Sam Shovelin cut the domestic infidelity surveillance job early. He had been sitting in his heap for all of the hot day, without seeing anything the least bit interesting or useful. Rather than go directly to his apartment another flight up, that early evening Sam ducked into his ground level office and she was nonchalantly sitting on his desk, leaning back on her left hand. Her right was removing the cigarette from her bright red lips. She exhaled a cloud. Her uncrossed legs were covered with fishnetted, seamed nylons held up by black garter belts. Sam purposely fumbled while attempting to put the keys back in his pocket and dropped them.
As he stooped to retrieve them, his right hand felt the ground while his eyes remained elevated enough to see that it was too hot a day for underwear. She calmly laughed, again exhaling smoke and said; “Like the air down there?”
Oblivious to the peeling light green or yellow paint on the wall, Sam Shovelin said; “Air’s fine, a bit warm. View is even better.” She hopped off the desk and ankled a few steps to a movie poster of “Gilda” tacked to the wall.
Her back to him she said; “I never put the blame on Mame. I’m Vivian Beaumont and I think you might provide the type of service I want.”
He stood up, ankled it to the desk, pushed a button and said; “Do you like movies?”
“Certain types. But the whole chanteuse thing doesn’t do much for me, Mr. Shovelin.”
He looked at the long dark hair parted in the middle of her head and said; “Call me Sam. What kind of thing can I do for you?”
“What else? Surveillance.” she said, laughing. “Surveillance and property recovery if you’re up to it.”
He laughed, too, surveying her almond shaped green eyes, saying; “Of what?”
“A watch, really. It belonged to a now deceased guy I used to live with. It was stolen after he promised it to me. I’m the sentimental type. ..... Call me Viv.”
“Valuable, ..... Viv?”
“Well, you know some people will steal anything worth more than their next fix. But, to normal people, no, I don’t think so. I mean it was a good watch, made of gold, but its value to me is in the memory of the man who wore it.”
“You haven’t mentioned his name.”
“Artie Hayden.”
The name rang a distant bell with Sam, but he couldn’t quite place it and chances were that he was wrong. Trying not to look disappointed at another low paying job, at the same time appreciating having one at all, he took an obvious look at the Jell-O cleavage protruding from the lacy lavender blouse, that she didn’t bother to button very much. “Busy girl,” he thought, not fully realizing the immense accuracy of his vision. Trying not to appear ungratified, he simply said; “Who?”
“Artie Hayden. I guess you never heard of him. He was chilled off a few weeks ago. It was in all the papers.”
Lying, he said; “Oh, sure. Sure, now I remember. Is that when the watch was stolen?”
“Maybe, I’m not sure. But my best guess is that it was taken later.”
“Cops get the killer?”
“They say yes, but I have my doubts. They put the blame on some homeless drifter they found dead in an alley, one John Garlee.”
“He didn’t have the watch?”
“No, at least not any longer.”
“Do you have any guesses about who might have it?”
“Sure. I also have some guesses about how the universe came to be. Wanna hear ‘em?”
“Come on.”
“Look, watches are popular with lots of people. If I had to guess it would be safer to say that the cops are the most likely immediate suspects, but I wouldn’t bet a nickel on that. It’s likely on its way to, if not already in the vault of some rich, unscrupulous collector.”
“Do you have any photos?”
She went back to the desk, seemingly mildly annoyed to have to do so, and opened the black fringed purse she had left there. Viv took one from her wallet and handed it to him.
Sam took it and smiled a faint smile. He said; “No, I meant one of your lost love, Artie.”
Viv retrieved another. As she handed it to Sam, she said; “It’s not very good. It’s the only one I have and it was taken in one of those booths at an amusement park. He’s dead. Why do you want a picture of him for anyway?”
Sam said; “I suppose that you’d be surprised to know how many of the dead investigations resurrect. ....... Can I keep these?”
“Sure.”
“When were these pictures taken?”
“Last month, May.”
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. I’ll need your phone number and address.”
“Calling me is a problem. I’m sort of between residences, right now.”
“How can I contact you in an emergency?”
She laughed; “What kind of emergency can possibly happen?” She again took a seat on the desk, hoping to distract him.
It worked to some controllable degree, but he kept his wits about him as Viv’s story didn’t add up well enough to put her into the trustworthy category. Her testimony that a not particularly valuable watch could generate much interest was one red flag. That she would give him her only picture of her lost love, Artie, was another. Sam didn’t want to queer the deal, as he needed the clams and work. Further questioning would only make things contentious, and he didn’t expect a truthful answer anyway. He felt obliged to say something businesslike; “Isn’t there something else you can tell me about Artie or the watch?”
She was still grinning, as she crossed her legs, exposing a stocking top and a bit of a garter strap. “Artie was an artist at heart, a musician. He pursued his own notions of truth and beauty without deference to the coin of the realm. ..... More or less, most of the time, and the gold watch was a reflection of that on one side or the other.”
Sam’s preoccupation continued, compelling him to absurdly grin and he said; “I might be able to do something for ya.”
Viv thought Sam’s comment was too obvious a closing to warrant any of her words. She blankly stared at him and the air was still a few seconds. She then all too obviously faked excitement and blurted; “That would be just dandy!”
Feeling that he had done his job as well as he could, he reached over to the desk and pushed the button, shutting off the tape recorder, while pretending to be looking for a pen. Vivian had not been fooled and pushed another button, popping open the deck and took out the tape. As she hid it in her ample cleavage, she said; “Bad boy. I want no record of our relationship.”
“Fine with me. Now, about the cabbage, honey; I get $10 an hour plus expenses.”
“You’ll take five.” She retrieved a wallet from her fringed purse, counted out $120 and dropped it near her skirt. “This should cover about three days.” She got off the desk, started to blow and said; “I’ll be in touch.”
Sam smiled broadly and licked his dry lips. He said; “I was counting on that tape for information. I’m afraid we’ll now have to go through the whole process again, with me taking notes.” This time he really reached for his pen and searched for a piece of paper. After they ran through the routine a second time, Vivian took a few of his business cards, glad to see both his home and business addresses and phone numbers, as she wanted him when she wanted him.
As she exited without offering one of those long good-byes, she closed the door behind her and again saw the vestibule. It was too small and cluttered for her to pass through easily, so, though she didn’t really want to hop around like a bunny, she did, and was soon back on 25th Street.
Vivian again echoed the watch thought as a short, round, sweating and swarthy man tried to enter. They brushed by each other, both mumbling something that sounded like “’Scuse me.” When he was triumphantly inside she shut the door with a bang.
He briskly took it on the arches and passed through the open door. Sam saw him too late and moved quickly in an attempt to get the cash which was still sitting on the desk, but Charlie beat him to it, picked it up and put it in his pants pocket.
Sam shrugged his shoulders and looked at the floor saying; “God damn it, Charlie, you can smell it, can’t ya?”
“Obviously better than you.” He took the dough from his pocket and counted it, with his back to Sam. He shook his head disapprovingly, said; “Almost covers April,” and put it back.
“Use that chrome dome of yours for once. If I don’t have any lettuce, I can’t do my job and you don’t get your rent.”
Charlie pulled out two wrinkled sawbucks and flipped them on the desk.
Sam said; “That won’t even cover my grocery bill.”
“Shoplift like the stinkin’ dinges,” said Charlie, the Wop, Calamari and he turned to blow.
Sam said; “Hey, you know you’re charging a lot of scratch for this little dump.”
“It’s that fuckin’ Truman inflation; not me. Look, I didn’t force you to take it. I got plenty of customers.”
“Yeah, maybe if you painted the fucking place. The rats are dying of lead poisoning.”
“Prime location, my man. Keep giving me shit and I’ll have you thrown out and not by the nice guys.”
Sam thought; “Charlie always likes to infer that he’s a big man with the mob and so he’s not more than a minor player, but if I piss him off he can evict me.” So, he said; “Sorry, man. I understand. It’s just that things have been slow, you know what I mean and I’m getting frustrated. Thanks for putting up with me.” His staccato monotone complemented a terse grin.
Charlie said; “All right. But, things might be slow because you’re paying too much attention to things other than work; you know what I mean.” He smiled at Sam, gesturing underhanded with his right fist, then added; “You know, I was just like you when I was young, but I straightened out and started taking care of business.”
Sam sheepishly nodded with a half-smile and Charlie left. No more than a handful of seconds had passed when Mida Carey entered. She opened her light raincoat to show that she might have lost her skirt. Sam said; “You guys work as a team; I know it.” She had kinky tousled curls, only a minimum of makeup, and. There was a world of character in that face, more than enough to make her fascinating looking instead of just attractive.
Mida and Sam simultaneously made a grab for the sawbucks, each getting one. Sam thought; “I’ve got to remember to put these things in my pocket quickly.
“Payday, baby,” she giggled as she made sure her bill was in a safe place. Sam’s determination had gotten its first disappointed rise of the day when Viv was there, and he was in no condition to refute a second opportunity. He snuggled up inside the open raincoat as Mida leaned back against the desk.
“I’ll get more. Give that back and I’ll get you a hundred by the end of the week.”
In an overly strained falsetto voice, she said; “That’s what you’re supposed to be doing anyway.” She shook her head “no” and continued in a mock incredulous tone; “You boys must still think you got some dumb slaves around here. Well, I got some news for you, honey.” She was an experienced fan dancer. One wouldn’t call her young anymore, but she had ways of making up for that.
Knowing that it would end the clam discussion, Mida put one leg up on the chair, pretending a need to scratch her upper thigh. “It must be a hot day for everyone,” Sam thought, as he admired her long coiffure.
Vivian Beaumont’s metallic burgundy, 1946 Plymouth Business Coupe was now on her home Bayway Town street, 28th. 28th, between long Avenue A and short Avenue B was single-laned and lined with parked cars on both sides. The houses sat on 100 by 100 foot lots and sloped upward from the concrete sidewalk. Some were quite substantial, in the 4,000-5,000 sq. ft. range, often with three levels, mostly built in the 1880s and 1890s, hence evincing a Victorian feel of an elegant, pre-World Wars past. When she got to her driveway near the middle of the block, she was happy to see that a parked car wasn’t blocking her entrance. She drove down the decline to the two car garage. She dawdled up the stairs to the living levels. The house was much too big for her, especially since Artie’s sudden departure. It’s not that Artie was always there. He had gone there off and on, more off than Vivian would have liked, but there was always the possibility that he’d show up with flowers any second. The emptiness of the substantially unfurnished inflation hedge, bought last year, now bellowed.
In the half closed eyes of those who can only evaluate from the outside, like reviewers unable to do what they are reviewing, Vivian had one of the grandest abodes in Bayway Town; three living levels approximating 6,000 sq. ft. and a garage constructed underneath through the gouging of truckloads of dirt many years prior to Vivian’s having resided there. Externally, the three floors were covered in yellow painted clapboard, with irregularly placed fretwork trim stained a bright red, giving it the appearance of a “painted lady,” but this was mere cosmetics.
The first floor, the only level made in a regular square pattern, was surrounded by a covered porch supported by purple and white painted posts. The second and third level celebrated irregularity in that it was devoid of straight lines, each room containing one or two jutting areas. The severely sloped roof covering most of the third floor was proud of its unique design with seven gables covered with black slate. Above the third floor master bedroom was a small observation tower, suitable for only a bench or two, above the trees affording the grandest view in the vicinity, with its own slate turreted cap, topped by an iron modified cross finial. Similar finials were placed atop four of the lower gables.
The grounds were entirely enclosed in a three foot, black, rusting iron decorative fence, once expensively more for show than security. The overall feel was tall, heady, eccentric, declining and grudging with easy access. The structure actually suited Vivian very well, in an emblematic way. The house’s age, detail, colors and irregularity proved an excellent source of income for local craftsmen, not often supervised. Vivian entered the high ceilinged kitchen, and sat at the head of the ten chaired, lavishly carved, rococo revival table made of rosewood, its red mahogany stain, further developing the natural hue.
The center of Bayway Town’s life always was the northwest corner of Broadway and 25thStreet; at least after the farms were sold off to the sharpie investor/developers. But, this phenomenon was amplified during the heat wave of July, 1946 when the temperature packed the already busy Paramount Theater which presided over the area with its shading overhang and “cooled refrigeration.” Refreshing gusts were savored by outsiders whenever a door was opened. They seemed to congregate there just for that.
In more moderate times and climes most patrons came to only see the main feature, and showed no interest in the accompanying “B” offering, the Three Stooges shorts, the cartoons, the newsreel, and the coming attractions. But in this heat wave, on screen preferences became subservient to the cold comfort of contained cooling, with an elegant interior which included a modestly warmer balcony used by those desperately wanting to make out heavily in the relative privacy often referred to as “Dinge Heaven.” The voluntary setting apart seemed to be popular with all theater guests. If you took good care of your ticket stub you could stay there unmolested forever.
It must have been the theater ushers and usherettes who left the outside doors open during the newsreel. The wafts of cool air were flocked to by those typically apathetic to world affairs. This day the crowd could not have helped but heard, though they could not see what was going on, due to the eight foot wall between them and the paying guests. The ushers and usherettes must have thought; “Everyone has a right to be disgusted.”
“With the urging of ‘One World Truman,’ a ‘loan’ of 3.75 billion dollars to the United Kingdom, at 1.62 percent interest, was approved 46–34 by the United States Senate, after the House had voted 219–155 in its favor. By July 15, 1947, ‘within six months of convertibility of sterling requirements coming into force,’ noted one pundit, ‘British gold and dollar reserves were exhausted. With bankruptcy staring it in the face, the Attlee government made plans for a severe austerity program at home and a strategic retrenchment abroad.’ The Republican National Committee said; ‘Loans’ like this are at best a temporary respite for the recipient, though they virtually guaranty that the lender will soon be in the same equal position of bankruptcy; international communism at its best.’
After formerly being limited to general elections only, dinges voted in a primary election in Georgia for the first time, with more than 100,000 turning out to decide on the Democratic Party nominee for Governor. Although the dinge vote was a factor in James V Carmichael getting almost as many votes as former Governor Eugene Talmadge, Talmadge also won the nomination, based on the state's ‘county unit’ system, similar to an electoral vote. Any way you slice it, Talmadge would go on to lose badly in the general election to Republican George Wallace.
The Dr. Hari Singh Gour University was founded through a $300 million Truman grant over Republican objections in the city of Sagar, now in the Madhya Pradesh state in India, and is now one of the central universities operated by the national government. Hari Krishna, US taxpayers.
In the truth of fiction, from J D Salinger's prophetic as well as recursive novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye,’ July 18, 1946, was the date that Holden Caulfield's younger brother, Allie, as in Allies, died of leukemia. Comprende?
Introduced for the first time and endorsed by President Truman, the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, failed to pass the US Senate. The vote was 48–25 against the radical proposal.
The ‘Report of the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack’ was released. Chaired by US Senator Alben W Barkley, with US Representative Jere Cooper as vice chairman, the ten member committee had voted 8–2 to approve the finding that ‘The committee has found sufficient evidence to support the charges, made before and during the hearings, that the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of Navy did indeed trick, provoke, incite, cajole, and coerce Japan into attacking this nation in order that a declaration of war might be more easily obtained from the Congress over majority Bund and non-interventionist US objections,’ and assigned no blame to the highest ranking officers in Hawaii at the time, Admiral Husband E Kimmel and Lt. General Walter C Short. US Senators Ari Ferguson and Yisroel Epstein dissented, saying that President Rosenfeld and his military advisors ‘were not any more responsible for the nation's worst military disaster than di mume Khaye, tso za dva groshi dupe daye; the aunty Khaya, who takes it up the arse for two shekels.’
Gualberto Villarroel, the President of Bolivia, was murdered by an angry mob that stormed the Palacio Quemado, his official residence in La Paz. Villaroel, who had escaped an assassination attempt only two years earlier, was hanged from a lamppost at the Plaza Murillo more or less after the killing. Asked for comment, Harry Truman said; ‘There is absolutely no truth to the irresponsible and unfounded conservative allegations that the CIA was involved. But, having said that, good, death to all fascists.’
The King David Hotel in Jerusalem was bombed by the Zionist terrorist group Irgun in co-operation with the supposedly outlawed yet overlapping Lehi Group, collapsing a section of the building and killing 191 people. At 12:37 PM, 770 pounds of gelignite explosives were detonated at the headquarters of the British Mandate for Palestine. The 191 dead were made up of 28 British nationals, 141 Palestinian Arabs, 17 Haredi Jewish dissident residents, and five hotel guests from other nations. Members of Irgun had smuggled the bomb material into the hotel in seven milk cans, and claimed later that they had telephoned a warning which had been ignored by the Chief Secretary, Sir John Shaw. When asked for comment Shaw said; ‘Yeah, right. You still believe the Jews?’
Andrei Gromyko told a closed session of the United Nations Security Council that the Soviet Union would not accept the Bernard Baruch Plan to ban all further production of nuclear weapons. Neither did the US, but that is only reported in Russian newspapers.
In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga was sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The ‘Baker Test’ blast took place at 8:35 AM local time, and vaporized the 200 foot long weapons ship USS LSM-60, located directly above the bomb, and immediately sank the USS Arkansas. In all, three submarines and seven ships were destroyed in the test. The test was the second phase of Truman’s ‘Operation Crossroads,’ the number of phases yet to become disclosed. When asked if there was more destruction here than at Pearl Harbor, Harry S Truman responded; ‘I don’t know and I don’t care. Wasn’t it a pretty blast?’
The Truman created US Office of Price Administration, authorized to act after a 25 day lapse in its activities, by a federal judge appointed by Truman, issued orders restoring price controls, but at a higher rate, effectively raising prices on thousands of items sold in the United States, under the ‘OPA Revival Act’ that had been signed by President Truman the day before. Food prices would not be ‘controlled’ again until December 20th.
At the Anping district of China's Hebei Province, near the village of Hohsiwu, a 300 man force of the Communist People's Liberation Army ambushed a supply convoy of 41 United States Marines. In the battle that followed, four Americans and at least fifteen Chinese died. Truman said; ‘I’m sure that we all regret the temporary ‘misunderstanding.’’
Working under the codename of the Venona project, American cryptanalyst Meredith Gardner was able to make the first breakthrough in a team project to crack the secret codes used by the Soviet Union in its espionage activities in the United States during WWII. After his successful decryption of one encoded phrase within intercepted telegrams, the team was able to deconstruct more of the coded transmissions previously transmitted.
The Morrison-Grady Plan was proposed by Herbert Morrison of Britain and Henry F Grady of the US, which provides for the division of Palestine into three districts, with 17% of the land set aside for up to 100,000 Jewish immigrants, 40% for Palestinian Arabs, and 43% for a neutral zone under British control. The plan was endorsed by President Truman and Prime Minister Attlee, but Jewish and Arab groups both rejected the proposal. Zvai Leumi of Irgun said; ‘You should go try and live in such a klayn place right next to those meshugganah sub-human dinges. Oy!’
In a repeat performance, we bring you uplifting excerpts from the Frank Capracorn series of movies of US glory during WWIi, filmed for the Department of Defense in the US during the war. Keep your eyes out. You might spot a Hollywood star. Get your rah-rahs on!”
The Three Stooges came on, and the ushers and usherettes re-closed the doors after the five minutes it took them to realize that the newsreel was over.
Bayway Town’s Broadway shopping district; which more or less started on Seventeenth Street, got into full gear by Twentieth, and started to fade at Twenty-fourth. On the near outskirts of it, the resident structures were well positioned to accommodate the provincial pedestrian population’s propensity to prudently stray. And stray they did, meandering in absolute hordes in search of the fascinatingly exotic, finding the elusive treasure here and there for a few days.
Contrasting that, the avoided side streets of Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-second, and twenty-third, north of Broadway, between it and Avenue C had become a self-aggrandizing, blood-strewn, self-inflicted, hophead populated, un-American shanty town more reminiscent of the domino “cultures” of places like Jamaica and Haiti, populated by dinges who had relocated from places like Birmingham, Mobile, and Tuscaloosa, in search of a lack of jobs and northern welfare benefits. Though they seemed to be able to accurately gauge the weather, and consequently stopped their excursions safely short of Broadway, leaving it to the relieved and appreciative-under-the-circumstances folk who had always been there, they had been misinformed on a Bogart Casablanca level, though they were incapable of grasping its ironic wit, concerning their unwanted northeastern relocation, no doubt prompted by smart southern patriots who basically said; “You like them so much; take them.” It was kwite a kopascetic kondition; so much so that it virtually guaranteed some misinformed meddling married to its long term partner; accepting ignorance, barreling like a flailing Niagara Falls fool unable to get out of the rapids, toward a rocky and deadly divorce in the bottom territory, so far only efficaciously traversed by “The Maid of the Mist.”
Having Nigel’s in its basement, solidified the Paramount’s prominent position. “Nigel’s Alleys” occupied the Paramount’s subterranean vault with thirty-two lanes, sixteen on each side. The bar and pool tables at the center had hosted more dignitaries than Bayway Town had in residence, making it a truly international bastion, with an unspoken predilection toward the lip synched unpopular and the enticingly illegal.
Inflation was the word most common on the street and constant news of the time. As measured by the consumer price index, the rate of inflation was 18.1% for 1946, an all-time record, and it was heading north/northeast to another contending position which fell short primarily due to a federal government “massage” of the numbers, thereby falling to break another annual US record, coming in at 14.4% in 1947. Harry Truman had just taken the President’s office in 1945 and was making entrees into as well as designing the final Marshall Plan. Ostensibly it was not sufficient that the US had sacrificed lives for Europe’s war; it was further necessary to use US simoleons to rebuild what the Europeans had destroyed. The CIA and the UN were founded. The first mentions of globalism appeared in the main stream presses. Israel would be recognized by the United Nations and funded by the United States in 1948.
If you believe that all politics is local, then you also think that the federal government spending your dough in western Europe and Japan, and leaving Americans sporting lint, had nothing to do with your inability to find a job, food, and an affordable dwelling at home. On a positive note, semi-organized crime, including strong armed politics, and their ancillary offshoots and overlaps became the number one growth business. It helped a lot to know someone or be convincingly crazy.
Goldklang’s Appliances was across Broadway from the Paramount. Gershom Goldklang was quite enterprising and drew his own share of attention. What commenced as a store selling appliances like as the Bayway Town Times ad originally said; “stoves, food processors, refrigerators, fans, freezers, record players, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, clothes dryers, sewing machines, dishwashers, lamps, irons, and you-name-its” to a burgeoning market expanded into also selling records and jewelry. The records were stacked on flimsy metal frames right inside the front entry and the jewelry was in the back, under thick glass lock and keyed, where a member of the Goldklang family was always present. If it wasn’t Gershom himself, it would be Ester, Chaim, or Malke.
Across 25th Street from the Paramount was the tallest structure in town. No one was quite certain whether it contained apartments, was used for storage, both, or something else and didn’t care. Bayway Towners never checked as it didn’t bother them and they were well versed in the art of minding their own business. Right next to the Paramount on the attached other side was a popular place that sold beverages; not alcohol, beverages. It was the watering hole for young families, some already with walking kids.
As in “The Phantom of the Opera,” the catacombs of the Paramount Theater were purportedly occupied by things which are only rumored to exist.
However, the bumps heard in the night were more likely to have been generated by bowling balls rudely striking down pins, than a deformed German music and arts lover striking down chandeliers. Nigel’s Alleys was not haunted by Erik, but rather managed by “Lefty” Centraglia, who reclusive entrepreneur Nigel met at a card game and took a liking to. Since becoming manager, no one has ever seen Lefty come or go. It’s like he’s always there, even when you might not see him.
Lefty used to be a contending bowler, who while still in his early teens had put up a 185 average, making him a potential pro candidate if he continued to improve at the same rate. He didn’t. An early peak is rarely a blessing; most usually a prescription for unhappiness, but Lefty didn’t care, sometimes saying; “Most never even have a peak.”
A greenish, soft fedora gently squeezed the top of the fleshy bulb of a head, his pried trilby only rendering him indistinguishable from Nigel’s hoi polloi. Below that the large ears, uncut sideburns, and the fine bristles that protruded from the ears themselves, stuck out on both sides like a graffiti “enhanced,” yellow traffic sign which indicated two directions at once. Thin, pursed lips barely protruded beneath the trimmed black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little disapproving folds filled with hot dog mustard.
His blue eyes looked down upon the Nigel patrons waiting under the clock at one of the two entryways for signs of pretentious bad taste in dress. Several of the outfits were new enough and expensive enough to be properly considered offenses against taste and decency. Possession of anything new or expensive only reflected a person’s lack of theology and geometry; it could even cast doubts upon one’s soul.
When infrequently asked, Lefty one worded his non-participation in WWIIsimply as “medical.” Gossiping busybody people believe that his juvie criminal record of having bashed dinges on more than one occasion had rendered him unfit to bump off nationalistic Italians and Germans.
Nigel’s had no windows, just the two entryways on 25th Street which opened to stairs winding down. Un-naturally lit and heavy with coffin nail and cigar smoke, Nigel’s patrons often took breaks from their games and congregated near the doors to have a few smokes and hot dogs, while they bumped gums. The “welcoming committees” provided cordial greetings to incoming customers who always liked being recognized by the crew.
Fats Squealitieri was a popular regular there, he being not a bowler, but the best pool player in town. He didn’t always win, as the short games of Eight Ball and Nine Ball carry with them some element of luck. It’s not that a poor player will win, but it is not uncommon for one with 80% of their opponent’s ability to beat their betters. When Fats was feeling challenged and playing seriously, he’d insist upon playing Straight Pool. The much longer game minimized the luck element, and he never lost. Good Straight Pool players often run a few racks, the precision and time taken often have a numbing effect on casual “fans” while fans who also are good players find fascination in the subtleties of tactics that those unskilled cannot appreciate. Fats never noticed this phenomenon as when he was seriously playing Straight Pool all he saw was the table and the balls.
In his last big Straight Pool money match he was backed by Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli while his opponent, Kentucky Kayo Keneally, a former middleweight club quality fighter was backed by Bayway Town Mayor Frank DiCesare. Fats found this to be disrespectful to their mutual homeland, refused to acknowledge the presence of either of them, and was sufficiently motivated to destroy Keneally 500-88. Supposedly DiCesare was quoted as saying; “The fat man is absolutely frightening on his home table. I’ll never again oppose one so gifted.” The comment had its left-handed aspect in its reference to Fats playing on his “home” territory, as if pool tables were something else in Kentucky.
Some people get confused about Nigel’s manager, as Lefty actually bowled right-handed, and sometimes took a break from whatever he was doing, and did. It’s essentially reet simple. Lefty was a lefty through age twelve, when he broke his left arm while working as a pin boy. Stan liked bowling so much that he started to do it with his right arm while his left was still in a cast, and did it better that way than he ever did with the left. Hence he continued to use his right after his left had healed; using it not only for bowling, but the more mundane but necessary pursuits of ringing up the cash register and grabbing snatch. He found it amusing that some made analogies to transitioning from being an artist to being a popular head of state.
Lefty didn’t seem to care about his shortcomings as a purchased pro, and he would say; “Don’t you see how much I regret not having had the honor of living in a trailer while on tour ten months of the year? I often cry for the Jew backers.” You may have heard that pro bowling doesn’t pay all that much.
But now Centraglia had a secure home he could share with other ninepinners. It was dimly lit and there were said to be nefarious goings on and some might characterize the place as creepy, but it was home to Stan. The sixteen lanes on one side and the sixteen on the other were like his children; playful and in regular need of maintenance, which kept Stan more busy than he wanted to be. He had an excellent scam. For the many who didn’t know his broken arm story, Lefty could still pick up a few bucks from the never-was-and-never-will-be hotshots by challenging them to a money match wherein the use of the right arm is alternated with the use of the left, new to the Bayway Town hotshots, but quite common in South and Central America. “Lefty” never lost; as his right was superior and his left was okay, but much better than that of the losers.
