Max Collins - Ask Not

My portrait of Jack Ruby was in particular influenced by The Ruby Cover-Up (1978) by Seth Kantor, the reporter who saw Ruby at Parkland Hospital shortly after the assassination. Also of help were Jack Ruby (1967, 1968) by Garry Wills and Ovid Demaris; Jack Ruby’s Girls (1970) by Diana Hunter and Alice Anderson; and Moment of Madness: The People Vs. Jack Ruby (1968) by Elmer Gertz. Nightmare in Dallas (1994), Beverly Oliver’s autobiography (written with Coke Buchanan), provided insights into both Ruby and Oliver herself. The book, while well-written, rather absurdly alternates between scenes of President and Mrs. Kennedy in the White House and nightclub singer Oliver at the Colony Club.

Helpful in shaping the portrait of Bobby Kennedy were Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years (2007), David Talbot; Robert Kennedy: His Life (2000), Evan Thomas; and RFK: A Candid Biography of Robert Kennedy (1998), C. David Heymann.

Jim Garrison research included his own A Heritage of Stone (1970) and On the Trail of the Assassins (1988), as well as A Farewell to Justice (2007) by Joan Mellen. The last, despite a somewhat disjointed presentation, is a treasure trove of information on Garrison and his investigation.

Perhaps the best recent Kennedy assassination book, JFK and the Unspeakable (2008) by James W. Douglass, was enormously helpful here. Also, I am particularly indebted to JFK: The Dead Witnesses (1995) by Craig Roberts and John Armstrong.

The UK ITV series The Men Who Killed Kennedy (aired on the History Channel in the United States) explores many of the theories associated with the assassination, and I viewed all nine episodes, including “The Guilty Men,” which deals with LBJ and Mac Wallace and was pulled by the History Channel after an outcry from Johnson’s widow and surviving associates and defenders.

Numerous other Kennedy assassination books proved helpful, including Betrayal in Dallas (2011), Mark North; Conspiracy (1989 edition), Anthony Summers; The Final Chapter on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (2010), Craig I. Zirbel; Head Shot: The Science Behind the JFK Assassination (2010), G. Paul Chambers; The JFK Assassination Debates: Lone Gunman Versus Conspiracy (2006), Michael L. Kurtz; Killing the Truth (1993), Harrison Edward Livingstone; Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK (2011), Mark Lane; Legacy of Secrecy (2009), Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann; Murder from Within: Lyndon Johnson’s Plot Against President Kennedy (2011), Fred T. Newcomb and Perry Adams; No More Silence: An Oral History of the Assassination of President Kennedy (1998), Larry A. Sneed; Rush to Judgment (1966), Mark Lane; To Kill a President (2008), M. Wesley Swearingen; Ultimate Sacrifice (2005, 2006), Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann; Who Shot JFK: A Guide to the Major Conspiracy Theories (1993), Bob Callahan, illustrated by Mark Zingarelli; and Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination (1993), Michael Benson. Please do not assume that my inclusion of a title here indicates wholesale endorsement of theories therein, just as their authors are not responsible for my interpretation of evidence I’ve fitted together from many sources.

Works consulted that specifically explore the organized crime aspect of the assassination include Contract on America: The Mafia Murder of President John F. Kennedy (1988), David E. Scheim; The Plot to Kill the President (1981, 1992), G. Robert Blakey and Richard N. Billings; and The Kennedy Contract: The Mafia Plot to Assassinate the President (1993), John H. Davis. Another key mob reference was All-American Mafioso: The Johnny Rosselli Story (1991) by Charles Rappleye and Ed Becker.

An indispensable tool — courtesy of George Hagenauer — was Dallas Public and Private (1964), Warren Leslie. The WPA Guides for Texas (1969 edition), Dallas (1942), Louisiana (1959 edition), and New Orleans (1938) were also extremely helpful, as was Historic Dallas Hotels (2010), Sam Childers. Fifty Years of the Playboy Bunny (2010), Hugh Hefner, John Dant, and Josh Robertson, provided much of the Chicago Playboy Club reference, as did vintage issues of Playboy, which were also plumbed for advertising and fashion information. Vintage issues of the exotic dancer — dominated 1950’s men’s magazine Cabaret played a big role in my re-creation of the world of strip clubs in both Dallas and New Orleans.

Similarly useful was the film Naughty Dallas (1964), unearthed for DVD and download by Something Weird Video. The work of notorious low-budget Dallas filmmaker Larry Buchanan — an ad agency co-worker of Madeleine Brown’s — Naughty Dallas features footage of a strip show headlining Jada, with exterior footage of the Carousel Club and interiors at the Colony Club.

General Chicago information and color was supplied by the following books: Chicago Confidential (1950), Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer; Complete Guide to Chicago (1954), Andrew Hepburn; and The WPA Guide to Illinois (1939).

The Internet has become an indispensable research tool, and it’s difficult for me to believe that I wrote the Heller novels prior to the JFK Trilogy without its benefit. Small facts were checked dozens of times during a writing session — for example, the spelling of once common and now obscure products, the names of TV shows and popular music of the era, and the point at which slang terms entered general usage.

The following Web sites were helpful in the writing of Ask Not (names, not Web addresses, are given, since what might become of the Web addresses over time is unknown): 3525 Turtle Creek; The Beatles Bible; Billie Sol Estes: A Texas Legend; Bustout Burlesque; Con Artist Hall of Infamy; Dallas County Pioneer Association; JFK Assassination Debate — The Education Forum; French Quarter.com; The Harvard Crimson ; History with Bill Zeman; The Kilgallen Files; MFF (the Mary Ferrell Foundation); MediaNOLA; Midwest Today ; The Nostalgic Glass; Spartacus Educational; Texas Tiki; Travelgoat; and Unvisited Dallas. Also, Roger Craig and Madeleine Brown interviews were found on YouTube. Wikipedia was frequently helpful, but used as a starting point for research and never the end game.

The following articles, found on the Internet, were utilized: “Beverly Oliver (‘The Babushka Lady’) Interview” by Gary James; “Dealey Plaza Revisited” by Helen Thompson; “Disappearing Witnesses” by Penn Jones, Jr.; “Jack Ruby: Dallas’ Original J.R.” by Josh Alan Friedman; “The Most Exciting Building in America” by Jim Key; “Rambling Rose” by Chris Mills; “When They Kill a President” by Roger Craig (unfinished autobiographical book); and “Yellow Roses” by Dave Reitzes.

My thanks to Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, for answering several research questions.

Billie Sol Estes, still living at this writing, offers an autobiography on his Web site. I paid forty dollars for this volume, directly to Estes, and never received it, my queries about its whereabouts going unanswered. Getting scammed by Billie Sol Estes seemed a fitting thing to experience during the writing of this novel, giving me far more satisfaction than actually receiving the book.

On the other hand, I ordered Bond of Secrecy (2008), E. Howard Hunt’s biography, from its author, his son St. John Hunt, and soon received a signed manuscript-style copy. In a deathbed confession, the infamous spy fingers LBJ as a central figure in the Kennedy assassination. The book has been announced for more traditional publication, but at this writing is on hold.