#CRITICAL RACE THEORY PRESENTS A NOVEL CASSANDRA’S CURSE PART ONE

CASSANDRA’S CURSE

A Black Life in A Police State

A NOVEL BY

Eugene Stovall

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INTRODUCTION

The god, Apollo, desires Cassandra, one of the great beauties of the ancient world. When Cassandra rebuffs Apollo, the god rapes her. Hoping to make amends, Apollo gives Cassandra gift of prophecy, the ability to see the future and prophesize coming events. But Cassandra rids herself of Apollo’s seed. Apollo is furious when he learns of Cassandra’s abortion. “Although you will know the future,” Apollo thunders at Cassandra, “you are cursed so that no one will ever believe what you say!”

When Cassandra warns her brother, Paris, not to journey to Greece, because Helen, who is married to King Menelaus, will bewitched him, Paris does not believe her. When Cassandra warns her father, Priam. king of Troy, that the great wooden horse standing outside his gates, is not a Greek tribute but a Greek trick, Priam ignores his daughter. After the Greeks destroy Troy and she is carried away to Greece by Agamemnon, Cassandra tells the conqueror that his wife, Clytemnestra, will murder him. Agamemnon does not heed Cassandra’s warning and he and his men are all slaughtered when they arrive home.

So, dear reader, I write as one struck by Cassandra’s Curse. What you read is true, but you may not believe it.

Prologue

Kitty Williams is an eyewitness to the shooting death of Bert MacAble, an undercover Oakland police officer. George Welch, a reporter with the San Jose Mercury newspaper, interviews the Oakland resident.

“Are you certain?” George Welch asks the black woman. “Are you certain one of the cops who shot him said, ‘Hang on Bert, we’re going to get you some help!’”

“I’m certain,” Kitty Williams says. “It’s like I told you at the time, them cops knew that police officer.”

“But the official report says that only the sergeant knew Officer MacAble. Neither of the police officers, who shot him, knew that he was a policeman,” George says.

“I don’t know about any report,” Kitty replies. “All I can tell you is that I heard them call him by name.”

“And it wasn’t the sergeant who called out?” George asks again.

“Nope!” the black woman replies. “They knew him, alright.”

George Welch isn’t happy about being sent back to East Oakland. Three years ago, he was a cub reporter when he was assigned to cover the shooting of a black police officer in Oakland. Then George was green, fresh out of college and ?eager to impress his boss. He traveled back and forth several times trying to get the story right. “Oakland’s the murder capital of the west coast,” George’s editor lectured him finally. “This is old news! It’s a waste of time and money running back and forth between San Jose and Oakland trying to get the ‘real’ story.” The veterans at the San Jose’s leading newspaper laughed at George, calling him an ‘eager beaver.’

Now, three years later, George is no longer an ‘eager beaver’ and is not pleased about driving fifty miles to Oakland to do a follow up on a story that will be buried. But Oakland has announced the dedication of a shabby little park in the middle of Oakland’s crime-infested ghetto to the fallen police officer and, since George covered the original story, his editor decides he’s the one to cover the dedication. When George spots Kitty in the sparse crowd attending the dedication, he decides to interview her for his “follow-up the story.”

“We are here to dedicate this park to Oakland’s most recent fallen hero …,” intones the city council member making the dedication.

“Recent!” a community resident snickers. “It’s been over three years!”

“It wouldn’t have happened at all if this wasn’t an election year,” another resident says. This woman has been a community activist for long time, but is still amazed by the hypocrisy of Oakland’s politicians who make great speeches while permitting the city to continue to deteriorate from blight, corruption and crime. But here they are, city officials, politicians and police officers joining Oakland’s mayor, a former governor, in this dedication ceremony. The councilman, making the dedication, believes the presence of Oakland’s officialdom is a sign that his campaign to unseat the mayor in the next election is gaining momentum. But he has no chance of unseating the former governor whose campaign is being funded by California billionaires. making fortunes looting public property and receiving ‘ no bid’ contracts.

Once the speeches are over, women bustle about transferring steaming chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs, cooked in the park’s smoldering barbeque pits onto the plates of the attendees who then go to picnic tables were they help themselves to potato salads, green salads, fresh rolls and cans of soft drinks. Most of those helping themselves to the free food are the homeless and unemployed. Oakland’s officialdom all head for their cars as soon as the dedication is over. Before his departure, the mayor makes certain everyone knows his office is providing the food.

George waits for Kitty to return to a picnic table where she has two paper plates ___ one filled with meat, the other with salad. On his way to this assignment, George decided his headline would read: “Though Oakland Park is Renamed, Crime and Drugs Remain.” ?What he learns from Kitty makes him reconsider.

Two white rookie cops shoot a black police officer working undercover. Both white cops claim that they hadn’t known that the black man was a police officer ___ which is why they shot him. only after their sergeant arrives on the scene did the ‘killer’ cops learn that the black man they had shot was a cop. That’s what they said, George remembers.

“You’re positive?” George asks Kitty once again.

“Yes, I’m positive,” Kitty replies between mouthfuls of barbequed chicken. “I heard it real plain.”

“That’s also what the Chronicle reporters wrote the day that it happened,” George remembers, more to himself than to her. But then the same Chronicle reporter revises his story. The newer version, aligned with the official report, says that the sergeant calls out, ‘It’s Bert!’ just before the two white rookies shoot him. But that couldn’t be true, George shakes his head. The sergeant didn’t arrive on the scene until after the shooting! Then George remembers his editor’s warning. “I just want a follow-up. Don’t bring me a lot of your conspiracy crap!”

More than once in the past three years, his editor accuses George of going off on tangents and not sticking to the news. George knows his editor will not even consider that the two white officers knew that Bert was a cop before they shot him, because, if that were true, it would mean that they murdered a black police officer. Nevertheless, to George Welch’s editor, he’s not a murder victim, he’s just another dead nigger.

But even so, on the drive back to San Jose, George Welch can’t keep those nagging little thoughts out of his mind. Even after three years, his sense of right and wrong ___ the thing that made him choose journalism as a profession in the first place __ drives him to pursue the story.

