The Cold Six Thousand - James Ellroy [227]
PROSPECT traveled east. Arrested for vagrancy (Marion, Iowa, 4/18/50), released 5/8/50. Arrested for vagrancy (Alton, Ill., 7/26/51), released 9/51. Arrested for armed robbery (taxicab hijack, Chicago, 5/6/52, shot while attempting escape).
PROSPECT received two-year sentence. Served time at Joliet & Pontiac facilities. Established reputation as prison “Loner” & habitual user of home-brew alcohol & amphetamines. Paroled 3/12/54.
PROSPECT arrested for burglary (Alton, Ill., 8/28/54). Bailed out & absconded before trial date. Traveled east with criminal companion & shared political views (e.g., all Negroes were inferior & should be killed). Arrested (robbery of post office, Kellerville, Ill.) 3/55. Sentenced to 36 mos. Federal prison. Received at Leavenworth Penitentiary, 7/7/55. Paroled 5/58.
PROSPECT’s parole jurisdiction transferred to St. Louis (family members lived there). In 7 & 8/59, PROSPECT & 2 accomplices went on supermarket robbery spree (St. Louis & Alton, Ill.). PROSPECT arrested 10/10/59. Attempted jail escape 12/15/59. Sentenced to 20 yrs. Missouri State Penitentiary. Received at Jefferson City Facility, 3/17/60.
Jeff City reputedly the toughest & most harshly run prison in the U.S. White & Negro inmates largely segregated. White inmates mostly of “Hillbilly” lineage & vocal per their hatred of Negroes. Facility had informal chapters of KKK, National States Rights Party, National Renaissance Party & Thunderbolt Legion.
PROSPECT worked in dry cleaning plant & unsuccessfully attempted escape in 10/61. PROSPECT bootlegged prison bakery goods & amphetamines, habitually injected amphetamines & frequently indulged anti-Negro tirades when “high.” PROSPECT also sold & rented contraband pornographic magazines & joined informal meetings of extreme right-wing groups (attended by both convicts & guards) & often discussed his desire to “kill niggers” & “Martin Luther Coon.”
PROSPECT also discussed desire to move to segregated African countries, become a “Merc” & “kill niggers.” BR contends that PROSPECT was especially vituperative, even by white convict standards.
PROSPECT openly fantasized that a “White Businessman’s Association” had a $100,000 bounty out on King. This is enticing when considering recent “bounty-talk” picked up via bug at Grapevine Tavern in St. Louis. BR contends that “Bounty” concept strongly plays into PROSPECT’s “get-rich-quick mentality.”
PROSPECT denied parole in ′64. Attempted escape 3/11/66. Escaped 4/23/67 (hiding in an outbound bread truck).
PROSPECT stated to BR:
That he walked hill roads to Kansas City, did “odd jobs & built up a stake,” bussed to Chicago & got dishwasher’s job at restaurant in Winnetka. PROSPECT visited family members & childhood haunts in Alton, Quincy & East St. Louis & determined that no intensive manhunt was being conducted. PROSPECT robbed liquor store in East St. Louis (6/29/67) & stole $4,100.
PROSPECT traveled south & spent week at BR’s compound (7/5–7/12/67). Grocery store near New Hebron robbed (7/8/67). BR believes PROSPECT was perpetrator. PROSPECT & BR discussed “politics” & PROSPECT apparently was not afraid that BR would report his fugitive status. PROSPECT “kept to himself,” drank & took amphetamines, ignored BR’s Klansmen, talked to BR exclusively & frequently stated his desire to “kill niggers,” “collect nigger bounties,” “hire on as a merc & kill niggers in the Nigger Congo” & “live in a white man’s paradise like Rhodesia.”
PROSPECT left compound (7/13/67), told BR he was driving to Canada & would call & reestablish contact. PROSPECT called 7/17/67 & gave BR phone # in Montreal.
Summation:
BR characterizes the PROSPECT as moody, acquiescent, limitedly self-sufficient and cunning, socially clumsy, easily led by stronger personalities and easily manipulated on the level of his political beliefs. His frequently stated desire to “kill niggers” and his “bounty” fixation are encouraging