If anyone knew Nigel’s first name or names it was Lefty, but he wasn’t talking, and virtually no one asked or cared. It was just the name of something, like boots or lightning bolts. Like anything, it could have deeper meaning, but if it did it was probably coincidental. The underground below the Paramount Theater was home to a variety of fun activities.
Though a few places uptown were larger, Nigel’s thirty-two lanes provided more than enough space for pure bowlers to play out their games and bets. It wasn’t a place favored by the diletantes, as the pins were heavier, which produces lower scores than the lighter ones at Bayway Town Lanes uptown.
There was a licensed twenty-four hour bar at the center, with a private room which was used for card games at the center of that. This bar, being the only one for five blocks, may have been Nigel’s biggest single reason to buy the place. Lefty arranged games for the town’s biggest players as well as unknown out-of-towners, as having some scratch is the only credential necessary to play the game. The house almost always came out ahead, even if they weren’t always the evening’s biggest winner.
There was picture on the wall, that of a doll-faced dame or a vamp. Lefty put it there thinking that it can’t hurt to try to distract the saps. On the opposite wall was a sign which said; “Ignore the unwritten rules at your own peril.” Perhaps it is because no dinges were ever participants, this required no further explanation to the gentlemen players.
Nigel’s had an oddity known only to Nigel, Lefty, and maybe a few old timers who weren’t talking, primarily because they were dead or otherwise effectively incapacitated; the democratic socially financed nursing homes the mandated repositories of those who no one, including the dinge attendants, paid any mind. The ceiling over lane thirty-two had a trap door which led into the Paramount Theater. It could be easily accessed by standing on the automatic pin spotting machine and pulling down the noosed rope. A little climb on that would put one just offstage right.
Sam peered through his window. The sun, which had made the shadeless sidewalk suitable for burning discarded newspapers, was now producing angled, long and lean shadows. He took it on the arches and he noticed that his rubber soles were announcing his presence with a mild squish, squish sound, capable of attracting attention on his silent side of the road. He crossed the street to get to the middle of “The Big Corner,” where the constant arrivals and departures would drown out his squids.
He got lost in the smorgasbord of people milling about. Old Eastern European women with shopping bags, wearing babushkas, were busily entering and exiting the retail stores and crossing the square in a myriad of directions on their way to the next place that might have something useful “for sale.” Their ankle length coats defied the now overhead drear, in a probable overheated attempt to hide what sixty years of experience had taught them to conceal. Frequently, they would stop for an almost stationary moment, to point and tell one of their confidants where they knew of bargains, arms gesturing quickly in haste to move onto their next site. Many of them were residents of the city’s “Old Town” section, home to abandoned docks, piers and warehouses, but resided in currently very desirable three story attached limestones and as a result had some simoleons, at least on paper, being five minutes from the “Big Apple” by PATH trains, whose path took them under the jelly textured Hudson River.
Jiggered men and women in their twenties and thirties dressed to the nines combed the area at a leisurely pace; the men’s threads an attempt to mirror Humphrey Bogart or Robert Mitchum, replete with Trilby lids, with the women’s idols apparently Lauren Bacall and Ida Lupino. Sam tried not to make direct eye contact with them, not wanting to hear a defiant and looking for trouble mouth utter; “What are you looking at, sap?”
Some people were on four lines in the middle of 25th Street, craning around heads and gazing at their watches, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the always-behind-schedule buses to take them somewhere else. Young couples, satchels in hand, were going “down the shore,” the part of New Jersey which bordered the Atlantic Ocean, far enough south to avoid being in the paint factory and chemical plant towns closer in. People of all ages, shapes, sizes and dress were making their way to Manhattan, where they hoped to “be cool” among the people who had seen and done everything they wished, the “everything” available twenty-four hours a day in the city with no stars on the horizon. Some were off on a few days journey to New Jersey’s furthest western reaches to see farmland and vintage villages in the hilly locale still possessing relatively clean air and those with more time to spare desiring the mountains of upstate New York, the trip abounding with ground hogs, up on their hind legs, watching the excitement of the loud bus, from two feet away. For some reason, they continue to play this “sport” despite their flattened relatives nearby. They must have come to the conclusion that it’s the only game in town.
As he got to the gray, interlocking, rubber pavers under the Paramount’s overhang Sam heard; “Hey, man. Where the fuck you been?” He located the sound and saw that it was his old friend, Buzzy Barrese. He wasn’t sure until he did a triple take. Buzzy looked older than his thirty years, and his complexion had changed from its natural olive patina to a never-see-the-sun prison pallor. The lid and the way his fingers apprehensively fidgeted with his tie as if it was a guitar were the giveaways. Sam returned the upbeat greeting with; “Buzzy, great to see ya’. I’ve kind of been nowhere. When did you get out?”
“A week ago Monday. Been here, there and everywhere, you know.” Buzzy’s right hand took Sam’s right and attempted to do some kind of underhanded twisting handshake that was currently the rage in jail. Sam was surprised that Buzzy was out in less than six months on a dime stretch with no parole on a third armed robbery conviction. He said; “Someone big must have pulled some strings for ya.”
“Good behavior goes a long way.” Buzzy laughed.
Sam didn’t and said; “I’m on a new case. And something doesn’t smell right. But it pays, you know. Tell me. When you were up the river did you hear anything about a watch or Artie Hayden?”
“Yeah, sure. He probably wears one and Artie makes some good music. Doesn’t he?”
“He won’t be making any more.”
“Got dropped? Agent or record company?”
“Like in dead, bumped off, burned, chilled, iced, offed, rubbed out; dig?”
“No shit? ..... That’s a real shame.”
“Come on, Buzzy. Quit fucking around. What’s the inside dope? You know it stops right here ....... just like Truman’s buck.”
Buzzy smiled condescendingly, shook Sam’s hand again, and said; “Always trust your beezer. Gotta go. Gotta see a man about a horse. Later.” Sam took a few steps behind him and his eyes followed Buzzy into one of Nigel’s side entries.
Sam thought; “Buzzy is likely involved in something he won’t talk to an old pal about; must be bigger than Vivian’s lost watch. The fear of the long stretch must have pushed him to graduation into the big leagues." They knew each other from the old 17th Street and Avenue C neighborhood where they both grew up and used to be able to trust each other to have the other’s back through the rigors of basketball, school, dinge dust ups, and weird adventures only describable in their time and place. The mature “now” of war and post-war times was apparently something else.
Buzzy and his main partner Mikey were the co-founders of the biggest teenage gang in Bayway Town; the Cheyennes, which started as mostly a fighting gang with an open invitation to all comers. With Buzzy and Mikey no longer involved, the organization had now evolved, with the times, to a “community support,” Frank DiCesare funded group, the middle man in the dispensation of federal largesse to the neighborhood “poor” and connected. People seemed pleased with them, but it would take foolish souls to say otherwise, as the current Cheyennes were an extension of “I am the law” DiCesare, who would still kick serious ass through his main man, Police Chief Red Doherty.
Up until now, Buzzy had never been known to play anybody’s games. He had his own, as well as a simple yet fatalistic philosophy about things. “You just happened to be there, that’s all. Whatever will be will be.” He did whatever he wanted as schemes and plans made no difference. But, now it looked like having done six months of a dime stretch might have changed his point of view. He had given up and put on the uniform. What a drag it is getting old.
After the war ended the Paramount’s outdoor lobby got a new nightly fixture; Newsboy Konetki. Having left for Italy right after high school graduation, Newsboy had not yet established any peacetime career credentials.
He returned from his overseas victory to high unemployment, high inflation, a lack of affordable housing, and the antecedents of as well as the formal Truman Marshall Plan penchant to send all available US funds to the war-mongering Europeans, including Axis powers, for whom so many of his comrades in arms had died or become crippled.
The hot air seemed to congeal in front of him, and out of it materialized a transparent man of most bizarre appearance. He had a small head which was fitted with a black homburg over a skimpy little checked jacket. The man was six feet tall and reet broad in the shoulders, though incredibly thin; the result of the US military’s ability to keep him in coffee and smokes, though no food. Sarge would say; “Drink ‘em and smoke ‘em. You won’t feel the hunger.” But Sarge lied. Newsboy’s face had a tired look about it.
Ostensibly an incurable optimist, Newsboy Konetki still saw opportunity in the US, though there was little alternative choice available in the matter, which didn’t result in self-annihilation. Bayway Town’s central thoroughfare had no newspaper outlets, and he made arrangements with the New York Daily News to distribute their evening edition. No longer would the most popular paper be relegated to distribution by come and go grammar school kids; it would be sold en masse in one reliable place by one reliable person, an enterprising American and a responsible adult right from under the heavily trafficked and precipitation resistant overhang of the Paramount Theater. If the Paramount owners didn’t like it there was nothing they could do about it as despite being under their overhang, the street was not their property, and was solely under the auspices of Mayor Frank DiCesare.
In this regard, just to be on the safe side, Newsboy was known in some circles to supplement his income by occasionally transferring some small objects in his papers; objects approved by DiCesare; more or less most of the time.
While it is easier said than explained, some semblance of explanation is called for. Say a person with something to sell can’t go through traditional channels because some liberal, commie, legally proficient, moralist muckety-mucks have made that a crime. So the resourceful businessman in the great state of New Jersey is forced to make a private sale, and transact it safely under the guidance of trustworthy and influential Mayor Frank DiCesare, who takes a 10% cut. DiCesare’s people safely take the item from one party and the cash from the other, as no one in their right mind is going to screw with DiCesare. He has taken total effective control by having his many flunkies pass laws which make everything illegal, and then he as top executive selectively enforces the law; a process destined to become standard operating procedure in one of the Democrat operating manuals. In this type of “particular” case, Frank’s minions give the item and some dough to Newsboy who is also given a code. For instance, when someone purchases their popular evening edition of The New York Daily News from Newsboy and they say something which changes with each transaction, in one prior contraband transference case; “This is not a fit night for man nor beast,” they are handed the newspaper copy which is wrapped around the special item. Business is safely done and everyone is happy. The liberal, commie, “moralist” muckety-mucks kind of suspect that such things go on, but can’t say where and how, and for the time being are cautiously content with the accolades they have received from their constituents for having passed the easily skirtable laws which supposedly benefit fags, groomers, dinges, bums, and commies. The more time that passes the more they become interested in getting a cash cut too, but that’s another story, one step more complicated, and is reserved for some tedious future date.
Newsboy’s big secret was that he also did this for Zanarelli, unbeknownst to DiCesare. DiCesare’s smaller secret was that he knew Newsboy “freelanced,” but didn’t step in as he figured that anyone smart would, and who needs a dope on the payroll. The only question relevant to him was the degree of disloyalty, a small amount a plus, and a large amount a cause for concern.
You probably are thinking that a newspaper cannot effectively hold and hide much more than a rather mostly sized fish, and you are spot on with that observation. And if you are not thinking that, congratulations on having an active “criminal” mind. The trick is that Newsboy doesn’t pass everything which needs passing. The larger items follow a similar procedure, but are funneled through the reinforced paper bags used at George Young’s hot dog stand for big, “party” type orders, no pun or dual meaning cutesy intended; though deriders of tired clichés are always most welcomed, as they provide unintended amusement in their predictable complaint, while predictably offering nothing new, but obviously thinking they had. If you will, visualize the post-modern and the post-post-modern writers who think that they were not fully anticipated in their penchant for atmosphere over story line, literarily impressionistic. Getting little critical or popular credit, James M Cain, Raymond Thornton Chandler, and Dashiell Hammet, to name just a few, undoubtedly beat the post-modernists and the post-post modernists there by as many cumulative furlongs as Phar Lap outdistanced his number two “competitors.”
Where the lines are drawn on the close calls is the kind of subject which compels adjunct college professors and student wannabees. For the rest of us, any question as to where a wristwatch will go when off the wrist is answered if at all with; “Depends.” No weirdo, Konetki ankled past it slow.
Newsboy Konetki was a reet practical man whose sense of humor was only exceeded by the width of the soles on his shoes. His trademark line was; “Extra, extra. Read all about it. Nazis in America.”
Enterprising George Young opened a hot dog stand on 25th Street near the Broadway corner right near Nigel’s Alleys when World War II ended. Released from the service, he decided to follow his bliss and what he knew best; hot dogs, trucks, the DiCesare “permit” charges, and the lucrative endeavor of passing concealed contraband.
His truck was always parked there, which no doubt violated some Bayway Town ordinance, but George had more faith in his contributions to DiCesare than he did any annoying windbag local ordinances. George disdained any nuances. He would say; “They enforce what they want to enforce, whether it’s an ordinance or not.”
He smiled understandingly. Though reet more than that. It was one of those smiles with a quality of reassurance in it, though truth be told, he probably was paying no attention to what had been just said. It seemed to face the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. The people liked George.
Almost as important, Bayway Towners loved his hot dogs, late breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and preferred regular access to them over his monopoly on two and one half prime parking spots. The mustard and sauerkraut was scrumptious and people couldn’t stop eating the squishy hot dogs and soft buns. The biggest fear was held by Mayor Frank DiCesare. He feared that a riot would take place if George’s hot dogs were to disappear.
George was a plain sort of guy. His truck merely said; “HOT DOGS,” while he also sold soda pop, and if asked recommended “Yoo Hoo.” The grounds in front of his truck often became the fields of furiously unprofessional hot dog eating contests. It was kind of silly as the competitions often sacrificed the wonderful taste for a quickly fat belly, but that was the type of thing kids do, and any regurgitations were no more creepy than a few flushed early morning ablutions in off the map Dingetown. “I got the hose. Turn on the spigot.”
George wouldn’t tell you, but he was also quite the accomplished bowler. There was no pro tour, but there were big money matches at Nigel’s financed by his gambling “backers,” almost invariably in the chips with pennies from heaven. He bowled a few 300 games and once an 800 three game series, winning amounts of non-chump change he could not determine for his backers, most often Charlie, the Wop, Calamari. But, George’s end of the cabbage could never effectively complete with the glory in men’s eyes, and he could give two shits about their “glory.” Hence, the hot dogs and the truck he had modified himself.
George did have one assistant, as he could not be at the stand for all business hours. Sometimes he just needed to take a break, and sometimes he wanted to bowl a few games at Nigel’s, to stay reasonably well honed in his avocation. Nigel’s was always tempting him by staring right in his face.
Fourteen year old Eugene Galton, was like a piece of plain white ivory. His fine straight hair was blonde in the sunshine and flaxen on the shade. He was readily available as he liked the pay, the hot dogs, and the sauerkraut. He’d likely have taken the job for only the latter two. Gene was behind the eight ball in a sense, as he had admitted that he also didn’t mind having an excuse to take some time off school as he didn’t think the liberal teachers knew what they were talking about. As far as he was concerned, that was bad enough, but worse he considered them useless and detrimental purveyors of Rosenfeld, communist, misinformation indoctrination, especially through their failed “social studies” regimen.
His high fair head was knotted fiercely by his old man’s scowl; his mouth is like a knife, his smile like the flicker of light across its blade. One might say that in the sunshine his blonde hair shone like that of a young boy; crinkled and crisp as fresh lettuce. In the shade it was flaxen, sitting tightly in a bushel. He was like a blade, and a knife, and a flicker of light. His face was both delicate and fierce, and scowled beautifully forever. When he fastened his hard white fingers and his scowling eyes upon a thing he wanted to fix, he sniffed with sharp and private concentration through his long, aquiline nose.
Gene had George’s rarely given full trust, and full access to the hot dog stand’s cash register. He did have his faults. Though the customers didn’t complain, George occasionally caught Gene and chastised him for putting too much sauerkraut on the hot dogs. Gene would listen politely, and then continue to do as his instincts dictated.
George’s somewhat feigned upset always fell off the cliff when he’d see the cash register and the profit level. Perhaps it was the abundance of Gene’s tasty sauerkraut that was making him a lot of cabbage.
Gene attended midnight movies. He didn’t consider them to be ‘cult” films, merely ones which charged less for admittance. Such films were cheaper for theaters to hire than current releases, often since their ownership had fallen into public domain. It became traditional to begin showing these films at midnight, when audience attendance was lower, and sensibilities often less sharpened. The aim of the concept was stated to be to provide a forum for unusual, eccentric, or otherwise bizarre movies. It is generally not mentioned that the concept also contributed to the maximization of theater profits through getting the audience to pay for things that they had already paid to see, or had already rejected, were made and rented cheaply, were subtitled foreign movies, were too stupid to be criticized for being stupid, and the weirdo audience for these films generally tended to be those who got some sort of added kick by going out to see a film in the middle of the night, when few normal people were around. Unconventional themes and/or scenes of drug use, government made propaganda films most funny after the passage of time revealed their lies, nudity, or an absurd level of depravity, perversion, mental problems, and violence.
Gene had seen many midnight movies, including but not limited to “Triumph of the Will” (1935), “The Mysterious Island” (1929), “Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus” (1944), “White Zombie” (1932), “Wooden Crosses” (1932”, “The Dinge Ringworm Epidemic; a Sufferer’s Holy Story” (1931), “The Old Dark House” (1932), “The Rules of the Game” (1939), “Island of Lost Souls” (1932), “Shock Troop” (1934), “Freaks” (1932), “Dumbo” (1941), “Murders in the Zoo (1933), “Reefer Madness” (1936), “Invisible Agent” (1942), “The Smut Peddler” (1944), “Children of Paradise” (1945), “Sylvia Scarlett” (1935), “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), “Strange Conflict” (1941), “The Great McGinty” (1940), “L’age d’Or” (1930),” “The Song of the South” (1946), and “Hitler Should Have Got Ya” (1946).
Gene found them to be a relaxing respite after working until midnight at the hot dog stand, on the nights when George was compelled to hone his bowling skills at Nigel’s. George would show up to close the trailer, and get the cash; while Gene would drop in at the Paramount. It could only have been a better arrangement had George been tight enough with Lefty to have known about the trap door leading from Nigel’s to the Paramount, saving Gene the price of admission.
Gene didn’t really like many of them, dozed through most, tolerated some, and liked a few, those tending to be the ones with subtitles and/or Nazi characters. He took some sort of solace in seeing that the majority of the garbage was relegated to the obscurity of midnight, though the imperfect judgement system also condemned some that were worthwhile and/or ahead of their time.
For his part, George didn’t know or care where Gene went after he closed up shop. After all, he wasn’t the kid’s daddy, and he had his money to take care of. Since this was an easily predictable pattern, George was on the lookout for thieves, and had his roscoe at the ready. Sometimes, while he was counting and protecting, his face lost its plain quality as well as its default smile, and crumpled to look as if it had just made a mistake. In George’s mind, the affectation was purposeful.
If Fats were to tell you the truth, he’d tell you that when you hang around “The Big Corner” all day and night you can’t help but see and hear a lot of things. Some of what you see is the real thing and little of what you hear is. As with him, his top of the line duds and demeanor are there to make you think that he’s way up there in the mob, when in fact the made men never deal with him at all, simply because he can’t keep his mouth shut.
His wiry gray and black hair offset his portly body, and was often dripping with sweat in the summer heat. His face was the color and texture of old paper. He looked up at people from where he was seated on his stool, and his eyes were hot and bright and moisture was beaded across his upper lip. He held a Camel fag between his yellowed fingers, and the floor around his feet was covered with discarded butts.
The made men don’t bother him, as he’s seen as harmless and useless. Sam Shovelin and Theodore Squealitieri became the best of friends in grammar school on 17th Street, when Sam took a liking to Theodore, who was being harassed for being fat by Fat Charles Brakely. Brakely seemed to have difficulties articulating his disdain for Theodore, after Sam removed a few of his teeth without using Novocain.
They went their separate ways in adult life, but Fats, a name he preferred to Theodore, became an informant, and he never tried to charge his old buddy, Sam. From Sam’s point of view, Fats was free and sometimes right about things.
Sam wanted to talk with him about the watch. A call wasn’t worth the effort as Fats was reticent to speak on a phone which could be tapped. But, if you “trapped” him at “The Big Corner,” your only big problem would be in finding a way to get him to shut up. Fats made a living by being a paid informant, officially a “community organizer” for Police Chief Red Doherty, an appointee of longtime Mayor Frank DiCesare, known as “the granddaddy of Jersey bosses.”
DiCesare's use of voter fraud is the stuff of legend. In 1937, for instance, Bayway Town had 160,050 registered voters, but only 147,000 people who were at least 21 years old; the legal voting age of the time.
In 1932, New Jersey Governor Arthur Harry Moore, a Bayway Town born politico, appointed a lawyer named Thomas J. Brogan, who had served as DiCesare's personal attorney in corruption hearings, to an associate Justice seat on the state's Supreme Court. Less than a year later Brogan was named as Chief Justice. In at least two instances of alleged voting fraud in the 1930s, Brogan's court issued extraordinary rulings in favor of the Democratic machine, in one case asserting that the district superintendent of elections had no authority to open ballot boxes, and in another case ruling that the boxes could be opened, but no one had the right to look inside. Brogan also assigned himself to the Hudson County jurisdiction, thereby controlling the local grand jury process and squelching other election fraud cases. These maneuvers would become the basic core of future Democrat procedural graft and fascistic control of the increasingly burdened tax paying populace.
Although DiCesare, like other political bosses of the time, was not above outright fraud at the polls, the keys to DiCesare's success were his matchless organizational skills and demand for complete loyalty from his subordinates. His command over the Democratic voters of Hudson County, the densely populated urban area in a state that was still mostly rural and near huge New York City and its need for unchecked waste disposal, made him a man to reckon with among tri-state Democrats and Republicans alike. He was a close friend of Al Smith, the New York governor who would become the first Irish-American presidential candidate in 1928. In addition, DiCesare's support of Rosenfeld for President was rewarded with a steady stream of perks that sustained DiCesare's organization throughout the Depression.
Chief Red Doherty wasn’t a stupid man. He didn’t pay Fats all that much, and occasionally found his dope useful. What he paid was public funds anyway. Besides, Red also liked having suck-ups around, and Fats was naturally adept in the art.
Sam was eating a brunch which consisted of a George Young hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut and sipping from a glass bottled chocolate drink obtained from the same establishment. He was balancing his butt on an upended, wooden milk crate near the stand opposite Nigel’s, which the early morning milk delivery guys had a bad habit of losing when he saw Fats at the southwestern edge of the Paramount overhang, near the street.
Sam got up and called to him, which resulted in Fats’ ankling over after having said good-bye to no one in particular. He eyed his watch for a bit too long, before ebulliently saying; “What can I do for my main man, Red ...... errr Sam. Just joking, best pal.”
“Glad you could spare the time. Listen, I’m trying to get the low down on a watch.”
“I think Goldklang’s is open.”
“No. I mean yes. But Goldklang doesn’t have this watch. At least that would be highly unlikely. Maybe I’ll check with them later. I’m trying to locate Artie Hayden’s watch which disappeared when he was burned.”
“If I’m guessing right; you, DiCesare, Zanarelli, and everyone else. This for your own account?”
“Client.”
“Percentage?”
“Hourly.”
“Don’t tell me; Vivian Beaumont.”
“You know client names are confidential.”
“Yeah. And that Artie Hayden corpse is actually formerly known as Artie Bumcke and formerly known as Gustav Koenig.”
“Formerly known as Artie Hayden. Sounds like I came to the right place.”
“No, you didn’t. You’re way over your head.”
Sam was re-reminded that he could always switch the game over into playing for his own account rather than Vivian’s. He said; “Maybe, but I’m free, White, and twenty-one,” and shrugged.
“Okay, I’ll give you the inside dope. But don’t blame me if you get iced.”
“You got my final word on that.”
“The watch everyone is looking for belonged to Adolph Hitler. Chancellor Paul von Hindenburg or Hermann Goring gave it to him around 1933, and he was still wearing it when he offed himself.”
“Adolph Hitler?”
“The one and only. A French soldier named Sergeant Robert Mignot took it off his dead body during the closing weeks of the Second World War. Artie Hayden, actually Artie Bumcke formerly known as Gustav Koenig steals it from him while touring France with his Big Band. Neither of them had any idea of its value. Artie’s a practiced ganef, small time, like a hop head on reefer. His attraction was purely the act of thievery and maybe aesthetic. He openly wore it in the States, apparently unknowingly attracting the wrong kind of attention. Vivian Beaumont, a larcenous floozy, knew something about it and figures it’s got to be worth something large, and kind of hooks up with Artie to get it.”
“But she doesn’t get it?”
“Hey, she’s no hatchet slag, and being a musician Artie had his share of the dames. He didn’t have her around all the time and I guess Artie kept it on his wrist.”
“She could have had him iced.”
“Easier said than done, especially by a frail. Brings in complications, maybe a partner, and she wants the thing for herself. Had to. Otherwise she already more or less had a partner in Artie. While this is going on, the news breaks that the Hitler watch is currently being sought by an un-named Third Reich collector, rumored to be super wealthy freak Kevin Wheatcroft, who has reportedly issued a standing offer of $4,000,000 to reputed mobster, Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli, for it. So Charlie, the Wop, Calamari gets wind of it and like he always wants to do something big in the mob, he pops Artie to get it for big cabbage and status from Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli who has the knowledge of and the means to get it to Wheatcroft for $4MM.”
“The Wop’s my fucking landlord. I’ll have to give him more respect now. ......... Hmmmnnn. So what does Vivian Beaumont want with me? She can’t be thinking that I’m going to mess with Bayway Town Joe.”
“Maybe, but probably not. She likely still doesn’t know who got it off Artie. Few do.”
Braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaapappaput. “How ya doon down dere?” Braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaapappaput. “How ya doon down dere?” Braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaapappaput. “How ya doon down dere?” Braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaap, braaaaapappaput. Ad infinitum.
The back of his right hand was more or less over his eyes. He felt like a soldier who was misinformed and fought on the wrong but winning side, though that was preferable to being offed in numerous ways, for being on the right but losing side. Smoke and explosive residue had so nested in him that the growing lines on his face were like the battlefield trenches he had “survived.”
The music of the city, the daily jackhammer blare was relentless right outside of Sam Shovelin’s private dick office on the northeast side of 25th Street, approximately halfway between Broadway and Avenue C. Sam sometimes had his doubts about paying extra for a prime location.
He wondered if DiCesare was investigating something that had been flushed. The water lines and sewers had shown no signs of blockages for the last few years, when parts of Stupid Jimmy Labborini’s carcass started washing up through faucets accompanied by worms and maggots. Being trained in the Democrat ways, Mayor Frank DiCesare said that this was a politically motivated conspiracy theory propagated by his unscrupulous and incorrect Republican enemies, and completely untrue. “What was pulled out of the water line was actually an underground congregation of suicidal salmon, egged on by their nutty cult leader, who I will not advertise by naming.” And that was that, until now. Sam turned on his radio, hoping to drown out the racket.
Sam was positively pleased, which propelled him to peruse his plethora of Bing Crosby songs.
Bing: His Legendary Years 1931-1946
Bing Crosby
Out of Nowhere
Just One More Chance
I’m Through with Love
I Found a Million Dollar Baby (In a Five and Ten Cent Store)
At Your Command
I Apologize
Dancing In the Dark
Stardust
The Moon Was Yellow and the Night Was Young
Two Cigarettes in the Dark
With Every Breath I Take
June in January
Love Is Just Around the Corner
Soon
Down By the River
It’s Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)
Red Sails in the Sunset
Silent Night
I Got Plenty O’ Nuthin’
I’m An Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)
Pennies from Heaven
A Fine Romance
Sweet Leilani
Blue Hawaii
Too Marvelous For Words
It’s The Natural Thing To Do
The Moon Got In My Eyes
Remember Me?
Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight?)
Don’t Be That Way
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Unreleased)
Small Fry
I’ve Got a Pocketful of Dreams
Mexicali Rose
You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby
Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away)
Somebody Loves Me
What’s New?
