The Cold Six Thousand - James Ellroy [147]
3 - A: Planned agitation in Selma, Alabama (picketing, boycotts, voter-registration drives);
3 - B: A (6/65) projected school desegregation drive in Chicago;
3 - C: Early plans (but no compelling specifics) regarding SCLC participation in a second “Freedom Summer” campaign of agitation in Mississippi;
3-D: Planned agitation in and around Bogalusa, Louisiana, to commence in 6/65.
4 - I’ve reviewed the recent tapes retrieved from our remaining hotel-room bug-posts. RED RABBIT, PINK RABBIT and other SCLC members have stayed in said rooms on a total of 14 occasions from 1/1/65 to 2/4/65. No salient information was gleaned. The innocuous conversations and frequent whispers indicate that the subjects suspected the presence of electronic surveillance. Said bugs will remain in place.
5 - WHITE RABBIT reports that RED RABBIT, PINK RABBIT and other SCLC members have discussed the anonymous “suicide letter” sent to RED RABBIT and concluded that it derived from an FBI source. WHITE RABBIT further reports that RED RABBIT and PINK RABBIT have verbally attacked you on numerous recent occasions, much in the manner that PINK RABBIT attacked you on Tape Transcript #1. WHITE RABBIT stated that RED RABBIT was “very upset” by the letter, especially the “crippling effect” it had on his wife.
6 - Per MAIL COVERS. To date, assigned agents have intercepted, logged and remailed numerous letters of support, along with large and small donations to the SCLC, many of them sent by notable leftist-sympathizers, members of Communist front groups and movie stars, among them Danny Kaye, Burt Lancaster, Walter Pidgeon, Burl Ives, Spencer Tracy, Rock Hudson, Natalie Wood and numerous folk singers of lesser repute. (See Addendum List #B for details. Per guidelines, please read and burn.)
7 - Per TRASH COVERS. To date, assigned agents have collected and logged large quantities of discarded left-wing periodicals and risqué magazines with photographs of nude white women, along with innocuous and non-itemized trash. (See Addendum List #C for inventory.) (Note: An Addendum List #B inventory log will soon be compiled & stored per Stage-1 Covert guidelines. It will be used to facilitate, should you so direct, an SCLC BANK ACCOUNT COVER, to determine if the above-noted contributions were banked legally, which should help us gauge the viability of an IRS cross-check of the SCLC’s federal and state tax returns.)
In conclusion:
All COVERS to proceed as directed. A summary report on the WHITE-HATE arm of OPERATION BLACK RABBIT to follow.
Respectfully,
BLUE RABBIT
DOCUMENT INSERT: 2/20/65. Internal memorandum. Topic: WHITE-HATE/OPERATION BLACK RABBIT. To: DIRECTOR. From: BLUE RABBIT. Marked: “Stage-1 Covert”/“Eyes Only”/“Read and Burn.”
Sir,
My first summary report on the WHITE-HATE arm of OBR.
1 - I have compiled, with the help of FATHER RABBIT’s aides, a list of potentially dissident Klansmen now at loose ends since FATHER RABBIT dissolved his previously funded informant Klan groups in 12/64. (See Addendum #A for list of said Klansmen.) (Note: Per Stage-1 guidelines, please read and burn said addendum. I have retained an original copy, per guidelines.)
Also, FATHER RABBIT has supplied (see Addendum #B/read & burn) a 14,000 name list of white male hate-pamphlet subscribers in Louisiana and Mississippi, all devotees of specific segregationist/anti-Negro tract series distributed by FATHER RABBIT’s organization. A criminal records cross-check of these subscribers has yielded the names of 921 men with misdemeanor and felony arrests and memberships in extreme right-wing organizations.
2 - My plan would be to have FATHER RABBIT solicit these men by mail, under an “anonymous patriot” letterhead, and refer them by mail to WILD RABBIT, upon his (5/65) release from the U.S. Army. WILD RABBIT would assess the mail he has received, contact the most promising prospects and build the nucleus of his new Klan group on that basis. He will establish boundaries as to what and what not his recruits can do,