American Tabloid - James Ellroy [204]
Kemper wet his lips and spoke with a mouthful of spittle.
“If you fuck with my men or try to prosecute me, I’ll go public. I’ll spill everything I know about your filthy family. I’ll smear the Kennedy name with enough verifiable filth to put a taint on it forever.”
Bobby slapped him.
Kemper spat in his face.
DOCUMENT INSERT: 5/14/62. Verbatim FBI telephone call transcript: “TAPED AT THE DIRECTOR’S REQUEST” /“DIRECTOR’S EYES ONLY.” Speaking: Director J. Edgar Hoover, Ward J. Littell.
WJL: Good morning, Sir.
JEH: Good morning. And you needn’t ask me if I’ve heard, because I daresay I know more of the story than you do.
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: I hope Kemper has money saved. Disbarment can prove costly, and I doubt that a man of his tastes could live comfortably on an FBI pension.
WJL: I’m certain that Little Brother won’t file criminal charges on him.
JEH: Of course he won’t.
WJL: Kemper took the fall.
JEH: I will not comment on the attendant irony.
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Have you spoken to him?
WJL: No, Sir.
JEH: I’d be curious to know what he’s doing. The notion of Kemper C. Boyd without police agency sanction is quite startling.
WJL: I think Mr. Marcello will find him work.
JEH: Oh? As a Mafia back scratcher?
WJL: As a Cuban provocateur, Sir. Mr. Marcello has remained committed to the Cause.
JEH: Then he’s a fool. Fidel Castro is here to stay. My sources tell me that the Dark King will most likely seek to normalize relations with him.
WJL: The Dark King is an appeaser, Sir.
JEH: Don’t try to butter me up. You may have undergone an apostasy regarding the brothers, but your political beliefs are still suspect.
WJL: Be that as it may, Sir, I’m still not giving up. I’m going to think of something else. I haven’t given up on the King.
JEH: Bully for you. But please be advised that I do not wish to be informed of your plans.
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Has Miss Jahelka resumed her normal life?
WJL: She’s going to, Sir. At the moment she’s on a Mexican vacation with a French-Canadian friend of ours.
JEH: I hope they don’t procreate. They would produce morally deficient offspring.
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Good day, Mr. Littell.
WJL: Good day, Sir.
DOCUMENT INSERTS: Consecutively dated FBI wiretap out-takes. Marked: “TOP SECRET/CONFIDENTIAL/DIRECTOR’S EYES ONLY” and “NO DISCLOSURE TO OUTSIDE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL.”
Chicago, 6/10/62. BL4-8869 (Celano’s Tailor Shop) to AX8-9600 (home of John Rosselli) (THP File #902.5, Chicago Office). Speaking: John Rosselli, Sam “Mo,” “Momo,” “Mooney” Giancana (File #480.2). Conversation nine minutes in progress.
SG: So fucking Bobby found out on his own.
JR: Which frankly, did not surprise me.
SG: We were helping him out, Johnny. Sure, it was mostly cosmetic. But the basic fucking truth of the whole thing was that we were helping him and his brother out.
JR: We were good to them, Mo. We were nice. And they kept fucking us and fucking us and fucking us.
SG: Some sort of fucking shakedown pre-pre-pre—what’s that word that means set up?
JR: Precipitated, Mo. That’s the word you want.
SG: Right. Some cocksucking shakedown precipitated Bobby finding out. The word is Jimmy and Frenchman Pete were in on it. Somebody got careless, and Jewboy Lenny killed himself.
JR: You can’t fault Jimmy and Pete for trying to fuck the Kennedys.
SG: No, you can’t.
JR: And it turned out Lenny was a faggot. Can you believe that?
SG: Who would have believed it?
JR: He was Jewish, Mo. The Jewish race has a higher percentage of homos than regular white people.
SG: That’s true. Heshie Ryskind’s no queer, though. He’s had like sixty thousand blow jobs.
JR. Heshie’s sick, Mo. He’s real sick.
SG: I wish the Kennedys caught his fucking disease. The Kennedys and Sinatra.
JR: Sinatra sold us