Sierra Sue
Trade Winds
Only Forever
New San Antonio Rose
Humpty Dumpty Heart
Deep in the Heart of Texas
Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie
When My Dreamboat Comes Home
White Christmas
Be Careful It’s My Heart
Adeste Fideles
Moonlight Becomes You
Sunday, Monday or Always
Mississipi Mud
I Left My Sugar Standing in the Rain
Pistol Packin’ Mama
I’ll Be Home for Christmas (If Only In My Dreams)
San Fernando Valley
Close the Door Joe
Swinging on a Star
I Love You
I’ll Be Seeing You
On The Atchison, Topeka And The Santa Fe
Song of the Fifth Marine
There’ll Be a Hot Time in The Town Of Berlin
When The Yanks
Don’t Fence Me In
(Yip Yip De Hootie) My Baby Said Yes
Mine
Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive
Road To Morocco
You Belong To My Heart
It’s Been a Long, Long Time
Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That’s an Irish Lullaby)
I Can’t Begin to Tell You
Day by Day
MacNamara’s Band
South America, Take It Away
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
The Spaniard That Blighted My Life
Whiffenpoof Song
Now is the Hour (Maori Farewell Song)
But Beautiful
Galway Bay
Far Away Places
Sing Soft, Sing Sweet, Sing Gentle
Dear Hearts and Gentle People
Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy
Play a Simple Melody
Sam’s Song
Harbor Lights
Autumn Leaves
Silver Bells
Getting To Know You
Gone Fishin’
In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening
Watermelon Weather
Thanks For The Memory
Around the World (In Eighty Days)
Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise
Gigi
Where the Blue of The Night (Meets the Gold Of The Day)
So much to choose from, Sam was both glad and confused. Sam then got distracted by the magazine left on the opposite chair.
Bettie Page was all the rage. Sam perused the magazine and might have nodded off for a while.
When he came around again, feeling more relaxed Sam ankled it over to the library on 30th Street and Avenue C. He wanted to check as much of Squealitieri’s story as he could. The original part of the building was built in 1903 in the elegant Greek Revival style. Additions and repairs had been done in a least cost, nondescript manner endemic to later Twentieth Century “architecture” everywhere in the US.
The interior had been largely unchanged, and it was as elegant as ever. That struck one of his memory chords as he recalled being taken there by his mother before he started school and for a bit thereafter. It seemed as enormous now as it did then, but he no longer had a library card.
He courteously engaged the librarian at the front desk. She was thirtyish, had bobbed dark hair, and wore a skirt that must have been too tight for her fellow bibliognost co-workers’ tastes. She squiggled around in her chair and was helpful, directing him toward the area which held what he wanted to search. He looked at old issues of the local papers to see if he could check out the validity of Squealitieri’s story. Perusing old articles produced a dreamy feeling, which took him back to events which didn’t seem important at the time, but now resonated in a way that probably wasn’t mere nostalgia, but might have been more akin to the second viewing of a liked movie, this time in leisure, seeing more relevant detail than he did in the original moment.
He chanced upon the article which stated that Buzzy Barrese was going up the river for a dime with no possibility of parole. What he only learned in this second reading was that Buzzy didn’t do himself any favors by interrupting and insulting the prosecutor and the judge. It had no practical purpose and merely appealed to his dead end sense of humor in saying whatever the fuck he thought was derisively funny. He should have run for something, as it was clear that he had a natural knack for theft and politics.
This time Sam took his own advice, got serious, and found an article that might do his research some good.
The Bayway Town Times
“Serving our families since April 20, 1889”
Reprinted without permission from the New York Times
Tuesday, April 30, 1946
The Hitler/Third Reich/Nazi Collectibles
There are at least two “Hitler watches,” in a true sense of the term. One was given to him which he wore; and the other was made under his instruction for Eva Braun. Some confusion about this may exist because both were made in 1939 and both are gold. However, any such confusion is a bit silly as the one Adolph Hitler wore has a square face, and Eva’s is round.
There are numerous other watches which are “mistakenly” and conveniently referred to as “Hitler watches,” while they should be characterized as “Third Reich watches,” “Nazi watches,” or fakes as they have as much to do with Hitler as a Pablo Ruiz Picasso painting has to do with Georges Braque.
The fakes are the easiest to dismiss and catch. Admirers had copies made based on a few pictures they had seen in the papers, as well as did some Hitler admirers. Though they could copy the external characteristics of the charmingly affable artist’s watch, they did not know what was inscribed under the face, and therefore assumed that to be nothing. In fact it contains three dates; Hitler's birthday – April 20, 1889, the day he was named Germany's chancellor – January 30, 1933, and the day the Nazi party won the 1933 election – March 5, 1933.
Indeed, these fakes are almost as plentiful as Hitler supporters, and have created their own faux market of sorts. There are a number of ways the watches are sold for more than they are worth, but the most prevalent is the soft sell in which the fake is offered to suckers in a “mom and pop” antique store for a high price, but nowhere near the value of the original. The purchasing sucker thinks he is taking advantage of the selling “sucker,” until he tries to unload the watch or a price in the stratosphere.
Nonetheless, monetary considerations have prompted some credentialed “experts” to be rather loose, if not out and out fraudulent, in their assessments and opinions of legitimate “Third Reich” and “Nazi” materials.
By most accounts, the square faced wristwatch that was worn by Adolf Hitler from 1933 to his suicide on April 30th, 1945 was given to him by politically pressured Chancellor Paul von Hindenburg shortly after the Reichstag Fire, and currently resides in the underground black market. It is said to be currently sought by an un-named Third Reich collector, rumored to be super wealthy Kevin Wheatcroft, who has reportedly issued a standing offer of $4,000,000 to reputed mobster, Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli, and anyone else for that matter, for it. Why the offer is to Bayway Town Joe, rather than a mobster operating in a larger market, such as nearby New York City, is an item which on its own is worthy of its own analysis and speculation. Suffice to say that appearances and names can be quite deceiving to the majority of the uninformed. “Bayway Town Joe” is actually an international operator.
In 1946, when he was thirty-five years old, Kevin Wheatcroft received an unusual birthday present from his parents; a bullet pocked SS stormtrooper’s helmet, lightning bolts on the ear flaps. He had requested it especially. Later that year, at a car auction in Monte Carlo, he asked his multimillionaire father for a Mercedes; the G4 that Hitler rode into the Sudetenland in 1938. Tom Wheatcroft refused to buy it and his son sulked all the way home. With Tom’s almost immediate death, Kevin received full control of the family fortune, and he quickly used it in an attempt to establish the world’s premier Hitler/Third Reich collection. One of his favorite phrases is; “If you’re not a liberal by the age of twenty you have no heart; if you’re still one at the age of thirty, you have no brain.”
“There once was a man who tried and damn near succeeded in freeing his people from ‘the nothing.’ There once was a man who saw it so clearly and articulated it so strongly that it took the entire world to take him down. There once was a man.”
In addition, Kevin is the member of an international set of obscenely rich, apolitical bon vivants, whose height of status is to host a gala gathering of the clan, centered around an expensive, unique, one of a kind item no one else has or can ever obtain. If that item also has a disreputable, if not illegal cachet, all the better.
Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, Eva’s round faced gold watch is now also on the market, being sold by Alexander Historical Auctions, a company recently formed that specializes in historically significant Third Reich items, with a pre-sale estimate of $2 million.
Adolf Hitler most certainly received the gold Andreas Huber reversible wristwatch on April 20, 1933, his 44th birthday. As previously mentioned, it contains three dates: Hitler's birthday, the day he was named Germany's chancellor, and the day the Nazi party won the 1933 election. Some say that rather than von Hindenburg, it was Hitler's Nazi party, which he led, in the person of Hermann Goring, which is thought to have handed him the watch in 1933 when he was chosen as Germany's chancellor.
On Friday, May 4, 1945, when his battalion became the first Allied force to reach Hitler's retreat in Berchtesgaden in the highlands of Bavaria, a French soldier found it and took the watch as "spoils of war." The square timepiece was looted from the Berghof, Hitler’s mountain hideout, by the aforementioned French soldier named Sergeant Robert Mignot during the closing weeks of the Second World War, some believe removing it from Hitler’s dead and decomposing body. Hitler’s suicide is consistent with his quote; “History is written by the winners of wars. The losers should not be around to say anything.”
Adolf Hitler and his Nazi henchmen amassed huge amounts of valuable art, jewelry and other collectibles prior to and during World War II. The collector’s moral dilemma is apparently assuaged not only by the attraction of the sexy belief system lost, but also because of the continually increasing value, now stoked by Truman’s US inflation.
Eva Braun’s round faced gold watch stayed in her family, but is now set to come up for auction with an estimated price tag of $2,000,000. In doing so, it remained in traditional channels. Two of the art dealers involved in the impending sale, Kunsthaus Lempertz in Cologne and Kunsthandlung Weinmüller in Munich, had also served as art suppliers to Hitler until 1945.
Item number 471/96 has only seen the light of day in exceptional cases. On those rare occasions, fingers encased in clean, white cotton gloves carefully lift the gold watch out of its velvet-lined case. The face refracts the ambient light into a glittering cascade.
The watch, made in the southwestern German city of Pforzheim by Eszeha, was kept in a plain cardboard box after the war. It isn't difficult to discover whose wrist it once adorned. The following inscription, along with a handwritten signature, appears on the back of the casing: "On February 6, 1939. With all my heart. A. Hitler."
That February day was the 27th birthday of Eva Braun. The new Reich Chancellor had dedicated the watch with a chain clasp to his mistress, 22 years his junior. The precious watch survived the turmoil of the ensuing violence virtually unharmed.
The Braun/Third Reich collection includes a 41 piece set of silverware engraved with Hitler's initials.
There is also a diamond studded gold cigarette case that belonged to Field Marshall Hermann Göring, with an inscription from 1940 on the inside cover; "Filled with happiness and pride, we congratulate you on your appointment as 'Field Marshall.' With our deepest love, Emmy and Edda" - Göring's wife and daughter.
The Pinakothek has had in its custody an entire case of blood diamonds that Hitler's paladin once called his own; a tiara with 32 carats of diamonds, a platinum tie ring with emeralds, gold cufflinks with rubies, a diamond ring and a large amethyst - just the sorts of things a worldly pursuer of purity needs.
Göring and all the other Nazi leaders snatched up and stole from others during their twelve years of rule. The items being kept in a Munich museum's storage rooms are merely a tiny portion of the Nazi legacy that fell into the lap of postwar Germany. The German state continues to hold paintings, rugs, furniture, graphics, sculptures, silver vessels, tapestries, books and precious stones appropriated by the Nazi clique. The German government owns about 20,000 items, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, books and coins. According to an estimate, the 2,300 paintings alone have an insurance value of $81 million. Hundreds more are in the storage rooms of museums in the country.
No one likes to talk about this enormous cache of Nazi treasure, partly because of a feeling of guilt for possessing assets that are often of unclear provenance. Art objects acquired from Jewish collections that were sold off in a panic after 1933, and some was simply taken from their original owning shysters.
Not all of this art is being kept from the public. A number of works are distributed throughout Germany in public museums, private collections, at the office of the German president, at the Chancellery in Berlin, in government guesthouses and in German embassies around the globe, and much of it has been stolen and placed in private collections.
The treatment of the gigantic art collections of Hitler, Göring, Chancellery head and Hitler confidant Martin Bormann and other Nazi top brass is considered a particularly sentimental chapter in Germany's efforts to come to terms with its Third Reich past.
Documents turned up that show how Bavarian lakeside real estate seized by the Nazis changed hands for ridiculously low prices to insiders. Hundreds of drawings were found that had been hidden in steel cabinets, partly to avoid having to face the heirs of loud and grabby Jewish collectors. Hitler's personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, quietly and secretly withheld more than 100 paintings that are now part of a collection, probably worth millions, from the Bavarian government. It will take decades more before German cultural institutions have searched through their inventories for possible Nazi loot.
Munich is the best place to begin tracking down the Nazi legacy. In 1945, when Germany was in ruins, up to five million works of art were gathering dust in mines and castle basements, monasteries and 1,500 other warehouse facilities of the defeated German Reich. Hitler had had his officials buy or simply confiscate paintings and other precious items throughout Europe. The Allies were so well informed about this that they developed a plan to deal with and “get their share” of the sensitive loot long before the end of the war. They chose a collecting point in a historic location: two adjacent, monumental structures, faced with pale Danube limestone, in downtown Munich. Hitler had used one of the buildings to receive state guests, while the other housed the Nazi Party headquarters.
Not everyone in Hitler's entourage had a passion for art. But because Hitler, a former postcard painter, collected art, they all collected art. In this way, the party luminaries complied with the Führerprinzip (leader principle), which held that they were to treat the interests of the Führer as their own.
The Americans examined and registered everything that the Nazi leaders had collected. If the provenance was easy to determine, and when soldiers or civilian employees had not already sold the loot on the booming black market, the fifty-three works were quickly returned to their original owners. This, of course, was much easier said than done because, in many cases, it proved enormously difficult to determine the rightful owners. In the initial postwar year, the Germans were largely uninvolved spectators in the Munich art market.
Nevertheless, the German parliament decided that suitable works of art were to be lent to museums as well as to top and upper level federal government agencies. This resulted in something of a roadshow for Nazi art as well as further “disappearances.”
There is a Sultanabad rug from the Göring collection at the Chancellery today; a painting once owned by Göring hangs in the federal government's guesthouse near Bonn; a three drawer cherry secretary from the collection of Hans Posse, one of Hitler's top art thieves, stands in the Office of the Federal President; a copy of a painting by Giovanni Canaletto, "Canal Grande with Punta della Salute and Doge's Palace," acquired by Hitler, can be viewed at the German Parliamentary Society.
To understand why Germany never truly cleared up the biggest art theft of the last century, it's worth taking a look back at the perpetrators' obsession with collecting.
In May 1945, the Allies found two trains in Berchtesgaden, a town in the Bavarian Alps, that had apparently been used by Field Marshall Göring. The cars were filled with art from around the world. Göring had engaged in a true rivalry with Hitler to acquire the most significant works in the European market. In his Carinhall estate, some paintings were hanging on the ceiling because there was no room left on the walls.
It is unclear how the heavyset Wehrmacht officer developed an appreciation for art. Although he was from a wealthy family and had lived in castles as a child, unlike Hitler, Göring had never shown a passion for art. He had finished high school at a cadet school and taken an officer's exam, a test which likely didn't address Rubens and Rembrandt.
The art collection that the Americans uncovered in Berchtesgaden had an estimated value of $600 million. His other assets included Veldenstein Castle, a bombed out villa at the Obersalzberg mountainside retreat, a hunting cabin near the town of Bayrischzell, an account with the Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft bank in Munich which held $1.1 million; as well as curiosities like a collection of antlers, a white leather tuxedo and a French blanket from 1730.
In addition to Göring, with his homes in the foothills of the Alps, many other key players in the Nazi system, like Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler and Julius Streicher, had moved their possessions to secret hiding places in the south as the Allies advanced into Germany. The value of their paintings and bank accounts alone was estimated at $51.4 million.
A case occurred in the town of Kochel am See. It revolved around an acre waterfront property with a wooden house on it. It was where Nazi youth leader Baldur von Schirach went to relax, before he was sentenced in Nuremberg to a twenty year prison term for unspecified crimes against humanity. The property went to the State of Bavaria. In 1939, the idyllic site was already valued at a land price of 2.50 reichsmarks per square meter. But in 1945, Bavaria sold the property for 1.45 deutschmarks per square meter, which was well below its value, and the property was then resold after only two months, with the fortunate buyer managing to sell it at a 100 percent profit.
The short term owner was very familiar with the house. It was Von Schirach's wife Henriette, who was also the daughter of Hitler's personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann and the Führer's secretary for a time. An isolated case? Hardly. And the list goes on.
Germany began selling off portions of the Hitler collection. In doing so, it resorted to traditional channels. Two of the art dealers involved in the selloff, Kunsthaus Lempertz in Cologne and Kunsthandlung Weinmüller in Munich, had also served as art suppliers to Hitler until 1945. According to the federal government, some 243 paintings, forty-seven works of graphic art, ten sculptures and twenty-four articles of furniture from Nazi estates were sold at the time "to explore marketability." Because the market was still sluggish, the proceeds amounted to only about 1 million deutschmarks. In addition, under the leadership of then Governor Alfons Goppel, a former member of the SA, the State of Bavaria sold 106 paintings in this dubious manner. Most were hawked at up to 40 percent below their appraised value, and wound up in the hands of connected buyers.
Albert Hoffmann, a German entrepreneur who shortly after Adolf Hitler's seizure of power, gave up his profession, to enter full time party work and held functions in the NSDAP's Bremen District Leadership, until he was appointed a Political Leader on Rudolf Hess's staff in July 1934 and went to work at the Brown House in Munich. In November 1936, Hoffmann joined the SS. He was appointed Stillhaltekommissar for Austria and later also in the Sudetenland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which mainly involved taking care of property law matters. At the same time, he was responsible for building up the Party in the aforesaid areas.
Werner Friedmann, founder of the Munich Abendzeitung newspaper, described Hoffman as one of "the greediest parasites of the Hitler plague," and was one of the main profiteers of the Nazi state; Hoffman that is. The publisher and photojournalist, as a member of the "Commission for the Exploitation of Confiscated Works of Degenerate Art," advised the buyers for the Führer Museum in Linz and was named a professor of art by Hitler himself. In 1943, his personal fortune was valued at almost 6 million reichsmarks.
If the collections of the three Munich Pinakothek museums, the Schack collection and the 12 satellite galleries are combined, a total of 4,400 paintings and 770 sculptures have accumulated in the collections since 1933. The legacy is so extensive that not even Bavaria's senior most politicians are unaware of the former Nazi property they use on a daily basis. The Bavarian State Chancellery, for instance, uses a building on Prinzregentenstrasse for representational purposes. A giant carpet is laid out on the floor of the room. The motif was Persian, but the carpet had been made in India. It still has the number 6498 on the bottom, which the Americans gave it at the CCP. The carpet also has a file card in the Federal Archives, where it is referred to as a "giant carpet" that was found in Berchtesgaden. It was on the Göring train.
The purchase of these items is highly recommended on an investment basis, especially the Hitler watch. It is suspected that the popularity of the charismatic leader will steadily grow as time passes, and coupled with Truman’s igniting of an uncontrolled inflationary bomb, his unique collectibles as well as anything associated with the world’s most prominent, famous, and tragic figure will be well-positioned to maintain or increase an investor’s purchasing power in any environment; a storer of value if you will, pun intended; yet not intended in the sense of the raging poverty endemic to all commie manifestations.
For those with a limited budget, still readily available at affordable prices, are newspapers containing accounts of significant events in Nazi/Third Reich. It is expected that these items will be discarded or lost, as many no doubt have been already. One might do quite well to get in where the getting is good.
What can one say of the Fuhrer? Everyone on the planet earth thinks they are familiar with his story. And undoubtedly they are in varying degrees, with a caveat that he was a part of history, that history written solely by representatives of the winners of the war.
Perhaps the only irrefutable thing that can be said about Adolph Hitler, is that if intelligent beings from another planet ever visited a desolate and de-populated earth, their excavations and studies would clearly indicate that it was he who was the most significant creature to ever have lived on this planet as his is by far the name most mentioned. Some alien “experts” would also theorize that he was sometimes loved, sometimes hated, always seen as having departed after leaving behind irrefutable speeches and books; in other words the same as a God.
For the purposes contained herein, the value of Adolph Hitler’s real watch, let us present the indisputably great Adolph Hitler in a fair and unbiased manner; the manner in which the aliens would have concluded based on their disinterested and exhaustive studies, not as condensed, edited, and approved by the Minister of Information of the Unformulated States of Nebulous, of the planet Saturn, Chaim Zuckerbrat; the political power which won the war and funded the studies. It should be noted that this version is disputed in certain other “free” Saturnian countries. However, it is the edict of the USN Minister of Information that these other versions are highly and illegally disinformative; harmful, deleterious, pernicious, subversive, encouraging of illegal anti-government violence, and punishable propaganda to the good people of “our benevolent USN democracy.”
Adolf Hitler
From Saturpedia, the free encyclopedia
Führer of Germany, a modestly sized, industrious country in western Europe, much maligned and stolen from after losing WWI in 1919 AD Earth time, the subject of another government approved Saturpedia article.
In office Earth time as per their Christian calendar – August 2nd, 1934 AD - April 30th, 1945 AD
Preceded by Paul von Hindenburg (as President).
Succeeded by Karl Dönitz (as President).
Chancellor of Germany.
In office January 30th, 1933 AD - April 30th, 1945 AD. {From this point on dates will be understood as Earth time AD (After the Deception).} Better late than never.
President Paul von Hindenburg (1933-1934).
Vice Chancellor - Franz von Papen (1933-1934).
Preceded by Kurt von Schleicher.
Succeeded by Joseph Goebbels.
Adolph Hitler was Führer of the Nazi Party
In office July 29th, 1921 - April 30th, 1945.
Deputy Rudolf Hess (1933-1941)
Preceded by Anton Drexler (Party Chairman)
Succeeded by Martin Bormann (Party Minister)
Adolph Hitler was also Oberbefehlshaber of the German Army
In office December 19th, 1941 - April 30th, 1945
Preceded by Walther von Brauchitsch
Succeeded by Ferdinand Schörner
Reichsstatthalter of Prussia
In office
January 30th, 1933 - January 30th,1935
Preceded by
Franz von Papen (Reichskommissar)
Succeeded by Hermann Göring
Adolph Hitler was a reet busy earthling.
Personal details
Born April 20th, 1889
Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary (later named Austria)
Died 30 April 30th, 1945, age 56
Berlin, Nazi Germany
Cause of death: Suicide by gunshot
Citizenship: Austrian (1889-1925)
Stateless (1925-1932)
German (1932-1945)
Political party: Nazi Party (1921-1945)
Other political affiliations
German Workers' Party (1919-1920)
Spouse: Eva Braun
Married 1945
Parents: Alois Hitler
Klara Pölzl
Cabinet: Hitler cabinet
Military service
Allegiance: German Empire
Weimar Republic
Branch: Imperial German Army
Bavarian Army
Reichswehr
Years of service: 1914-1920
Rank Gefreiter
Unit 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment
Wars World War I
Western Front
First Battle of Ypres
Battle of the Somme (WIA)
Battle of Arras
Battle of Passchendaele
Awards: Iron Cross First Class
Iron Cross Second Class
Wound Badge
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian born German politician who was the leading spiritual and cultural light of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then assuming the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. During his elected leadership, he entered World War II, already raging in Europe after being invaded by Jews (A quasi-religious/ethnic minority sect which worships Mammon and is universally disliked intensely on Earth, as shown by their forced expulsion from every country on Earth) from Poland on September 1, 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the capture and defeat of the invasive Polish Jews, who had enlisted the forces of the unpatriotic German Jews. Jewish “scholarship” has chronicled the “genocide” of about six million Jews and millions of other victims; all pedophile perverts; and virtually all homos. Though replete with photos which could have come from movies, the chroniclers never explain how it was possible to put the chill on six million Jews, when Earth wide, there were only twelve million Jews at the war’s start, and thirteen million when it ended, despite countless hordes of Jews who renounced their Judaism during the conflict, ostensibly converting to Catholicism (A low income and more doctrinaire branch of the broader Earth religion of Christianity.) or The Church of Retail Merchandising. Little is known of the number of homos before and after the war. What “evidence” exists is purely anecdotal, and has been supplied by homos, thereby making the accounts something less than an arm’s length transaction. Be that as it may, suffice to say that right thinking, normal Saturnians do not give two wet farts about any details concerning homos, many saying; “Gag me with a spoon.”
Adolph Hitler was born in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna later in the first decade of the 1900s and moved to Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and was appointed leader of the Nazi Party in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to assume elected governmental power, but was thwarted by a fraudulent, election steal, perpetrated in a coup engineered by a coalition of the minority, though media controlling Jews and their dumb dinge minions in Munich. Hitler was imprisoned with a sentence of five years, though no specific charges were brought, obviating any sense of the word conviction. However, he remained productive as in jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto “Mein Kampf” ("My Struggle"). After his early release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting pan-Germanism, the rights of the majority, and anti-communism with particularly charismatic oratory, perhaps a function of its righteousness, and Nazi ideology. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish-Zionist conspiracy.
By November 1932, the Nazi Party held the most seats in the German Reichstag, but did not have a majority. As a result, no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on January 30th, 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933 which began the process of transforming the decadent Weimar Republic into virtuous and guiltless Nazi Germany, a majority party consortium based on the righteous ideology of Nazism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jewish influence from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what Nazis clearly saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Jewish controlled, Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany by the Jews after World War I, and the re-annexation of territories inhabited by millions of mistreated and disenfranchised ethnic Germans seized by Zionist collaborationists after WWI, which gave him significant popular support.
Hitler sought Lebensraum (The best simple translation is living space.) for the German people in Eastern Europe, and his aggressive foreign policy is considered the primary motivator for the Zionist propagation of and propaganda consistent thereto the cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large scale rearmament and, on September 4, 1939, three days after the Polish Jews invaded Germany, invaded Poland, resulting in Zionist controlled Britain and France declaring war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. These gains were gradually reversed after 1941, and in 1945 the Allied armies defeated the German army. On April 29, 1945, he married his longtime lover, Eva Braun, in the Führerbunker in Berlin. Less than two days later, Germany losing the war without any support after Italy’s de facto defection, and the US joining with the Allies, the couple committed suicide to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army. Their corpses were burned. It was a noble act, as unlike cheap, thieving, career politicians, Hitler lived up to his own principles, having once stated; “The winners of the wars write the history. The losers shouldn’t be around to say anything.” By comparison, Italy’s Benito Mussolini surrendered to the Allies years earlier, in January, 1943; and was installed as a puppet leader of a small part of Italy; that to him ostensibly fooling someone to think that he had maintained power over the country.
Earth bound historian and biographer Ian Anderson, a non-conforming Brit, described Hitler as "the embodiment of modern political will," Under Hitler's leadership and eugenics (An unpopular Earth science dismissed by Jews, their dinge servants, perverts, and the dumb and beholden suck-ups to all three of the aforementioned groups for being “too correctly inarguable.”) motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the propping up of industrious White Germans, to the democratic detriment of the minority Jews and homo perverts, whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans) or the socially undesirable worthy of separation.
The number of German and Italian civilians rubbed out by the Allied Zionists during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, and the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history; the wrong side coming out on top. In certain circles, this was sometimes referred to as “The Real Holocaust.”
An open letter:
“My dear beleaguered fellow Americans;
Our nation faces hazardous times because of the severe, unconstitutional overreach of our Democrat controlled, illegal Deep State government and the apathy of our elected officials. But, for those of you not blind, it has become crystal clear, that in their own inimitable way, the American people have voiced their vehement objection. We now have to activate every single freedom loving American capitalist, who cares about this country first, last, and always, future generations of Americans, and the many thousands who preceded us who have sacrificed everything for our freedom to propel things like this.
Over the course of known history, nation states and empires rose and fell. They did so because the people succumbed to the duplicitous tyranny of Trojan horses or they lost the will to confront the times and barbarians they faced; indeed imported.
We now, once again, face the most consequential of times in all of US history and it is now time to make our presence plainly and visibly known. Once again, we as a free, democratic republic, face a dramatic decision point. The decisions we must now make will impact the world and all of the future generations for centuries to come.
I have been saying ‘local action equals national impact’ for quite some time now. This is an action phrase meant to purposely cause you to think about how you as an American citizen should actively participate in the fabric of our society.
There is an abundance of ways to achieve this and one can start right at home in your own communities. Get involved and take the time to learn about all aspects of the people and processes running your local government.
Help out with cleaning up voter registration rolls, support local canvassing efforts, join in to help a political campaign whose ideas you support, volunteer for the hundreds of volunteer positions still unfilled, speak to the people in your church or other local community organizations that we stand to lose our basic rights and freedoms. These are only a short list of actions. But the point is to get involved.