Unlike many of his classmates, George must work his way through the Jesuit-run Santa Clara University. But even as he toils at a job while struggling with his studies, George always finds time to work on the student newspaper. During his freshman and sophomore years, George volunteers for whatever needs to be done, which only occasionally includes writing. As an upper classman, George writes a number of stories ___ many of which are considered very controversial for the conservative Catholic institution. George even earns editorial responsibilities. After graduation, just to be in the newspaper business, George takes a job in the San Jose Mercury’s mail room. From the mailroom George works his way up until he achieves his goal, a staff reporter’s job. When George Welch believes that he is right, he doesn’t give up. And George knows that the facts in the shooting of the black Oakland undercover police officer don’t add up. According to the Oakland Police, Bert MacAble is assigned to work undercover on a joint Alameda County Narcotics Task Force. The task force commander is a captain in the Hayward Police Department. MacAble is a seventeen-year police veteran, George muses. He would have known that stopping to apprehend a car-jacking suspect would have blown his cover. But, according to the official report, McAble is in the middle of the street, apprehending a suspect in a carjacking when uniformed officers, who just happen to be in the vicinity, come upon the black police officer holding the carjacking suspect at gunpoint. And, according to the official report, when MacAble fails to respond to their repeated demands to drop his gun and put his hands over his head, they shoot him.

Another disturbing aspect of the shooting is that both of the uniformed cops are rookies. Neither of them has been on Oakland’s police force over six months. Oakland PD’s standard procedure is to assign every rookie with less than two years of service to a veteran ___ usually a sergeant. Why are these two rookies, one twenty-one, the other twenty-five, sent out to patrol one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods by themselves? ?This is the question that George asks Oakland’s police department, the city council and the mayor’s office three years ago. No one gives him a satisfactory answer.

If George Welch really wants to understand what happened to Detective Egbert MacAble, known as Bert to his friends, he would have to go back Los Angeles___ prior to the 1965 Watts Riot ____ the riot that many Blacks believe had been planned. The time prior to the Watts riot, was ?when whites believed that Negroes, living in Watts and South-Central Los Angeles, were happy to live in a police state.

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Episode One

“Bert, would you like a candy bar, before you leave?”

“Yes, Mrs. Kiley.”

Egbert MacAble knows that anytime he goes over Alfred Kiley’s house, his mother will offer him ___ and any other kid in the neighborhood ___ a candy bar. Al’s father works at the Lockheed aircraft factory. He got his job during the war and has been at the plant ever since. Al’s mother is a fastidious housekeeper; every room is spotless. She keeps the great bowl filled with candy bars like Hershey’s, Butter Fingers, Abba-Zaba’s, and Baby Ruth’s on the kitchen table. Every kid in the neighborhood wants to be friends with Al Kiley and his little brother, Kenny, just to be invited into the Kiley’s home. Cora Kiley never lets a kid leave her house without first giving a candy bar.

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Bert McAble lives on East 57th Street in South Central Los Angeles inside ?the narrow corridor where Negroes are allowed to live. ?Bounded by Alameda Avenue on the east past which are white suburbs like Gardenia and Bellflower and Western Avenue on the west, past which are communities like Baldwin Hills, Inglewood, Hollywood and Beverly Hills, where Negroes are neither allowed to buy nor rent, the Negro Central Avenue community runs 25 miles from Union Station railroad terminal in the downtown area across from the Los Angeles city hall to Watts. The Red Car Transit line created Central Avenue during the time when colored folks were not allowed inside the Los Angeles city limits after dark. The Red Car took colored people from “Nigger Alley,” now known as Olivera Street, sitting across the street from Union Station to Watts just outside the Los Angeles city limits. As children Bert, Al and little Kenny eat raw turnips from Mr. Kiley’s vegetable garde

“Mrs. MacAble! Mrs. MacAble!” Al shouts. He, Bert and Kenny are playing in the MacAble’s back yard in the vegetable garden. “Egg’s choking.”

Cora MacAble does not hear Allie. Her husband just arrives home and seeing to his demands. Betty Kiley hears her son shouting and Buddy, the neighbor’s German Shepherd, barking and charges out of her back door to see what the commotion is about. Betty Kiley finds Bert MacAble, who her son calls “Egg,” contorting in a futile effort to recover his breath. Betty races into the MacAble’s backyard to rescue the choking child. With several great swings, Al’s mother thumps Bert on his back. Then after a final mighty whack, a piece of turnip flies out of Bert McAble’s mouth. After taking several deep breaths, Bert slowly begins to recover. Finally, hearing the commotion, Bert’s mother comes flying through the back door.

“He’s okay now, Cora,” Betty Kiley tells her neighbor. “He got something stuck in his throat.

Bert’s brother and sisters come out of the house as well. “What happened?” they ask.

“Egg swallowed a whole turnip and got choked,” Al tells them.

When Mrs. MacAble returns to her house, carrying her stricken son, her husband, who has settled into his favorite chair with the afternoon paper, asks, “Those ‘niggers’ next door get into my garden?”

“Hey, Egg,” Allie asks sometime after the choking incident. “How come your father doesn’t like you playing with any of the other kids in the neighborhood except me?”

“He doesn’t even want me playing with you, Allie.”

“I know,” Allie says. “Why not?”?

“He doesn’t like Negroes,” Bert admits.?

“Why not?” Allie asks. “Aren’t you Negroes?”

“We’re not Negroes,” Bert snaps.?

“You’re not Negroes,” Allie repeats. “What are you then?”

“I don’t know,” Bert says. “We came here when I was real little. My father says we’re not supposed to talk about it.”

