James Ellroy: American tabloid

Get to it, you officious little-

“In fact, you’ve always dressed distinctly. Perhaps ‘expensively’ is more apt. To be blunt, there have been times when I wondered how your salary could sustain your wardrobe.”

“Sir, you should see my apartment What my wardrobe possesses, it lacks.”

Hoover chuckled. “Be that as it may, I doubt if I’ve seen you in the same suit twice. I’m sure the women you’re so fond of appreciate your sartorial flair.”

“Sir, I hope so.”

“You endure my amenities with considerable flair, Mr. Boyd. Most men squirm. You express both your inimitable personal panache and a concurrent respect for me that is quite alluring. Do you know what this means?”

“No, Sir. I don’t.”

“It means that I like you and am prone to forgive indiscretions that I would crucify other agents for. You’re a dangerous and ruthless man, but you possess a certain beguiling charm. This balance of attributes outweighs your profligate tendencies and allows me to be fond of you.”

DON’T SAY “WHAT INDISCRETIONS?”-HE’LL TELL YOU AND MAIM YOU.

“Sir, I greatly appreciate your respect, and I reciprocate it fully.”

“You didn’t include ‘fondness’ in your reciprocity, but I won’t press the point. Now, business. I have an opportunity for you to earn two regular paychecks, which should delight you no end.”

Hoover leaned back coax-me style. Kemper said, “Sir?”

The limo accelerated. Hoover flexed his hands and straightened his necktie. “The Kennedy brothers’ recent actions have distressed me. Bobby seems to be using the McClellan Committee’s labor racketeering mandate as a means to upstage the Bureau and advance his brother’s presidential aspirations. This displeases me. I’ve been running the Bureau since before Bobby was born. Jack Kennedy is a desiccated liberal playboy with the moral convictions of a crotch-sniffing hound dog. He’s playing crimefighter on the McClellan Committee, and the very existence of the committee is an implicit slap in the Bureau’s face. Old Joe Kennedy is determined to buy his son the White House, and I want to possess information to help mitigate the boy’s more degenerately egalitarian policies, should he succeed.”

Kemper caught his cue. “Sir?’

“I want you to infiltrate the Kennedy organization. The McClellan Committee’s labor-racketeering mandate ends next spring, but Bobby Kennedy is still hiring lawyer-investigators. As of now you are retired from the FBI, although you will continue to draw full pay until July 1961, the date you reach twenty years of Bureau service. You are to prepare a convincing FBI retirement story and secure an attorney’s job with the McClellan Committee. I know that both you and Jack Kennedy have been intimate with a Senate aide named Sally Lefferts. Miss Lefferts is a talkative woman, so I’m sure young Jack has heard about you. Young Jack is on the McClellan Committee, and young Jack loves sexual gossip and dangerous friends. Mr. Boyd, I am sure that you will fit in with the Kennedys. I’m sure that this will be both a salutary opportunity for you to practice your skills of dissembling and duplicity, and the chance to exercise your more promiscuous tastes.”

Kemper felt weightless. The limo cruised on thin air.

Hoover said, “Your reaction delights me. Rest now. We’ll arrive in Washington in an hour, and I’ll drop you at your apartment.”

o o o

Hoover supplied up-to-date study notes-in a leather binder stamped “CONFIDENTIAL.” Kemper mixed a pitcher of extradry martinis and pulled up his favorite chair to read through them.

The notes boiled down to one thing: Bobby Kennedy vs. Jimmy Hoffa.

Senator John McClellan chaired the U.S. Senate’s Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor and Management Field, established in January 1957. Its subsidiary members: Senators Ives, Kennedy, McNamara, McCarthy, Ervin, Mundt, Goldwater. Its chief counsel and investigative boss: Robert F Kennedy.

Current personnel: thirty-five investigators, forty-five accountants, twenty-five stenographers and clerks. Its current housing: the Senate Office Building, suite 101.

The Committee’s stated goals:

To expose corrupt labor practices; to expose labor unions collusively linked to organized crime. The Committee’s methods: witness subpoenas, document subpoenas, and the charting of union funds diverted and misused in organized crime activities.

The Committee’s de facto target: the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the most powerful transportation union on earth, arguably the most corrupt and powerful labor union ever.

Its president: James Riddle Hoffa, age 45.

Hoffa: Mob bought-and-paid-for. The suborner of: extortion, wholesale bribery, beatings, bombings, management side deals and epic abuse of union funds.

Hoffa’s suspected holdings, in violation of fourteen antitrust statutes:

Trucking firms, used car lots, a dog track, a car-rental chain, a Miami cabstand staffed by Cuban refugees with extensive criminal records.

Hoffa’s close friends:

Mr. Sam Giancana, the Mafia boss of Chicago; Mr. Santo Trafficante Jr., the Mafia boss of Tampa, Florida; Mr. Carlos Marcello, the Mafia boss of New Orleans.

Jimmy Hoffa.

Who lends his “friends” millions of dollars, put to use illegally.

Who owns percentages of Mob-run casinos in Havana, Cuba.

Who illegally funnels cash to Cuban strongman Fulgencio Batista and rebel firebrand Fidel Castro.

Who rapes the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund, a cashrich watering hole rumored to be administered by Sam Giancana’s Chicago Mob-a loan-shark scheme wherein gangsters and crooked entrepreneurs borrow large sums at usurious interest rates, with nonpayment penalties up to and including torture and death.

Kemper caught the gist: Hoover’s jealous. He always said the Mob didn’t exist-because he knew he couldn’t prosecute it successfully. Now Bobby Kennedy begs to differ…

A chronology followed.

Early ‘57: the Committee targets Teamster president Dave Beck. Beck testifies five times; Bobby Kennedy’s relentless goading breaks the man. A Seattle grand jury indicts him for larceny and income tax evasion.

Spring ‘57: Jimmy Hoffa assumes complete control of the Teamsters.

August ‘57: Hoffa vows to rid his union of gangster intluence-a large lie.

September ‘57: Hoffa goes to trial in Detroit The charge: tapping the phones of Teamster subordinates. A hung jury-Hoffa escapes sentencing.

October ‘57: Hoffa is elected International Teamster president. A persistent rumor: 70% of his delegates were illegally selected.

July ‘58: the Committee begins to investigate direct links between the Teamsters and organized crime. Closely scrutinized: the November ‘57 Apalachin Conclave.

Fifty-nine high-ranking mobsters meet at the upstate New York home of a “civilian” friend. A state trooper named Edgar Croswell runs their license plates. A raid ensues-and Mr. Hoover’s longstanding “there is no Mafia” stance becomes untenable.

July ‘58: Bobby Kennedy proves that Hoffa resolves strikes through management bribes-this practice dating back to ‘49.

August ‘58: Hoffa appears before the Committee. Bobby Kennedy goes at him-and traps him in numerous lies.

The notes concluded.

The Committee was currently probing Hoffa’s Sun Valley resort outside Lake Weir, Florida. Bobby Kennedy subpoenaed the Central States Pension Fund books and saw that three million dollars went into the project-much more than reasonable building costs. Kennedy’s theory: Hoffa skimmed at least a million dollars off the top and was selling his union brothers defective prefab material and alligator-infested swampland.