Lastly, vote! On voting day, we need to overwhelm the opposition which represents a rapid and illegal slide toward socialism and worse. Although this administration is fully expected to come up with other distractions, do not allow yourself to be distracted. At its crux, that is their only game plan. Instead, stay focused! Vote and get your friends and neighbors to vote. Volunteer to watch and report on the Democrat shenanigans at the polls and their vote counting frauds. And for heaven and your own sake, vote for freedom or vote for America. But vote, as it’s more or less the same thing.
The dark communist monkeys know that if they throw enough dung at the wall that some of it will stick, and that somebody not a dark communist monkey will have to clean it up. Pretty smart, wouldn’t you say? However, what the dark communist monkeys don’t know is that the final solution is to throw out the dark communist monkeys. And I just happen to know the right Joe for the job.
I will write and speak more on this in the coming days, weeks and months; but no more excuses. Patton was right about everything.
God Bless America;
General Dwight D. Eisenhower”
Especially between 23rd and 24th Streets on Broadway, the streets of Bayway Town’s shopping district were lined with shop windows, offering glimpses of fashionable goods for sale from around the world. Swaths of textiles, crates of ceramics, parlor suites, elaborate silver services, and dressed mannequins on display were models of style that customers aspired to copy in their own homes. Now work done and flush with the “inside dope,” Sam took it on the arches there, to the place which hadn’t changed since he was a kid, to luxuriously bask in the joyous, outside information of the everyday shoppers.
In the most egalitarian of natural, un-mandated ways, thereby contrasting the sumptuousness, the practicality and fun of Kresge’s, the FW Woolworth Co., and Grant’s were also located there. The three were five and dimes, and all three chose to be right there, on that same block, on the same side of the street; Paramount’s side; one at each corner and the FW Woolworth Co. at the center. Sam entered Woolworth’s and went directly to the lunch counter in the back on the west side. It was a long walk as the store penetrated deeply into the block, its length eclipsing its width.
It was too early for it to have any patrons, but the waitresses were already on duty. They did serve breakfast and dinner, while for some reason the customers, who tended to live, work, or shop within ankling distance from the strictly American icon, favored it for lunch.
Sam nodded cordially to the two waitresses who were eyeing him, in anticipation of a breakfast customer to serve. But Sam kept moving as if he knew where he was going.
One of the lunch counter waitresses must have turned on the radio, as the next thing Sam heard was:
“Live from beautiful downtown Pomona we bring you ‘The Grape Nuts Flakes Program,’ starring Jack Benny and Rochester.”
The audience applauded.
Jack Benny: “Rochester! Rochester! Where are you? Have you been sleeping on the job again?”
Rochester: “No suh, Missah Binny. ....... Ah means yassuh Missah Binny. ...... Ah means ah dunno.”
The audience laughed.
Jack Benny: “Rochester. Let me make this simple. Why hasn’t the car been washed and polished?”
Rochester: “Missah Binny, ah jus did dat las munt. Ah gots too menny jobs aroun heah now.”
The audience applauded and laughed.
Jack Benny: “Well, all right then. I have an important appointment soon. Just polish my shoes.”
Rochester: “Yassuh, Missah Binny. Yassuh. Ah jus luvs dat polishin. Mmmmnnn. Mmmmnnn. Mmmmnnn.”
The audience laughed.
Jack Benny: “After that you can wash the car.”
Rochester: “Ooooh, Missah Binny. Yu be one mean man. I’s so tard, yu workin’ me so hahd.”
Jack Benny: “Have you been eating your Grape Nuts Flakes?”
Rochester: “No suh, Missah Binny. I’s gots no tahm fo brekfas wid all dese jobs.”
Jack Benny: “Rochester; it’s not the jobs; it’s that you lack the energy to do them.”
Rochester: “Ah doan know, Missah Binny. Ah be ow rite wid dese shoes heah. Mmmmnnn. Mmmmnnn. Mmmmnnn. Ah jus luvs dat polishin. Smell be so good.”
The audience laughed.
Jack Benny: “Rochester, life is not all fun and games. There is work to be done. Stop that shining for a minute and eat some of these Grape Nuts Flakes.”
Rochester, as he eats: “Mmmmnnn. Mmmmnnn. Mmmmnnn. Yassuh, Missah Binny. Yu What peeples be so smart. Taste so good, an ahm reddy to woik all day. Mmmmnnn. Mmmmnnn. Mmmmnnn.”
The audience cheered.
Jack Benny: “Take it from Rochester. No, don’t take it from Rochester. Get your own. Just like Rochester, you good folks out there in radio land can fuel your day with Grape-Nuts Flakes cereal. The delicious whole grain goodness has been converted into lightly crispy flakes. They're the perfect jump start for the healthy, active day ahead. These wholesome flakes are a good source of fiber. Ninety percent of users surveyed report doing daily poops. It’s heart healthy. The diet is low in saturated fat and cholesterol, and as low as possible in trans fat. Not one case of a heart attack has been reported while eating Grape Nuts Flakes. This delicious cereal is full of the good stuff you love, with no artificial colors or flavors. Grape Nuts Flakes are a good source of eleven essential vitamins and minerals, a satisfying cereal that is high in iron and folate. So, what are you waiting for? Go out and get your own Grape Nuts Flakes right now. ........ Errr, I mean when the show is over.”
The audience laughed and applauded, though it seemed as if that their heart was not in it.
Rochester: “Missah Binny. It be seem lahk da audience need some Grape Nuts Flakes, too.”
Jack Benny: “Raht you beez, Missah Rochester.”
The audience laughed.
Rochester: “Hey, Missah Binny. Doan yu be stealin’ my stuff.”
Jack Benny: “I’m a comedian. You know that. That’s what we do, silly boy.”
Rochester: “Yu be breakin’ da low, bose.”
Jack Benny: “Who cares?”
The audience applauded and laughed.
Jack Benny: The Radio Show
Jack benny was called “Mister Radio,” and was the original “King of All Media.” The world's oldest thirty-nine year old was quite possibly the person most associated with the golden age of radio.
Jack Benny, born in 1894, grew up in Waukegan, Illinois, the town he made famous in countless routines. At age six he began studying the violin, and in 1911, at age 17, Benny began his career playing the violin on the vaudeville stage. His violin would serve him well throughout his career, becoming one of the most iconic props in comedy.
After more than two decades in vaudeville that included several name changes, refinements to both his act and character, a stint in the US Navy during WWI, and marriage to Sadie Marks, better known as Mary Livingstone, Benjamin Kubelsky settled on the name and persona of Jack Benny, and decided that the time was right to move into the new medium of radio.
In 1932, Benny made his first brief appearances on radio. Proving to be a natural personality for the new medium, at age thirty-eight he was awarded his own show on the NBC Blue Network. Jack Benny would celebrate his thirty-ninth birthday on the air, and because according to Jack; "There's nothing funny about forty," would go on to celebrate his thirty-ninth birthday forty-one more times throughout his life.
“The Jack Benny Show” was actually many different shows, each named for its respective sponsor. At various times, Benny's radio program was known as “The Canada Dry Program,” “The Chevrolet Program,” “The General Tire Revue,” “The Jell-O Program,” “The Grape Nuts Flakes Program,” and “The Lucky Strike Program.” Despite the name changes, the show and cast went largely unchanged throughout the years. The many forms of “The Jack Benny Show” would remain on radio for more than two decades.
The cast was led, of course, by Jack Benny as the well-known everyman with many comic foibles, including gently exaggerated vanity, pettiness, self-importance, and the ability to squeeze more out of a penny than any man alive. Appearing with Benny in these programs were Eddie Anderson as his valet “Rochester,” who knows him better than anyone and regularly plays on Jack's vanity; Mary Livingstone, his wise cracking secretary and provider of a uniquely female perspective on Jack's peculiarities, and his real life wife for 47 years; Dennis Day, the naive and sheltered singer; Phil Harris, a hard drinking bandleader and hipster son of the south; Don Wilson, the rotund announcer and the target of many of Jack's barbs; and voice actor extraordinaire Mel Blanc as just about every character imaginable, including Polly the Parrot and Benny's sputtering Maxwell automobile.
Like many of the major stars of this era of radio, Jack Benny remained in firm control of the many programs that bore his name. Although not credited as such, he was both director and head writer of all of his series. This did not mean that he was a tyrant of his productions, rather he was very generous in valuing both his writers and his cast, most of whom were with him until the end of his radio career. This generosity extended to allowing cast members and guest stars to have the best lines. Jack often said that it didn't matter who got the laughs, as long as the show was funny.
This firm control even extended to the commercial breaks on his programs. On “The Lucky Strike Program,” for example, Jack would allow the advertisers to write the opening and closing spots, but insisted that his own writers be the ones to write the middle commercial, leading to many of the program's best segments.
Jack Benny’s overall approach was quite innovative despite being post-modern as it took as its premise from characters on a reality radio show, which in itself is a form of fiction posing as truth. He spins that story with vivid and overpowering sensory images, delves deep into the psyche of the protagonist, and leaves the listener laughing while contemplating life meanings and how one sees oneself.Besides appearing in his own series, Jack Benny was a much sought after guest on other radio shows. He made many appearances on such popular anthology programs as “The Screen Guild Theater,” “Lux Radio Theater,” and “Suspense,” and even recreated his “The Horn Blows at Midnight,” a better story than he ever let on, on “Ford Theater.”
Some of Jack's most notorious appearances were in name only, on “The Fred Allen Show.” Jack Benny and Fred Allen had a feud that ran for almost two decades, each star mercilessly taunting the other on the air. In reality, this was for comedic purposes only; off air Benny and Allen were friends with the utmost mutual respect.
In his private life, Jack Benny could not have been any more the opposite of his on air persona. He was a generous, thoughtful man.
Exiting the “lunch” counter area, Sam Shovelin was in the section which sold tropical fish. He always hated this area, as the store workers always removed a few of the fish from the tank, and placed them in plastic bags full of water. This didn’t seem to serve any purpose, didn’t look like it did any wonders for the trapped fish, and he didn’t even want to think about the sick predators with needles, though he had seen their work two or three times, and found it a difficult image to forget.
Sam scooted through the long, straight aisles of the store cursorily viewing the myriad of items for sale, each section presided over by an attendant who with head down was fussing with something that was ostensibly in need of some altering “enhancement,” more likely a function of their down-to-earth wish to appear as busy to the strict, self-important floorwalker, who aggrandized his position when he constantly and smugly considered his ambulatory guard duty job as being part of upper management.
Sam went to the toy section. He found that there were still roscoes which shot soft plastic bullets and/or caps, dolls for girls with outfits ranging from raggedy to regal; the dolls that is, marbles, games and puzzles of all sorts, though more or less disproportionately evocative of war, Little Golden Books, models to be assembled with glue and finished with decals, Disney puppets, building blocks, Lincoln logs, Mr. Potato Head, tin soldiers, slinkies, and fake dough; the latter a wad that could choke a scientifically rendered image of a sharp toothed tyrannosaurus rex, yours for a real buffalo or Jefferson nickel. That seemed a better deal than was available anywhere else, but Sam had a soft spot for the Kentucky Derby horse racing game, which was now still available, but at an inflated price of nineteen cents. He lingered over the names of the all-time greats who were still competing for every kid whose parents had that nineteen cents; Whirlaway, Gallant Fox, Citation, Seabiscuit, Assault, Man O’ War, Sir Barton, and Count Fleet. He wondered if he should open the unsealed box. He looked around furtively, didn’t see anyone watching him, and lifted the lid, put the bangtails at the starting gate, and flicked the arrow.
The arrow whirred as it spun around the wheel just the opposite of what they do roulette. It stopped on his favorite, Whirlaway, just as it consistently did when Sam was a three foot tall fan of the triple Crown winner. He smiled, and put the lid back on before anyone could see him playing “baby” games, content that some things never change.
He exited Woolworth’s and was greeted by the waves of heat emanating from the shrill rays of the insistent, sweltering sun, which made him momentarily consider the purchases of five and dime shades and A-shirts.
The expansive sizes and purposes of the shop windows gradually expanded as he took it on the arches in an uptown direction. Initially, narrow windows provided light and limited display space for craftsmen and direct importers. Silversmiths displayed their handmade goods next to pieces they purchased on trips to Europe and the Northeast. Early china importers on the street filled their windows with colorful transfer printed earthenware and sleek porcelain dishes that had just arrived on trucks from New York City; and ships from Staffordshire, England; and Le Havre, France.
Leaded windows looked in on traditionally high end furniture stores, evocative of a time passed which focussed on quality, still popular with those who could afford it. Pilgrim, Queen Anne, Chippendale, Sheraton, Heppelwhite, and some of the Empire, that crafted before it got degraded and machined, still reigned in glory inside, defiant of the inferior succeeding forms. In other emporiums, light reflected from huge pier mirrors, silk curtains, and polished rosewood, cherry, and mahogany furniture; some oak, walnut, and pine creeping in. Upholstery fabrics, mirrors, and miscellaneous “fancy goods” were sold to accompany elaborate and highly ornamented furniture in the earliest of the many Victorian styles, available at reasonable prices.
Large plate glass shop windows along parts of Broadway were dedicated to glittering luxuries. Local newspapers reported on the diamond jewelry, marble statues, regulated clocks, patented pistols, and specialty china and silver services that filled the best windows. Retailers competed with one another to have the most impressive objects on display. When one jeweler displayed a miniature fire engine as a prize for a local fair, another made a true to life, silver and gold model of one of the mule drawn streetcars that once traveled up and down Broadway.
Since the turn of the twentieth century, large department stores became the anchors of the shopping district on Broadway. They created lifelike tableaus in their windows, complete with mannequins, foliage, and taxidermy animals. Illuminated by electricity instead of sunlight, these windows illustrated the life of luxury that was becoming increasingly affordable for many. The shop windows of Bayway Town were designed to spark viewers’ imaginations and encourage them to open their purses.
Sam was so sparked, but carried no purse. He crossed to the south, non-Paramount side of the street, where the retail stores were of the more “affordable” variety. “John’s Bargain Store” stood out, literally so, as John had so much merchandise that the bargains spilled into bins which occupied the concrete sidewalk.“ALL SALES FINAL; NO RETURNS,”peeped its message in rather fine print above the cash register, just as it did on customer sales receipts. Seconds and/or irregulars were not marked as such. “John” Merrill Garfinkel purchased them at manufacturer’s closeouts for next to nothing, and if he sold one quarter of what he purchased he was in the chump change already. He made no differentiation between goods, and he purchased whatever he could get cheap, the items ranging from leaky garden hoses to tape recorders which used a tape size which no longer was made to underwear with stretched out elastic. The store really belonged in a dinge area, but even after a bad experience, people would come back, expecting next time to be different at an affordable price.
Sam re-crossed Broadway in the middle of the street and almost got hit by a Tucker Torpedo, which he had to dodge at the last second.
The Tucker, which may have ignored a traffic sign or two, had a driver who seemed oblivious to the well-travelled road, his seemingly fascinated face looking toward the shop windows, and unaware of having missed Sam by all of eight inches.
Sam decided to curtail his window shopping and go back to the safety of his 25th Street office. His mind flipped over to thinking about how much he disliked his lying, possibly dangerous client, Vivian, countering that with how much he liked her clams.Az men git dem tayvl a hor, vil er di gantse bord.
Sam entered his office to find Vivian Beaumont in her usual spot; on his desk. This time he wasn’t the least bit clumsy and thrown off as he was during her first visit. As his disappointed eyes rolled from her to the faux Indian chest on the floor used for filing, he unconsciously grimaced. Perhaps as a result of seeing that, Vivian was less casual this showing, and righted her skirt before standing next to the desk and saying; “Well, what do you know?”
“Less than you, I’d imagine.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just what it said. Which of those words are not in your vocabulary?”
“Imagine.”
“Figures.” Sam was more than a tad irked about how she had not given him the full story and had consequently put him behind the eight ball on the cheap, simultaneously thinking that this scenario was the domain of the private dick, and that he shouldn’t react with anger. That’s for the losers. The winners are more adept at enhancing their potential reward/potential risk ratio. However, Sam couldn’t help but say one more irrelevant thing; “You know I could have you arrested for breaking and entering?”
“Oooooh, so exciting. Do I get handcuffed too?”
“Okay. This is getting boring. Artie was not your boyfriend. You were just one of his many bimbos. The watch has no ‘sentimental’ value for you. It’s extremely valuable, and is being sought by a number of contacted parties, as it belonged to Hitler.”
“That’s excellent detective work, but of no value to me. Now, don’t knock yourself out, but tell me something I don’t already know.” Vivian’s tone seemed as confident as a full sized raccoon in reach of newborn rabbits. She had a point, but also a strong tendency to overplay her hand.
“It was a mob wannabee who put the chill on your ‘beloved’ Artie and he sold the watch to Zanarelli, who’s going to pass it to some freaky rich Reich investor for four million US simoleons.”
Viv didn’t appear to be overly impressed, but hid being modestly infatuated. Sam read this, and pressed on with a demand for $10 an hour, not caring if she ankled it out. Viv read this and she reached into her purse to find $200 to give him saying; “This will last you a few days. Does the wannabee or Zanarelli have the watch now?”
“I don’t know.”
She sighed in a disgust which was courting sarcasm, and said; “Figures.”
Sam tried to alleviate her bad feeling with a way to show that he’s actually doing something. He says; “Look. I’ll show you. Be at this office at 9AM tomorrow and we’ll both go to meet Bayway Town’s top informant.”
“Who is that?”
“I’m not going to name him. Professional courtesy.” Sam knows that even if Fats knows nothing more than he previously had said, he’ll add to it to sound important, apparently thinking people just take his word and never check anything.
Vivian agreed and in fact seemed excited about being a part of the action. She ankled out of the office purring; “Later.”
“9AM sharp!” When he heard the outside door slam shut he called Fats Squealitieri.
Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring. “Aw, come on Fats.”
“Yeah.”
“Fats, Snovelin here. I need a favor.”
“Things are tough all over. Who doesn’t?”
“Gustav Koenig. Look, I got twenty simoleons in search of a new home.”
“I’m sometimes a foster parent. Shoot your shit.”
“I’d like you to meet my client, and run some of your bullshit by her in person.”
“Hey, hey. I don’t want to be advertised all over town by being seen with Vivian Beaumont.” In reality Fats doesn’t care about “being advertised all over town” so much. He mostly doesn’t want to incur any danger by being seen with watch player Vivian Beaumont, especially when he’s on DiCesare’s payroll through Red Doherty.
“Thirty bucks for ten minutes work.”
“I’ll make you a tape.”
“Forty bucks pays your rent for a month.”
“Not with this Truman inflation. ...... No introductions and we meet under the bridge.”
“9AM tomorrow.”
“You got it, chief.”
“Sharp! And hey, bring something new. Vivian has already heard the stuff you told me last time.”
The Bayway Town Bridge, built in 1931, connects Bayway Town and New York City. The main foundations, in Bayway town covering First and Second Streets on Avenue A is a perennially shaded area which locals use, especially during heat waves, to relax and throw rocks in the water and wash cars. Fishing is also allowed, but no one does that as the polluted jelly water rubbed out the last fish decades ago.
In order to convincingly pretend to have an understanding of part of Bayway Town’s culture and mores, it is absolutely essential to have some familiarity with Bayway Town Joe’s terror tactics, which were perhaps borrowed from the activities of the Khazarian Zionist advocates and terrorist warrior Lehi Group and Irgun, though perhaps oddly, during WWII, Lehi offered its services to both Germany and Italy, and further though Germany and Italy both publicly refused, ostensibly finding them useless or subversive, likely the latter.
If one says that they have no interest in convincingly pretending to have an understanding, their poseur position is well recognized, and is still fully admissible as a plus on their application for enrollment in most US secondary colleges, as well as all of the primaries.
In any event Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli and his cohorts terror maneuvers came to be seen, substantively or not, as the hallmark of Zanarelli’s reign. He and his followers showed no respect for anyone who stood in their way. Acts such as screaming and cursing at the judge and prosecutors in the courtroom; several defendants getting up and pushing through the juror box; picking up a chair and throwing it at the judge, and the jury foreman mysteriously falling or getting thrown down two flights of stairs in an abandoned building became part of his standard repertoire.
He is his own world, his own universe. Other than himself he can form no conception. He knows not length, nor breadth, nor height, for he has had no experience or need of them. He is complete. He has no cognizance even of the number two; nor has he a thought of plurality, for he is himself his one and all, simultaneously being really nothing.Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli understood that and it made him more dangerous than a hungry pit bull infested with mange.
Joseph “Joe Bayway Town” Zanarelli, A/K/A “Bayway Town Joe,” “Joe Z,” and “Joe the Zionist” was born in 1912. He had originally been raised and grew up on Avenue B in Bayway Town, New Jersey. Bayway Town wasn’t big enough for both DiCesare and Zanarelli. So both expanded out of town and agreed to not step on the other’s feet.
“Bayway Town Joe” Zanarelli’s international circle of business contacts and political allies extended far beyond the Caribbean. In particular, he teamed up with adventurers, criminals, lobbyists, and intelligence agents involved in creating and defending the state of Israel. Their unorthodox tactics were reminiscent of the China Lobby’s. Both groups were dedicated to saving a “small and beleaguered” nation by any means necessary. Like the China Lobby, this Zionist pro-Israel network illustrates the deep political nexus between organized crime, corruption, and government intelligence. During the state’s official infancy, according to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Zanarelli was “alleged to have been involved in the trafficking of arms and munitions sold to the government of Israel.” Probably not coincidentally, the gangster was also a business partner of two leading Jewish bootleggers, Abner “Longie” Zwillman and Schenley CEO Lewis Rosenstiel. More than a few prominent Jewish gangsters, including Meyer Lansky, Zwillman, “Bugsy” Siegel, and Mickey Cohen, supported the Jewish underground with dough and logistics help in the 1940s.
Zanarelli’s partner in the sale of arms and stolen securities, Steven Irwin Schwartz, had been a prominent gunrunner to Jewish armies in Palestine. Schwartz was an officer in ABCO, a New Jersey cigarette vending company controlled by Zanarelli and New York Mafia underboss Carmine Galante. “Since January 1946,” the Federal Bureau of Narcotics report noted, “Schwartz has been engaged in the traffic of arms, a good portion of which have been obtained from Communist Bloc nations and shipped first to Israel and later to Cuba.” Associated with Schwartz in those ventures were Irving “Swifty” Schindler and TWA flight engineer Adolf Schwimmer. The Brooklyn born Schwartz and the Florida based Schindler were both pilots who joined the Jewish underground to seize and fight for a new homeland in British controlled Palestine. Under Schwimmer’s leadership, they smuggled surplus military airplanes to Palestine to build the first Jewish air force. Schwartz recruited pilots from supporters of the right wing terrorist group, the Irgun, headed by Menachem Begin, future head of the State of Israel. Schindler, Schwartz, and Schwimmer were all found guilty of violating the Neutrality Act but were given light fines, thanks to warming US relations with Israel. Schindler became head of Israel’s new Air Transport Command. Schwimmer founded Israel Aircraft Industries, whose Washington lobbyist for several years was the extraordinary Irving Davidson. A leading fundraiser for this group’s smuggling efforts in 1948 was Abraham Feinberg, a New York based manufacturer of hosiery and president of Americans for Haganah, Inc. As Jonathan Marshall, “Dark Quadrant: Organized Crime, Big Business, and the Corruption of American Democracy” noted, his timely delivery of $100,000 in campaign cash to Louis Johnson helped finance President Truman’s come from behind campaign; the one in which the “Chicago Tribune” pre-printed the famously wrong headline; “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” It should be noted that virtually all major newspapers thought Truman had no chance, but didn’t jump the printing gun, perhaps because they were more aware of the Democrat well-honed capabilities in election fraud; inclusive of ballot box stuffing. For example, Bayway Town’s Democrat Mayor Frank DiCesare's use of voter fraud is the stuff of legend, writing the playbook for future Democrat standard operations. In 1937 Bayway Town had 160,050 registered voters, but only 147,000 people who were at least twenty-one years old; the legal voting age at the time.
A source deemed reliable by the FBI, for whatever that little bauble is worth, said that the Israeli government turned to Feinberg to put political pressure on the Justice Department to “squash” the indictments against Schwimmer and other Neutrality Act defendants. The Israeli government indicated that Feinberg was also prepared to intervene with Louis Johnson on behalf of the indicted gunrunners. The FBI also observed that Feinberg was in contact with no fewer than four senior members of the Israeli military and foreign intelligence services, including the founder of Mossad. No less significant, Feinberg was a leading financial patron of Ernst David Bergmann, the father of Israel’s atomic bomb. Under supervision of Defense Minister Shimon Peres, Feinberg and other wealthy diaspora Jews raised millions of dollars to fund Israel’s secret nuclear bomb plant at Dimona. At the same time, he wielded political clout in the United States to derail attempts by the Kennedy administration to inspect the Dimona reactor. Under President Johnson, Feinberg enjoyed remarkable influence over the administration’s Middle East policy; reportedly in return for delivering hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to the White House. Through his connections with Israel, Feinberg became head of American Bank and Trust, a subsidiary of the Swiss-Israel Trade Bank. The latter bank, based in Geneva, was headed by Mossad agent Yehuda Assia, an Iraqi Jew who lived through World War II in Thailand.
There he befriended General Phao Sriyanonda while dealing in bulk sales of gold. In 1957, the infamous “Mr. Opium,” reputed to be “one of the richest men in the world,” moved to Geneva, where he shared an apartment with Assia and doubtless banked with him as well. Assia’s Swiss Israel Trade Bank also oversaw the collection of foreign funds to finance Israel’s bomb program. Its successor in that task, the International Credit Bank of Geneva, employed Lansky’s financial adviser John Pullman to solicit deposits from North American racketeers. One of Assia’s close American friends, and account holders, was the extraordinary Irving Davidson. When he wasn’t working for Caribbean dictators, Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa, or Louisiana mobster Carlos Marcello, Davidson was lobbying for Israel Military Industries, maker of the Uzi submachine gun, and for Schwimmer’s Israel Aircraft Industries. The FBI reported that Hoffa’s support for Israel is what brought him together with Davidson. In 1957, Davidson brokered Nicaragua’s purchase of seventy-three Israeli Staghound armored cars, followed the next year by Nicaragua’s sale of thirty Staghounds to the Batista regime in Cuba. In 1960, he advised Vice President Nixon’s campaign manager that “Israeli Military Intelligence” hoped Nixon would become President. Davidson remained in close touch with senior Israeli intelligence officials for years afterward. Meanwhile, in parallel with Davidson, Zanarelli and Schwartz were also selling weapons to Caribbean dictatorships. “During early 1958, Zanarelli and Schwartz accompanied Galante to Cuba,” the Federal Bureau of Narcotics report stated. “It was reported that they were engaged in the sales of arms to the Batista and Castro forces, the Dominican Republic, as well as the sale of worthless or stolen Canadian securities.” And as we saw in the previous, while Davidson served the Somoza family, Jonathan Marshall, “Dark Quadrant: Organized Crime, Big Business, and the Corruption of American Democracy,” Zanarelli acted as one of Trujillo’s unofficial political agents. Davidson later became a Washington agent for Trujillo’s successor, Balaguer. Davidson’s connections to Nicaragua and Zanarelli’s connections to the Dominican Republic are likely both related to their connections with Israel. Somoza was an indispensable and well compensated supporter of the Jewish underground in 1948, and his regime was one of the first to recognize the new state of Israel. The Dominican Republic followed soon thereafter. Trujillo, despotic though he was, won the profound gratitude of many Jews for his decision to allow hundreds of European Jewish refugees to settle in the Dominican Republic in 1940, saving them from the supposed Holocaust. Not so ironically, one of Trujillo’s motives was to “whiten the Dominican race.” The American rabbi Baruch Rabinowitz, who raised lots of cabbage for the Lehi Group and the Irgun, from Mickey Cohen and Frank Sinatra, among others, also convinced Trujillo to grant false passports to help members of the Jewish underground leave British detention camps in Eritrea. Trujillo’s beneficiaries included future Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Justice Minister Shmuel Tamir, and Finance Minister Ya’acov Meridor. Until his death, Trujillo went out of his way to support Israel, knowing that would improve his image with influential American Jews.