Allie knows there’s something strange about the MacAble family. All the MacAble’s have a swarthy, South American look ___all except Lola, the youngest daughter. Lola’s skin is pale like a white person. But even so, Lola’s dark hair and exotic features betray her Hispanic heritage. The MacAble’s all have finely chiseled features and high cheek bones, giving them a haughty, almost contemptuous look. Like Lola, they all have thick, black hair. Cora MacAble must have been beautiful when she was younger, but now she has filled out considerably. Cora MacAble is nice to Al and Kenny, except when her husband is around. Then she avoids speaking to anyone outside the MacAble household. Mrs. MacAble’s skin is lighter than her husband’s and she speaks with a gay Spanish accent that sounds as if she’s always laughing. Mr. MacAble is a dark brooding man, with black piercing eyes. His bronze skin is tinged red as if he had spent a lot of time toiling on a South American plantation. Mr. MacAble is self-conscious about his height. Though Allie’s father is relatively short, only five foot nine, he towers over Mr. MacAble. The strangest thing about the MacAbles is that, even though they are obviously Hispanic, they are not Catholics. Allie’s mother converted to Catholicism at a very early age. Allie spends a lot of time under the tutelage of the priests at St. Odelia’s Church. These priests wear the brown robes of Franciscan monks. Allie believes that all Mexicans and South Americans are Catholics. It surprises him that the MacAbles aren’t Catholics and the MacAble kids don’t attend Catholic school.?After his accident with the turnip, Egg ignores Allie. Weeks go by and Egg won’t even return Allie’s greetings.?One day, Allie forces Egg to speak.

“Why have you been acting so stupid?”

“My father told me he’d give me a whipping if he caught me talking to you again,” Bert says. “He says we can’t play with niggers.”

Infuriated at being called a nigger, Allie weighs into Bert, with both arms flailing. Bert fights back with a stick. The fight ends with Bert running home to his mother. Afterwards, both Allie and his little brother, Kenny, taunt Bert with candy bars whenever they get the opportunity. Bert hates the entire Kiley family and vows that one day he’ll get even.

When the Korean War ends, Negro employment in Los Angeles tumbles to pre-WWII levels. Even so, the Negro middle class___ the so-called ‘talented tenth’ ___ gives the Central Avenue community an air of respectability and a look of prosperity. The homes of L.A.’s black bourgeoisie, though still compressed into the Negro ghetto, have well-tended yards with late model cars in their garages. With Central Avenue lined with numerous move theaters, night clubs, appliance and furniture stores, five and dimes and grocery markets ___ all owned by Jews, Italians and other whites who hire no Negroes ___?the Negro community’s Central Avenue neighborhood seems as prosperous as all the other parts of Los Angeles. South Central Los Angeles appears not to be such a bad place to live ___ unless you are a Negro with no job.?

Allie and Kenny Kiley’s father is one of the thousands to lose their jobs at the aircraft factory. Unable to handle the economic hardship, Betty Kiley leaves her husband___ as well as her sons. The house that once had been so lovingly maintained falls into a state of filth and disrepair. Allie and Kenny become virtual street urchins. They leave St. Odelia’s Catholic school and attend 49th Street public school, but their attendance is sporadic. The brothers join a neighborhood gang made up of a lot of kids whose families are experiencing similar or even worse economic circumstances. Allie keeps his memories of a good mother and a cheerful home alive by feeding his candy addiction. Sam Kiley, Allie’s father, can no longer supply all the candy his son wants. Sam can barely feed his sons a decent meal each day. Allie and his gang ___ with little Kenny following after them ___ steal candy from machines, grocery stores, anywhere they can. Whether in a store or in a movie theatre, no candy machine is safe from Alfred Kiley and his gang.

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Bert’s family is unaffected by LA’s economic downturn. On the contrary, the MacAbles thrive. Mr. MacAble even purchases a brand-new truck. When Bert enrolls in high school, he enters the Los Angeles Police department’s cadet program. Bert’s training includes undercover work, where he is directed to buy liquor at establishments LAPD targets for selling to minors. Bert successfully entraps several liquors store owners who had been unwilling to contribute to LAPD’s “widows and orphans fund.” Bert becomes one of LAPD’s top high school cadets. All the while, he follows Allie’s career as a candy thief, waiting for his opportunity to settle the grudge he holds against his former friend.

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“Hey, Bert!” Buster calls out to Bert between classes, Buster Lane is a tenth grader whose father is a well-known doctor and who wants Bert to recommend him for police cadet program.

“Yeah, Buster,” Bert replies.?

“I’ve got some information that might interest you.”

“What is it?”?

“You remember you asked me if I’d heard anything about that gang that’s been hitting the candy machines.”

“Yeah,” Bert brightens, “what did you find out.”

“They’re going after the candy machines in the Savoy Theatre on Saturday night.”

“Oh, yeah.”?

“Yeah,” Buster smiles. “The inside man will be Al Kiley.”

Gleefully, Bert passes the information to his police cadet training officer. The neighborhood businessmen have been pestering the cops for months about Al’s gang of candy thieves. The night of the robbery, Al directs his brother Kenny and two of his gang to stand guard outside the Savoy Theater, located on Central Avenue at East 56th Street.

“I’ve got a perfect hiding place,” Al tells Kenny. “They’ll never see me.”

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After the final showing of the evening, the Savoy closes and, while the employees are occupied cleaning the theatre ___ Al hides in the place he picked out weeks earlier. However, Bert’s training officer passes the information about the planned robbery to the watch commander of LAPD’s notorious 77th Street Precinct. The watch commander assigns a patrol car to investigate. “The candy thieves are planning to rob the Savoy Theatre on Saturday night,” he tells his patrolmen.

It takes the theater staff little more than an hour to collect the trash, sweep and vacuum the carpets and clean the lavatories before they turn off the theater’s lights and depart. Inside the darkened theater, Al is confident. He’s been robbing candy machines up and down Central Avenue for years now and has hit several theaters including the Florence Mills and the Bill Robinson. Al’s been so successful, he’s gotten cocky. Once he’s is certain that everyone has left the Savoy, Al creeps out from his hiding place and begins to apply his well-developed skill to each of the candy machines ___ quickly emptying them of their contents into a ‘gunny sack.’ Normally, the theatre staff empties the coin trays when they refill the candy slots. Tonight, is no exception.

Damn, Al thinks, I wish they would leave the money in the trays once in ?a while. Then I’d be rich. No matter, Al and his gang make four or five dollars each selling the candy to the other kids.

Fully occupied with rifling the machines up on the mezzanine floor, Al neither hears the theater’s front door open nor sees the two police officers enter with their pistols drawn. The policemen creep up the stairs to the mezzanine floor as Al blissfully dumps candy into his sack.

