My Dark Places - James Ellroy [93]
It was time to hit hard.
Stoner went to Deputy District Attorney David Conn. He told him the entire story. He played the Rider-Lowe and Rider-Mentzer tapes. Conn gave him the green light.
Charges were filed. Warrants were secured. Stoner cooked up a plan with the Okeechobee cops.
They said they’d help him pin down Laney Jacobs. They’d call her lawyer and set up a meet and promise not to bust her for Larry Greenberger’s death. They’d say they just wanted to question her. They’d question her and bust her on a California warrant abstract. They’d hold her for the L.A. County Sheriff’s.
It was a great fucking plan.
Stoner set up a command post. It was midway between Marti’s house and Mentzer’s apartment. Stoner set up two SWAT teams to hit them.
Carlos Avila flew to Maryland to arrest Bob Lowe. Bob Deremer was on a long-haul truck job. Nobody knew where he was.
10/2/88.
The Okeechobee cops arrest Laney Jacobs. The SWAT teams hit Mentzer and Marti simultaneously.
They cut their phone lines and patch in calls on a closed circuit. They tell Mentzer and Marti to look out the window and see all the cops with guns. Mentzer and Marti look out their windows and walk outside with their hands up.
Search teams are deployed. Dope-and-bomb-sniffing dogs go with them. They rip through Marti’s house and Mentzer’s apartment.
Carlos Avila busts Bob Lowe. Local cops snag Bob Deremer in Lafayette, Indiana.
Deremer waives extradition. He’s transported to L.A. and arraigned on accessory charges. Laney Jacobs and Bob Lowe fight extradition. They remain in custody back east.
Carlos Avila is exhausted. Bill Stoner is exhausted. He’s still hooked on Tracy Lea Stewart. He still has a big hard-on for Bob Beckett Sr.
Laney Jacobs waived extradition at Christmas. She was transported to Los Angeles and held at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women. Robbie Beckett went to trial in February ’89.
The trial lasted a week. The jury was out one hour. Robbie was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Daddy Beckett was scot-free. John Purvis was still in prison. The Fort Lauderdale cops gave up on the Hamway case.
Fuck John Purvis. He was already convicted. They had no case against Daddy Beckett, Paul Serio and Paul Hamway. They needed Robbie Beckett. Robbie would not betray his father.
It took three years to adjudicate the Cotton Club case. Prelims, motion hearings and the jury-selection process ate up months. The trial lasted fourteen months. The penalty phase dragged on. Carlos Avila retired. Bill Stoner worked for the prosecution team fall-time. He flew around the country. He interviewed a hundred witnesses. He logged in thousands of airplane miles and thousands of freeway miles. The Cotton Club case consumed four and a half years of his life.
The jury came back on 7/22/91. Mentzer, Marti, Lowe and Jacobs were found guilty. They all got life with no shot at parole. Stoner still didn’t know exactly why they killed Roy Radin.
Mentzer said their torture plans went screwy. Marti goaded Radin in the limo. Marti kept calling him a fat Jew. Marti shot him the moment they hit Caswell Canyon.
Marti told a different story. So did Lowe. Stoner was way past caring.
A Fort Lauderdale cop called Stoner in January ’93. He said John Purvis’s mother just hired a lawyer. The lawyer was going on some nighttime TV show. He intended to start a big ruckus. The Fort Lauderdale PD was reopening the Hamway case.
Stoner wished him well. The Fort Lauderdale cops reopened the case and mishandled it again.
They misidentified Paul Serio. They confused Daddy Beckett’s pal with a Vegas hit man of the same name. They figured the Vegas guy and Paul Hamway set the Susan hit up. They offered Daddy Beckett full immunity if he testified against them. Daddy Beckett accepted the deal and testified before a Florida grand jury. The grand jury handed down indictments against Paul Hamway and Paul Serio. Daddy Beckett told the cops that his Paul was not