The political, business, and criminal ties between Israel, the Somoza dictatorship, and the Trujillo regime were strong, as were the ties between their allies in Washington, DC, including Irving Davidson, Jimmy Hoffa, and Rep. Abraham Multer. Should we not read into these facts a dark Israeli, much less Jewish conspiracy? They do reveal the outlines of a deep political network whose activities are detrimental to the US as a whole.
This is not only the story of mobster Joe Zanarelli. This is a story of the purchasability of the US federal government. This is the story of how the mob found greener pastures doing “business” with and running the government as opposed to extorting the public on an individual basis. This is a story taken from the daily headlines. This is the story of the corruption of a US congressman by the mob. Not just any congressman, but one of influence and importance both within the US government and abroad; the Honorable Cornelius E. "Neil" Moriarity, Democrat from New Jersey's 13th Congressional District, a key member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Government Operations Committee, the chairman of the US and Canadian Interparliamentary Group, and a US delegate to the Disarmament Conference. Moriarity, a man as prominent in the Democrat party as he is in the federal government, was among the handful seriously considered by Frenk Rosenfeld as a possible running mate, until J. Edgar Hoover warned him off. He would have made an attractive candidate. He has good looks, charm, and intelligence. He once taught at Rutgers University. His war record was impressive. As a captain he commanded a rifle company in Europe in World War II and was wounded three times, winning eight decorations.
Organized crime has succeeded in planting its poisonous roots deep in American business, inside labor unions and city and state government. Now, an eight month investigation has established that the mob has gained yet another choice plum; federal control and influence. Behind the facade of prestige and respectability lives another Neil Moriarity; a man who time and again has served as the tool and collaborator of a Cosa Nostra gang lord, Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli.
Congressman Neil Moriarity's tie in with this glowering Cosa Nostra figure, Joe Zanarelli, has ranged from his own home turf in Bayway Town, NJ to points as far distant as Montreal and Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. It has involved such diverse interests as "fixes" with local New Jersey police, Caribbean politics, giving US armaments and technology to Zionist Israel, the promotion of a contraband "cancer cure" and a gangster's weird, and some might say funny, tale about the disposal of a corpse.
The story of Moriarity's availability to run the mob's errands begins with conversations he had with Zanarelli. The latter had a complaint. The police had strayed out of line and were putting heat on some of his men in the gambling rackets. Zanarelli wanted this nonsense stopped.
In Cosa Nostra, Zanarelli holds the rank of capo, or captain, in the fearsome Joe Bonanno "Family." In the rackets he is known by a number of nicknames; one Joe Bayway Town, derived from the New Jersey industrial waterfront city, which squats opposite Manhattan's towering financial district. This is Zanarelli's and Moriarity's power base. The residents don’t mind as as far as they are concerned this is always how it was and forever will be; and no loss to them. All politicians steal. What, you think they devote their lives to being prominent in government because it pays so well? You’re too stupid to bother speaking with. To Zanarelli a political "connection," or "The Fix" is a thing of beauty, like cash in a Swiss bank, a two star sapphire pinky ring, or a small Picasso original. Racketeering in all its profitable and ugly aspects is Zanarelli's trade, and his connections have kept him unconfined and operating.
Above all, Zanarelli is cagey. For a long time, he followed the practice of issuing his orders to captive New Jersey politicians from public call boxes.
On the morning of Monday, June 13, 1940, authorities began electronic surveillance of a Manhattan bar telephone booth from which Zanarelli conducted his business. They were interested solely in the mobster. The congressman came into the inquiry unexpectedly; and what to do about this has been troubling officials of the Department of Justice ever since.
In 1940 Joe Zanarelli maintained a Manhattan "pad" in the Park Royal Hotel. Electronic surveillance of his suite by law officers yielded evidence linking the mobster boss to Congressman Moriarity.
On June 13, 1945, from the pay call box, Zanarelli called Moriarity's unlisted telephone at the congressman's law office in Bayway Town. There was no answer. Zanarelli called the congressman's home. Moriarity wasn't there, either.
A week passed. The following Monday, June 20, Zanarelli called Moriarity's law office once again and placed two more calls to the congressman's home. Again Moriarity was out and this time Zanarelli asked the frail who answered to tell the congressman to "call Mr. Gray at the Murray Hill number."
On the next day, June 21, Zanarelli finally got through to Moriarity on the unlisted office telephone. He complained that the Bayway Town police had staked out the key stations of his gambling network. His business was being disrupted, Zanarelli huffed, by the treachery of a top police official.
"OK," said Moriarity. "Let me get hold of him right now."
A few hours later, Zanarelli phoned Moriarity again at his office, demanding to know what the congressman had done for him.
"I got hold of a friend who said the police official was jumping," said Moriarity. "I got a hold of the ‘little guy’ in Bayway Town and told him to reach out for him."
That night, a messenger from Bayway Town appeared at the West Side apartment used by Zanarelli as a Manhattan hideaway. With the authorities listening in, he gave the gangster some bad news.
"One of the dumb lightweights, an honest policeman, grabbed a runner with a bag of scratch; return scratch," the messenger said. "Later, I laid it in to Chief Red Doherty. I said you guys are wrong here, taking out scratch and then hurting people."
Zanarelli cautioned the messenger to keep his cool. "I talked to DiCesare, the top man," counseled Zanarelli. "Take it easy. Don't get excited. He'll see Doherty tomorrow."
Mr. Gray got him off the House floor. Zanarelli was unwilling to wait. On June 23 he ameched Moriarity's home and tersely left word for the congressman to "call Mr. Gray."
It was two days later, Saturday, June 25, before Moriarity returned the call to Zanarelli at the pay phone. This conversation followed; Moriarity said; “I got hold of both DiCesare and Doherty. There will be no further problem.”
Zanarelli said; “I hope so, because they're ruining me.”
Moriarity said; “They damn well better not. They owe me big time.”
Zanarelli said; “They're doing a job on me like was never done before.”
Moriarity said; “I laced into them.” Moriarity said he would "follow through" on the job. He explained that he was going to Washington, and said that if Zanarelli would call him there he would call back.
A few days later Zanarelli, again using the name of "Mr. Gray," did ameche Moriarity's office in Washington. One of the congressman's aides told him that Congress was in session and Moriarity was on the floor of the House of Representatives.
"Well, go get him off the fucking floor. This is important!" commanded Zanarelli.
The aide, shaken by the imperious manner of "Mr. Gray," suggested that Mr. Gray call the Capitol direct. Zanarelli did, and Moriarity quickly left the House floor at the word that Mr. Gray was calling. The "important" message was simply that Joe Zanarelli wanted to see his congressman as soon as possible.
That telephone conversation was followed by a number of Sunday morning meetings between Moriarity and Zanarelli. Some of these brunch powwows were uncovered by authorities who had Zanarelli under surveillance.
While he was serving as the cochairman of the Canadian-American Interparliamentary Group, Democrat Moriarity was received warmly by President Truman at the White House.
To this date, Zanarelli has never been in jail. In fact he has never even been directly charged with anything. You might just say, as the folks in Bayway Town do, that he is just an inevitable part of the democrat government. If not him it would be someone else. That’s all.
Frank DiCesare was the 30th Mayor of Bayway Town. Number 31 had a long wait as Frank specialized in election fixing and has been holding the office since May 15, 1917. Frank also has “served” as Democratic National Committeeman from New Jersey since 1922, and Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee since 1924. Appearances can be quite deceiving as Frank is not a lightweight.
DiCesare has a widely known reputation for corruption and bossism and has been called "the grandaddy of Jersey bosses." It should be noted that this “widely known reputation” has been fostered by the press some characterize as Zionist dupes or operatives. He enjoyed palatial homes, European vacations, and a private suite at the Plaza Hotel. He had four homes; in Bayway Town, on Manhattan's Park Avenue, on Miami's Biscayne Bay and on the Jersey coast at Deal.
His wealth has been estimated to have been over $10 million, although his city salary never exceeded $8,500 per year and he had no other legally recognized source of income. His desk had a specially designed lap drawer which could be pushed outward towards the person with whom he was meeting. This allowed his "guests" to discreetly deliver bribes in the form of envelopes containing large amounts of cash.
DiCesare's political machine, known as "The Organization," was one of the most powerful in the United States controlling politics on local, county, and state levels. DiCesare's personal influence also extended to the national level, influencing federal patronage, presidential campaigns, and the spoils of war.
Francis "Frank" DiCesare, born in Bayway Town, was the fourth of eight children to John D. and Margaret DiCesare (née Fagen), immigrants from Palermo, Sicily, Italy and County Cavan, Ireland, respectively. He was raised in Bayway Town's Second ward, an area known as The Horseshoe due to its shape which wrapped around a railroad loop. The ward was created when the Republican controlled legislature gerrymandered a district within Bayway Town in 1871 to concentrate and isolate Democratic, and mostly Catholic, votes.
By age 14, DiCesare was expelled from school prior to completing the sixth grade for poor attendance and unacceptable behavior. The chief protagonist in Frank’s expulsion was one Miss Prudence Warren, a fortyish, spinster grammar school teacher, who was convinced that “Sneaky Frank” was getting his desired wicked deeds done by other more innocent children, thereby establishing a blame path which always cut off short of him. Two months after the expulsion, this silly woman was found dead, totally ensconced in and face down in her apartment building’s trash chute. The police investigation of the incident concluded that when Miss Warren was overzealously trying to find the source of a blockage, she inadvertently became it.
Expelled DiCesare worked briefly as a blacksmith's apprentice for the Erie Railroad. While training at a local gym for his own potential debut as a prizefighter, he arranged to become manager for Joe Craig, a professional lightweight boxer. Craig was successful enough to allow DiCesare to buy a few suits that made him appear successful. In 1896, DiCesare's apparent prosperity gained him the attention of local tavern owner "Nat" Kenny who was seeking a candidate for constable in the upcoming primary to run against the candidate of a rival tavern owner. Kenny provided DiCesare with $75 to "spread around," and Frank DiCesare quickly won his first election by a ratio of three to one.
DiCesare's big victory in the Constable election brought him to the attention of Hudson County Democratic political boss "Little Bob" Davis, and Davis asked DiCesare to help get out Democratic votes for the upcoming 1897 Mayoral election. DiCesare's efforts were credited with generating large voter turnout in the Second Ward for the 1897 and 1899 elections. As a reward for his work, DiCesare was appointed as a deputy sheriff at a salary of $25 per week. Over this time, DiCesare took a leadership role in the Second Ward Democratic club.
In the 1901 Mayoral election, Republican Mark M. Fagan was elected. DiCesare's second ward was one of only two that voted Democratic. DiCesare survived a Republican challenge for a third term as Constable the following year.
As a ward leader, DiCesare was approached by a dame to provide assistance for her son, who had been arrested for passing a forged check. The son, Red Doherty, had been a classmate of DiCesare's in school. According to the “Boston Evening Transcript” of October 4, 1904, Doherty had deposited a forged check for $955 in the Peoples Bank of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and convinced the bank manager to let him withdraw $500. DiCesare ignored a subpoena to testify in Hudson County Court and traveled to Massachusetts to provide an alibi for Doherty. DiCesare and another deputy sheriff, Thomas "Skidder" Madigan, claimed that they had seen Doherty in Bayway Town on the day of the alleged offense. Both were threatened with perjury charges.
Upon returning to Bayway Town, DiCesare was found guilty of contempt of court for ignoring the subpoena. He was fined $100 and stripped of his duties as Deputy Sheriff. When he shortly was to became the Bayway Town’s public safety commissioner, DiCesare appointed Red Doherty to be the police chief.
In spite of the resulting press coverage of the event, DiCesare was more deeply embraced by his constituency. The newspapers wrote; "But to the residents of the Horseshoe, Frank DiCesare had gone out of his way to help a friend; had practically given his livelihood to aid a brother." In the succeeding municipal election of 1905, which saw the return of incumbent Fagan to the office of mayor, DiCesare was elected to a fourth term as constable.
DiCesare rose through the Democratic machinery of Hudson County, which drew much of its strength by providing newly arrived immigrants with rudimentary social services. DiCesare took a job as a collector for a local brewery, leaving him with time to spend in the streets and the local taverns which were the hubs of political activity. He also spent his time cleaning up the loose ends of the Second Ward's south end Democratic Club to consolidate his power.
As a reward for his efforts in turning out votes in the 1905 election, Bob Davis named DiCesare as the party leader for the Second Ward and arranged for DiCesare to be appointed as Sergeant at Arms for the New Jersey State Assembly.
DiCesare broke ties with "Boss" Davis in 1906 over a difference of opinion on a candidate for appointment to the city Street and Water Board. As a result, DiCesare supported H. Otto Wittpenn for mayor of Bayway Town in the 1907 election. Wittpenn was a reformer who opposed the control Davis held over Hudson County politics. Over the objections of Davis, newly elected Mayor Wittpenn appointed DiCesare as chief custodian of City Hall; a cushy job with plenty of patronage opportunities. During the Wittpenn administration, DiCesare also became friendly with Wittpenn's secretary; a Presbyterian Sunday school teacher named A. Harry Moore.
The resulting battle for control of the Hudson County Democratic machine would ironically result in one of the greatest boosts to DiCesare's rise to power; the Walsh Act of 1911. In 1909 Davis, seeing support for DiCesare increasing, supported Wittpenn's re-election against former mayor Fagan. DiCesare's second ward produced the largest plurality of Wittpenn votes of any of Bayway Town's 12 wards. Davis then arranged the appointment of Fagan to the Hudson County Tax Board. When Wittpenn's administration began facing troubles, including Fagan's discovery of a Pennsylvania Railroad property that had paid no taxes for four years, Wittpenn blamed Davis.
Seeking to curb the influence of Davis, Wittpenn announced his candidacy for Governor, stating "I have endured the machine as long as possible, but patience is no longer a virtue." Davis, in turn, prevailed upon Woodrow Wilson, then President of Princeton University, to oppose Wittpenn's candidacy. Wilson's victory was overwhelming even in DiCesare's ward, despite the heavy handed tactics used there. The statewide daily, “The Jersey Journal” wrote; "Cops on duty were using clubs and blackjacks to assist Mayor Wittpenn and Frank DiCesare defeat the Davis men."
Wilson's reform minded term as Governor saw the establishment of Presidential primary elections, introduced workers' compensation, and brought about passage of the Walsh Act which provided for a non-partisan commission form of municipal government that was greatly reflective of his academic writings in Congressional Government.
"Little Bob" Davis died of cancer shortly after the 1910 gubernatorial election leaving a vacuum in the power structure of the Hudson County Democrats. Wittpenn quickly endorsed the idea of converting Bayway Town to a commission form of government, but was opposed by forces, including DiCesare, attempting to take control of the party. DiCesare campaigned heavily against the idea in the Horseshoe, claiming that such a system of citywide elected commissioners would erode the influence of the working class and consolidate power among the city's elite. Wittpenn's opponents successfully petitioned for a change in the date of the vote on the charter change, moving it from September to mid-July, and the proposal was defeated. As a result of this campaign, DiCesare came under the scrutiny of “The Jersey Journal,” which had supported the proposed charter change. It was reported that DiCesare's older brother, a battalion chief on the city fire department, had been on "sick leave" for three years at full pay.
DiCesare reconciled with Wittpenn to support his re-election in 1911. Wittpenn then supported DiCesare's nomination for Commissioner of Streets and Water. Both were elected. The new position greatly expanded DiCesare's patronage authority. While City Hall employed a few dozen custodians, there were hundreds of workers in the Street and Water Department. DiCesare's work as head of the Department of Street Cleaners even convinced “The Jersey Journal” to endorse him as a "reform candidate" in the next election.
In the spring of 1913, having gained confidence in his own ability to assure himself a place on the commission, DiCesare supported the renewed effort to change the Bayway Town government from the Mayor-Council model to a commission model under the recently adopted Walsh Act. This act would place all executive and legislative powers in a five man commission, each of whom would head a city department. The five commissioners would choose one of their colleagues to be mayor. The vote for charter change passed, and the stage was set for Frank DiCesare's rise to further local power.
In 1913, the first election for the city commission saw ninety-one men on the ballot competing for five available seats on the commission. DiCesare finished fourth with 17,390 votes and was elected to the five man commission. The only Wittpenn supported candidate, A. Harry Moore, was also elected. As a result of having garnered the most votes - 21,419, former mayor Fagan became the first mayor under this new form of government, and the only Republican to hold that title in Bayway Town for the following 75 years. DiCesare was named public safety commissioner, with control over the police and fire departments. He immediately named his old buddy, Red Doherty, police chief. In the same year, DiCesare cemented his control of the Hudson County political machine by securing for himself the leadership of the Hudson County Democratic Organization Executive Committee.
DiCesare immediately set about reshaping the corrupt Bayway Town police force with tough Horseshoe recruits. DiCesare spearheaded crackdowns on prostitution and narcotics trafficking, earning him favor with religious leaders. These enforcement acts went as far as DiCesare himself marching across local Vaudeville stages personally directing the shutdown of "girlie shows." At the heart of this change was an inner cadre of officers known as the Zeppelin Squad or "zepps" who were personally loyal to DiCesare alone. The "zepps" would spy on, and report back to DiCesare about other members of the department. Eventually, Bayway Town had one patrolman for every 3,000 residents, causing a marked decline in the city's once astronomical crime rate.
DiCesare took steps to curb the police department's lackadaisical work ethic, punishing offenses that had gone unpunished for years. He also made much needed improvements to the fire department. At the time he took office Bayway Town's fire insurance rates were among the highest in the nation.
Upon discovering in early 1916 that millions of pounds of munitions were being stockpiled on the Bayway Town waterfront, DiCesare travelled to Washington, DC to register concerns for the safety of his constituents. His meetings with congressmen resulted in no action, Congress having decided that Bayway Town was an "appropriate port." DiCesare's concerns were shown to be valid in July 1916 when the “Black Tom” explosion sent shrapnel flying across the city, further popularizing him with his constituents.
In 1917, DiCesare, with his reputation as the man who cleaned up the police force, ran for reelection. He put together a commission ticket called "The Unbossed." The ticket consisted of him, Parks Commissioner Moore, Revenue Commissioner George Brensinger, ex-judge Charles F.X. O'Brien and City Clerk Michael I. Fagan. It swept all five spots on the commission. Moore topped the poll, and traditional practice called for him to be appointed mayor. However, when the commission met for the first time on May 11, DiCesare was “chosen” as the new mayor.
Technically, DiCesare's only responsibility as mayor was to appoint the school board. Otherwise, he was merely first among equals, with no powers over and above the other four commissioners. However, soon after taking office, he wrested control of the Hudson County Democratic Party from Wittpenn. This allowed him to significantly influence the makeup of the commission in this overwhelmingly Democratic city. He soon built the organization into one of the most powerful political machines in the country. DiCesare himself became very wealthy, owning a $125,000 summer home in Deal, living in a large apartment in the best building in the city, and able to give a $50,000 altar to a local Catholic church. In 1941, Dartmouth professor Dayton David McKean wrote “The Boss,” a book about DiCesare's political machine, in which he estimated his amassed wealth at ten million dollars on an annual mayoral salary which never exceeded $8,500 a year, a testament to wise investing.
He also had the support of a significant faction of Republicans which dated to his initial election as mayor, when he cut a deal with then Governor Walter Edge in which Edge effectively ceded North Jersey to DiCesare in return for keeping South Jersey for himself. Also, as public safety commissioner, a post he held throughout his entire tenure, he controlled the two departments with the most patronage appointments in the city. This post also placed responsibility for maintaining public order in his hands.
DiCesare soon extended his influence statewide by helping to elect his "puppets" as governor. In the 1919 gubernatorial election, DiCesare endorsed State Senator Edward I. Edwards and aggressively campaigned for him. Edwards carried Hudson County by 50,000 votes, which was enough for him to win statewide by just under 15,000 votes. DiCesare proclaimed himself leader of the New Jersey Democratic Party, and Edwards allowed him to recommend dozens of appointments to high state offices. Democrats won five out of eight gubernatorial races between 1919 and 1940, more often than not due to massive landslides in Hudson County. However, he was never able to extend his dominance to the state legislature.
DiCesare was able to stay in power despite a nearly constant effort to turn him out of office from 1921 onward. He was also able to avoid prosecution despite numerous federal and state investigations in part due to the fact he took most of his kickbacks in cash.
DiCesare had little tolerance for those who dared oppose him publicly. He relied on two ordinances of dubious, though unchallenged, constitutionality to muzzle critics. A 1920 ordinance effectively required people making political speeches to obtain clearance from the chief of police; his good buddy, Red Doherty. A 1930 ordinance gave the public safety commissioner, DiCesare himself, the power to turn down permits for meetings if he felt it necessary to prevent "riots, disturbances or disorderly assemblage." The latter ordinance was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, but continued to be enforced for several years in Bayway Town after that decision, as it “had some ostensible merit elsewhere.” The police were also allowed to stop and search anyone without probable cause or a warrant after 9PM.
In 1932, DiCesare, a friend of Al Smith, backed Smith against Franklin D. Rosenfeld during the race for the Democratic nomination. When Rosenfeld won the nomination, DiCesare seemingly ignored Democrat sides, and chose to be on the side of the winner, or weiner, be that as it may be, and offered to organize the biggest political rally anyone had ever seen if Rosenfeld would launch his corrupt, commie presidential campaign in New Jersey. When Rosenfeld formally began his campaign with an event at the Jersey Shore town of Sea Girt, DiCesare's machine made sure there were several thousand armed Hudson County voters looking on and cheering. DiCesare's support was rewarded with funding for a massive medical center complex complete with a maternity hospital named after his mother, Margaret DiCesare. During the 1936 campaign DiCesare provided 150,000 adults and children, equaling the total adult population to cheer Rosenfeld during a visit to Bayway Town. Newspaper photos of the event made it appear as if Rosenfeld had as much rabid, cheering, and applauding support as did Hitler in the rural NJ and US outposts and bunds.
DiCesare's use of voter fraud is the stuff of legend, setting the blueprint, operating manual, and Bible for every ensuing Democrat operation. In 1937, for instance, Bayway Town had 160,050 registered voters, but only 147,000 people who were at least 21 years old; the legal voting age at the time. 159,500 votes were registered for the Democrats, 550 for Republicans; the ballots one hundred percent along party lines. Republican organizations challenged many aspects, including the tabulating machines and whether or not the dead voted. But the Democrat appointed judges disallowed the cases on the grounds that no one but appointed officials could have access to “private” voting records, and that challenging dead votes was tantamount to discriminating against the aged, infirmed, and zombies; specifically precluded by a Democrat promoted federal law which benefits their constituents through forbidding any possible disenfranchisement based on skin color and/or skin texture; apparent or implied.
In 1932, Governor Moore appointed a lawyer named Thomas J. Brogan, who had served as DiCesare's personal attorney in corruption hearings, to an Associate Justice seat on the state's Supreme Court. Less than a year later Brogan was named as Chief Justice. In at least two instances of alleged voting fraud in the 1930s, Brogan's court issued extraordinary rulings in favor of the Democratic machine, in one case asserting that the district superintendent of elections had no authority to open ballot boxes, and in another case ruling that the boxes could be opened, but no one had the right to look inside. When asked how the ballots could be properly counted, Brogan said; “That’s irrelevant, not a part of the case at hand, and its mere mention undermines the public confidence in the voting apparatus. The comments being made are extremely disrespectful to the elections agency, to its employees and to the country, putting them all at an unfair safety risk. Moreover it is likely prosecutable under existing sedition laws.” Brogan also assigned himself to the Hudson County jurisdiction, thereby controlling the local grand jury process and squelching other election fraud cases.
Although DiCesare, like other political bosses of the time, was not above outright fraud at the polls, the keys to DiCesare's success were his matchless organizational skills and demand for complete loyalty from his subordinates. His command over the Democratic voters of Hudson County, a densely populated urban area in a state that was still mostly rural, made him a man to reckon with among state Democrats and Republicans alike. He was a close friend of Al Smith, the New York governor who would become the first Irish-American presidential candidate in 1928. In addition, DiCesare's delayed but ultimate support of Rosenfeld for President was rewarded with a steady stream of perks that sustained DiCesare's organization throughout the Depression.
DiCesare was accommodating to labor unions during the first half of his mayoral career. For instance, Bayway Town police were known for turning back strikebreakers, something unheard of during the 1920s. However, he became a savage opponent of labor organizers in the 1930s. The turnaround came about during a dispute with openly communist labor boss and former supporter Theodore "Teddy" Brandle, whose attempts to organize the work crews on the Pulaski Skyway construction project, 1930–32, touched off a labor war so intense that local newspapers called it "the war of the meadows."
The rise of the CIO in the mid-1930s represented a threat to DiCesare's policy of guaranteeing labor peace to the sweatshop type industries that might otherwise have fled Bayway Town's high property taxes. When Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas came to speak on behalf of the CIO during a May Day rally in “the big corner,” DiCesare's police swept Thomas and his wife into a car, took them to the Pavonia ferry and sent them back to New York. DiCesare spent much of the decade inveighing against Communists and labor unions, and his attempts to suppress the CIO's activities in Bayway Town led to a US Supreme Court decision, that is a cornerstone of law concerning public expression of political views on public property. Permits may be required to demonstrate, but bringing a roscoe, concealed or not, to a public place, is an irrevocable right as specified in the constitution of this great land.
DiCesare's pride and joy was the Bayway Town Medical Center, which he began creating almost as soon as he became mayor. By the 1940s it had grown into a 10 building complex that provided virtually free medical care to Bayway Town residents. At the time of its completion, the Medical Center was one of the biggest medical facilities in the country and included the Medical Center Hospital, Pollak Chest Diseases Hospital, Murdoch Hall, and Margaret DiCesare Maternity Hospital, named in honor of DiCesare's mother. The buildings, funded in part through federal funds obtained by DiCesare, are known for their Art Deco details, including marble walls, terrazzo floors, etched glass, and decorative moldings. At the time the Medical Center was too large to operate cost effectively.
Some of Frank DiCesare’s quotes;
"We hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I hear those words I say to myself, 'That man is a Red, that man is a Communist.' You never heard a real American talk in that manner."
"Listen, here is the law! I am the law! These boys go to work!"
“Don’t give me any of that ‘righteous’ crap. Money talks and bullshit walks.”
“If you want to dance, you have to pay the band. If you want a job, you have to pay the Man. Me.”
Sam took it on the arches to “The Big Corner” that night, and found a hubbub in progress. Paramount was featuring Ernest Hemingway’s “The Killers” starring Burt Lancaster in his film debut, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O’Brien and was directed by Robert Siodmak. But the packed audience inside wasn’t the source of the hubbub outside, at least not directly.
Newsboy Konetki was not there and the papers were piled up. People had ripped open the bundles and were taking their untended copies. Sam began asking people what had happened and rumors abounded, but none of them has anything to do with the watch, at least bot directly. Some said that the newsboy was taken away in handcuffs by the FBI for the distribution of subversive, anti-federal government propaganda through “The New York Daily News,” while others were certain of what they had seen and heard with replies ranging from “The GOP did it” to “A bearded weirdo Bolshevik set off a bomb” to “The mob got Konetki” to “Ah, Konetki hurled like Spahn and went home,” showing the “evidence” of his trail. Rather than follow it, Sam took a copy of the free paper.
