My Dark Places - James Ellroy [168]
My father was listed in the ’41 book. He deserted his wife on 6/5/41. Mildred Jean Ellroy was listed in the ’42 book. She lived at 6901/2 South Catalina. Jean Hilliker was listed in the ’42 book. She was listed as a nurse. She lived at 5481/4 South New Hampshire. It was three blocks from 6901/2 South Catalina. My father said he lived with my mother at 8th and New Hampshire. He said they lived there when Pearl Harbor was bombed. His memory was spotty. They lived three blocks north at 5th and New Hampshire.
Bill and I reconstructed the probable events.
My father met the redhead in 1941. He met her in LA. He deserted his wife. He moved in with Jean Hilliker. He ran from a woman. He ran to a woman. The jilted woman gave up the pad she shared with him. She moved to a pad three blocks away from her husband’s love nest. The move was coincidental or spitefully planned.
Maybe she stalked my father.
Maybe she moved three blocks away to punish herself.
Maybe she moved there to see the redhead and gloat. She knew what my father was. She knew what the redhead had coming.
There were no L.A. directories issued for the rest of the war. The ’46 and ’47 books were missing. The Beverly Hills books were missing. We couldn’t nail the move to 459 North Doheny.
They shacked up somewhere. The Spalding divorce was finalized in ’39 or ’40. My father’s divorce was finalized in late ’45. They were free to marry then.
They were married in Ventura County. The date was 8/29/47. My mother was 32. She was two and a half months pregnant. The marriage license listed a common address. It was 459 North Doheny. The license stated that this was the second marriage for both parties.
I was born in March ’48. Jessie Hilliker died in ’50. She had a stroke and keeled over. My parents moved to 9031 Alden Drive. The marriage went bad. My mother filed for divorce on 1/3/55.
She cited “extreme cruelty.” She listed her joint property as furniture and a car. She stated her desire to be my full-time parent.
My father accepted her terms. He signed a property settlement on 2/3/55. She got the car and the furniture. She got me for my school months and part of the summer. He got two weekly visits and some summer time with me. He had to pay her lawyer’s bill and $50 a month child support.
A hearing was held on 2/28/55. My father was summoned. He did not appear. My mother’s lawyer filed a default motion. My father told me she was fucking her lawyer.
The default decree was granted on 3/30/55. It was interlocutory. The divorce would be finalized a year later. My mother filed a nuisance claim against my father. The claim summoned him to court on 1/11/56. The claim laid out her specific charges.
She said my father brought me home Thanksgiving night. He stood outside the front door. He eavesdropped. He broke into the apartment on 11/27/55. He went through her clothes and her bureau drawers. He cornered her at the Ralph’s Market at 3rd and San Vicente. He yelled insults at her as she shopped. The incident occurred in late November ’55.
My father got a lawyer. He wrote up a brief and countered my mother’s claim. He said my mother’s mode of life was inimical to my moral and social development. My father feared for my health and safety.
My parents saw a judge. He appointed a court assistant. He told her to investigate the charges.
She interviewed my father. He said Jean was a good mother five days a week. She drank two-thirds of a bottle of wine every night and “went berserk” on the weekends. He said she was a sex maniac. Her drinking went along with her sex mania. He said he didn’t eavesdrop that night. He brought his son back at 5:15. Jean answered the door. Her hair was mussed up. She had liquor on her breath. This Hank Hart guy was sitting at the kitchen table. He was in his undershirt. A bottle of champagne, three cans of beer, a bottle of wine and a fifth of whisky were out in plain sight.
He left the apartment. He decided to visit some friends in the neighborhood. He walked past the apartment again. He heard his son yelling. He heard some “other