“Drop that sack, nigger,” one of the police officers shouts, “and get your hands up!” Both policemen shine their flashlights on the teenage burglar.

Startled, Al turns and races directly into the light. Instantly, both policemen fire their thirty-eight caliber Police Specials. The first bullet spins the teenager completely around, making his back a perfect target for the following shots. Al’s body convulses back and forth as each bullet explodes into his spine. The two policemen continue to fire until both of their guns are empty and Alfred Kiley’s mutilated body lies on the Savoy Theater’s floor ___ his blood blending into the maroon carpeting. Outside, as soon as they see the police car pull in front of the Savoy Theatre, Al’s friends run off. But Kenny remains watching from his hiding place. He sees the officers enter the theater, but he has no way of warning Al. All Kenny can do is wait, alone and afraid. Then he hears the volley of muffled shots and suddenly the Savoy is ablaze with light. Then comes the mournful wail of police sirens. Then Kenny watches as a “meat” wagon from the county morgue drives up in front of the Savoy and after a while, stretcher bearers carry out Al’s lifeless body.

“That one’s not going to rob anymore theatres,” Kenny overhears one of the police officers laugh. “He’s dead as Sunday’s chicken.”

When Bert MacAble learns that the cops have killed Allie, he feels no remorse for causing the death of his little friend whose mother had saved his life.

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Episode Two

“Come on, Kenny, man, let’s get out of here!”?But Kenny ignores Rabbit and continues to watch the garage that opens onto a back alley in Gardena ___ the garage that he believes serves as the Spook Hunters’ clubhouse. For months Kenny, Rabbit and Bud have been tailing members of the Spook Hunters, mostly on their bicycles, but sometimes even on foot, just hoping to locate the gang’s clubhouse. Now Kenny wants to make certain he has found the white gang’s headquarters and he’s got no time for Rabbit’s nonsense ___ even if they are taking their lives in their hands. Most Negroes would consider crossing Alameda Avenue into Gardena foolhardy, if not downright stupid. It’s normally the other way around. White gangs from Gardena come into the Negro neighborhoods looking for a fight. If whites should find a Negro in their neighborhood, it wouldn’t be a fight, it would be a lynching. But Kenny teaches his crew the secrets of being invisible so that he and his boys enter white Los Angeles suburbs without getting caught. Years later, Kenny’s ability to be invisible will serve him well, half a world away, in the jungles of Viet Nam and Laos

“Just be where they aren’t,” Kenny instructs Bud and Rabbit.

The three friends have been lurking around Gardena for months. But only now, their determination has paid off.

“I want one of their jackets!” Kenny tells Rabbit. “All you have to do is stay put, while I figure out how to get one.”

Turning back, Kenny surveys the Spook Hunters’ clubhouse. “Maybe all of us can get one,” he says.

“I don’t need no Spook Hunter’s jacket,” Bud growls. Bud joined Kenny’s search for the white gang’s clubhouse just because Kenny asks him. Bud always does everything Kenny asks him to do. Kenny and Rabbit are Bud’s only family. Without them, Bud will not have anyone to look after him nor anywhere to go.

“Okay, let’s go back to the original plan,” Kenny says. “I just need one jacket to give to Big Hutch!”

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When Allie is alive, Kenny looks up to his brother and follows him everywhere. Allie doesn’t mind; he likes his little brother. After their mother leaves, they are the only family either of them has. But Kenny is smarter than Allie. Kenny would never risk his life to feed a candy addiction. When the cops gun Allie down, Kenny’s world is in turmoil. He has no mother and his forty-year-old unemployed father is a hopeless alcoholic. Now at fifteen, Kenny relies on wit and will to survive. He doesn’t intend to allow L.A. destroy him like it did the rest of his family.

Kenny is a hustler. He hustles to feed himself as well as Rabbit and Bud. School is out of the question. He was attending Edison Junior High on East 59th Street, but when the police kill Allie, Kenny drops out. Gang members don’t go to school and anyone hustling around Central Avenue better belong to a gang. Kenny wants to join the Slausons, the biggest and most notorious black gang in L.A. But joining the Slausons isn’t easy. Big Hutch doesn’t let just anybody join his gang. Kenny has to prove himself. Kenny plans to grab a Spook Hunter’s jacket and give it to Big Hutch, the Slausons’ tough gang leader, as a way of proving that he, Rabbit and Bud belong in the Slausons.

White gangs from Gardena, Downey and LA’s other white suburbs invade the Negro’s neighborhoods along Central Avenue ___ attacking any Negro they find. The most notorious of these white gangs is the Spook Hunters whose gang members wear leather jackets displaying an animated face of a “black spook” with a noose hanging around his neck with “Spook Hunters” emblazoned around the picture. While political campaigns in L.A. always include promises to keep the “darkies” under control, white gangs like the Spook Hunters help politicians keep their promises. Even Negro Republicans, enjoying political patronage from the city hall mob, fear these white gangs. Any Negro politician agitating against white privilege, complains about housing segregation, or just makes a nuisance of himself about civil rights receives a visit from white gang members. Until the 1960s, the white gangs, not the white cops, maintain white supremacy in Los Angeles. Some Negroes respond by forming their own gangs. And the Slausons, led by Leroy “Big Hutch” Hutchinson, is the largest Negro gang in Los Angeles.

“How are you gonna get one of those Spook Hunters to give up his jacket?” Rabbit asks. Rabbit’s voice is edged with sarcasm. The sun has already begun cooling itself in the blue Pacific with only lingering rays shooting off the highest peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains to hold back the evening shadows. Even now, a damp, misty gloom begins to enshroud the Gardena neighborhood.

“I don’t know,” Kenny admits. “I’m gonna have to think about this. Let’s go home.”

It’s dark and the moon replaces the sun rays on the mountains before the weary teens ride their bikes across Alameda Avenue back into their Central Avenue neighborhood. The three friends don’t reach the Kiley’s ramshackle house on East 57th Street until after midnight.?How am I gonna grab one of those Spook Hunter jackets and me, Rabbit and Bud into the Slausons, Kenny broods during the long bicycle ride home.

