The Cold Six Thousand - James Ellroy [122]
Viva la Causa!
P.B.
DOCUMENT INSERT: 10/29/64. Pouch communiqué. To: Pete Bondurant. From: John Stanton. Marked: “Hand Pouch Deliver Only”/ “Destroy Upon Reading.”
P.B.,
I like your personnel and plan, per one proviso.
You’ll need cargo-manifest cover to land at Nellis, and it must be convincing. What do you advise?
J.S.
DOCUMENT INSERT: 10/31/64. Pouch communiqué. To: John Stanton. From: Pete Bondurant. Marked: “Hand Pouch Deliver Only”/ “Destroy Upon Reading.”
J.S.,
Per your last pouch:
Howard Hughes (my old boss & my lawyer friend’s current boss) wants to curry favor with politicians & military personnel in Nevada & already has Hughes Aircraft-Tool Co charter clearance at Nellis. My lawyer friend will try to convince H.H. to purchase ARVN-surplus ordnance to donate to the Nevada National Guard, as a PR ploy. This will expand his ground clearance & allow us to hide our merchandise in with the ordnance & fly it straight to Nellis & Vegas.
What do you think?
P.B.
DOCUMENT INSERT: 11/1/64. Pouch communiqué. To: Pete Bondurant. From: John Stanton. Marked: “Hand Pouch Deliver Only”/ “Destroy Upon Reading.”
P.B.,
Contact your lawyer friend and try to implement ASAP. I approve your selected personnel, and I’ll have Lt. Chaffee approach and detach Sgt. Relyea from his regular duties. See you in Saigon: 11/3/64.
J.S.
DOCUMENT INSERT: 11/2/64. Verbatim FBI telephone call transcript. Marked: “Recorded at the Director’s Request”/“Classified Confidential 1-A: Director’s Eyes Only.” Speaking: Director Hoover, Ward J. Littell.
JEH: Good morning, Mr. Littell.
WJL: Good morning, Sir.
JEH: The election bodes. Prince Bobby’s probable victory must hearten you.
WJL: It does, Sir.
JEH: The Dark Prince has plundered New York State with great verve. I liken it to the Visigoths storming Rome.
WJL: It’s a vivid comparison, Sir.
JEH: Lyndon Johnson was Bobby’s reluctant henchman. He told me, quote, Edgar, I hate that little rabbit-faced cocksucker, and it galls me to hustle him votes.
WJL: President Johnson has verve of his own.
JEH: Yes, and much of it is directed toward the passage of dubious legislation. I view the words “Great Society” as fresh lyrics to “The Internationale.”
WJL: It’s a deft analogy, Sir.
JEH: Lyndon Johnson will deplete his prestige on the home-front and recoup it in Vietnam. History will judge him as a tall man with big ears who needed wretched people to love him.
WJL: Said with verve, Sir.
JEH: Lyndon Johnson appreciates the verve of one Martin Lucifer King. I’ve been sending him motel-room tapes. Lucifer performs with equal verve in bed and at barricades.
WJL: Dr. King wears many hats, Sir.
JEH: Yes, and he also wears garishly patterned Fruit-of-the-Loom briefs.
WJL: You’re maintaining a close surveillance, Sir.
JEH: Yes, and I have Lyle Holly to direct me to Lucifer’s favored tryst-spots. I talk to Lyle on a near-daily basis, and he tells me that Bayard Rustin is very much taken with you and your allegedly pilfered organized-crime donations.
WJL: Mr. Rustin finds me sincere, Sir.
JEH: Because you are.
WJL: I work at verve, Sir.
JEH: You succeed.
WJL: Thank you, Sir.
JEH: I detect a shift in tone. Do you wish to ask a question?
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Ask, Mr. Littell. You know I find preambles taxing.
WJL: Do you know when you’ll leak word of my donations?
JEH: When I sense that my missives on Lucifer’s Communist ties and sex life have reached their cumulative peak.
WJL: That’s a sound strategy, Sir.
JEH: It’s an inspired strategy. It’s inimical to your recent gambit with Wayne Senior.
WJL: Is he peeved at me, Sir?
JEH: Yes, but he won’t tell me why.
WJL: I set up a deal for him. He facilitated some charter flights out of Nellis and wanted a higher percentage. His Mormons have cut him out of his existing one.
JEH: Percentage of what?
WJL: The casino skim his Mormons were moving.
JEH: I am as delighted by that bit of data as Wayne Senior is vexed.
WJL: I’m always pleased to amuse you, Sir.
JEH: Wayne Senior has been in a thoroughly vexed state lately. He’s rebuffed