American Tabloid - James Ellroy [185]
BJ: The Twist.
JFK (sustained laughter): Excuse my naivete. When you ask a silly question.
BJ: It was more like ask a candid question, get a candid answer.
JFK: That’s true. You know, my brother thinks you’re overqualified for this party.
BJ: He acts like he’s slumming himself.
JFK: That’s perceptive.
BJ: Your brother never won a dime at poker.
JFK: Which is one of his strengths. Now, what happens when this silly dance craze of yours wears itself out?
BJ: I’ll have saved enough money to set my sister up in a Bob’s Big Boy franchise in Tunnel City, Wisconsin.
JFK: I carried Wisconsin.
BJ: I know. My sister voted for you.
JFK: What about your parents?
BJ: My father’s dead. My mother hates Catholics, so she voted for Nixon.
JFK: A split vote isn’t too bad. That’s a lovely mink, by the way.
BJ: I borrowed it from Peter.
JFK: Then it’s one of the six thousand furs my father bought my sisters.
BJ: I read about your father’s stroke. It made me sad.
JFK: Don’t be. He’s too evil to die. And by the way, do you travel with that revue Peter told me about?
BJ: Constantly. In fact, I’m leaving for an East Coast swing on the 27th.
JFK: Would you leave your itinerary with the White House switchboard? I thought we might have dinner if our schedules permit.
BJ: I’d like that. And I will call.
JFK: Please. And take the mink with you. You do things for it that my sister never could.
BJ: I couldn’t.
JFK: I insist. Really, she won’t miss it.
BJ: All right, then.
JFK: I don’t normally raid people’s closets, but I want you to have it.
BJ: Thank you, Jack.
JFK: My pleasure. And regretfully, I have to make some phone calls.
BJ: Until next time, then.
JFK: Yes. That’s the way to look at it.
MUl: Mr. President?
JFK: Hold on, I’m coming.
11:41–12:03: silence. (Wave noise indicates that BJ has remained on the beach deck.)
12:03–12:09: garbled voices and hi-fi noise. (Obvious departures throughout.)
12:10: BJ & LS leave the party. Live tape feed close: 12:11 a.m., February 20, 1962.
DOCUMENT INSERT: 3/4/62. Carlyle Hotel bedroom microphone transcript. Transcribed by: Fred Turentine. Tape/written copies to: P. Bondurant, W. Littell.
BJ phoned the listening post to say she was meeting the target for “dinner.” She was instructed to double open & shut the bedroom door to activate the mike. Active feed from 8:09 p.m. on. Initial log: BJ—Barb Jahelka. JFK—John F. Kennedy.
8:09–8:20: sexual activity. (See tape transcript. High sound quality. Voices discernable.)
8:21–8:33: conversation.
JFK: Oh, God.
BJ: Hmmm.
JFK: Slide over a little. I want to take some pressure off my back.
BJ: How’s that?
JFK: Better.
BJ: Want a back rub?
JFK: No. There’s nothing you can do that you haven’t done already.
BJ: Thanks. And I’m glad you called me.
JFK: What did I get you out of?
BJ: Two shows at the Rumpus Room in Passaic, New Jersey.
JFK: Oh, God.
BJ: Ask me a question.
JFK: All right. Where’s that mink coat I gave you?
BJ: My ex-husband sold it.
JFK: You let him do that?
BJ: It’s a game we play.
JFK: What do you mean?
BJ: He knows I’m going to leave him soon. I’m in debt to him, so he takes these little advantages whenever he finds them.
JFK: It’s a large debt, then?
BJ: Very large.
JFK: You’ve got my interest. Tell me more.
BJ: It’s just grief from Tunnel City, Wisconsin, circa 1948.
JFK: I like Wisconsin.
BJ: I know. You carried it.
JFK (laughing): You’re droll. Ask me a question.
BJ: Who’s the biggest fuckhead in American politics?
JFK (laughing): That closet queen J. Edgar Hoover, who’ll be retiring on January 1, 1965.
BJ: I hadn’t heard anything about that.
JFK: You will.
BJ: I get it. You have to be re-elected first.
JFK: You’re learning. Now, tell me more about Tunnel City, Wisconsin, in 1948.
BJ: Not now.
JFK: Why?
BJ: I’m tantalizing you, so we can prolong this thing of ours.
JFK (laughing): You know men.
BJ: Yes, I do.
JFK: Who taught you? Initially, I mean.
BJ: The entire adolescent male population of Tunnel City, Wisconsin. Don’t look so shocked. The total number