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In the late 1920s, George Brown amalgamates all the bootleggers operating in the Central Avenue community into one distribution system and makes himself boss.?Eliminating all his competition, Boss Brown even out-muscles his white suppliers, sending his gang out to hijack whiskey from their warehouses in the San Pedro. Boss Brown pays protection to LAPD police captains, Jack Trainor and Harry Hager, working out of?the infamous Newton Street and 77th Street Police Stations. Anyone Boss Brown can’t handle; Trainor and Hager eliminate. Boss Brown’s City Hall connections prohibit L.A.’s big time bootleggers from operating inside the Negroes’ Central Avenue territory. Boss Brown supplies booze to speakeasies, night clubs and restaurants, up and down Central Avenue. Even the legendary Dunbar Hotel, whose restaurant and nightclub caters to famous celebrities from all over the world, obtains its liquor from the Negro mobster.

When the Democrats sweep into power under Roosevelt’s ‘new deal,’ everything changes. Boss Brown’s Republican contacts are thrown out of office and ‘new deal’ Democrats in control give LA’s Negro neighborhoods to Jewish, Italian, and Irish mobsters. Boss Brown’s gang is broken up and its members murdered or incarcerated.

Other South-Central gangs fill the vacuum left by the destruction of Boss Brown’s organization. First come crime families, whose members are affiliated by blood and marriage ___ the Goodlows, the Kelleys and the Drivers. Then come neighborhood gangs, organized for the purpose of controlling the robbery and prostitution inside their neighborhoods and for preventing outsiders from operating on their turf. These gangs, like the Blodgettes, stress race unity. In the 1950’s, hardcore criminal gangs, like the Businessmen, the Rebel Rousers and the Slausons, take control of the Central Avenue neighborhoods. These gangs are organized for survival, their members are desperate and their leaders are tough. These gangs fight outsiders and each other for the right to control robbery, prostitution, extortion, and gambling within their territory. Territorial disputes are settled by fights, primarily with fists, but also with knives, bats, and an occasional gun. Gangs rally their members, meet their rivals in an open area like an empty lot, a park or a back alley and fight it out. The winner is the gang that has the most members left standing when the fight is over. Afterwards, the gangsters go home, attend to their wounds, and boast about their exploits. In the late 1950s, the toughest gang of all is the Watts Farmers, led by Junior Terrell, a massive six-footer weighing two hundred and fifty pounds. The Farmers routinely battle gangs from Central Los Angeles and dominate the Watts area through sheer strength and aggressiveness. Terrell refuses to even speak to anyone who isn’t a Farmer. Terrell’s Farmers impresses the impoverished Watts youth as they ride around in their chromed Buicks, wearing overalls, white shirts, homburg hats and knob shoes with the toes stuck up at the end. Everyone fears the Farmers except the Slausons. Junior Terrell has fifty Farmers, Big Hutch’s Slausons number over five hundred.

“C’mon Red, man,” Kenny begs. Red is a member of the Slauson’s inner council and a close friend of Big Hutch. “You got to do me this favor. I can’t do it by myself.”

Kenny hustles for Red, selling ‘red devils,’ ‘bennies’ and matchboxes of weed in South Park. Red has a half dozen ‘runners,’ but Kenny is the only one Red let’s hang out with him. Red likes Kenny. The skinny teen is a lot smarter than the others. Kenny won’t steal from him and won’t get high on Red’s supply. Kenny is Red’s only ‘runner’ who isn’t an addict. That’s not to say that Kenny doesn’t smoke a joint every once in a while. But Red knows that Kenny has a lot more on his mind than getting high. Kenny is ambitious.

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Like the other members of the Slauson inner council, Red is big, over six feet tall and muscular. With a freckly face and reddish-brown hair, Red has an affable nature, which is why he guards against anyone getting too close. Running a gang is tough business. Red can’t afford to be sentimental. Red has been hustling on L.A.’s streets since he was ten. And the one thing Red knows for certain is how to get what he wants.

All Los Angeles preys on Negroes in the ghetto. White landowners gouge them with unfair rents; the white government taxes them into poverty; and white business owners swindle them on credit purchases for the basic necessities. Whites criminalize the very act of living and to survive, a Negro must be a criminal ____ unless you are one of the fortunate ‘talented tenth.’ White society teach Negroes an important lesson ____ ?not even God pities his prey. In Los Angeles, the most successful street hustlers move from the street to the pulpit. So, even though Red likes Kenny, he can’t ___ or won’t ___ help Kenny get into the Slausons.

Kenny is a runner; Red keeps an eye on all his runners. Stealing is not the only problem. Runners get busted. Then the cops use the runner to set up the dealer. Red doesn’t trust the cops; they never keep their word. A Slauson can be making regular payments to the cops right up to the time the cop arrests him. And that’s not the worse. When the cops arrest a gang member, even though the cop knows that the gang member will keep quiet about the payoffs, the cops will beat him up, anyway ___ just for fun. Some of Red’s gang have lost teeth, eyes and suffered other permanent injuries from cop beatings. Sometimes the beatings are fatal. With the way the cops act, Red knows that any one of his runners are potential snitches. Red just can’t trust any of his runners ___ not even Kenny.

Red’s runners are not his only problem. His women cause problems as well. The women deliberately sleep with different men just to start fights. The winner gets the woman along with her friends; the loser could end up dead. The women are often police informants. Red’s gotta watch all his women all the time ___ even Baby Doll.

“All my people are just waiting to take me down,” Red tells Kenny. “That’s why I can’t help you, Cool Breeze. One day, if you survive, you’ll understand.”

Red’s caution is one of the reasons that he has survived so long without doing any time. Red will turn twenty on his next birthday. By the time most street hustlers turn twenty, they’ve already spent years behind bars.

“How ‘bout taking Bud, Rabbit, and me over to Gardena, then,” Kenny asks.

“Ain’t no way, Cool Breeze,” Red says. “I ain’t going to drive you over across Alameda Avenue. If them white folks catch us over there, they’ll skin us alive. You know what’s happening in Watts has got white folks threatening to riot.”

