American Tabloid

602 Pages·2011·1.98 MB·English

by  James Ellroy

Acclaim for James Ellroy’s
American Tabloid
“Thoroughly engrossing.… A graphically violent, profane
expression of personal and political corruption.… The book’s prose
is spare and minimalist, so hard-boiled you could bounce it off the
sidewalk.”
—Houston Chronicle
“American Tabloid should be read for the feel of the period, for its
author’s peculiarly brutal genius, and for the way his unique prose
illuminates a brutal time.”
—San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle
“One hellishly exciting ride.”
—Detroit Free Press
“Ellroy sprays declarative sentences like machine-gun bullets,
blasting to kingdom come all notions of justice, heroism, and
simple decency.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“A style so hard-boiled it scorches the pot.”
—New York magazine
“Powerful.… The plot runs on high-octane violence.… One emerges
breathless, shaken, and ready to change one’s view of recent
American history.”
—The Sunday Telegraph (London)
“[A] frenetic, explosive thriller.”
—The Sunday Times (London)
James Ellroy
American Tabloid
James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L.A. Quartet novels
—The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz—
were international bestsellers. His novel American Tabloid was Time
magazine’s Novel of the Year for 1995; his memoir My Dark Places was a
Time Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book for 1996.
He lives in Kansas City.
Also by James Ellroy
Hollywood Nocturnes
L.A. Confidential
The Big Nowhere
The Black Dahlia
Killer on the Road
Suicide Hill
Because the Night
Blood on the Moon
Clandestine
Brown’s Requiem
White Jazz
My Dark Places
Crime Wave
The Cold Six Thousand

FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, APRIL 2001
Copyright © 1995 by James Ellroy
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in
the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and
simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in
hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York,
in 1995. Subsequently published in paperback by Fawcett Columbine, an imprint of Ballantine
Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1996 and 1997.
Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Ellroy, James, [date]
American tabloid: a novel / by James Ellroy.—1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-30779843-5
I. Title.
PS3555.L6274A8 1995
813′.54—dc20 94-42898
CIP
www.vintagebooks.com
v3.1
To
NAT SOBEL
America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and
looked back with no regrets. You can’t ascribe our fall from grace to any
single event or set of circumstances. You can’t lose what you lacked at
conception.
Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed.
Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient
gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is
blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that
line straight.
The real Trinity of Camelot was Look Good, Kick Ass, Get Laid. Jack
Kennedy was the mythological front man for a particularly juicy slice of our
history. He talked a slick line and wore a world-class haircut. He was Bill
Clinton minus pervasive media scrutiny and a few rolls of flab.
Jack got whacked at the optimum moment to assure his sainthood. Lies
continue to swirl around his eternal flame. It’s time to dislodge his urn and
cast light on a few men who attended his ascent and facilitated his fall.
They were rogue cops and shakedown artists. They were wiretappers and
soldiers of fortune and faggot lounge entertainers. Had one second of their
lives deviated off course, American History would not exist as we know it.
It’s time to demythologize an era and build a new myth from the gutter to
the stars. It’s time to embrace bad men and the price they paid to secretly
define their time.
Here’s to them.
Contents
Cover
About the Author
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Part I: Shakedowns
1: Pete Bondurant: (Beverly Hills, 11/22/58)
2: Kemper Boyd: (Philadelphia, 11/27/58)
3: Ward J. Littell: (Chicago, 11/30/58)
4: (Beverly Hills, 12/4/58)
5: (Washington, D.C., 12/7/58)
6: (Washington, D.C., 12/8/58)
7: (Los Angeles, 12/9/58)
8: (Miami, 12/11/58)
9: (Chicago, 12/11/58)
10: (Los Angeles, 12/14/58)
11: (Washington, D.C., 12/18/58)
Part II: Collusion
12: (Chicago, 1/1/59)
13: (Miami, 1/3/59)
14: (New York City, 1/5/59)
15: (Chicago, 1/6/59)
16: (Los Angeles, 1/11/59)
17: (Miami, 1/13/59)
18: (Chicago, 1/14/59)
19: (Los Angeles, 1/18/59)
20: (Washington, D.C., 1/20/59)
21: (Chicago, 1/22/59)
22: (Miami, 2/4/59)
23: (Chicago, 5/18/59)
24: (Havana, 5/28/59)
25: (Key West, 5/29/59)
26: (Chicago, 8/23/59)
27: (Gardena, 8/25/59)
28: (New York City, 8/26/59)
29: (Dallas, 8/27/59)
30: (Miami, 8/29/59)
31: (Miami, 8/30/59)
32: (Chicago, 9/4/59)
33: (New Orleans, 9/20/59)
34: (New York City, 9/29/59)
35: (Chicago, 10/1/59)
36: (Chicago, 10/2/59)
37: (Blessington, 12/24/59)
38: (Hyannis Port, 12/25/59)
39: (South Bend, 12/25/59)
40: (Tampa, 2/1/60)
41: (New York City/Hyannis Port/ New
Hampshire/Wisconsin/Illinois/West Virginia, 2/4/60–5/4/60)
42: (Blessington/Miami, 2/4/60–5/4/60)
43: (Greenbrier, 5/8/60)
44: (Chicago, 5/10/60)
45: (Blessington, 5/12/60)
46: (Lake Geneva, 5/14/60)
47: (Los Angeles, 7/13/60)
48: (Beverly Hills, 7/14/60)