The Mystery of the Black Books by Warren Hinckle III
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The Mystery of the Black Books by Warren Hinckle III A saga of hotshot international espionage from the great days of Ramparts cif) I t G <-r-r- I Cc)TNIC-P-rG I n New Orleans, as you probably then working for Ramparts maga- other places in the world at the know, the D.A. is called the zine, was chewing the conspiracy drop of a dollar. His disillusion I"Jolly Green Giant." Jim Gar- fat with Jim Garrison and enjoy- with the C.I.A. began when he rison is tall enough, and normally ing a Southern bourbon without worked for them in the Congo. jolly enough, and, in his dealings benefit of mint. Turner...summated_ "You can rescue nuns," the Agency with a cheating government and an thatwmald_ic11gLiinwr. it1: ii why had told him. He found himself ambush-primed press in the months .theilussiansisnewabimUkemam shooting up supply boats instead. and years after the Kennedy assas- der of John__E—Kennelly Assuming But he kept flying, partly for the sination, he showed himself green that they didn't do it, they doubt- money. which was good, partly be- enough to earn the title, whatever less had a pretty good idea who cause he was hooked on adventure, the significance of the original did. The thought of the K.G.B.'s and the C.I.A. was the big Connec- nickname. bulging files on the C.I.A. lit Gar- tion. Most everyone also knows, in rison up. It is testimony to the perverse- some snickering fashionable way, "Even if they'd cooperate," Tur- ness of his world that—although he what happened to the District At- ner said. "we could never make the came to see himself as working for torney and his assassination inves- approach from the D.A.'s office. The the bad guys, an employment he tigation. In New York terms, he wolves out there would never stop was loath to give up because he en- closed opening night. But some- howling if they caught us asking joyed the means if not the end— where back in the primordial ooze the time of day of the K.G.B." his dangerous compulsion to simul- of the Garrison investigation there Garrison frowned. taneously do something for the good lingers a story that has never been Never mind that, said Turner. guys was limited by his inability to told before. It is not an assassina- Ramparts would make the Russians find any. He had once tried an un- tion story, it is primarily a mys- an offer they couldn't refuse. I was dercover assignment for the federal tery story, and it is not even a the editor at -Ramparts in those nen:a, but their • bumbling ways - - story about Garrison himself, al- days, so what happened after that nearly got him killed. Given the though his interests at the time inevitably involved me. paucity of angels, he latched onto spurred on the events. There have It was a week later. In hot pur- Ramparts as a reasonable alterna- been good reasons for the long si- suit of his goal, Turner was having tive to evil and a place where lence of the participants, or vic- coffee in a San Francisco restau- double agents were granted instant tims, as the telling places certain rant with a young man who had no status as war heroes. As often as people where they perhaps should name. He was the shady side of he was in the office, and visiting not have been, and involves the thirty-five, tall, tanned, sandy- our homes, there remained a restive violation, or alleged violation, of haired, with high raw cheekbones quality about him, a separateness, several laws of the land, among and polished turquoise eyes. He as if he were lonely out there in the them those proscribing the unau- was not a professional mystery cold and wanted companionship, yet thorized dealings by private citi- man, although he was mysterious didn't want to come all the way in. zens with the governments of un- about his profession, and it would We called him Jim Rose. At least friendly foreign powers. By now, be as accurate to say he had several that was the name by which he was though, Richard Nixon the Elder names as none, because names to known to everyone on the magazine, has left pecker tracks all over those him were as paper plates, to be including one of the secretaries previously clear ground rules, and used and then discarded. His pri- with whom he took up housekeep- one no longer knows if one is deal- mary employment, in the year and a ing between derrings-do. But he ing with an old enemy or a new half that Ramparts had known him, had a name for every day of the friend until one picks up the morn- was that of a contract combat pilot week. He was Jack Carter when ing paper. So I will be indiscreet. for the C.I.A. Ile flew a Douglas he worked in Miami, until later he As the story quickly becomes B-26 out of Miami on itinerant became too hot and decided to "kill caught up in the whirlpools and bombing raids against the Cuban off" Carter by simulating a plane rapids of international intrigue, I coastline. His targets were usually crash at sea, thus discouraging the will begin, as simply as possible, pedestrian objects such as oil tanks, spoilsports in the F.A.A. from in- at the beginning—which, as is the although once he made a pass over quiring further into the checkered case in many mysteries, was a con- a Russian-built radar installation. history of Carter's flight plans. He versation over a friendly drink He had also flown aerial reconnais- had several newspaper clippings re- about a proposition of dubious le- sance missions over Cuba out of porting his own death, which he gality. Central and South American air- would exhibit with the eager shy- In the New Orleans Summer of fields. ness of someone showing you an 1968, Bill Turner, an ex-F.B.I. man He had flown and fought in many appendix scar or bottled gallstone. 128 ESQUIRE: APRIL He was also known as Dawes, also tion in America, save perhaps the was and explained the peculiar cir- as McLeish, also as several other C.I.A., he boarded a jet for Mexico cumstances of his mission. The Rus- people, among which I was always City, on his way along the yellow sian warily asked for the camera partial to Rose, because of Gertrude brick road to see the wizard of es- which hung around Rose's neck, and Stein and all. But by any name he pionage at the Russian Embassy. It said he would return it when their was, as Damon Runyan said about had been agreed all around that the conversation was completed. Rose those types who stand out among act of asking to borrow a cup of got it back later, "in better work- other types of their type, the "gen- intelligence from the K.G.B. had ing order than when I gave it to uine item." He loved adventure, and best take place in another country. him." second only to that he loved talking By the estimate of the Reader's The Russian and the young about adventure. Digest, the Russian Embassy in American without a name talked This Rose with no name was the Mexico City is "one of the world's for two hours. Rose explained Gar- man we tapped to send to the Rus- great sanctuaries of subversion." It rison's theory of the assassination, sians. has the appearance of a giant cuck- and the Russian nodded on occasion Turner hardly had time to raise oo clock that has been put under at the mention of the C.I.A. Rose the subject over coffee that morn- house arrest. A grey Victorian made his plea for "sanitized" in- ing when Rose, indicating a devil- mansion bedecked with gingerbread formation from the K.G.B. files on may-care willingness to make the cupolas, it is cut off from the out- Oswald and others. approach to the K.G.B., said he side world by grounds dotted with "Our assumption is that you would volunteer. peach trees and patrolled by sen- 'must have information about these Anyone who has seen a good spy tries with a do-not-touch look about matters that we do not," he said. movie knows how to get in touch them, who are in turn cut off from The Russian rose from his seat with the K.G.B. All you do is go to the street by an iron fence unsuit- unblinking. He asked Rose where a Russian Embassy and ask to see able for pole vaulting. The twenty- he was staying, and suggested he the Second Secretary, who is in- four-hour work of the Embassy is stick to his hotel and -riot Iki WO -- variably the resident Soviet intelli- carried out behind shuttered win- much touring. "It may be neces- gence chief. (If you're looking in dows to the sound of crickets at sary for you to stay in Mexico an American Embassy for the night, melting into the click and City for a few days." C.I.A., best try the Cultural At- whir of camera shutters by day, as Rose was followed when he left taché first.) most of the handsome houses across the Embassy for the hotel.