Angry whites in Gardena, Bellflower and even Compton react to the recent announcement that the County of Los Angeles intends to build Nickerson Gardens in Watts ___ adding another eleven hundred public housing units to the tiny community’s excessively dense public housing population. Watts already has three other public housing projects. Hacienda Village and Imperial Courts were built in the 1940s, then the 700-unit Jordan Downs public housing project was built in 1950. Now, in 1955, Nickerson Gardens will become the most massive public housing project in Los Angeles County. Watts is exploding with thousands of impoverished, ?poorly educated, unsupervised, sexually, and physically abused Black teenagers. The area is so overwhelmed with gangs and infested with crime that even LA’s toughest cops don’t venture into Watts without plenty of back up support. The whites in surrounding suburban communities like Huntington Park, Vernon, and Compton ___ all rigidly segregated ___ vow to keep “the niggers” from spilling into their neighborhoods with guns, if necessary.

“Them crackers have promised to lynch any nigger they catch in their neighborhood,” Red tells Kenny. “And it’s not going to be me.” Red drives an Imperial Green 1951 Mercury that has been lowered all around and sports a Naugahyde interior. “You see that car?” Red says.

Kenny nods.?“It’s not meant to be my hearse.” Red is not smiling.

“Look, Red,” Kenny says, “How am I going to get into the Slausons unless I do something really big?”?Kenny sits on a South Park bench, slurping a Foster Freeze ice milk. Eyeing Kenny’s tattered overalls, ragged coat and Keds tennis shoes, Red thinks to himself, His clothes alone will keep him out of the Slausons. Besides which, in a fight, Kenny couldn’t even beat a dwarf. Though Kenny approaches six feet, he is slender, barely 145 pounds. But he is deceptively strong and has a will of iron.

“Everyone will be talking about the Slausons, if Big Hutch shows off one of those Spook Hunter’s jackets,” Kenny argues.

Red has to admit the kid is right. It would be hard for them to keep Cool Breeze out of the gang if he presents Hutch with jacket from one of L.A.’s most notorious white gangs, especially since the whites are talking about lynching niggers in Watts.

“Look, Breeze,” Red tells his young protégé, “I’m not against what you’re trying to do. In fact, I admire you for it. But you got to come up with a plan that has them coming into South Central. That’s what you’ve got to do, little brother.” And with that, Red leaves his runner to figure out what to do next.

“All I have to do is come up with a plan,” Kenny tells Bud and Rabbit, in the abandoned house where his two friends have been flopping.

“After all the work that we’ve done, I guess Red expects the whities to send a jacket over, gift wrapped,” Rabbit laughs.

“You said that he’d help us,” Bud says.

“Yeah,” Rabbit chimes in.

Kenny remains silent for a while. Bud knows that Kenny is depressed. He tries to revive his friend’s enthusiasm. Living on the street, Bud is an introvert and seldom talks. He and Rabbit have been friends since they were nine. Bud is big for his age and now, at sixteen, he is six feet tall and well over 200 pounds. Staying close to Rabbit and Kenny is the only way the big teen can feed his enormous appetite.

“Let’s come up with a plan,” Bud offers. “We’ll take it one step at a time. What is it that you want to do?”?

“I want to get one of those Spook Hunter jackets.”?

“Where do you want to take a jacket?”

“What do you mean?” Rabbit asks his big friend, with a sneer.

Rabbit is resentful. He usually does the thinking and the talking for Bud.

“Do you want to try to get the jacket from them when they come over to South Central or are you going to try to take from their clubhouse?” Bud asks ignoring Rabbit.

“I see what you’re saying,” Kenny tells Bud. “You think that the plan needs to start with the Spook Hunters bringing their jackets to us. Is that what you’re saying?”

Bud nods, but Rabbit shouts out, “OK, Fathead, tell us your plan.”

“Shut up, Rabbit,” Kenny orders. “What you got in mind, big fella?”

Encouraged by Kenny’s interest, Bud continues, “Well, if they come over here, they’re gonna come in force. Five, ten, maybe twenty in carloads.”

“And?” Kenny says.

“And you got a major war and there won’t be any jacket for anybody,” Bud says.

“That’s brilliant,” Rabbit interjects.

“I’m not gonna tell you to shut up again,” Kenny says quietly.

“Or what?” Rabbit smirks.

“Or Bud and I will go somewhere else and leave you out of the whole deal,” Kenny says matter-of-factly.

Rabbit starts to say something, but thinks better of it. Bud looks over at his friend. The big teenager usually protects his little friend. Bud always lets Rabbit push him around. It’s Rabbit’s way of coping. Rabbit has been on his own as long as he can remember. And, in a bit of insight that some might have found rare in this oversized teen, Bud thinks to himself, His name is not Rabbit for nothing.

“Okay,” Kenny says, turning back to Bud, “what do we do?”

“We have to invite them over here?” Bud says.?Both Rabbit and Kenny look at their friend. At first, Kenny wants to dismiss Bud’s idea. But slowly he realizes that Bud is on to something.

“Bud’s right,” Kenny announces. “We need to send them an invitation.”?

“Send them an invitation?” Rabbit asks. He gives his head an incredulous shake from side to side.?

“Well maybe not send them an invitation,” Kenny says.

“It would be more like delivering them a message.”

“What kind of message?” Rabbit asks.

“That depends on the messenger,” Bud replies. Looking over at Kenny, he asks, “Don’t some of Red’s whores service those white boys from across the river?”

Generally, Kenny stays away from Red’s whores. They are always teasing him and they lie about anything and everything. Most of the time, they’re high. The Slausons inner council consider Red a ‘chump’ for taking such good care of his women. Most of the other pimps string their women out on heroin and work them hard. By the time they turned twenty, they’re no good to anyone, including themselves. But Red really wants better for all of his women. He tells them that they can make a good life for themselves if they just follow his advice, stay away from heroin and alcohol, and save their money.

