by James Ellroy
Stoner got Rider’s number and called him. He told Rider he needed to know the exact spot where that photo was taken. It pertained to an active homicide investigation. Rider said he’d think about it and call Stoner back.
He called back the next day. He was pissed. He’d talked to Deedee Mentzer Santangelo. He knew the cops were after Bill Mentzer. Stoner should have leveled with him.
Stoner acted apologetic. Rider said he’d fly out if the Sheriff’s Department paid for his airfare and lodging. Bob Grimm okayed the expenditure. Rider flew out and talked to Stoner and Guenther. He dropped little tidbits on the Mincher killing and the Radin job straight off.
He took Stoner and Guenther out to Caswell Canyon. He said Mentzer and Marti bragged about the Radin hit. Bob Lowe did the job with them. Marti was a psycho punk with Nazi tendencies. He was selling dope out of a pad in Beverly Hills now.
Rider shot his mouth off and started acting regretful. He said he was afraid of Mentzer and Marti. He had a family. Mentzer and Marti knew it. Stoner said he could supply protection. Stoner told Rider the catch.
Rider had to make Mentzer and Lowe talk. They had to talk in a closed-in, buggable venue. Rider said he’d go home and think about it.
Gary White called Charlie Guenther and broke some good news.
Robbie Beckett got out of prison. He got popped for another assault and was looking at a solid dime. Robbie called White. Robbie said he’d make a formal signed statement. Robbie made that statement. Robbie gave up Daddy Beckett for Tracy Stewart and a lot more.
Robbie Beckett was suicidally talkative. He laid himself out as his father’s full-time slave and onetime murder accomplice. The best deal he could get for handing up Bob Beckett Sr. was murder two and 20 to life. His second assault conviction would have cost him five years net. Robbie torched his whole life to fuck Daddy Beckett.
Robbie put his story in writing. He tacked on the story of Bob Beckett Sr. and the Susan Hamway hit.
Bob Beckett Sr. worked for Paul Hamway. Susan Hamway was Paul’s estranged wife. Paul and Susan were fighting a divorce war. Susan was living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She had custody of their 18-month-old daughter.
Paul hated Susan. He asked Bob Beckett Sr. if he knew any professional killers. Bob Beckett Sr. said he’d set it up for $10,000.
Paul Hamway told him to do it. He added one stipulation. Somebody should call him after the hit. He’d concoct a way to rescue his baby daughter then.
Bob Beckett Sr. called Paul Serio and arranged a rendezvous in Miami. Serio flew out. Bob Beckett Sr. met him. He brought a knife, a gun and a dildo. They rented a car and drove to Susan Hamway’s house.
They knocked on the door. Susan opened up. She recognized her husband’s friend Bob Beckett Sr.
Susan let the men in. Her baby was asleep in the bedroom.
Bob Beckett Sr. hit her in the head with his gun. Paul Serio strangled her with a telephone cord. Bob Beckett Sr. stabbed her in the back with a kitchen knife. Serio helped him remove her clothes and pull down her panties. They couldn’t get up the nerve to stick the dildo in her vagina.
The baby slept through the murder. Paul Serio and Bob Beckett Sr. left the house in broad daylight.
They drove to a causeway near Miami Beach. They tossed their weapons in. Bob Beckett Sr. called Paul Hamway and told him his ex was dead. He said he made it look like a random sex killing.
Hamway was supposed to call one of Susan’s neighbors and express concern for Susan’s whereabouts. The neighbor would find the body. The neighbor would give him an alibi and rescue his daughter.
Serio flew back to L.A. Bob Beckett Sr. flew back to Aspen. Nobody rescued the baby.
The baby starved to death. She pulled big tufts of her hair out before she expired. The Fort Lauderdale PD investigated the Hamway murder. They hung the rap on a retarded man who lived nearby.
His name was John Purvis. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. His sentence carried a strict no-parole clause.
Stoner and Guenther flew to Aspen. Robbie Beckett’s lawyer wouldn’t let them interview Robbie. He wanted a written deal with the L.A. DA first. Stoner called Deputy DA Dale Davidson. Davidson contacted Robbie’s lawyer and offered him murder two—if Robbie testified against Bob Beckett Sr. The lawyer accepted the deal. He told Robbie not to waive extradition just yet. He told him to get a good L.A. lawyer. Robbie said he’d sit tight and await instructions.
