Operation Underworld (49 page)
A man who the left hand of the government, Politics, had, just a few years earlier, enthusiastically touted as their Number One poster child on crime and incarcerated on questionable testimony for a period five times in excess of what the law proscribed.
Anyone familiar with the upper echelons of US Government shouldn’t have been too surprised by this, I suppose, as any relationship with them is comparable to a bad marriage. What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.
The waterfront is essentially a fifth character in the story and was the most interesting perspective from which to tell it. It was where I got my first real job in 1967 and the first place I actually watched, (from a safe distance), two men out to kill each other. Thus the incident on the loading dock is true, although reset in ’42.
The true parts are essentially everything to do with the government characters.
The incidents concerning the naval officers are all taken from newspaper accounts, such as Admiral Adolphus Andrews’ comments when meeting with the press, and incidents in the briefing room office, and interaction with the New York City District Attorney’s office, which is taken from period documents as well as post-war interviews.
The business between the New York City DA’s office, the Navy and the prison system is all factual, although, especially in ’45 and ’46, the events surrounding Lucky’s release from prison would make an interesting study in American politics on their own.
All of the dialogue in the White House is historically accurate, taken from Oval Office transcripts, although the ‘shocking’ discovery of Italian frogmen and mini-submarines, (a notion like jumping out of airplanes with silk sheets strapped to your back was one that the US military leaders initially rejected out of hand and then had to play catch-up with when the Nazis jumped into Crete), did not reach FDR at the same time as Enrico Fermi’s telegram announcing that he had cracked the code of atomic power in Soldier’s Field, Chicago. The incidents were more than a year apart but nevertheless are accurate.
I could find no documented evidence that FDR knew about
Operation Underworld
; however, it is hard to imagine that an operation that high up the naval chain of command occurred without his knowledge or consent, particularly when he kept a Navy captain as his official Adjutant, personal advisor and confidant.
Additionally, much to his credit, FDR was quick to pick up on unconventional approaches to operations such as tactics from the departments of ‘dirty tricks’ of other nations, as evidenced by the response telegram he dictates in Chapter Thirteen, taken from his personal collection at the National Archives.
The initial contact with Socks Lanza by the DA is accurate, save the actual wording of the conversation that night in the park along the Hudson, and is documented by individuals who had later contact with parties on both sides.
Although based on real people, Doc, Louie, Nikki and Treasury Agent Johnson, (who, along with the ‘the little black book’, connect the reality of the story with the fictional elements), are fictional. The ‘Little Black Book’, containing the most intimate details of the operation, actually existed but vanished sometime just near the end of, or just after the war, when everybody from Truman to a Department of Corrections’ secretary wanted to know who exactly was involved. It was never traced or found.
Hoover was never fully briefed about what went on and did chase his tail trying to find out. However, he had already established himself as a collector of information to be used to blackmail or exert leverage on people and so, despite what was said in public, he was never fully trusted in political circles, particularly by those not given to maniacal paranoias based on race, colour, creed or national origin.
The incident concerning a young JFK being secretly taped in a hotel room making love to Inge Arvad, the Danish journalist, is all true and leaves little doubt about the bad blood that existed between the Kennedys and J. Edgar. One can only wonder how the little cop felt when FDR ordered JFK to be transferred to PT boats in the Pacific, and Kennedy returned home a highly decorated war hero thanks to the PT109 incident.
This, in conjunction with a second unforeseen event, the death of JFK’s older brother Joseph while on a secret mission to bomb a Nazi U2 base, would put him as the front runner of the Kennedys to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Thus the significance of Hoover’s vindictiveness can possibly be seen as helping Kennedy get elected. Speculation will probably linger for generations as to whether or not he helped him out of office.
The primary influence for telling this story is William Manchester, a consummate historian who understands, and has taught me, the significance of the inter-relation of historical facts, meaning that nothing stands alone. For example, our fathers were taught and learned important points in history such as the USS Maine being blown up by saboteurs, Teddy Roosevelt charging up San Juan Hill to win the battle and the war, about the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and how important it was to get the Communists out of Hollywood before they brainwashed the country.
The USS Maine was not blown up by Spanish or Cuban saboteurs, Teddy never charged up San Juan Hill, there is recently released documented evidence that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor at least two weeks beforehand, and the Thomas-Rankin and Truman-McCarthy witch hunts and HUAC were about stopping the Writer’s Guild of America from gaining inroads into screen credit and decent pay, and had nothing to do with communists taking over Hollywood.
So, because these and hundreds, if not thousands, of other events are still taught in the American school systems as fact, to some extent the victor does get to write the history, but sooner or later some nosy, educated writers like William Manchester and Gore Vidal, or journalists like Woodward and Bernstein will happen along and piss off a bunch of people by finding out and telling the truth.
It is from the narration of the burning of the Hindenburg and the story of the Normandie that I came to understand the significance of knowing about those who came before us. I came to understand that you are what you are because of Genetics. You are where you are because of Geo-Politics. However, you are who you are because of the Genetics of Geo-Politics, which is History.
Automat
– A self-serve eating establishment whereby the customer is required to insert coins into slots adjoining small compartments with glass doors which contain the desired food item. Horn and Hardart’s were the pioneers in this food service technique and popularised it throughout the greater New York area for more that twenty years.
Beeline
– To move in a straight line towards something; interpreted to mean move swiftly towards a given location or person.
Bozo
– A popular American clown figure.
DE’s
– Destroyer Escorts. Smaller than a Destroyer.
Flipped
– “Flipped Your Wig”, to have gone crazy.
Goim
– One who is not Jewish; not of the faith. Usually Christians.
Grapevine, The
– A source of unfounded gossip; rumours. In naval terminology, “The Scuttlebutt”.
G.W.
– Short for The George Washington Bridge.
INS
– Immigration and Naturalisation Service.
Lead pipe cinch
– An absolute sure thing. An event whose outcome is 100% certain.
Maxine, Patty and Leverne
– The three Andrews Sisters.
OJT
– On the Job Training.
Regular Coffee
– The most common way to take your coffee in New York City at the time, with milk and sugar.
Savvy
– To understand or comprehend.
Schmoe
– A looser.
Schmuck
– A sucker.
“School’s out, Satch!” –
Wise-up. In the
Bowery Boys
films, Satch was the reflective/comic relief character who always had to be told the score.
Scutch
– Short for Scucheem, American mispronounciation of Sfaccimme. Sicilian for son of an unmarried, pregnant woman in heat. A son-of-a-bitch or bastard. To annoy, aggravate or purposely irritate.
Shadow Box
– To compete against oneself; interpreted to mean to a waste of time.
The Silver Clipper
– Joe DiMaggio, famous New York Yankee team member who in 1942 earned 96 hits in 56 consecutive games. Second husband of Marilyn Monroe.
Singing Randy Movie
– Merriam Morrisson’s, (John Wayne), attempt to break into cowboy movies. Randy was a singing cowboy who gave the audience a number before, and sometimes after, killing the bad guy, and winning the girl. It was an effort to compete with Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers.
“The skinny”
– The story, the lowdown, the dope, what’s going on.
Yoohoo
– A popular chocolate soda/drink
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