“Drugs and alcohol make you old and ugly,” Red lectures, “and, if you ain’t got no money by the time you’re thirty, you won’t be able to make none.”?Red knows that whores get old real quick. He tries to take care of them. He buys them clothes, and gives them a place to stay. But not a day passes that one of his women doesn’t teach Red the meaning of the adage: no good deed goes unpunished. If the women aren’t fighting with each other or behaving badly in public, they are getting arrested for shoplifting. To say that Red’s women are not very intelligent is to say that Negroes aren’t very prosperous. Red’s women delight in acting as ignorant as possible whenever possible. Only Baby Doll really listens to Red. She takes care of herself.

Baby Doll is one of Red’s hottest whores. At seventeen, Baby Doll is unusually attractive. It’s her mixed ancestry. Baby Doll’s mother, Theresa, got pregnant by a white boy by the name of Earl at a Catholic high school. They had known each other in elementary school. Earl had always wanted to be with the exotic looking Negro girl. When Theresa discovers that she is pregnant, she and Earl drop out of school and get married. Earl tries everything he can to keep his family together___ especially since his working-class family is dead set against his marrying a Negro “tramp.” Earl gets a job driving a newspaper truck, but when his employer learns that Earl is married to a Negro, he fires him on the spot. Ten years and three children later, the family is living a hand to mouth existence. They never have enough money for anything other than the rent and a few groceries. Theresa works as a nurse’s aide at Queen of Angels Hospital, a two hour street car ride from their home off of Central Avenue. Baby Doll endures her mother and father’s endless quarrels until, at fifteen, she leaves home to work the streets for Red.?

“Yeah,” Kenny tells Bud, “I think a couple of Red’s whores do have regular customers from across Alameda Avenue. What do you have in mind?”

Baby Doll hears a light tapping on her front door.?“Who is it?” she asks peering through a crack in the door. “It’s me, Baby Doll, Kenny.”?

“Hey there, Cool Breeze.” Red’s main woman says opening the door. “Who’s that with you?”

“Just Bud and Rabbit,” Kenny says. He’s not happy that Baby Doll calls him by his gang name.?

“Hi, Baby Doll,” Rabbit and Bud say simultaneously.

“So, what can I do for you, boys?” Baby Doll asks. She wears a light robe that barely covers the curves that outline her honey brown body. “Would you like a soft drink?”

“Yes,” Kenny blurts out. “Thanks.”

Baby Doll disappears into the kitchen, re-emerging with a round tray carrying three tall glasses filled with ice and fizzing with a dark cola.

Baby’s sparsely furnished living room is dominated by a comfortable old sofa, facing a console television set. Reception on the twelve-inch screen fades in and out.

“You can’t hardly see anything on your television,” Rabbit says. Kenny gives him an angry stare,

“Yes, I know,” Baby Doll replies. “I’ve been telling Red that I need a rooftop antenna.” She strolls over and tries to adjust the ‘rabbit ears’ sitting atop the console. “There,” she says as the picture clears momentarily. She slowly backs away, hoping the antenna will stay in place.

Baby Doll waits for Red’s dope runners to drain their glasses. Then she says, “What do you fellows want?”

“Me, Rabbit and Bud want to join the Slausons,” Kenny says.

“The Slausons ain’t gonna accept you, Kenny,” Baby laughs. “Didn’t Red tell you?”

“Yeah, he told me, but just listen to me, okay?” Kenny pleads.

“Okay,” Baby says as she turns her attention back to her fingernails. A ‘doobie’ remains in the ashtray and she is pleasantly high, which accounts for her tolerating the intrusion.

“Okay,” Kenny says. “Me, Rabbit and Bud want to snatch a couple of jackets …”

“…from the Spook Hunters,” Baby Doll interrupts. “I know, Red told me. He thinks you’re crazy.”

“Come on, Baby,” Kenny says. “You said that you’d listen.”

“Okay, I’ll listen.” Putting her fingernail file down, she stretches her voluptuous body down on the carpeted floor and turns her green sultry eyes fully on Kenny. Like Red, Baby Doll also likes Kenny. As a matter of fact, it was she who pointed out how different Kenny was from Red’s other runners. “Now,” she says, “you have my complete attention.”

“Okay,” Kenny says. “Now, Red agrees that if we can snatch a Spook Hunter jacket and take it to the Slausons’ inner council, Big Hutch would have to let us in. Nobody has ever done anything like that before.”

“Nobody’s crazy enough to do something like that, you mean,” Baby Doll?laughs.

“But listen up,” Kenny says. “We got a plan to grab a couple of jackets without any problem.”

“What’s your plan?” Baby asks, rolling over. The television picture goes fuzzy again.

“We want you to send a message to the Spook Hunters that a couple of Red’s women are having a hooker’s special.”

“What kind of special,” Baby Doll asks. The laconic look on her face is slowly changing into a mixture of interest and concern. Baby Doll shares in the profits from Red’s whores, so she is interested in anything that will bring in more money ___ or less.

“Anyone wearing a Spook Hunter’s jacket will get two for one,” Kenny says cautiously.

“A two-for-one special!” Baby Doll explodes. “What are you talking about Kenny?”

“You see, Baby,” Bud says, “our plan is for a couple of the whores to take the Spook Hunters up to the Dunbar and then we’d jump them when they come out.”

“All that’s well and good,” Red says, “but what makes you think that they are just going to come down here? Don’t you think they’d be the least bit suspicious?” Red had come into the apartment through the back door and had caught the last part of Kenny’s daring plan.

“White folks don’t never believe that colored people can think,” Kenny says. “Besides which, they believe that white men taking black women is the order of things.” The young dope dealer gives Red an insolent stare. “You taught me that, remember?”

It’s true. Red can’t deny it. Red takes a box containing marijuana off of the table and rolls a joint. His young protégé’s logic intrigues him. He lights up and takes a couple of hits. From the time Red enters Baby Doll’s living room, Bud and Rabbit try to become as inconspicuous as possible; they’re nervous about being caught in the gang leader’s home ___ and being alone with his woman. But Kenny is unfazed by his boss’s sudden appearance.

?“So, what’s your plan?” Red asks.

“The plan is to get one or two of those Spook Hunters to come to the Dunbar Hotel for one of your ladies. The ladies will be getting more business, which means more money for you and Baby Doll and we’ll get a chance at one or two of those jackets.” Red stares at Kenny.?