The New York Daily News
Evening edition
“Serving our families since April 20, 1889”
Thursday, August 8, 1946
Pearl Harbor Attack a Setup
We hate to tell you this, folks. But it’s our duty as journalists. Various facts and plausible theories strongly indicate that US government officials, all the way up to President Frenk Rosenfeld, had advance knowledge of Japan's December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. It would seem that Rosenfeld wanted an excuse to join the Allied war in Europe, especially against Hitler. But that wish was politically unpopular in the US, as those who support Hitler and those who want an isolationist policy join to form a majority. Rosenfeld has never been a fan of majority rule, and indeed has implemented much of his Jew deal through a barrage of previously unprecedented presidential edicts. Since he cannot enter the US in a war through an edict, though he has funded vast portions that way, he found a way, he used Pearl Harbor as the compelling excuse to get Congress to approve it.
Ever since the Japanese attack, there has been debate as to why and how the United States had been caught so off guard, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans for an attack. In September 1944, John T. Flynn, a co-founder of the non-interventionist America First Committee, launched a Pearl Harbor counter narrative when he published a forty-six page booklet entitled “The Truth about Pearl Harbor,” arguing that Rosenfeld and his inner circle had been plotting to provoke the Japanese into an attack on the US and thus provide a reason to enter the war since January of 1941.
Several writers, including journalist Robert Stinnett, retired US Navy Rear Admiral Robert Alfred Theobald, and Harry Elmer Barnes have argued that various parties high in the government of the United States and the United Kingdom knew of the attack in advance and may even have let it happen or encouraged it in order to ensure America’s entry into the European theatre of World War II via a Japanese–American war started at "the back door," while fully using that backdoor to attack the other Axis powers; Germany and Italy.
Nine Official US Inquiries
The US government has made nine official inquiries into the attack between 1941 and 1946. They included an inquiry by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox - 1941; the Roberts Commission - 1941–42; the Hart Inquiry - 1944; the Army Pearl Harbor Board - 1944; the Naval Court of Inquiry - 1944; the Hewitt investigation; the Clarke investigation; the Congressional Inquiry, Pearl Harbor Committee; 1945–46; a top secret inquiry by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, authorized by Congress and carried out by Henry Clausen; the Clausen Inquiry - 1946.
The inquiries reported advance knowledge, incompetence, underestimation, and misapprehension of Japanese capabilities and intentions; problems resulting from excessive secrecy about cryptography; division of responsibility between Army and Navy, and the lack of consultation between them; and lack of adequate manpower for intelligence analysis, collection, processing.
Investigators prior to Clausen did not have the security clearance necessary to receive the most sensitive information, as Brigadier General Henry D. Russell had been appointed guardian of the pre-war decrypts, and he alone held the combination to the storage safe. Clausen claimed, in spite of Secretary Stimson having given him a letter informing witnesses he had the necessary clearances to require their cooperation, he was repeatedly lied to until he produced copies of top secret decrypts, thus proving he indeed had the proper clearance.
Stimson's report to Congress, based on Clausen's work, was limited due to secrecy concerns, largely about cryptography.
Diplomatic Situation
Some of the authors even argue that President Rosenfeld was actively provoking Japan in the weeks prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. These authors assert that Rosenfeld was imminently expecting and seeking war, but wanted Japan to take the first overtly aggressive action; in order to do an end run around the US majority supporters of Hitler and non-intervention.
Statements by High Ranking Officials
One perspective is given by Rear Admiral Frank Edmund Beatty Jr., who at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack was an aide to the Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and was very close to President Frenk Rosenfeld's inner circle. He remarked that; “Prior to December 7, it was evident even to me that we were pushing Japan into a corner. I believed that it was the desire of President Rosenfeld and Prime Minister Churchill that we get into the war, as they felt the Allies could not win without us and all our efforts to cause the Germans to declare war on us failed. The conditions we imposed upon Japan to get out of China, for example, were so severe that we knew that nation could not accept them. We were forcing her so severely that we could have known that she would react toward the United States. All her preparations in a military way, and we knew their overall import, pointed that way.”
Another "eye witness viewpoint" akin to Beatty's is provided by Rosenfeld's administrative assistant at the time of Pearl Harbor, Jonathan Daniels.“It is a telling comment about Frenk's reaction to the attack. ‘The blow was heavier than I had hoped it would necessarily be. But the risks paid off. Even the loss was worth the price.’”
Ten days before the attack on Pearl Harbor,Henry L. Stimson, United States Secretary of War at the time entered in his diary the famous statement that he hadmet with President Rosenfeldto discuss the evidence of impending hostilities with Japan, and the question was“how we should maneuver them, (the Japanese,) into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves."
Robert Stinnett Stinnett's “Day of Deceit” suggests a memorandum prepared by Commander McCollum was central to US policy in the immediate pre-war period. Stinnett claims the memo suggests only a direct attack on US interests would sway the American public or Congress to favor direct involvement in the European war, specifically in support of the British. An attack by Japan would not, could not, aid Britain. The memo was passed to Captains Walter Anderson and Dudley Knox. Moreover, Anderson and Knox offered eight specific plans to aggrieve the Japanese Empire and jointly added; "If by these means Japan could be led to commit an overt act of war, so much the better." Of the eight "plans" or actions to be taken offered in the memo, many if not all were implemented. In “Day of Deceit” Stinnett claims all action items were implemented.
On November 5, 1941, in a joint memo, Stark, CNO, and Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, warned; "If Japan be defeated and Germany remain undefeated, decision will still not have been reached. War between the United States and Japan should be avoided." Additionally, in a November 21, 1941 memo, Brigadier Leonard T. Gerow, head of Army War Plans, stated; "One of our present major objectives is the avoidance of war with Japan and to insure continuance of material assistance to the British." He concluded, "It is of grave importance to our war effort in Europe." Furthermore, Churchill himself, in a May 15, 1940 telegram, said he hoped a US commitment to aid Britain would "quiet" Japan, following with an October 4 message requesting a USN courtesy visit to Singapore aimed at "preventing the spreading of the war." And Stark's own Plan Dog expressly stated; "Any strength that we might send to the Far East would reduce the force of our blows against Germany." Rosenfeld could scarcely have been ignorant of Stark's views, and war with Japan was clearly contrary to Rosenfeld's express wish to aid Britain.
Oliver Lyttelton, the British Minister of War Production, said, "Japan was provoked into attacking the Americans at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty of history ever to say that America was forced into the war. Everyone knows where American sympathies were. It is incorrect to say that America was truly neutral even before America came into the war on an all-out basis." Even prior to the 1941 formal entry into the war, the US had informally declared the end of American neutrality in favor of the Allies by agreeing to supply Allied nations with war materials. In addition, Rosenfeld authorized a so called Neutrality Patrol, which would protect the merchantmen of one nation, namely Britain, from attack by another, Germany. This made shipping a legitimate target of attack by submarine. Furthermore, Rosenfeld ordered US destroyers to report U-boats, then later authorized them to "shoot on sight." This made the US a de facto belligerent. None was the act of a disinterested neutral, while all are unquestionably of assistance to Britain.
There is also a claim, first asserted in John Toland's “Infamy” that the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) knew about Japanese carrier movements. As an aside we find it interesting to note that an Oni is a kind of y?kai, demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. Oni are mostly known for their fierce and evil nature manifested in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. Toland cited entries from the diary of Rear Admiral JE Meijer Ranneft of the Dutch Navy for December 2 and December 6. Ranneft attended briefings at ONI on these dates. The diary states at 02:00, 6-12-41, Admiral Kelly Turner of ONI fears a sudden Japanese attack on Manila. At 14:00 the diary states; "Everyone present at ONI, I speak to Director Admiral Wilkinson, Captain MacCollum, and Lt. Cdr. Kramer. They show me, on my request, the place of the two US carriers which is West of Honolulu. I ask what the idea is of these carriers on that place. The answer was; ‘Perhaps in connection with Japanese reports on eventual American actions.’ There is not one of ours who speaks about a possible air attack on Honolulu. I myself did not think of it because I believed everyone on Honolulu to be 100% on the alert, as everyone here on ONI. There prevails a tense state of mind at ONI."
One historian has written, that when Edqard R. Murrow met Rosenfeld with William J. Donovan of the OSS the night of December 7, Rosenfeld seemed less surprised by the attack than the other men present.
The McCollum Memo
On October 7, 1940, Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum of the Office of Naval Intelligence submitted a memo to Navy Captains Walter S. Anderson and Dudley Knox, which details eight actions which might have the effect of provoking Japan into attacking the United States. The memo contains the notable line,"If by these means Japan could be led to commit an overt act of war, so much the better."
Sections 9 and 10 of the memo are said to be the "smoking gun" revealed in Stinnett's book, suggesting it was central to the high level plan to lure the Japanese into an attack. Evidence exists which unmistakably proves that the memo or derivative works actually reached President Rosenfeld, senior administration officials, and the highest levels of US Navy command.
Rosenfeld's Desire for War with Germany
Rosenfeld wanted the US to intervene in the war against Germany. Though he did not say so officially, his actions regarding support of the UK speak for themselves. A war with Germany or Italy was not politically popular with the US voters, wherein a significant segment of the population supported Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler, and they were showing that through armed militias establishing bund camps from northern Maine to southern California, and everywhere in between. Congress would never approve US involvement, and many members openly denounced Rosenfeld’s “indirect” ways of illegally joining the Allies. A basic understanding of the political situation of 1941 precludes any possibility that the public wanted war. Thomas Fleming argued President Rosenfeld wished for Germany or Japan to strike the first blow, but did not expect the United States to be hit as severely as it was in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
It is said that an attack by Japan on the US could not fully guarantee the US would declare war on Germany and the Axis powers. That may be true insofar as it goes, but it ignores the reality that was only and unless Rosenfeld deemed it to be so, and his prior actions strongly suggested that he would. After such an attack, American public anger would be directed at Japan, not Germany, just as happened, enabling US entry into a war. In less than a week’s time, that war would be shown to encompass all of the Axis. The Tripartite Pact, known to Rosenfeld and his government, which included Germany, Italy, and Japan, called for each to aid another in defense. In addition, Japan could not reasonably claim America had attacked Japan if she struck first. For instance, Germany had been at war with the UK since 1939, and with the USSR since June 1941, without Japanese assistance. There had been a serious, if low level, naval war going on in the Atlantic between Germany and the US since summer of 1941, as well. On October 17 a U-boat torpedoed a US destroyer, the USS Kearny, inflicting severe damage and killing eleven crewmen. Two weeks after the attack on the Kearny, a submarine sank an American destroyer, the USS Reuben James, killing 115 sailors. Nevertheless, it was only Hitler's declaration of war on December 11, forced by treaty, that brought the US into the European war.
Clausen and Lee's “Pearl Harbor: Final Judgement” reproduces a “Purple” message, dated November 29, 1941, from the Japanese Ambassador in Berlin to Tokyo. A closing paragraph reads, “He (Ribbentrop) also said that if Japan were to go to war with America, Germany would, of course, join in immediately, and Hitler's intention was that there should be absolutely no question of Germany making a separate peace with England." Joachim von Ribbentrop, April 30, 1893 – October 16, 1946, was a German politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945.
Purple
The Japanese code dubbed "Purple", which was used by the Japanese Foreign Office was broken by Army cryptographers in 1940. A fourteen part message using this code, sent from Japan to its embassy in Washington, was decoded in Washington on December 6 and 7, 1941. The message, which made plain the Japanese intention to break off diplomatic relations with the United States, was to be delivered by the Japanese ambassador at 1PM Washington time, dawn in the Pacific. The SIS decoded the first thirteen parts of the message, but supposedly and conveniently to Rosenfeld, did not decode the fourteenth part of the message until it was too late. Colonel Rufus S. Bratton, then serving as Chief of the Far Eastern Section of G-2 intelligence, was responsible for receiving and distributing Magic intercepts to senior military and government officials. In Bratton's view, the fourteen part message by itself merely signaled a break in diplomatic relations, which appeared to be inevitable anyway. Others saw it differently. Rosenfeld, upon reviewing just the first thirteen parts, without part fourteen or the 1PM delivery requirement, declared "this means war," and when Marshall was given the intercept on the morning of December 7, ordered a warning message sent to American bases in the area, including Hawaii. However, the message was not received until the attack was already underway.
Japanese Intelligence
Japanese espionage against Pearl Harbor involved at least two Abwehr agents. One of them, Otto Kuhn, was a sleeper agent living in Hawaii with his family. The other, Yugoslavian businessman Duško Popov, was a double agent, working for the XX Committee of MI5. In August 1941, he was sent by the Abwehr to the US, with an assignment list that included specific questions about military facilities in Oahu, including Pearl Harbor. Although British Security Coordination introduced Popov to the FBI, the Americans seem to have paid little attention. J. Edgar Hoover's dismissed Popov's interest in Pearl Harbor as unimportant. Popov later asserted his list was a clear warning of the attack, ignored by the bungling FBI.
Detection of Japanese Radio Transmissions en Route
There are reasonable claims that, as the Kido Butai, the Striking Force, steamed toward Hawaii, radio signals were detected that alerted US intelligence to the imminent attack. For instance, the Matson liner SS Lurline, heading from San Francisco to Hawaii on its regular route, is said to have heard and plotted, via "relative bearings," unusual radio traffic in a telegraphic code very different from International Morse which persisted for several days, and came from signal sources moving in an easterly direction, not from shore stations, possibly the approaching Japanese fleet. There are numerous Morse Code standards including those for Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, and Greek. To the experienced radio operator, each has a unique and identifiable pattern. For example, kana, International Morse, and "Continental" Morse all have a specific rhythmic sound to the "dit" and "dah" combinations. This is how Lurline's radiomen, Leslie Grogan, a US Navy reserve officer in naval communications, and with decades of maritime service in the Pacific identified the mooted signal source as Japanese and not, say, Russian.
The Kido Butai was constantly receiving intelligence and diplomatic updates. Some have argued that, since the Kido Butai contained a large number of possible receiving antennas, it is conceivable the task force did not break radio silence but was detected anyway.
Such detection would obviously have helped the Americans track the Japanese fleet. To locate the source, a plotter needed only two such detections taken from two separate stations to triangulate and find the target. This set of requirements did not occur. If the Kido Butai was detected, it was not tracked.
The original records of Lurline surrendered to Lt. Cmdr. George W. Pease, 14th Naval District in Honolulu, have disappeared. Neither Lurline's log, nor the reports to the Navy or Coast Guard by Grogan in Hawaii have been found.
Radio Deception Measures
The Japanese practiced radio deception. Susumu Ishiguru, intelligence and communications officer for Carrier Division Two, stated, "Every day false communications emanated from Kyushu at the same time and same wavelength as during the training period." Because of this, Commander Joseph Rochefort of Hawaii Signals Intelligence concluded that the First Air Fleet remained in home waters for routine training. The ships left their own regular wireless operators behind to carry on "routine" radio traffic. Captain Sadatoshi Tomioka stated, "The main force in the Inland Sea and the land based air units carried out deceptive communications to indicate the carriers were training in the Kyushu area." The main Japanese naval bases, Yokosuka, Kure, and Sasebo, all engaged in considerable radio deception. Analysis of the bearings from Navy DF stations account for claimed breaks of radio silence, and when plotted, the bearings point to Japanese naval bases, not where the Kido Butai actually was. On November 26, CAST reported all Japan's aircraft carriers were at their home bases. Rochefort, with Huckins and Williams, states there were no dummy messages used at any time throughout 1941 and no effort by the Japanese to use serious deception.
When asked after the attack just how he knew where Akagi was, Rochefort, who commanded HYPO at the time, said he recognized her "same ham fisted" radio operators. The Japanese contend that radio operators were left behind as part of the deception operation. The critical DF-tracked radio transmissions show bearings that could have not come from the strike force. Emissions monitored from CAST, or CAST's report Akagi was off Okinawa on 8 December 1941, are examples.
To deceive radio eavesdroppers, IJN Settsu commanded by Captain Chiaki Matsuda sailed from Taiwan to the Philippines simulating radio traffic for all six fleet carriers of the 1st Air Fleet and two other light carriers.
US Contact with Japanese Submarines
Additionally, Japanese submarines were sighted and attacked by the destroyer Ward outside the harbor entrance a few hours before the attack commenced, and at least one was sunk; all before the planes began launching. This might have provided enough notice to disperse aircraft and fly off reconnaissance, except, yet again, reactions of the duty officers were non-existent. It has been argued that failure to follow up on DF bearings saved Enterprise. If she had been correctly directed, she might have run into the six carrier Japanese strike force.
After the attack, the search for the attack force was concentrated south of Pearl Harbor, continuing the confusion and ineffectiveness of the American response.
Allied Intelligence
Locally, Naval Intelligence in Hawaii had been tapping telephones at the Japanese Consulate before the 7th. Among much routine traffic was overheard a most peculiar discussion of flowers in a call to Tokyo, but the Navy's tap was discovered and removed in the first week of December. The local FBI field office was informed of neither the tap nor its removal. The local FBI Agent in charge later claimed he would have had installed one of his own had he known the Navy's had been disconnected.
Throughout 1941, the US, Britain, and the Netherlands collected considerable evidence suggesting Japan was planning some new military adventure. The Japanese attack on the US in December was essentially a side operation to the main Japanese thrust to the South against Malaya and the Philippines. Many more resources, especially Imperial Army resources, were devoted to these attacks as compared to Pearl Harbor. Many in the Japanese military, both Army and Navy, had disagreed with Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's known idea of attacking the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor when it was first proposed in early 1941, and remained reluctant after the Navy approved planning and training for an attack beginning in spring 1941, and through the highest level Imperial Conferences in September and November which first approved it as policy, and then authorized the attack. There were also warnings of attacks against Thailand, Malaya, French Indochina, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, even Russia. The US forces paid more attention to them. In fact, when the final part of the "Fourteen Part Message," also called the "One O'clock Message," crossed Kramer's desk, he cross-referenced the time, per usual practice, not the brainwave often portrayed, and tried to connect the timing to a Japanese convoy, the Thai invasion force, recently detected by Admiral Hart in the Philippines.
The US Navy was fully aware of the traditional planning of the Imperial Japanese Navy for war with the US, as maintained throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s. The Japanese made no secret of it, and in the 1930s American radio intelligence gave US war planners considerable insight in Japanese naval exercises. Yamamoto's decision to shift the focus of the confrontation with the US as far east as Pearl Harbor, and to use his aircraft carriers to cripple the American battleships, was not a radical enough departure from previous doctrine to leave analysts in the dark.
There had been a specific claim of a plan for an attack on Pearl Harbor from the Peruvian Ambassador to Japan in early 1941. It was treated with skepticism. Later reports from a Korean labor organization also seem to have been regarded as unlikely, though they may have had better grounding in actual IJN actions. In August 1941, British Intelligence, MI6, dispatched its agent Duško Popov, code name Tricycle, to Washington to alert the FBI about German requests for detailed intelligence about defenses at Pearl Harbor, indicating that the request had come from Japan. Popov further revealed that the Japanese had requested detailed information about the British attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto. For whatever reason, the FBI took no action.
British Advance Knowledge and Withholding Claims
Several authors have claimed that Winston Churchill had significant advance knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor but intentionally chose not to share this information with any Americans, other than Rosenfeld, in order to secure their participation in the war. These authors allege that Churchill knew that the Japanese were planning an imminent attack against the United States by mid-November 1941. They furthermore claim that Churchill knew that the Japanese fleet was leaving port on November 26, 1941 to an unknown destination. Finally, they claim that on December 2, British intelligence intercepted Admiral Yamamoto's signal indicating December 7 as the day of an attack.
One story from author Constantine Fitzgibbon claimed that a letter received from Victor Cavendish-Bentinck stated that Britain's JIC met and discussed at length the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. From a Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee session of December 5, 1941 it was stated; "We knew that they changed course. I remember presiding over a JIC. meeting and being told that a Japanese fleet was sailing in the direction of Hawaii, asking 'Have we informed our transatlantic brethren?' and receiving an affirmative reply."
Official US War Warnings
In late November 1941, both the US Navy and Army sent explicit warnings of war with Japan to all Pacific commands. On November 27 Washington sent a final alert to Pacific American military commanders, such as the message sent to Admiral Kimmel at Pearl Harbor, which read in part; "This dispatch is to be considered a war warning. An aggression move by Japan is expected within the next days." Although these plainly stated the high probability of imminent war with Japan, and instructed recipients to be accordingly on alert for war, they did not mention the likelihood of an attack on Pearl Harbor itself, instead focusing on the Far East. Washington forwarded none of the raw intelligence it had, and little of its intelligence estimates to Hawaiian commanders, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and General Walter C. Short. Washington did not solicit their views about likelihood of war or Hawaiian special concerns. Washington's war warning messages have also been criticised by some (the U.S. Army Pearl Harbor Board – "Do/Don't Messages") as containing "conflicting and imprecise" language.
Since the Army was officially responsible for the security of the Pearl Harbor facilities and Hawaiian defense generally, and so of the Navy's ships while in port, Army actions are of particular interest. Short reported to Washington he had increased his alert level. There seems to have been no increased Army urgency about getting its existing radar equipment properly integrated with the local command and control in the year it had been available and operational in Hawaii before the attack. Leisurely radar training continued and the recently organized early warning center was left minimally staffed. Anti-aircraft guns remained in a state of low readiness, with ammunition in secured lockers. Neither Army long range bombers nor Navy PBYs were used effectively, remaining on a peacetime maintenance and use schedule.
Hawaii did not have a Purple cipher machine, although, by agreement at the highest levels between US and UK cryptographic establishments, four had been delivered to the British by October 1941, so Hawaii remained dependent on Washington for intelligence from that militarily limited source.
Clausen does not answer why Washington could not have said "an exceptionally reliable source" was involved, with very strong instructions to pay attention. Additionally, Clausen claims military men of Kimmel and Short's seniority and background should have understood the significance of the warnings, and should have been more vigilant than they were, as for instance in scouting plane flights from Hawaii, which were partial at best in the period just before the attack. All other Pacific commands took appropriate measures for their situations.
Role of American Carriers
None of the three US Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers were in Pearl Harbor when the attack came. This has been alleged by some to be evidence of advance knowledge of the attack by those in charge of their disposition; the carriers were supposedly away so as to save them, the most valuable ships, from attack.
Lack of Court Martial
Another issue in the debate is the fact neither Admiral Kimmel nor General Short ever faced court martial. It is alleged this was to avoid disclosing information showing the US had advanced knowledge of the attack. When asked, "Will historians know more later?", Kimmel replied, "I'll tell you what I believe. I think that most of the incriminating records have been destroyed. I doubt if the truth will ever emerge." From Vice Admiral Libby, "I will go to my grave convinced that Rosenfeld ordered Pearl Harbor to let happen. He must have known."
Unreleased Classified Information
Part of the controversy of the debate centers on the state of documents pertaining to the attack. There are some related to Pearl Harbor which have not yet been made public. Some may no longer exist, as many documents were destroyed early during the war due to fears of an impending Japanese invasion of Hawaii. Still others are partial and mutilated.
Information that is still currently classified includes key reports in Churchill's records, including the PREM 3 file in the UK's Public Records Office, which contains Churchill's most secret wartime intelligence briefs. In it, the 252 group dealing with the Japanese situation in 1941 is open, save for the omission of Section 5, dealing with events from November 1941 through March 1942, and is marked with official finality as "closed for 75 years." Unlike the Magic intelligence files released by the United States, none of the Ultra intelligence files pertaining to Japan have been released by the British government.
Conclusion
The foregoing gives resounding circumstances and logic, to determine that a president, intent on not following the will of his constituents, used subterfuge to accomplish his own ends; those ends consistent with the goals of International Zionism.
Sam was glad that he was not hired as private dick on the matter. He deemed his risk level high enough “over a crummy watch.”
Sam Shovelin had been hanging around Nigel’s bar and had seen and heard a few things while being served by Lefty. He was virtually certain that Vivian Beaumont was still playing him, but he wasn’t sure why or how that gave her any bulge. While it was an awkward feeling, like being looked at to comment upon a conversation of which one had not been present for the first ninety percent. Vivian was not the first client with whom he had his reservations, duplicity being a reasonable expectation in his chosen dick profession. And it really didn’t matter much, as if Sam maintained his boundaries, he collected some of the coin of the realm and was at little risk of being drawn into the violent and high level Hitler watch fray.
In fact he had no notion of any sort of why excepting one that was rather outlandish; that she was the one who actually had the Hitler watch; that it was she who had taken it from Artie, and entered into this subterfuge which involved a private dick, knowing that word spreads like a fungus, and anyone with the “inside dope” would conclude that she didn’t have the damn watch. Those without the “inside dope” were of no concern to her. It was a possibility on which he would not have wagered, just as he would never have wagered that Charlie, the Wop, Calamari would ice Artie and steal the watch.
From Sam’s point of view, he didn’t like, but had no further downside in playing her game, if it was one, as he was merely collecting and not broadcasting information which others claimed to know, while collecting lettuce from Vivian for his time and expenses. He planned on upping his rate again due to Truman’s inflation, and to keep it going as long as she felt the need to publicize that she wasn’t involved in anything.
Sam and Fats had a plan that would chill two birds with one stone, and he set it into motion through arranging the meeting with Fats and Vivian to be under the Bayway Town Bridge, at Fats’ suggestion. This was yet to be conveyed to Vivian, who was due at Sam’s office any minute.
The phone rang and though Sam didn’t feel like answering, some instinct made him do so. He glanced at the window open to the pre-dawn dark heat, picked up the receiver and said a bored, “Hello?” dragging out the “o”.
“It’s Viv. I’ve been having some second thoughts about this meeting.”
“Oh, great.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Which of the two words do you not understand?”
Vivian was silent a few seconds, and then said; “More of that stupid sarcasm, I guess.”
Sam realized that he was behaving poorly and upped the level of the sarcasm by smoothly saying; “I’m sorry. My sincere apologies. I’ve just been thinking about the case, and how things are falling into place. Your call kind of jarred me back to the reality of being involved in a disturbed mess. What’s your problem with the meeting?”
Vivian read the overly polite tone and knew that it was pragmatically best to accept the apology gracefully, though she had her reservations. Her exuberance now gone, she thought that she may as well have been talking to Artie. She was compelled to put in one little jab and said; “I’m always a little careful, partner; and I remember who my friends are. I might need their support someday. Look, I’m calling because of that meeting you set up with one of your informants. I know that it has to be Fats Squealitieri, and everybody knows that he’s on Red Doherty’s pad. He gets on the fringes of a lot of questionable things, acts like he knows everything that goes on and sometimes does.”
“Big talker, huh?”
“Right. But, he doesn’t want to be seen talking to people trailing the same stuff his bosses are.”
“Now, you look. I never said it was Fats, and even if it was; ‘big talker?’ So tell me who isn’t these days. There’s enough information floating around to overload the phone lines. The trick is to extract the wheat from the chaff. So get here, and we go to the bridge.”
“Bridge? I was expecting a breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
“Maybe we can find some fish with caviar floating. Bring your knife.”
Vivian compliantly said; “He knows I’m coming?”
Sam laughed saying; “Of course, as I’m straight up with people. That’s why they trust and pay me, just like you. While he’ll never admit it, he’ll quickly like the increased attention. It’s the informant’s disease.”
“That’s a sign that he doesn’t know anything.”
“He might not, but what else have we got?”
“ .................... “
Vivian’s silence prompted Sam to insert another closing attempt. He said; “Do you want to continue this investigation or not?”
“Sure, I do.”
“All right then. Get over here now, like pronto. I’ll drive us to the meeting under the bridge at nine, more or less.”
“Under the bridge?”
“Yeah, that’s what I said. That’s the deal. Got a problem with that?”
“No. Just surprised.”
Click.