Stoner and Guenther flew to Miami. They looked for Laney Jacobs and came up empty. They drove to Fort Lauderdale and researched the Susan Hamway case.
The prosecutor was a judge now. He admitted the case against John Purvis was shaky. Stoner and Guenther told him Robbie Beckett’s story. The judge said he’d look into it. Stoner and Guenther flew back to L.A.
A Fort Lauderdale detective called Stoner. He gave him some details on the Hamway investigation. Stoner caught the gist: The cops wheedled a bogus confession out of a mentally deficient suspect.
Stoner ran down Robbie Beckett’s version. The detective acted shocked. He said he’d talk to Robbie—after he testified against his father.
Stoner and Guenther talked to Daddy Beckett’s ex-wife and daughter Debbie. The ex said Daddy was bugging David Beckett. He wanted him to dump that van he gave him. She said David refused.
Debbie Beckett was dying of AIDS. She said her father used to molest her. She said he beat up David and Robbie regularly. She said he ruled by terror.
The van was crucial. Stoner and Guenther found David Beckett and sweet-talked him. His father told him to burn the van. David said no. Stoner and Guenther impounded the van. A lab team went through it. They found no hair, blood or fibers attributable to Tracy Lea Stewart.
Stoner and Guenther interviewed Mark Fogel. He fingered Laney Jacobs as a major coke dealer and played dumb on the Roy Radin murder. Stoner and Guenther drove to Taft, California. They told Tracy Stewart’s parents that their daughter was dead.
They took it hard. They wanted details. Stoner and Guenther supplied them. Mrs. Stewart said she renewed Tracy’s driver’s license every year. Stoner said they’d try to recover her body.
Both their cases were in limbo. The Radin reinvestigation was almost a year old. They were waiting for Bill Rider to help them entrap their suspects. They were waiting for Robbie Beckett to waive extradition.
Stoner and Guenther located Laney Jacobs. She was married to a dope dealer named Larry Greenberger. They were living in Okeechobee, Florida. Stoner and Guenther decided to let Laney sit.
They located a string of her dope associates. Most of the people talked. They said Laney was vain, shallow, greedy, ruthless and conniving. She was Florida Panhandle trash. She was cheap ambition personified. She started out as a dope lawyer’s secretary. She met dope dealers, fucked them and learned the trade. She was a plastic-surgery freak. She’d had her face and most of her body altered to strict specifications.
She buzzed around in Stoner’s head. She joined Bunny Krauch and Tracy Stewart.
Bunny tried to live two lives a mile apart. Her tyrant husband drove her toward an unknown killer. Tracy was the quintessential female murder victim. She was killed for sex and quick disposability. Laney was lower than snakeshit. She killed a man for money and a two-second movie credit.
Robbie Beckett waived extradition. Gary White flew him out to L.A. Stoner and Guenther met the plane. They told Robbie they wanted to find Tracy’s body. Robbie studied maps of Riverside and San Diego Counties. He pinpointed a few locations.
Stoner and Guenther drove him around for 14 hours. Robbie checked out various landscapes and said he couldn’t be sure. They didn’t spot any shredded clothes or human remains. Stoner and Guenther drove Robbie to the Main County Jail and processed him in.
Robbie talked to his public defender. The PD conferred with Dale Davidson. They cut a formal deal. Stoner and Guenther were free to bust Bob Beckett Sr.
Gary White ran a public-utilities check and found him. He was living
in Tustin with his new wife. Tustin was Orange County. Stoner called the Tustin PD and arranged for three backup patrol units.
The bust was a nonevent.
Stoner and Carlos Avila knocked on the door. They asked Frau Beckett where Bob Beckett Sr. was. Bob Beckett Sr. walked out and placed his hands in handcuff position.
Stoner and Avila drove him to the Main County Jail. Charlie Guenther was ecstatic. He was set to retire soon. They nailed Daddy Beckett on the home stretch.
The Stewart case was closed. The Cotton Club case was in limbo. The reinvestigation was 14 months old.
Bill Rider called Stoner. He said he was living in San Pedro. He wanted to help Sheriffs Homicide. He wanted to spend time with Stoner and Guenther to see if he could trust them.
The process took three months. Stoner and Guenther met Rider two dozen times. Rider fed them tidbits on Mentzer and Marti. It was good background stuff. It wasn’t crucial information.
Rider said he had the gun that killed June Mincher. He lent it to Mentzer and got it back a few days later. He did not know it would serve as a murder weapon.