“You said that you’d support us if we got a Spook Hunter to come over into our neighborhood,” Bud says.?

Red looks over at Baby Doll. All she does is smile and nod. Then he looks back at Kenny. “What happens when the Spook Hunters come back in carloads looking for their jackets?”

“They can’t,” Bud says.

“Why not?” Red asks.

“Because they’d have to get approval from downtown. Do you think that city hall will assemble an entire gang because some dumb shit got his jacket stolen while getting laid in the Dunbar Hotel?” Kenny asks. “I don’t think so. They might take the dumb bastards that lose their jackets out somewhere and leave them, but they’re not going to mount a full-scale war over it.”

“No,” Baby Doll says, “but a couple of carloads might come back.”

“If so, then we blame it on the Rabble Rousers,” Kenny says abruptly, as if the thought had just popped into his mind, which it did.

A turf war between the Slausons and Rabble Rousers has been heating up recently. Red, himself, tells Kenny that the Slauson inner council would love to see the Spook Hunters attack the Rabble Rousers.

Kenny knows that Red might have to take the plan to the Slauson high council and get a ruling, if only because of the chance of a rumble with either the Spook Hunters or the Rabble Rousers, or both. Red knows the Slausons’ warlord would be all for it. But the inner council, especially Big Hutch, will want to know what’s in it for them. They’d never approve it. The Slausons’ inner council would only be interested if there was a big score for them. Kenny knows the Slausons are complete capitalists.

“You know I’m supposed to take anything like this to the council,” Red says.

Kenny doesn’t say anything. He just sits there holding his breath watching as Red smokes the joint. The more the gang leader thinks about Kenny’s plan, the more he likes it. Finally, he gives his approval.

?

The next day Kenny has some mimeographs printed that read:

Colored mamas want to meet one those bad Spook Hunters…

Two Colored mamas will do him, front and back if he wears his Spook Hunter jacket…

Inquire at the Dunbar Hotel

Kenny, Bud, and Rabbit take the mimeographs back across the river and leave them on cars parked on the street in front of the Spook Hunters’ clubhouse. Several days pass before there is any response but then, one evening, Baby Doll gets a call from one of the Dunbar’s doormen. A Spook Hunter has inquired about the special. For the next several weeks, the Dunbar Hotel experiences a marked increase in white patronage. The girls think the increased business is great. Everything goes as planned with one exception ___ none of the white men requesting the “Spook Hunter’s” special wear their jackets. A couple of gang members do ask for the special by presenting their Spook Hunter membership cards. Kenny, Bud, and Rabbit take turns watching the hotel entrance, hoping to see a white man wearing a Spook Hunter jacket, but after three weeks pass, no one wearing the jacket makes an appearance. A couple of Red’s girls report that they have entertained Spook Hunters wearing their club jackets, but neither Kenny nor his crew sees them. Just as the three would-be Slausons decide to give up on their plan, Bud and Rabbit spot two white men wearing jackets with “Spook Hunters” emblazoned across their backs walk boldly into the Dunbar Hotel. Rabbit rushes out to tell Kenny while Bud stands guard,

“Are they still there?” Kenny asks. He is out of breath from pedaling as well as from anticipation.

“Yeah, they are still there,” Bud replies.?

“Where’s their car?”?

“It’s a coupe parked over on East 29th Place,” Bud says.

“How do you know it’s their car?” Kenny asks.?“It has “Spook Hunters” written across the trunk,” Rabbit smirks.?

The three go around to where a 1947 Plymouth Coupe, two-seater, with raked front and glass-packed tailpipes is parked. Flames stream from the hood and down the sides. Across the trunk, the car boasts the Spook Hunters emblem.

Kenny takes a small hose and siphons gas out of gas tank. Then leaving Bud and Rabbit to maintain their vigil, Kenny jumps on his bike and pedals furiously over to Red’s place.

Later that evening, two white men sit on a dark street in Los Angeles’ Negro neighborhood arguing over whose fault it was that they ran out of gas. A green Mercury pulls up in front of them and out jump three Negroes. Seeing the three of them approach, two of whom are little more than kids, both white gangsters jump out of their car. They are thankful for the opportunity to take out their frustration on these punk niggers. Even though it is three against two, the whites are big, muscular and have seen their share of brawls. Both are confident of the outcome. But the scuffle is brief and doesn’t go the way the white gangsters expect. Bud takes a tire iron and delivers a blow to one of the Spook Hunter’s shins, sending the white man to concrete, clutching his leg in agony. Then Bud delivers a blow to the shoulder of his buddy. He, too, is sprawled on the street writhing in pain. His shoulder is broken. Neither gangster wants to continue the brawl.

“I give, nigger! I give!” one cries out.

“Take off your clothes,” Kenny orders. “Take off everything,”

Painfully, both Spook Hunters take off every bit of clothing except their shorts. Scooping up the clothes, including the two Spook Hunter leather jackets, Kenny, Rabbit and Bud return to Red’s waiting car. As they pass by the two dazed, naked white men, Kenny shouts out, “Tell your friends that the Rabble Rousers don’t like you coming into our neighborhood and messing with our women.”

Weeks later, the warlord of the Rabble Rousers receives a challenge from the Dodge City gang. The white gang, allied with the Spook Hunters is headquartered in the Los Angeles suburb of Commerce. Wendell Campbell, the Rebel Rousers’ leader, calls for his gang to meet the Dodge City gang in a vacant lot on Dalton Street at the corner of Jefferson. The Rabble Rousers arrive early and are preparing for the ‘rumble’ when a car comes careening down the alley behind the lot and stops. A fusillade of shots rings out. Then the car speeds off back towards the Los Angeles River, leaving two of the Rabble Rousers screaming in pain from the minor bullet wounds. But Wendell Campbell makes no sound. He has taken two bullets full in the chest, and lies slumped on the ground. Later in intensive care at Los Angeles County General Hospital, the twenty-one-year-old leader of the Rabble Rouser remains silent until the very last minute of his life.

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To Be Continued...

Copyright ? Eugene Stovall (2019)

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