You must not be concerning yourself with Hush-Hush these days. If you’ll glance at the April 24th issue, you’ll see that it went to press at best precipitously and at worst with a certain amount of criminal negligence and/or criminal intent.
Did Mr. L. Sands perhaps possess some spurious foreknowledge of unforetellable events? His piece mentioned a number of Negro heroin overdoses in the Miami area, and my Miami police contacts tell me that no such overdoses occurred.
Nine Cuban teenagers, however, did die from injections of poisonous Heroin. My contact told me that on April 18, two Cuban youths stole an attache case containing a large quantity of toxic Heroin from a car involved in an unsolved shootout that left two Cuban men dead.
My contact mentioned the curiously prophetic (if historically inaccurate) Hush-Hush piece. I told him that it was merely one of life’s odd coincidences, an explanation that seemed to satisfy him.
I would advice you to tell Mr. Sands to get his facts reasonably straight. Hush-Hush should not publish science fiction, unless it’s directly in our best interest.
All best, Edgar
DOCUMENT INSERT: 5/8/61. Miami Herald sidebar:
PRESIDENT CONVENES HIGH-LEVEL GROUP TO ASSESS BAY OF PIGS FAILURE
Calling the aborted Cuban exile invasion at the Bay of Pigs a “bitter lesson,” President Kennedy today stated that it was also a lesson he intended to learn from.
The President told an informal gathering of reporters that he has organized a study group to delve into precisely why the Bay of Pigs invasion failed and to also assess U.S.-Cuban policy in the wake of what he called a “catastrophically embarrassing episode.”
The group will interview evacuated Bay of Pigs survivors, Central Intelligence Agency personnel involved in high-level invasion planning and Cuban exile spokesmen from the numerous anti-Castro organizations currently flourishing in Florida.
The study group will include Admiral Arleigh Burke and General Maxwell Taylor. The chairman will be Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
DOCUMENT INSERT: 5/10/61. Personal note: Robert F. Kennedy to Kemper Boyd.
Dear Kemper,
I hate to trouble a wounded man with work, but I know you’re resilient, healing nicely and looking forward to getting back to your Justice Department duties. I feel bad about sending you into harm’s way, so thank God you’re recovering.
I’ve got a second assignment for you, one that geographically suits your work in Anniston and your occasional Miami excursions for Mr. Hoover. The President has formed a group to study the Bay of Pigs mess and the Cuban question in general. We’ll be meeting with CIA administrators, action-level case officers, Bay of Pigs survivors and representatives from many CIA-sponsored and non-CIA-sponsored exile factions. I’m chairing the group, and I want you to serve as my point man and liaison to the Miami-based CIA contingent and their Cuban charges.
I think you’ll be good at the job, even though your pre-invasion appraisal of exile readiness turned out to be quite inaccurate. You should know that the President and I do not blame you in any way for the ultimate failure of the invasion. At this stage of assessment, I think the blame should be leveled at over-zealous CIA men, sloppy pre-invasion security and an egregious miscalculation of in-Cuba discontent.
Enjoy another week’s rest in Miami. The President sends his best, and we both think it’s ironic that a forty-five-year-old man who has courted danger all his adult life should be hit by a stray bullet fired by an unknown assailant at a riot scene.
Get well and call me next week.
Bob
DOCUMENT INSERT: 5/11/61. Identical airtel memorandums: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to the New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Dallas, Tampa, Chicago and Cleveland Special Agents-in-Charge. All marked: CONFIDENTIAL 1-A/DESTROY UPON RECEIPT.
Sir—
Your name has been deleted from this airtel for security purposes. Consider this communique top secret and report back to me personally upon implementation of