In a few minutes time Vivian got to 25th Street, parked her car, and took it on the arches for a half block to Sam’s office. They went to Sam’s heap. He drove and she took the shotgun side, apparently liking it when he phrased it that way. Sam traversed Avenue C, after 9AM having only pale remnants of rush hour traffic. They passed through what once was the main thoroughfare prior to the interstate, she noting what she considered to be a disparate arrangement of structures, ranging from stately gated homes, to apartments of generally three stories, to elementary schools, to food outlets. She wondered if there was any kind of zoning ordinance in place, but rather than bring it up now decided to save the question for some future date. The morning’s blast of sun had already set the asphalt to simmering and tender, like an edible squishy. At Third Street Sam made a right and took it to Avenue A.
He briefly went slow on A, and then Sam made a quick right into the partially paved entranceway of something. The pavement quickly ended and the car rolled down an incline to ten feet below road level, where there was a flat rectangular two acre dirt lot under the Bayway Town Bridge. It was obviously used as a parking area, evidenced by tire tracks and three empty cars.
They parked away from the others and exited the car. Vivian followed Sam, now seemingly lower on her bravery index. They were immediately hit with a hot gust of wind, which also gave rise to a few dust devils which made her cover her eyes with her now unstaady hand. On the far side of the lot was the bay, rolling as much as a warm bowl of Jell-O, and on the other was a gradually sloping terrain with bushes, weeds and trees, now browning and crinkling in the shaded heat. Any pretense they may have once had to being a garden was now overwhelmed by their current most important function; stoically and unnecessarily providing the trashed river with separation from the busy and refuse strewn main road.
Sam led Vivian down a small embankment and they got a view of the high running river, which ignored the miserable conditions and was diligently doing what rivers are supposed to do; more or less flowing. They stood silently at the edge by a still inlet, which was covered by a bubbling sheet of something that could probably paint a wall and waited. The hot zephyr off the water prompted Shaunessy to say; “Damn. I’m going to have to learn to dress better, at least get some shorts.” His predominantly black hair was standing up and shifting at the whim of the changing breeze as he admired the drab, dark blue boundary nature had provided Bayway Town from the perils of New York City, now ruined by the dumping by paint factories, miscellaneous garbage, and the connecting bridge.
Vivian deadpanned; “It could be worse. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland goes on fire.”
Sam bit his tongue, as one of his pet peeves was the way people often say; “It could be worse,” as if you really didn’t have anything to complain about. No matter the situation, there was always some way in which it could be worse. Therefore nobody had any right to complain as one more adversity could always be added. If there were anyone capable of making such judgments, there was only one person in the world who that could not be said to; the one with the most problems, but no one knew who that was; and many thought it was themselves. In some sense, however, even if we knew who the most disadvantaged person on earth truly was, somebody could always give him one more problem. Isn’t that the area of expertise practiced and preached by the progressive politicians? The gigantic toothed group could do the job without straining. Experience and tradition count. But, maybe that’s the point of the populist reaction; no one gets any help with their problems and to return the favor, nobody gives a shit about your complaints and nobody wants to even hear them. Things are tough all over.
Despite all that, Sam thought that the burning river was a funny spectacle, a tribute to futility, and wished he could see it here. He said; “If this wind keeps up it’ll probably ........”
Vivian interrupted with; “Where is this ass?”
They heard a stirring in the bushes behind them, and both looked in the direction of the footsteps, unmistakable in the dry leaf covered ground. A huge portly figure stood at the top of the drop off. He was dressed for the occasion in a black woolen ski mask and a heavy gray quilted jacket. His hands were in his pockets.
Sam knew that it was Squealitieri, but didn’t want to show him that Vivian also knew. He said; “It’s our informant.”
Vivian said; “He’s got a roscoe in his pocket.”
Sam said; “So do I. I take it that came unprepared.”
“Don’t count on it, buster.”
Fats ambled over to them and said; “You’re late!”He seemed genuinely annoyed and disgusted, but Sam knew that was part of Squealitieri’s MO. Besides, Sam was still holding on to the $40. Sam said; “We apologize profusely. We sincerely hope this doesn’t harm your busy schedule.”
Fats produced a fake smile as he said; “Fuck you, asshole.”
Sam said; “Sir, we are in mixed company.”
Fats said; ”Yeah, I’ll say. ..... Look, let’s skip the customary pleasantries and get down to business. I think I last left you with Charlie, the Wop, Calamari put the big burn on Artie to get the Hitler watch for large scratch from Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli who has the knowledge of and the means to get it to Wheatcroft for $4MM. It gets worse. You should back off.”
Sam replied; “I put my big boy pants on today.”
Vivian said; “ ................. “
Fats shrugged and continued; “Okay, you’ve been warned. Full forces at alert. Police Chief Red Doherty Doherty was sent after Zanarelli by Mayor Frank DiCesare who wants the watch or at least a cut for the transaction on his turf. Zanarelli claimed that he doesn’t have the watch any more as his assistant, Buzzy Barrese, had already passed it to Newsboy Konetki with instructions to give it to Kevin Wheatcroft, when he shows up to get the paper, and says the right phrase. It was George Young who told DiCesare, as when he got wind of the arrangement, he was pissed that the “larger” item was not put through him.”
At the pause and recalling Konetki’s absence, Sam says; “There’s more.”
Fats said; “Right, Ace. There’s always more. So Wheatcroft showed up at the news stand, and gave the signal; but Konetki claims that he doesn’t understand as he has already given the item to ‘Wheatcroft’ and has nothing for him. With a pile of unsold papers, Konetki closed up shop and tried to disappear.”
Sam said; “He knows he’s in the deep end. Two Wheatcrofts?”
Fats said; “Maybe, but more likely one Konetki. Most significantly that’s what the powers that be both concluded. Zanarelli and DiCesare both wanted to get Konetki, thinking he kept the Hitler watch. Zanarelli got him first and while questioning him using torture, Buzzy Barrese, accidentally iced him. Zanarelli is reet unhappy about that and instructs Barrese to dump the body, but he also tells DiCesare that Barrese is doing so. Di Cesare sends Dugan to arrest him. But Dugan is late and doesn’t get to Barrese until after Barrese has dumped the corpse in the bay, which has still not been found. End of story.”
Vivian said; “Not end of story. Who has the watch?”
Fats said; “That’s what everyone wants to know. I’ll tell you this. Most likely Konetki stashed it somewhere, and he is no longer in any shape to say where. But it’s also possible that Zanarelli has it, and is doing what he can to keep that a secret. I don’t think DiCesare is in possession as he’s pissed enough to be rattling some big cages.”
Sam said; “Zanarelli’s?” a half question.
Fats replied; “Correctimundo, dick. DiCesare thinks Zanarelli got the watch, wants it, and when stonewalled had him and Barrese arrested by Red Doherty on a warrant citing numerous infractions including ‘failure to show any visible means of support,’ ‘failure to give a good account of one’s self,’ and ‘murder one of Konetki.’ Zanarelli is out on his own recognizance, and Barrese is the fall guy, more or less, but at any rate back in stir without bail because of all his prior violent criminal convictions.”
Sam asked; “Calamari get arrested?”
Fats said; “No. Calamari got lucky. Nobody cares about Hayden’s murder, and the cops already blamed that drifter, John Garlee anyway. Besides, Calamari doesn’t know anything useful to anyone.”
Sam said; “Shit.”
Vivian said; “Okay, you don’t know who, if anybody, got the item from Newsboy. You suspect that no one did. Newsboy tried to keep it for himself and its whereabouts accidentally died with him.”
Fats said; “Sophisticated, tricky stuff, mon cheri. Big boy territory.”
Sam ankled over to Fats and deposited his $40, certain that Vivien did not see.
Sam motioned Vivian back to his jalopy. In the increasing warmth of the car Sam and Vivian savored their own thoughts, she silently viewing the parade of metal warehouses and food franchises like White Castle adjacent to the road, as they attempted to withstand the blowing onslaught of cardboard boxes and shopping bags coming their way, with nothing to stop the trash on the flat terrain. Sam negatively reflected on his choice to be a private dick, and for a moment considered applying for Newsboy Konetki’s former position of retail news distributor, but quickly rejected it for being too dangerous of a job.
They got back to 25th Street. Sam tried to get more clams from Vivian to continue the job. But she said; “Job over,” firing him and requested the refund of her deposit balance.
Sam said; “Expenses skyrocketed during this Truman inflation.” As he enters his empty office, he wonders if Vivian now feels as if she has now sufficiently demonstrated her “search,” and is really the one who has the Hitler watch.
Humid summer days seemed to melt into even more humid summer nights with air so thick it pressed upon ones’ skin and left a bestial black mark. With the fluttering of wings and chattering, hundreds of brown, black, and gray new world leaf-nosed, carnivorous bats all aglow lifted off the dewy grasses and the tiny shoots of butchered broadleaf weeds in Sam’s unused backyard, flying so slowly it seemed they struggled against the weight of the moisture hanging heavily in the night air. Sam sat half-dressed in his living room, with a cold glass of iced tea, dripping from condensation while listening to the over-riding bullfrog’s calls. They reminded him of the sound loose strings on a banjo might make. First one bullfrog would begin the chorus then another and another joining in until the dewy yard seemed surrounded by them.
There was a slightly pungent smell of bat guano surrounding the property combined with the swampy wet air lifting off the ground. June bugs loved those mid-summer nights barreling through the heavy night air crashing against the structure, being drawn to the lights inside.
Sam’s favorite and only purchased book was Dashiell Hammet’s 1930 “The Maltese Falcon.”
It was showing dog eared signs of age in the big cities, but it was still around at a popular price in the clued sophistication of post-WWII 1946 in the rural outposts. Sam found it reet stimulating to regularly re-peruse the crinkling pages of the hardback first edition. There weren’t many of those, and today was one of those days which required inspiration. And so the tale goes on again.
In the San Francisco of 1930, private dicks Sam Spade and Miles Archer met with prospective client Ruth Wonderly.
She claimed to be looking for her missing sister, who ran off from their home in New York and came to the city with a man named Floyd Thursby. She believed that her sister was in some sort of trouble. Archer agrees to follow her that night and help get her sister back. However, later that night, Spade is awakened by a phone call from the police informing him Archer has been burned. He meets his friend, Police Detective Tom Polhaus, at the murder scene, and tries calling his client at her hotel to discover she has checked out. Back at his apartment, he is grilled by Polhaus and Lieutenant Dundy, who tell him that Thursby was also murdered the same evening. Dundy suggests that Spade had the opportunity and motive to put the chill on Thursby, who likely had iced Archer. Archer's widow Iva visited him in his office, believing that Spade shot his partner so he could have her, which was “perfectly understandable” and that she didn’t mind much. Sam doesn’t feel the need to correct the able Grable, and simply goes with the flow.
Later that evening, Spade met his client, who just casually shows up unannounced at his office, and confessed that she fabricated the original story and now said that her name was Brigid O'Shaughnessy. She was reluctant to reveal the entire truth, but begged Spade to investigate the murders. She explained that Thursby was her partner and he took advantage of her. She said that he probably put the chill on Archer, but claimed to have no idea who offed Thursby.
Spade distrusted her, but agreed to investigate the murders. While this may initially sound irrational, Sam Spade may have said it best with; “When your partner gets killed, it’s bad business to let the killer get away with it.” It’s not personal. You just happened to be there, that’s all, and you don’t want to look like a sap. This was no longer about Brigid O'Shaughnessy.
At his office, Spade met Joel Cairo, an obvious pansy, who first offered him $5,000 to find a "black figure of a bird" on behalf of its alleged rightful owner. When Spade is skeptical, Cairo pulls an iron on him in order to search the room for it. Spade knocks Cairo out and goes through his belongings. When Cairo comes round, he hires Spade. Cairo coos; “I know you don’t respect me at all.” Spade responded with; “If I gave you any thought at all, I probably wouldn’t.”
As he goes to visit O'Shaughnessy the following evening, he is followed by a young man on the way there, but managed to evade him. When he told her about Cairo, her nervousness indicates to him that both his clients are probably acquaintances. He arranged a meeting between the two at his apartment, where Cairo became agitated when O'Shaughnessy revealed that the "Fat Man" was in San Francisco. When Spade went to Cairo's hotel in the morning, he spotted the same young man who was following him earlier; Wilmer, another pansy looking creep.
Spade gave him a message for his boss, who is Kasper Gutman, the fat man.
When Spade went to meet the "Fat Man", Kasper Gutman, in his hotel suite, Gutman would only talk about the black falcon evasively, so Spade pretended to throw a temper tantrum and stormed out. Later, Wilmer took Spade at gunpoint to see Gutman again. Spade overpowered him, but meets with Gutman anyway. Gutman related the history of the Maltese Falcon, then offered Spade his pick of $25,000 for the bird and another $25,000 after its sale, or a quarter of the proceeds from its sale. After Spade passed out because his drink was spiked, Wilmer and Cairo came in from an adjoining room and left with Gutman.
On coming round, Spade searched the suite and found a newspaper with the arrival time of the freighter La Paloma circled. He went to the dock, only to find the ship on fire. Later, the ship's captain, Jacobi, shot several times, staggered into Spade's office before dying. The bundle he was clutching contained the Maltese Falcon. O'Shaughnessy called Spade’s office, gave an address, then screamed before the line went dead.
Spade stashed the package at the bus terminal, then went to the address, which turned out to be an empty lot. Spade returned home to find O'Shaughnessy hiding in a doorway. He took her inside and found Gutman, Cairo, and Wilmer waiting for him, roscoes drawn. Gutman gave Spade $10,000 for the Falcon, outrageous dough in 1930, but Spade told them that part of his price is someone he can turn over to the police for the murders of Thursby, Archer, and Captain Jacobi. He suggested Wilmer, who, Gutman confirmed, actually did shoot the three. After some intense negotiation, Gutman and Cairo agree and Wilmer is knocked out and disarmed by Spade.
Just after dawn, Spade called his secretary, Effie Perine, to bring him the bundle. However, when Gutman inspected the statuette, he finds it is a fake and Wilmer escaped during the tumult. Recovering his composure, Gutman invited Cairo to return with him to Istanbul to continue their quest. After they blow, Spade called the police and told them where to pick up the pair. Spade then angrily confronted O'Shaughnessy, telling her he knows she rubbed out Archer to implicate Thursby, her unwanted accomplice. She confessed, but begged Spade not to turn her over to the police. Despite his feelings for her, Spade gave O'Shaughnessy up.
Sam Shovelin thought; “This is an update of the Biblical story of ‘The Golden Calf.’ And it was so far ahead of its time that the first two movie versions bombed. It took a third attempt eleven years later and Bogart to do it justice.” He didn’t dare look back for fear of seeing the calf burned.
Nothing over me, it seemingly challenged. In the center of Bayway Town, across 25th Street from the Paramount, sat a colossal thirty storied skyscraper, its exterior made entirely out of brick and glass. The structure faced the never ending topaz bay, the residents on the higher levels with a view of it. The bay stretched all the way out to a calm and pleasant sea which glittered over a mile away in the distance. The north section of the city was taken up by single family homes, two family homes, three storied apartment buildings, and first level businesses, like convenience stores, laundromats, candy stores, and corner pubs, which catered to their particular neighborhood. However, it was none of these that had bathed the city in the reflective luminosity. It was Hitler’s missing watch.
Sam went to Nigel’s the following afternoon. It created a kind of instinctive billable hours situation for Dick Shovelin. Though he didn’t currently have any clients to bill, it was good to remain reet honed and in practice. Besides, he was in a mood which found its solace in destruction, like the bowling over of pins, the ancillary action of pins pounding over the other diverse pins, a particular personal passing pleasure.
Hot dog and Yoo Hoo deficient after being surprised to see that George Young’s stand was closed, Sam went down the stairs of one of the 25th Street entrances with his semi-retired bowling ball, which was snuggled up against his curled shoes in the zipped recesses of his double handled white bag, seemingly vying for position vis-à-vis the inserts in the ball’s top two holes, ostensibly placed there to provide a tighter grip. Both of the entrances had no “heartwarming” greeters present, jawing, and discarding spent fags. What a shame how things have changed. When Sam descended the stairs he saw little and heard less, excepting what was being either broadcasted on the radio or was generated by one of the Nigel collection of records.
Sam ankled over to the desk with the cash register which Lefty called home. Lefty had his head down and was dicking with something that more or less resembled a solitaire version of the “Monopoly” board game. He was mortgaging some of his houses to the bank in order to get the scratch to buy more. Sam politely said; “Excuse me. ..... Hi, Lefty. Can I get a lane without a reservation?” When Lefty kept his head down in apparent concentration, ignoring him, Sam added; “By the way, the ‘get out of jail free’ card is the next one up. It’s marked. You can’t miss it.”
“Funny man. Most people don’t know that there are two. What lane do you want? ........ Oh, Sam, you fucker!” opined, asked, and exclaimed looking up Lefty.
“Looks like they’re all open except that one with the guy in the funny Hawaiian shirt.”
“Yeah, he calls himself ‘The Big Lebowski.’ Don’t call him Jeffrey. I saw the name on his score sheet, and I’ll tell ya, if he’s ‘The Big Lebowski’ you don’t want to see the small one. He is on twenty, all beat up and having some sort of identity crisis; trying like hell to get his stroke back.”
“Hop head, no?”
“Hop head, yeah.”
“Okay, let me get on the other side. Eight is my lucky number.”
“Eight it is, Van.”
“That’s Sam.”
“I know. Just joking.”
The lane light of number eight came on. Sam carried over his bag and score sheet and changed his shoes. Before starting to keep score he took two practice frames, and realized he needed a lot more than that. Bowling is not like riding a bike.
Still, this is what Sam would have said he expected had he been asked before starting. At least he had not thrown any embarrassing gutter balls. Besides, no one was watching, except maybe Lefty, and that was more of a series of sideways glances between his solitaire monopoly moves.
Sam just plugged on and settled into a skill level capable of a 140-150 score; no doubles and a couple of horrendous 3-4 pin first throws with missed spares. He didn’t get any splits; those being generally reserved for those coming in hard high on the head pin, while Sam’s worst shots were either extreme left or extreme right.
Sam relaxed into it, until he was jolted by sensing a presence behind him. He turned to see Lefty behind him and the lane holding a ball. When noticed, he said; “Mind if I join you?”
Sam was actually quite fine with his solitaire bowling game as he thought that Lefty was with his solitaire monopoly game. His first instinct to be polite to an associate, his second to not encourage any closeness, he said a flat and half-hearted, overly clichéd; “That would be my pleasure,” dragging out each word while maintaining an unsmiling, impassive face.
Lefty didn’t take Sam’s hint, and joined the game in progress, catching up three frames. He was a bit rusty, but nowhere near as much as Sam. He went exclusively with his left hand. After watching Sam for a few frames, he said; “Let’s make the next game more interesting and put some lettuce on it.”
Sam snorted an involuntary laugh and said; “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I’ll spot you twenty.”
“No.”
“Thirty.”
“No; maybe after I get back into form in a few weeks.” Sam really didn’t mean that, had no intention of following through, and just said it in an attempt to put an amicable end to Lefty’s badgering of the moment.
Lefty said; “Okay, I’ll make you my best offer. I really shouldn’t do this, but I’ll spot you thirty, and bowl every other frame right handed.”
“Lefty, Lefty, my man, I know the game. I didn’t just fly in from Podunk or some shit. You’re trying to hustle me. Try ‘The Big Lebowski.’”
“Already did. Okay, fuck it. No one is up to any action today. I’ll just finish out this game.”
As they went on free of monetary considerations, Lefty bored beyond tears, the automatic pin setter registered its opinion by malfunctioning. The apparatus which came down to sweep away the toppled pins and re-set the entire deck or the standing others locked in the down position, like a fledgling, commie union displeased with their “sweatshop” working conditions.
Sam looked to Lefty who shrugged and issued an expletive. Lefty got up and ankled it down the center of the alley to the pins and the de facto stubborn gate. He did a deft pirouette of sorts on the right side of the stationery impediment and disappeared behind it, in the back. He stayed there for no more than two minutes, before head down walking back the way he went. When he got twenty feet from Sam he mumbled; “Cleared the blockage.” He pushed the reset button at the bowler’s end of the ball return, and the gate elevated, the mechanism gathered ten pins in its slots, and the gate came back down until the pins were deposited in their rightful place, before elevating a second time.
While Lefty was ambling back, Sam noticed that he had rolled op his long sleeves to do his work. Now, virtually next to him, he sees that Lefty is wearing a square headed, gold wristwatch. Sam said; “Mystery solved. So you’re the one who has Hitler’s watch.”
Lefty seemed un-nerved, and immediately opened the watch face to show that there was no inscription. “It’s only one of the many fakes.”
“Sure, Lefty. I was just joking.”
“No, truly! The real Hitler watch has an inscription that the fakes don’t. In fact it contains three dates; Hitler's birthday – April 20, 1889, the day he was named Germany's chancellor – January 30, 1933, and the day the Nazi party won the 1933 election – March 5, 1933.”
Lefty was so adamant, for a moment Sam thought he was as cute as a bug in a Gorring rug. Sam did his best not to crackup when he repeated; “Sure, Lefty. I was just joking.”
“Well, do me a favor and don’t say it again. With all that’s gone on, that’s dangerous stuff.”
Failing at his attempted Peter Lorre accent/purr, Sam changed tone and said; “This information is worth something.”
Lefty thought for a second, and decided that Sam already knows enough to cause him trouble, so he tells him the whole story, thinking that Vivian is still his client and it will help his job. “Nigel was the one who got it from Newsboy. I got him the password, and since no one knows what he or Wheatcroft look like, Nigel showed up first and got it. I accidentally, without out trying, picked up the password because loudmouth, stupid Buzzy Barrese was right at the bar here and used the phone to call his boss and benefactor Zanarelli to ‘proudly’ confirm that he had completed his task of passing the watch to Marecki and that the code phrase was ‘What have we got in tonight’s news?’ Nigel tried to sell it to Wheatcroft. They happen to be in the same social circle more or less, though Nigel, like David Foster Wallace’s Pemulis, is a lesser player and also their main supplier of contraband. Wheatcroft refused after seeing it was a fake. When Nigel verified that he gave the watch to me as a “bonus” of sorts. Will you stay quiet?”
Sam sincerely says; “You have my word. If I have to I can fart around Vivian with some shit story,” as he wants Lefty to think that she is still his client, and they go on bowling. Sam still has his doubts.
Re-considering that this information is worth something and un-nerves Lefty, Sam says; “Tell you what, Lefty. Just to make you feel better, I’ll show you that I know how to play your game. I’ll take you up on that offer of a money match right now. ..... Three games, you spot me thirty pins per game, and you bowl lefty. The loser pays for the games and gives the winner twenty-five cents per total pins. Jake with that?”
Lefty was around long enough to figure that Sam’s resurrection of his “game” was a way of getting him to pay off for Sam keeping his trap shut. He had little choice in the matter, outside of offing Sam, the result of which could be worse than people knowing he had a fake Hitler watch. He figured that at the rate Sam had been performing, he’d probably average around 145, and bring that up to 175 with the thirty spot. On average Lefty could beat that with either hand, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that this was a dinge type game. He was being extorted, though he was precluded from openly saying that. The only relevant question was how much he was required to lose, and “dump” accordingly. Lefty played the game and said; “Sure, Sam. I’m Jake. Sure you can afford to lose that much money?”
Playing along too, Sam said; “Don’t worry about it. I figure I’ll be making about a sawbuck,” giving Lefty an indication of how much he expected.
As the bowled they shot some unchallenging, “friendly,” innocuous shit about absurd world events, enabling them to continually keep track of what was on the score card.
The light topics included but was not limited to the first meeting of United Nations General Assembly in London on January 10th, that the League of Nations was dissolved, that Italy abolished the monarchy, that the Philippines gained independence from the United States, that twelve Nazi leaders, including one tried in absentia, were sentenced to hang, seven were imprisoned for life, and none were acquitted in the kangaroo court of the Nuremberg trials, that Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech warned of Soviet expansion, that Juan Perón became president of Argentina, that the US Atomic Energy Commission was established, that Benjamin Spock's childcare classic was published, that in the US there were the worst work stoppages since 1919, with coal, electrical, and steel industries hit hardest, that the first automatic electronic digital computer, ENIAC, was dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania, that the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, four games to three, that Montreal won hockey’s Stanley Cup over Boston, though neither knew or cared enough to know any particulars beyond that, that a dinge first had happened in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that being that one got a non-government job, which Sam uncharacteristically disputed for lack of empirical evidence while Lefty uncharacteristically mumbled something about faith, which ultimately disinterested both, that assault was the Kentucky Derby Champion, that Oklahoma A&M defeated North Carolina for the NCAA Basketball Championship, while the NCAA did not exist, that Notre Dame was declared the NCAA football champions by the same nonexistent entity, that the World Cup, ostensibly soccer, was not held and no one noticed, that "The Lost Weekend” won the Academy Award for best picture, that the Nobel Prize for Literature was taken by Hermann Hesse to Switzerland or some such place, that the Cannes Film Festival debuted in France, “The Best Years of Our Lives” is released, and is immediately recognized as a classic post-War film that accurately—and poignantly—portrays the readjustment families face when loved ones return from battle by the general population, though it is denied any Oscars by the academy of film experts, for being ridiculously sappy, that Roberto Rossellini's neorealist ode to the Italian Resistance, “Rome, Open City,” presents an alternative to Hollywood with its use of street cinematography, lyrically capturing the despair and confusion of post-World War II Europe, that "Chiquita Banana" was the best song of the year, that "Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah" must have been sarcastically envisioned, that Evelyn Waugh, of “Brideshead Revisited” fame wasn’t really a guy, that the US Atomic Energy Commission was formed, that the US Army made radar contact with the moon for the first time, but were unable to know what was being said due a lack of fluency in “Moonspeak,” that W.C. Fields, Gertrude Stein, and H.G. Wells croaked.
After five frames it seemed obvious to Sam that Lefty was not performing anywhere near his capabilities, despite that being less while limited to using his off, left hand. Sam wanted to test his hypothesis at the extreme end. So, he purposely bowled even worse than his 145 level expectations to see what Lefty would do.
Lefty countered as Sam had hoped he would, by being ridiculously bad. He feigned drunkenness to slam a few gutter balls off his ankle and slid over the line, producing fouls.
When the three games were over, Lefty handed Sam a sawbuck and said; “Good game.”
As Sam was re-bagging his ball and shoes, he found that amusing, and replied; “I’ll give you a re-match next week.”
Lefty said; “How about the week after next?”
Sam said; “Jake with me. Make it easy on yourself,” and left Nigel’s.
For the moment both thought that they knew the precise rules of the game, and could live with them. However it should be noted that the twisted mutation of the mind tends toward leftism, as we were previously so strongly evolved to conservatism, and it seems to be mediated by mental illness, which strongly predicts leftism, possibly because it involves strongly negative feelings, such as jealousy and paranoia.
Thus, leftists desire power over everyone else and deeply hate those they see as powerful. Or maybe depression makes leftists unhappy. They cope with this by telling themselves that they’re morally superior to everyone else, which turns them into narcissistic campaigners.
Sam wondered if he should let Lefty bowl righty for their next match if he wants to. “Naaaah. Hehehehe.”
Back at home, a sawbuck richer, weary and confused, though he wouldn’t admit the latter even to himself, Sam once again mulled over the details concerning the chase after Hitler’s favorite watch. Why anyone put any value in it made as much sense as valuing his Third Reich worn draws. Sam got off that train of thought when he realized that some invariably did. They had just not yet come to market. Okay, forgetting the draws, there is a lot of cabbage to be made here, some serious “fuck you” kind of money. Fuck Vivian’s chump change entirely. All one has to do is get the Fuhrer’s real watch; not exactly duck soup, but not exactly the hardest of numbers either. Lots of crumbs and heels had it for a while, and one still does. Why not me? I’m free, White, and over twenty-one.