He let Stoner and Guenther borrow the gun. They took it to the crime lab and had it test-fired. They compared the rounds to the rounds from the Mincher killing. They matched perfectly.
Charlie Guenther retired. Carlos Avila replaced him. Stoner and Avila went to Bob Grimm and explained the Rider deal.
Rider was a “security consultant.” He had to earn a living. He had to stay out of sight to avoid reprisals from Mentzer and Alex Marti. Rider was essential to the case. He deserved a monthly paycheck.
Grimm talked to Sheriff Block. Block okayed $3,000 a month. Rider took the money. He agreed to formally snitch off the Cotton Club killers. The next step was entrapment.
Rider called Bob Lowe in Maryland. He was working a bartender gig there. Rider dropped some obfuscation on Lowe. He said he was coming to Washington to do a surveillance job. He needed a backup man. Lowe said he’d love to help.
Stoner, Avila and Rider flew to Maryland. The Maryland State Police bugged Rider’s car and hotel room. Rider called Lowe to set up the surveillance job. Lowe said he was busy and recommended his pal Bob Deremer. Stoner and Avila hit the roof. Rider said they should tape Deremer anyway. He used to bunk with Bill Mentzer. They were tight throughout the Cotton Club/June Mincher time frame. Deremer might spill some good shit.
Rider faked two surveillance jobs with Deremer. The State Police taped one car and one hotel-room surveillance. Deremer said Mentzer did the Radin hit. Bob Lowe was part of the team. He got paid 17 grand and a Cadillac.
Deremer said he drove Mentzer around after the Mincher hit. Rider asked him how much Mentzer paid him. Deremer said three months’ free rent.
Rider braced Bob Lowe at a bar. He was wearing a fall-body wire. Lowe said he drove for Mentzer twice. He saw Mentzer clip the fat nigger woman. They shot Radin with .22 hollow points. Exploded .22s looked like shotgun pellets. They tossed the guns in a lake near Miami—3,000 miles from Caswell Canyon.
Stoner and Avila flew back to L.A. They had to let things sit for a while. They couldn’t bulldoze Rider through a fast bug string. He had to connect with their suspects at a relaxed and believable pace.
Months dragged by. John Purvis was still in prison. Robbie Beckett and Daddy Beckett were engaged in pretrial motions. The Fort Lauderdale cops were waiting for Robbie to testify. Convincing testimony would exonerate John Purvis. They could go after Daddy Beckett and Paul Serio then. They could nail them for Susan Hamway.
Robbie Beckett and Daddy Beckett were housed in different jails. They met during a botched court transfer. Daddy talked to Robbie. He convinced him to retract his sworn statement. Robbie called Dale Davidson and told him the deal was off. He wouldn’t testify against his father. Davidson told Robbie he’d be tried for murder one. Robbie said he didn’t care.
The DA’s Office lost their case against Bob Beckett Sr. They released him from custody.
Stoner and Avila talked to two dozen people close to Mentzer and Jacobs. They stayed away from Mentzer and Jacobs deliberately.
They conducted their interviews. They put the Cotton Club story together from the ground up.
Roy Radin’s father produced schlock stage shows. He died young. Roy took over his operation at age 17. He got rich working his own crass variation of the business.
He put on police and civic benefit shows. They featured washed-up stars like Milton Berle and Joey Bishop. Charity benefits were regulated by strict state laws. Radin broke those laws. He took egregiously large percentage fees and embezzled money earmarked for charity.
Radin weighed 300 pounds. Radin was a cocaine addict. Radin threw wild parties at his Long Island estate. Radin almost got in big trouble circa ’78.
An actress named Melonie Haller stumbled away from a Radin soiree. She was half-nude and bombed out of her gourd. She told the cops that Radin and some other freaks gang-raped her. The cops investigated. They popped Radin on a gun-possession charge. Radin paid a fine and stopped throwing wild parties. He got an itch to crash the movie biz and moved west in ’82.
He met Laney Jacobs at a party. He started buying coke from her. Laney used a limo company partially owned by Bob Evans. She favored a driver named Gary Keys. Keys told Laney that Evans was looking for money. He wanted to make a movie about the Cotton Club—the Harlem nightspot popular in the ’30s. Laney told Keys she had money to invest in the right movie project.
