American Tabloid - James Ellroy [82]
JEH: Good morning, Mr. Boyd.
KB: Good morning, Sir.
JEH: Your message mentioned good news.
KB: Excellent news, Sir. The brothers have hired me on a more or less permanent basis.
JEH: In what capacity?
KB: I’m to supervise the routing of McClellan Committee evidence to various, grand juries and investigative agencies, and run security for Big Brother’s campaign.
JEH: Little Brother remains persistent on the Hoffa front, then.
KB: He’ll crucify the man sooner or later.
JEH: Catholics have been known to go overboard with the concept of crucifixion.
KB: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Let’s continue on the Catholic recidivist front. Is Mr. Littell continuing to walk the straight and narrow?
KB: Yes, Sir.
JEH: SAC Leahy has airtelled me his Red Squad reports. He appears to be doing a satisfactory job.
KB: You frightened him last year, Sir. He just wants to make it through to his retirement. As I’ve told you, he’s drinking quite a bit and is quite caught up in his affair with Helen Agee.
JEH: Allow me to use “affair” as a segue point. How is your liaison with Miss Laura Hughes progressing?
KB: I’d hardly call it a liaison, Sir.
JEH: Mr. Boyd, you are talking to the world’s nonpareil bullshit artist and master of subterfuge. As good as you are at it, and you are brilliantly good, I am better. You are fucking Laura Hughes, and I’m sure you would fuck all the acknowledged Kennedy sisters and old Rose Kennedy herself if you thought it would ingratiate you with Jack. There. That said, what does Miss Hughes have to say about the family?
KB: She limits her anecdotes to her father, Sir. She’s quite vitriolic on the topic of her father and his friends.
JEH: Continue.
KB: Apparently Joe and his old friend Jules Schiffrin secreted Mexican illegals across the border during the ’20s. They used the men as set construction help when Joe owned the RKO Studio. Joe and Schiffrin used the women sexually, hired them out as domestics, took half their pay for room-and-board, then turned them over to the Border Patrol and had them deported. Schiffrin took a number of the women back to Chicago with him and opened up a whorehouse that catered to mobsters and politicians exclusively. Laura says Joe made a movie surreptitiously at the whorehouse. It’s Huey Long and two Mexican midgets with oversized breasts.
JEH: Miss Hughes is a vivid anecdotist. What does she say about the brothers?
KB: She’s guarded about them.
JEH: As you yourself are.
KB: I’m fond of them, yes.
JEH: I think you’ve set limits to your betrayal. I think you’re unaware of how deeply enthralled you are with that family.
KB: I keep things compartmentalized, Sir.
JEH: Yes, I’ll credit you with that. Now, let’s move to your Cuban emigre compartment. Do you recall telling me that you had access to Cuban exile intelligence?
KB: Of course, Sir. I’ll be sending a detailed summary report along soon.
JEH: Laura Hughes must be quite expensive.
KB: Sir?
JEH: Don’t act disingenuous, Kemper. It’s quite obvious the CIA has recruited you. Three paychecks, my lord.
KB: Sir, I keep things compartmentalized.
JEH: You certainly do, and far be it from me to upset those compartments. Good day, Mr. Boyd.
KB: Good day, Sir.
DOCUMENT INSERT: 8/4/59. Hush-Hush stringer report: Lenny Sands to Pete Bondurant.
Pete,
It’s strange, but every homo in captivity seems to want to bite my tush these days, which is unusual because I’ve been playing some pretty square rooms. As you know, I’ve been working my wop gig with Sal D’Onofrio. We’ve been playing Reno, Vegas, Tahoe, Gardena and some Lake Michigan cruise boats that feature gambling. I’ve been running into fruits galore, a regular Layfayette Escad (butt) drill of fruitness. 1)—Delores’ Drive-In on Wilshire & La Cienega in L.A. employs all fruit carhops moonlighting as male prosties. A frequent customer: Adlai (Lay?) Stevenson, 2-time prez’l candidate with pinko (Lavender?) leanings Mr. Hughes