And (on May 18th) I coerced a third informant into my stable. This man (a Dallas-based strip club operator/loan shark) is searching for a borrower to refer to Sal D’Onofrio and thence to Sam Giancana. I consider this man to be a major informant, because he previously referred a loan seeker to Giancana and thp Pension Fund. He calls me at a pay phone near my apartment every Thesday morning; I have given him money on several occasions. He fears me and respects me to just the right degree. Like Sal D’Onofrio, he has perpetual money troubles. I believe that, sooner or later, he will supply me with a potentially subornable borrower.
I also now have a fund of my own, i.e., an informant fund. In late May I secured an $81,000 robbery stash, one unreported to any police agency. I have paid Sal D’Onofrio $32,000 from this fund, strengthening my hold over him. Strange, but I had originally thought that Lenny Sands would be my most valued informant, but both Sal and the Dallas man have proven themselves more competent (or is It more desperate for money)? I blame you, Kemper. Setting Lenny up with Pete Bondurant and Hush-Hush was detrimental to my purposes. Lenny has seemed abstracted lately. He travels with Sal’s junket tours and moonlights for Hush-Hush, and seems to have forgotten what I hold over him. Does he talk to your friend Miss Hughes? I’d be curious to know.
Per your instructions, I’m avoiding Court Meade and the listening post. Court and I have also formally ceased our assignment trade. I’m being careful, but I can’t help dreaming utopian dreams. My essential dream? A John F. Kennedy Presidential Administration, with Robert Kennedy fulfilling his brother’s anti-Mob mandate. God, Kemper, wouldn’t that be heaven? Tell Mr. Kennedy he’s in my prayers.
Yours,
WJL
DOCUMENT INSERT: 7/3/59. Personal note: Kemper Boyd to Robert F. Kennedy.
Dear Bob,
Just a short note to update you on the work of your anonymous colleague the “Chicago Phantom.”
He’s working hard, and I hope you find it gratifying that there’s at least one human being on earth who hates Organized Crime as much as you do. But, as hard as he is working-and always within the legal guidelines you set down to me-he’s getting scant results pursuing the possibility that alternative Pension Fund books exist. The Chicago Mob is a closed circle, and he hasn’t been able to gain the inside information he hoped he would.
Moving along. Aren’t you and Jack going to offer me some post-McClellan Committee employment?
Yours,
Kemper
DOCUMENT INSERT: 7/9/59. Personal Letter: Robert F. Kennedy to Kemper Boyd.
Dear Kemper,
Thanks for your note on the Phantom. It is good to know that an ex-seminarian FBI man shares my anti-Mob fervor, and what most impresses me about him is that he doesn’t seem to want anything. (Jesuit sem boys are schooled in selfdenial.) You, however, want everything. So, yes, Jack and I have an offer for you. (We’ll discuss details and money later.)
We want you to stay with our organization and fill two positions. The first: traffic manager for the McClellan Committee’s legal paperwork. We’ve disbanded, but like the Phantom, I’m still afire. Let’s keep our anti-Mob and anti-Hoffa momentum going. You could be very helpful in seeing that our evidence gets into the proper investigatory hands. Secondly, Jack’s going to announce his candidacy In January. He wants you to manage security for his primary campaigns and hopefully through to November. How about it?
Bob
DOCUMENT INSERT: 7/13/59. Personal note: Kemper Boyd to Robert F. Kennedy.
Dear Bob,
I accept. Yes, unlike the Phantom I want everything. Let’s nail Jimmy Hoffa and elect Jack president.
Kemper
DOCUMENT INSERT: 7/27/59. Official FBI telephone call transcript: “Recorded at the Director’s Request”/”Classified Confidential 1-A: Director’s Eyes Only.” Speaking: Director Hoover, Special Agent Kemper Boyd.
JEH: Good morning, Mr. Boyd.
KB: Good morning, Sir.
JEH: Your message mentioned good news.
KB: Excellent news, Sir. The brothers have hired me on a more or less permanent basis.
JEH: In what capacity?
KB: I’m to supervise the routing of McClellan Committee evidence to various grand juries and investigative agencies, and run security for Big Brother’s campaign.
JEH: Little Brother remains persistent on the Hoffa front, then.
KB: He’ll crucify the man sooner or later.
JEH: Catholics have been known to go overboard with the concept of crucifixion.
KB: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Let’s continue on the Catholic recidivist front. Is Mr. Littell continuing to walk the straight and narrow?
KB: Yes, Sir.
JEH: SAC Leaby has airteled me his Red Squad reports. He appears to be doing a satisfactory job.
KB: You frightened him last year, Sir. He just wants to make it through to his retirement. As I’ve told you, he’s drinking quite a bit and is quite caught up in his affair with Helen Agee.
JEH: Allow me to use “affair” as a segue point. How is your liaison with Miss Laura Hughes progressing?
KB: I’d hardly call it a liaison, Sir.
JEH: Mr. Boyd, you are ta]king to the world’s nonpareil buflshit artist and master of subterfuge. As good as you are at it, and you are brilliantly good, I am better. You are fucking Laura Hughes, and I’m sure you would fuck all the acknowledged Kennedy sisters and old Rose Kennedy herself if you thought it would ingratiate you with Jack. There. That said, what does Miss Hughes have to say about the family?
KB: She limits her anecdotes to her father, Sir. She’s quite vitriolic on the topic of her father and his friends.
JEH: Continue.
KB: Apparently Joe and his old friend Jules Schiffrin secreted Mexican illegals across the border during the ‘20s. They used the men as set construction help when Joe owned the RKO Studio. Joe and Schiffrin used the women sexually, hired them out as domestics, took half their pay for room-and-board, then turned them over to the Border Patrol and had them deported. Schiffrin took a number of the women back to Chicago with him and opened up a whorehouse that catered to mobsters and politicians exclusively. Laura says Joe made a movie surreptitiously at the whorehouse. It’s Huey Long and two Mexican midgets with oversized breasts.
JEH: Miss Hughes is a vivid anecdotist. What does she say about the brothers?
KB: She’s guarded about them.
JEH: As you yourself are.
KB: I’m fond of them, yes.
JEH: I think you’ve set limits to your betrayal. I think you’re unaware of how deeply enthralled you are with that family.
KB: I keep things compartmentalized, Sir.
JEH: Yes, I’ll credit you with that. Now, let’s move to your Cuban emigre compartment. Do you recall telling me that you had access to Cuban exile intelligence?
KB: Of course, Sir. I’ll be sending a detailed summary report along soon.
JEH: Laura Hughes must bequlte expensive.
KB: Sir?
JEH: Don’t act disingenuous, Kemper. It’s quite obvious the CIA has recruited you. Three paychecks, my lord.
KB: Sir, I keep things compartmentalized.
JEH: You certainly do, and far be it from me to upset those compartments. Good day, Mr. Boyd.
KB: Good day, Sir.