Laney worked for a coke magnate named Milan Bella-chaises. He sent her out to L.A. to distribute his West Coast supply. Her dope runner was a redneck named Tally Rogers. They were selling 30 kilos a month. They were making a half-million-dollar monthly profit.
Laney was a cocaine addict. She wanted to be a movie producer. Gary Keys told Bob Evans she had money to burn.
Laney and Bob got together. They started partying and fucking. Laney rented an apartment in Beverly Hills and turned it into an orgy pad.
Evans told her The Cotton Club was big-budget stuff. He needed 50 million dollars minimum. Laney said she knew a guy named Roy Radin. He had lots of money and wanted to break into movies. Evans told her to set up a meeting. Laney set it up fast.
Radin tumbled. He told Evans he’d sell his house and tap into some filthy-rich investors. Evans promised Laney a $50,000 finder’s fee.
Radin contacted a banker friend down in Puerto Rico. The banker was close to the territorial governor. He got the governor hot for the Cotton Club deal. He hit him up for 50 million dollars in government money. The governor said he’d pop for 35 only. Radin accepted his terms. He flew to New York to discuss the deal with Bob Evans.
They met at Evans’ apartment. Laney showed up. She told Radin she was getting 5% of the Cotton Club profits for putting the deal together. Radin objected to her percentage. Evans sided with Laney. Radin threw a tantrum and stormed out.
Laney flew back to L.A. She got into another ruckus straight off.
Tally Rogers wanted more money. He was driving dope up and down the coast and making relative chump change. Laney refused to up his wages.
Tally’s wife, Betty Lou, showed up. She flew in from Tennessee unannounced. Laney showed her some L.A. hotspots. Tally convinced Laney to take her to Vegas.
Laney and Betty Lou split. Tally raided Laney’s garage. He stole 12 kilos and $250,000 in cash.
The maid called Laney. She said she saw Tally poking around in her garage. Tally called Betty Lou and told her to disappear. Betty Lou caught a cab to the Vegas airport.
Laney flew back to L.A. She called Milan Bellachaises, He told her to get the dope and money back.
Laney knew this guy Bill Mentzer. He’d allegedly do anything for money. Laney called Mentzer and hired him to find Tally Rogers.
Mentzer rounded up Alex Marti and Bob Lowe. They flew to Memphis and kidnapped Tally’s best friend. He showed them Tally’s known haunts. They didn’t spot Tally. They released his friend and flew to Miami. They discussed the Tally p
roblem with Milan Bellachaises. Nobody came up with anything constructive.
Mentzer called Mike Pascal. He gave him the names of Laney’s tight friends and told him to check their toll-call records. They might get a lead on Tally that way.
Pascal called Mentzer back two days later. He knew Mentzer wanted results. He knew Laney hated Roy Radin. He knew Radin parried with Tally Rogers.
Pascal lied to Mentzer. He said Tally called Radin right after he stole the money and dope. Radin was calling the Bahamas a lot. Tally was probably hiding out there.
Mentzer flew back to L.A. Laney was in L.A. Milan Bella-chaises told her to obey Mentzer’s orders. Radin was in L.A. Laney called him. She accused him of stealing her dope and money. She said he was trying to fuck her out of her Cotton Club percentage.
Radin denied the theft. He said he didn’t know where Tally Rogers was. He was telling the truth.
Mentzer told Laney his plan.
She lures Radin into a limousine. Bob Lowe is driving. She tells Lowe to stop for cigarettes. A car is tailing them. Mentzer and Marti jump out and jump in the limo. Laney gets lost. The boys take Radin somewhere and torture the shit out of him. He talks when the pain gets bad.
The Cotton Club story was ridiculous and petty. The killers were clowns. The victim was a greedy piece of shit. The supporting players were parasitic slime.
Stoner kept reaching for Bunny Krauch and Tracy Stewart.
Mentzer and Marti were in L.A. Lowe was in Maryland. Laney was in Okeechobee, Florida, with Larry Greenberger. Stoner and Avila turned up the heat.
Bill Rider called Mentzer and told him he was in L.A. He invited him over to the Holiday Inn. Rider’s room was bugged. Stoner and Avila were stationed next door.
Rider talked up his lawsuit against Larry Flynt. Mentzer talked up the Radin snatch.
Three black & whites pulled up behind the limo. Mentzer thought they were cooked. Marti stuck his gun in Radin’s crotch. Mentzer stuck his gun in Radin’s mouth. The black & whites sped past them—ha, ha, ha!