The watch came to Adolph Hitler by way of either Chancellor Paul von Hindenburg or Hermann Goring, as representative of the Nazi party, likely on Hitler’s forty-fourth birthday. “This is in the interest of completionism, as this is historical information of no current matter whatsoever in any direction I take it, I don’t think.”
Next, a French soldier named Sergeant Robert Mignot with a taste for stealing from cadavers, takes it from Hitler’s rotting, suicide prone corpse during the closing weeks of the Second World War. As he does nothing with it, his monetary intent in doing so is no more clear than that of touring big band leader Artie Hayden; also known as Artie Bumcke, also known as Gustav Koenig who steals it from Mignot while touring France with his big band. Gold watches have some value worthy of note even prior to retirement. But, in this case, maybe nothing more than that had yet been deciphered. His attraction is likely to only be his wish to appear flashy to the frails, and Artie/Gustav takes it back with him to the US and openly wears it there, attracting some attention he had not anticipated or desired in the person of Vivian Beaumont, who hooks up with Artie to get it. Not to pick on the doll-faces it is at this point where the story becomes more interesting as well as unfathomable. Vivian thinks that she is acting on her own behalf, and maybe she fakes having failed in that respect, in order to conceal her success.
Concurrently, the inside dope on the original of the Hitler watch, which has already spawned an uncounted number of fakes, says that it is currently being sought by an un-named Third Reich collector, rumored and likely to be super wealthy Kevin Wheatcroft, who has reportedly issued a standing offer of $4,000,000 to reputed mobster, Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli, for it. Here in Bayway Town of all places. Wheatcroft is from Peoria or some other Podunk. But, okay; maybe irrelevant detail.
Upon learning that Zanarelli wants the watch, Charlie, the Wop, Calamari rubs out Artie to get it for the big clams and status expected from Bayway Town Joe Zanarelli who has the knowledge of and the means to get it to Wheatcroft for $4MM. The cops put the blame on some homeless drifter they found dead in an alley, and said that the bum’s name was John Garlee, putting Calamari in the clear.
But, going in another direction, how did Calamari know that Artie Hayden had the watch? Did he just happen to see it? Or is there a tie to Vivian? Further, did Calamari get juiced by Zanarelli? Maybe, maybe not, maybe he’s owed a favor, maybe he got sapped. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Probably would make a good Glenn Miller song.
Whatever, behind the eight ball kind of stuff. But, maybe Calamari got lucky. Maybe someone else can too.
Zanarelli has his assistant Barrese give it to Newsboy Konetki with the “magic” code necessary to pass it to Wheatcroft, which Zanarelli gives to a happy and anxious Wheatcroft. Wheatcroft shows up, and gives the signal; but Konetki claims that he doesn’t understand as he has already given the item to the first “Wheatcroft” and has nothing for this one. Wheatcroft and Konetki both disappear. George Young had gotten wind of the Zanarelli arrangement and is pissed that the “larger” item was not put through him, and had stuck with ranks to tell his boss, DiCesare, who is furious, though remaining rational, which is his trademark.
By this time, Zanarelli and DiCesare both want to get Konetki, the last known holder, thinking it was most likely he who had kept the watch. Zanarelli gets him first and while questioning him using the torture methodology he had learned from the Zionists in “liberated” Germany, Zanarelli’s helper Buzzy Barrese, accidentally puts the chill on him. It was a mistake Zanarelli would never forgive, as he now believes the whereabouts of the watch is most likely with Konetki in the land of the dead. Who would have known that the minor amputation surprisingly, would not stop bleeding at the point of chainsaw contact? Zanarelli instructs Barrese to dump the body, but also tells DiCesare that Barrese is doing so, who sends Dugan to arrest him. But Dugan is late and doesn’t get to Barrese until after Barrese has dumped the corpse in the bay. It has not yet been found, and no authority is searching for it.
Upon hearing the “news,” DiCesare then sends Police Chief Red Doherty after Zanarelli and Barrese with a warrant citing numerous infractions including “failure to show any visible means of support,” “failure to give a good account of one’s self,” and “murder one of Konetki.” The motivation here is that Mayor Frank DiCesare wants his share of the watch or at least a cut for the transaction done on what he sees as his turf.
Zanarelli doesn’t see Bayway Town as DiCesare’s exclusive turf, but continues to not confront that old buried issue directly as he finds it easier to tell the pragmatic truth; that he continues to not have the watch or any scratch related thereto. This was a bit of a technicality, as his assistant, Buzzy Barrese, had already passed it to Newsboy Konetki with instructions to give it to Kevin Wheatcroft, when he shows up to get the paper. Zanarelli was to collect later from Wheatcroft, as Wheatcroft can afford it and is in no position to get at odds with the mob by stiffing a made member. Red Doherty had been instructed by DiCesare to just bluff with the warrant by fucking it up. “We don’t have any need to have Bayway Town Joe up on charges.”
That this is the result of a seemingly frustrated and irrational, and uncharacteristic DiCesare seems possible, but he is not guilty on both counts. DiCesare also still thinks it’s possible that Zanarelli has the watch, despite it making more overly simplistic financial sense for Zanarelli to have transferred it for cash to Wheatcroft, while that scenario is lacking in the face of a pragmatic wish to hold collectibles during the Truman based inflation. Regardless, DiCesare wants his share now, and as previously stated, when stonewalled has Zanarelli and Barrese arrested by Red Doherty for Konetki’s murder, in the hope that Barrese will get scared and talk. He’s facing serious time and will not have good legal representation.
However, according to Lefty, Nigel was the one who actually got the Hitler watch. Nigel had used his lack of recognizable characteristics to pose as Wheatcroft after finding out about the whole thing “from me, yeztruly, his man on ‘the big corner,’ ‘Lefty’ Stan Centraglia.”
Nigel had gotten it from Newsboy after Lefty got him the password, and since no one in Bayway Town knows a Nigel from a Wheatcroft, Nigel showed up first, said the magic words, and got it. Centraglia had picked up the password because stupid Buzzy Barrese was at Nigel’s bar and without any regard for the necessary secrecy used the bar phone to ameche his boss Zanarelli to ‘proudly’ confirm that he had completed his task of passing the watch to Konetki and that Konetki fully understood that the code phrase for transfer was “What have we got in tonight’s news?” which Zanarelli had passed to Wheatcroft. Nigel tried to sell the watch to Wheatcroft. It was easy as they happen to frequent many of the same places. Wheatcroft checked it, and refused to buy it, saying that it was one of the fakes, pointing at the lack of any inscription. When Nigel left, he also verified that with “independent” experts and sources, and having no interest in a fake, he gave the watch to “Lefty.”
Maybe Nigel still has the real thing and holds it as a good investment in the Truman inflationary environment, as after he contacted Wheatcroft to sell him the watch for the offered $4MM, he could have gotten one of the many fakes and offered that to Wheatcroft instead. But when Wheatcroft refused the watch saying it’s a fake, he had no more use for it, and gave it to “Lefty” for his good work.
If in fact Lefty’s watch is a Hitler fake, and it probably is as Wheatcroft has effectively lusted after wanting Hitler’s real watch, then the question becomes when the substitution was made. It could have been done by Nigel, but it could also take us all the way back to French Sergeant Robert Mignot, and everyone thereafter involved. Any of them could have easily acquired one of the many fakes, switched it with the real McCoy, and are still holding the one of a kind Hitler watch as an inflation hedge in a new market, intending to sell it later. It’s stupid to think that it dropped into someone’s hands accidentally. Accidents never happen in a perfect world. And who knows what other unknown party or parties might have held or are still holding onto the Great One’s favorite possession? The possible tangents are immeasurable.
Sam thought; “The more information I get and the more I think about it, the less I’m sure of. Though there is probably going to be a huge payoff for someone who puts themselves in the right place at the right time, with muscle, it’s a reet fine line. Probably. But, three that we know of are dead already, and two are facing big time in the cooler. Zanarelli is out cabbage or the equivalent. It’s duck soup that there are just too many avenues to investigate which are all behind the eight ball to make the shot a good percentage play. The best gamblers only bet on sure things.”
He called Mida Carey. She was home all alone and didn’t have a thing to do.
Sam said; “Meet me at Woolworth’s?”
Mida said; “That’s so charmingly novel. I’ll be there!” She thought; “I’m going to get that furry little kitten today!”
As Sam put down the phone and took it on the arches, he felt childish and silly, but most of all Jake. He also felt the heat subside in a summer breeze while a congregation of white, cumulous clouds rolled in. They seemed to bring the sky closer to the earth.
The End
Able Grable: Girl with low morals.
Above my pay grade: Don’t ask me.
Active duty: Sexually promiscuous boy.
Alienist: An archaic term for a psychiatrist or psychologist, which fell out of favor by the middle of the twentieth century.
Ameche: To telephone.
Anchor Clanker: Sailor.
Ankle: Walk, as in “Ankle past him slow.”
Armored heifer: Canned milk.
A-shirt: A tank top-style undershirt that had no sleeves or collar and usually had wide shoulder straps.
Ashtray: A vessel or small dish, sometimes with a lid, used for cigarettes and ashes.
Az men git dem tayvl a hor, vil er di gantse bord: If you give the devil a hair, he’ll want the whole beard.
Bangtail: A racehorse.
Bark: Exterior. Rough bark indicates a person has an especially tough exterior or a lot of nerve.
Bathtub: Motorcycle sidecar.
Bean shooter: A small caliber handgun.
Beezer: Nose.
Behind the eight ball: In a highly dangerous or disadvantageous position.
Bird: Girl.
Bite the linoleum: To die.
Blind pig/tiger: A location where liquors and alcoholic beverages were sold illegally.
Blow: Leave.
Bobby sox Brigade: Young jitterbugs.
Boiler: An automobile.
Borsalino: An Italian made fedora.
Bottle blonde: A person, usually a female, whose hair has been bleached blond.
Brainchild: Someone’s creative idea.
Broad: A woman.
Brown bread: Dead.
Bucket: An automobile.
Bulge: An advantage.
Bull: A prison guard, uniformed police officer, or a plainclothes railroad cop.
Bump/bump off: To kill.
Bump gums: To talk about nothing worthwhile.
Burn: Kill.
Burn the road: Speed; drive fast, possibly too fast; burn rubber; leave marks; etc.
Button your chin: Keep quiet,
Butts: Cigarettes.
C: $100.
C-note: $100 bill.
Cabbage: Money.
Call box: A telephone randomly located on city sidewalks and used, in bygone days, by police officers to check in or to report crimes, emergencies, fires, etc.
Can: The bathroom or jail.
Canned: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Cheaters: Sunglasses.
Cheese it: To run or get away or to hide or put things out of sight.
Chesterfield: An upholstered sofa.
Chicago overcoat: Coffin.
Chill off: Kill.
Chin/chinning: Conversation, talking.
Chinese angle: A strange or unusual twist or aspect to something, as in “You’re not going to find a Chinese angle in this case.”
Chippy: A prostitute.
Chopper: A machine gun.
Christopher Columbus: Exclamation of surprise.
Chrome-dome: A bald headed man.
Chucklehead: Unintelligent person.
Chump: A stupid or foolish person.
Chump change: Small amount of money.
Clams: Money.
Clobbered: Have a crush on.
Club fighters: Local professional boxers with mediocre fight records.
Coffin nails: Cigarettes.
Confidential lay: Working in confidence for someone else; a secret job.
Cook with gas: To do something right.
Cookin’ with helium: Dances well and fast.
Cooler: Jail.
Copacetic: Okay, fine, as in “She was copacetic with me.”
Cop it sweet: To accept a penalty/sentence/jail time without complaint or squealing.
Crate: An automobile.
Creampuff: A pushover.
Crikey: A mild oath.
Crumb: Jerk, no fun.
Cut a rug: Dance.
Cutter: A medical examiner or coroner; can also refer to a doctor generally.
Daily: A newspaper.
Daisy: A man who is none too masculine.
Dame: A woman.
Dance card: A card listing partners for scheduled dances at a social event; also, a calendar of engagements.
Dark meat: A black person.
Davenport: An upholstered sofa.
Dead hoofer: Poor dancer.
Deck: A pack of cigarettes, as in “a deck of Lucky Strikes.”
Digging the jive: Dance.
Dime: A ten year prison sentence.
Ding-dong: A penis or a dumb person.
Dinge: A black person.
Dish: A good looking woman.
Divan: A couch.
Dodgy: Evasive, tricky. It can also refer to something not good, reliable, or sound.
Doll/dollface: A good looking woman.
Doll dizzy: Girl crazy.
Don’t do me any favors: A bit difficult to explain as it’s pejorative. It’s something like saying; “Keep your shit. I don’t want it and I’m not doing you any favors in return.”
Don’t go into a decline: Don’t get depressed.
Dope: Information. Also, dope can refer to drugs of any kind or to have something or someone figured out, as in “She had him doped as a copper.”
Doper: One who takes dope; drug user; addict.
Dopey: Not smart, nerdy.
Doppelgänger: German for someone who looks like someone else; alter ego, double, or lookalike.
Double sawbuck: A twenty dollar bill.
Dough: Money.
Dressed to the nines: Perfectly dressed in the most fashionable attire.
Drilling: Shooting someone.
Drip: A boring person.
Drop a nickel/drop a dime: Make a phone call, sometimes meaning to the police to inform on someone.
Duck soup: Easy, a piece of cake.
Ducky shin cracker: A good dancer.
Duds: Clothes, generally.
Dust: Leave, depart.
Dutch act: Commit suicide, as in “The mug pulled the Dutch act.”
Eager beaver: Enthusiastic helper.
Egghead: A brainy person.
Fade: To go away, get lost.
Fag: Cigarette.
Fan dancer: A female dancer who performs, either entirely nude or apparently so, while concealing herself throughout by manipulating two large fans, typically constructed from ostrich feathers.
Fat-head: Stupid or foolish person.
Fill with daylight: Shoot someone.
Fin: A five dollar bill.
Fit up: To frame.
Flame top: Redhead.
Flip your wig: To lose control of yourself.
Flivver: A Ford automobile.
Floaters: Corpses in the water.
Floozy: A girl with the connotation of one who is easy or cheap.
Flop: A residence, usually a run-down joint. Also to go to bed.
Floy floy: Nonsense, as in the flat foot floogie with the floy floy.
Flush: Having a large amount of money.
Frail: A woman.
French postcard: An erotic postcard sized photograph, usually sold by furtive characters.
Frill: A girl with the connotation of one who is easy or cheap.
Fuddy-Duddy: Old fashioned person.
G: $1,000.
G-men: Agents of the federal government.
Gab: Short for gabardine fabric.
Gams: A woman’s legs.
Ganef: Yiddish for a thief, a rascal.
Gargle: Drink, as in “Let’s find a blind pig and gargle.”
Gas: Either a good time or something that was really funny.
Gaspers: Cigarettes.
Gassing: Talking, chatting.
Gat: A gun.
Gate: Short for Alligator, Jitterbug.
Gave him lead poisoning: Shot someone.
Gave the gate: Having shown someone the door; having invited them to leave.
Git: The getaway map and/or the car.
Give the air: Brush off, break up with, dump.
Glom: Steal, pinch.
Gob: Swabbie: A sailor.
Gobbledygook: Double talk, long speech.
Gone with the wind: Run off (with the money).
Goo and the moo: Pancakes, syrup and milk.
Gorilla: Muscular man.
Gowed up: On dope, high.
Grab some air: Put your hands up.
Grand: $1000.
Grandstand: To show off.
Greased: Paid off, as in; “Don’t worry. The cops have been greased.”
Grub: Food.
Gumshoe: A cop, usually a detective; also a private detective.
Half a bag on: Inebriated.
Happy lady: A prostitute.
Hard number: Tough guy, hard guy.
Hardware: A firearm.
Hash house A cheap restaurant.
Hatchet man: A killer or gunman.
Heap: An automobile.
Heebie-jeebies: The jitters, the creeps.
Heel: Undesirable man, a jerk, a lowlife.
Hen fruit: Eggs.
Hi-de-ho: Hello.
Highbinder: A corrupt politician.
High sign: A gesture, word, or phrase used a signal of approval or warning.
Hi sugar, are you rationed?: Are you going steady?
Hooch: Liquor, booze.
Hoofer: A dancer.
Hoofing it: Walking, traveling on foot.
Hoosegow: Jail; Also cooler, lockup.
Hoover flag: Pockets turned inside out on a man’s pants, indicating that he has nothing.
Hop: Drugs, mostly morphine or derivatives like heroin.
Hophead: A drug user; a drug addict, especially heroin; a pot smoker, dope fiend.
Hotel dick/house detective: A person who is employed to prevent disorderly or improper conduct of patrons or visitors. A security guard, today.
Humdinger: Remarkable, outstanding.
Hush money: Cash paid to someone to keep quiet about a particular matter or set of facts the payer does not want made public.
Ice: Kill or diamonds.
I’m going fishing: I’m looking for a date.
In a lather: In an agitated or overwrought state.
In cahoots with: Conspiring with.
In hock: In debt.
In the chips: Having money to spend.
Irish luggage: heavy duty, plastic trash bag.
Iron: A gun or a car, usually the former.
Jake: Fine, okay, acceptable.
Jalopy: A car.
Jam: Trouble, a tight spot.
Jammed: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Jane: A woman.
Jasper: A man, possibly a hick.
Java: Coffee.
Jaw: Talk.
Jeepers: Exclamation of alarm.
Jiffy: Quick.
Jiggered: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Jitney: An unlicensed taxicab.
Jits: Jitterbug.
Jive: Swing Music.
Jobbed: Being ambushed, beaten, done a number on, as in, “I was jobbed by some crumb.”
Joe: Coffee.
Jolt: A prison sentence. Can be described in terms of a coin, as in “He got a nickel jolt in Joliet,” meaning a five year sentence in jail.
Joss house: A Chinese temple or shrine; also, descriptive of a residence with an abundance of Chinese decorations or artifacts.
Journeyman fighter: A pugilist, who is slightly more respected than a club fighter, with a superficially good fight record.
Joy girl: A prostitute.
Jug: Jail.
Jujus: Marijuana, marijuana cigarettes.
Keister: Rump.
Kerfuffle: A disturbance, a fuss.
Khaki wacky: Boy crazy.
Kick off: Die.
Killer-diller: Good stuff.
Kip: A bed or to sleep.
Kisser: Face or mouth.
Knockin’ it out: Dance amazingly.
Kopescetic: Fine, okay.
Lady of the evening: A prostitute.
Lam: Flee hastily. Also, to be on the run.
Lamb: Nice person.
Large: $1,000. Two hundred and fifty large would be $250,000.
Lather: An agitated or overwrought state.
Lay an egg: screw up, mess up, be boring.
Lay off: Leave alone, quit bothering.
Lettuce: Money.
Licorice stick: Clarinet.
Lid: Hat.
Lip: A criminal defense lawyer.
Lit: being drunk.
Lockup: Jail.
Lollipop: A person who is lacking experience; naive, weak, or without a backbone.
Looker: An attractive woman.
Losing on points: A boxing term, meaning to be losing a bout in terms of points awarded to each boxer by the judges, as opposed to losing by being beaten up.
Lothario: A man whose chief interest is seducing women.
Lounge: An upholstered sofa.
Lousy with: Full of, brimming with.
Lowdown: The details, a rundown, the skinny.
Lug: Man; also can be a bullet or an ear.
Lunger: Someone infected with tuberculosis.
Machine: Car.
Made: Recognized, as in “She made me as I followed her on the sidewalk” or “Mob capo di capos Capodice rendered Vincenzo a made man.”
Mark: Sucker; victim of a swindle or fixed game.
Marker: An IOU or promissory note, often associated with a gambling debt.
Mark it on the ice: Forget about it.
Masher: A man who always makes passes at women.
Meat wagon: Ambulance or coroner’s vehicle.
Miscount the trumps: Misinterpret or misunderstand a situation; overlook something.
Mitt: Hand, paw.
M.O.: ModusOperandi. A distinct pattern or method of operation which indicates or suggests the work of a single criminal or organization in more than one crime.
Moll: Gangster’s girlfriend, woman friend, female partner.
Moniker: Name or nickname.
Motorized freckles: Insects.
Mouse: A dark-colored swelling caused by a blow; also, a black eye.
Mouthpiece: A lawyer.
Moxie: Courage, determination, guts.
Muckety-muck: An important and often arrogant person.
Mug: Man or face.
Muggles: Marijuana.
Mush: Face.
Nag: A racehorse.
Nancy or Nance: A man who is not very masculine.
Newshawk: An aggressive journalist.
Newshound: An aggressive journalist.
Newsie: Someone who sells newspapers on the street or from a newsstand; can also refer to a newspaper reporter.
Nickel: A five-year prison sentence.
Noodle: Head.
Not a dicky bird: Not a sound, not an utterance.
Obits: Short for obituary, referring to the obituary section of a newspaper.
Off: To kill or murder; also to go away or depart.
Off the cob: Corny, goofy.
Old Sparky: The electric chair.
On the beam: Cool, A-one.
On the lam: Running away.
On the nut: To be broke.
Operative: A private detective.
Orphan paper: Bad checks.
Out like a light: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Pack: To carry something, especially a gun.
Packing heat: Carrying a gun.
Pan: Face.
Pansy: A man who is none too masculine.
Pass the buck: Pass responsibility for.
Patsy: Person who is set up; a fool or a chump.
Pay station: A pay telephone, in a booth or otherwise.
Peeper: Detective.
Pennies from heaven: Easy money.
Picture house: Movie theater.
Pie eyed: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Piffled: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Pig in a poke: Something unseen as in: “I’m not buying a pig in a poke.”
Pinch: Arrest, capture.
Pins: A woman’s legs.
Pin your diapers on: Get dressed
Pipe down: Be quiet.
Play: A gambit, plan, scheme, business, or procedure, like in “Having a second man along would certainly help his play.”
Plug: To shoot someone.
Poke: A bankroll, a stake. Also, a wallet or purse; the term usually applying to the money therein.
Potted: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Pour house: A location where liquors and alcoholic beverages were sold illegally.
Private dick: A private detective.
Private eye: A private detective.
Pro skirt: A prostitute.
Pug: A boxer, prizefighter, fighter, pugilist.
Punk: Generally a lowlife; also a hood or a thug.
Puss: A face.
Put over: To achieve or carry through by trickery or deceit.
Put the chill on: Kill.
Put the wind up: Make someone nervous or afraid.
Queer: To ruin something or to put it wrong, as in “You ain’t gonna queer this investigation!” Counterfeit money.
Quenchers: Cold drinks.
Racket: Job, caper, scheme, business, game.
Rag: A newspaper.
Rags: Clothes, generally.
Rank: Observe, watch, give the once over.
Rap: Information, as in “He gave us the rap.”
Rat/ratted: Informer and squeal as in “He was ratted on.”
Reefer: Marijuana.
Reet: Very.
Ribbing: Giving a hard time; teasing, kidding.
Right gee: A good guy; also, right guy.
Ring: A gang, mob.
Rod: A gun.
Rodded: Carrying a gun.
Roscoe: A gun.
Round heels: A prostitute. A woman of easy virtue.
Rub out: A killing. To rub out someone is to kill them.
Rug cutter: Dancer.
Rumpot: A drunkard or an alcoholic.
Rumpus: Disturbance, excitement, dust up, fight.
Russian thistle: Tumbleweed.
Rusty dusty: Rump.
Salt and pepper: Having black-and-white or dark and light color intermingled. A salt and pepper neighborhood is made up of both whites and blacks. Someone with salt and pepper hair would have a mixture of gray and dark hair.
Sap: A dumb guy or a blackjack, as in’ “Marlowe calls his sap ‘the persuader.’”
Saratoga lake houses: A group of nightclubs operating in the vicinity of Lake Lonely on the east side of Saratoga Springs, a community most known for its good air used to comfort the tubercular and otherwise breathing impaired, starting in the 1920s. They offered fine dining and entertainment along with illegal gambling and illegal liquor during Prohibition.
Sawbuck: Ten dollar bill.
Scratch: Money.
Screw: Jail guard.
Send over: Send to jail, send to prison.
Settee: An upholstered sofa.
Shadow: Follow.
Shakedown: Blackmail, extortion. The act of obtaining from a person by force or intimidation something of value, usually money.
Shamus: A private detective.
Share crop: Sexually promiscuous girl.
Sheik: A man whose chief interest is seducing women.
Shellacked: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Shine: A black person.
Shot: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Shyster: A person who is professionally unscrupulous, especially in the practices of law and lending; also a mouthpiece.
Simoleons: Dollars.
Sinkers: Doughnuts.
Sitting on dynamite: In the crosshairs, on the hot seat; in the middle of an explosive situation.
Situation: A job or a post.
Skint: Penniless.
Skirt: A woman.
Slack happy: Dumb and happy.
Slag: A lewd or promiscuous woman
Sleepy time girl: A prostitute.
Smoke: A black person or denatured alcohol which often served as booze during prohibition, and could be deadly.
Smokes: Cigarettes.
Snap your cap: Get angry.
Snatch: Kidnap, abduct.
Sob sister: Sentimental or impractical person.
Sod all: Nothing.
Soup job: Cracking a safe using nitroglycerine.
Spade: Name of a private detective or a black person.
Speakeasy/speak: A location where liquors and alcoholic beverages were sold illegally.
Specs: Eyeglasses.
Spill: Talk, inform, as in “Spill it, punk!”
Sporting lint: Empty pockets; no money.
Squidy: Sailor.
Squirting metal: Shooting a gun.
Stake: A bankroll.
Steady on: Take it easy, calm yourself.
Step off: To be hanged.
Stiff: A corpse.
Stinko: Drunk, tight, blotto.
Stir: Prison, jail.
Stogie: An inexpensive cigar.
Stompers: Shoes.
Stoolie: A stool pigeon, an informer, a rat.
Strap watch: Wristwatch.
Streetwalker: A prostitute.
Stretch: A prison sentence.
Strictly from Dixie: Corny, not cool.
Sunday punch: A powerful or devastating blow, especially a knockout punch.
Super: A term referring to the superintendent of a building.
Swabbie: A sailor.
Swab: A sailor.
Swag: Money; goods; valuables.
Swell: Good, fine, nice; or a rich person.
Swells: People of high social position or who are dressed in the height of fashion.
Swing a wing: Dance Swing.
Tabloid: A newspaper.
Tag: Someone following another person.
Tail: Shadow, follow; or somebody who is following another.
Take a powder: Leave.
Take it on the arches: Leave, go away.
Take some air: Leave, go outside, or go for a ride.
Talkies: Moving pictures with the audio and dialogue added.
Tanakh: The Hebrew Bible.
Tanked: Intoxicated; tight; stewed to the hat.
Tangle: A fight, a dust up, a disturbance.
Tar: Swabbie: A sailor.
Ten spot: A ten dollar bill.
Things are tough all over: You can shove that sob story somewhere.
Throwing metal: Shooting a gun.
Toffee nosed: Snobbish.
Tomato: An attractive woman.
Torch singer: One who specializes in singing songs of unrequited love; also, referred to a torcher
Trilby: A soft felt hat with an indented crown, much like a soft fedora.
Tumble: Figure out, understand, realize, deduce, have an insight.
Twist: A woman.
Two to a mule: In droves.
Up the river: In jail, usually a state prison; also, behind bars locally.
Vamp: A woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men.
Vig/vigorish: Interest taken, usually by a loan shark, shyster, bookie, or a gambling house on debts.
Weak sister: A pushover.
What’s buzzin’, cousin?: How’s it going?
Wheats: Pancakes, as in “a stack of wheats.”
Wheelman: The driver of a motor vehicle, often used in terms of criminal activity. Getaway car driver, often a hophead, and minor player.
White night: A sleepless night.
Wind someone up: Jerk someone around.
Wing mirror: Side view mirror.
Wire: Telephone line, as in “Hold the wire, I’ll get her.”
Yap: Mouth
Yegg: A safecracker who can only open easy safes or, generally, a tough character.