Nelson Algren - The Man with the Golden Arm

A. He was in jail a little now and then. Nothing serious.

Q. Before he was in jail, did he work for you?

A. No, no, he did one thing. Dealt cards. Made pretty good when he worked. Sometimes he couldn’t work every night though, how those things are.

Q. What other work did you know him to do in the past?

A. When he was a boy one summer he was a caddy, every day, the whole summer. We went together, I think they called the course Indian Hill, something like that. Once when he owed me for drinks he fixed the furnace. He could work good but not every day, he got restless then and start to drink. When he don’t work, then he don’t drink so much.

Q. Did he always drink, before all this trouble?

A. Sometimes he was a heavy drinker, then for a while he don’t drink at all, like he’s thinkin’ about somethin’. Then if he got drunk it would be awhile before he begin again. A week, maybe two weeks with hardly a drink. Just a beer or two.

Q. Does he owe you money now?

A. Nothing, nothing.

Q. When did you last see him?

A. Yesterday in the morning, I just opened up and there he was waiting, I didn’t know who it was one minute, he didn’t say. Just standing there saying nothing in the dark. I said, ‘Who’s there?’ and he says then, ‘You alone, Owner?’ When I go up to him I see. He looks like chicken with the soup out. He looks like just out of hospital.

Q. You knew the police had been looking for him. You knew it was your duty to call the police right then.

A. Nothing I knew. All I know is sometimes he is in jail a little, what for isn’t my business. I knew he was in some trouble but I don’t ask about such things, I don’t mix in politics. I just serve whisky and beer.

Q. Did he tell you he wished he were dead, that he wanted to die, that sort of thing?

A. No, no, no. That one never talked like that. Never . All he talked was he’s going to work for Gene Krupa, play ‘hot drums’ he calls it someplace downtown – then he laughs, he don’t really think so, he just like to hear how it sounds when he talks big like that.

Q. Was he nervous during this last conversation?

A. Never nervous. Just don’t feel good, too much domestic trouble, too many bills, too much beer, that’s all.

Q. Did you know of him taking anything more stimulating than beer?

A. Whisky. That’s all. Whisky.

DEPUTY: Line 16. That’s right, the full name. Your address right below it. Thank you. Next witness.

The second witness, having been duly sworn, was then examined by Deputy Coroner Hackett and testified as follows:

DEPUTY: What is your name, Sergeant?

OFFICER: L. H. Fallon.

Q. Were you the officer who found the deceased?

A. That’s right. Myself and Officer Otto Schaeffer. A bit after midnight it was.

Q. And that was at?

A. 1179 W. Madison Street, a small hotel there, we got the call on Sangamon and Adams – this is the gentleman here who called, he’d gone up to see what this fellow was hollering about.

CLERK: I went up there the first time and saw he’d been hurt some way, so I went back down to the phone and while I was phoning I heard something else and ran right back up. I couldn’t get in the door, we don’t have keys but he’d put something up against the knob. I jumped up and looked down through the top – we have that chicken-wire top like according to the Board of Health it’s permitted and I seen him hanging but I couldn’t cut him down, I couldn’t get inside. I figure this ain’t my job now it’s up to the officers – I work in this place almost three months now and it’s the first time anything like this happened except once, my first week. As soon as this man come in it seemed to me-

DEPUTY: Let the officer tell what he found.

OFFICER FALLON: When we broke in the door the deceased had fallen, the wire had given way – the wire he’d hooked the rope onto but the rope was still around his throat, it was soaped, there was still a bit of soap in his hand. He was up against the bed, huddled there like, he must have hit the bedpost with his forehead when the wire gave, it was bruised there where he hit it and tore the sleeve of his jacket. The knees were bent – like under him and the head hung on one side, toward the shoulder.

DEPUTY: Was he fully clothed?

OFFICER: Fully clothed, except for one shoe, he just had the right one on. The heel of the foot without a shoe had been torn by a.38-caliber shell. We removed him to the Polish-American Hospital where he was identified as the man who escaped them earlier in the day. There was a murder warrant out on him. He was pronounced dead by Dr Blue and removed to the County Morgue.

Q. How was he dressed when you found him?

A. He was wearing army clothes, mostly. A combat jacket, suntans, army shirt dyed green, army brogans.

Q. Were there any valuables?

A. A few dimes in one pocket. No papers. A good-conduct medal in his wallet.

DEPUTY: Line 17, Sergeant. Thank you. Next witness.

The third witness, having been duly sworn, was then examined by Deputy Coroner Hackett and testified as follows:

Q. You’re the young woman being held in connection with the death of Francis Majcinek?

A. That’s right.

Q. When did you last see the deceased?

A. Around one, maybe two o’clock yesterday.

Q. Where was this at?

A. The house on Maypole Street where the police came.

Q. What is that? A hotel?

A. Rooming house.

Q. You lived there with the deceased?

A. Since winter.

Q. I see. Did you get along well together?

A. Very well. No trouble at all.

Q. What was the matter with him?

A. Just worried all the time, no work, sorry for things he’d done, blaming himself, all like that.

Q. What I mean is, weren’t there other things – bad habits he’d picked up depressing him?

A. Drinking, that was his one bad habit.

Q. Did you ever hear him threaten to commit suicide?

A. Never. Not once. Oh well, he used to like to say things, but it didn’t mean anything.

Q. Tell us what you mean.

A. Just swing talk like musicians use. He liked to say ‘Some cats swing like that.’ Then he’d laugh, just a saying he had, it didn’t mean anything.

Q. Did you know he was wanted for murder?

A. He never told me that.

Q. But did you know it?

A. Nobody told me that.

Q. I see. And you just met him recently?

A. I know Frankie ten years. We went together before he got married.

Q. Do you understand the charge against you?

A. They haven’t told me yet.

Q. It’s called ‘Accessory after the Fact,’ that’s very serious, you will have to go to jail if you’re found guilty.

A. Are you trying me here, Coroner? If not I’d rather let the lawyers decide in court.

DEPUTY: Thank you. Line 18. Just write ‘no address.’ The statement of the coroner’s physician is as follows: ‘In my opinion death was due to asphyxiation by strangulation.’ Is there any reason why this inquest shouldn’t be closed? (No response.)

DEPUTY: Let the record show no response. The verdict of the coroner’s jury will read that the deceased came to his death from asphyxiation by strangulation, with a rope around his neck extended from a wire roofing put on with his own hands with suicidal intent, at the above-mentioned location between midnight of March 31st, 1948, and 12:20 A.M. of April 1st while temporarily insane. Close the case.

Epitaph: The Man with the Golden Arm

It’s all in the wrist, with a deck or a cue,

And Frankie Machine had the touch.

He had the touch, and a golden arm-

‘Hold up, Arm,’ he would plead,

Kissing his rosary once for help

With the faders sweating it out and-