Blood's a rover

Sergeant Bennett sipped coffee and continued. “The heist was conceived and executed boldly,” he said. “And I believe that the leader of the gang decided beforehand to kill his underlings at the scene and obscure their identities, and their races, by burning their bodies past recognition. All fine and good, but obscuring racial identification requires more than burning the surface of the skin, and the man first dosed the bodies with a chemical accelerant that greatly enhanced the tissue damage of the burning. We’ve never been able to identify the chemical that he used, which is another reason why the heist has remained such a baffler.”

Some other reasons?

“Well,” Sergeant Bennett said, “we know that many of the cash stacks stolen from the armored car were wrapped with ink-exploding bands, and ink spill was found at the crime scene. Also, ink-stained bills have surfaced periodically in south Los Angeles, so I’m convinced that there was at least a partial Negro component to the gang. Also, the origin of the emeralds remains undetermined. It was a very valuable cargo, and intermediaries for the consigner and the consignee signed secrecy waivers with Wells Fargo, which has impeded the investigation.”

And the persistent rumor that the emeralds hailed from Central America or the Caribbean?

Sergeant Bennett said, “Just that, a rumor. Entirely unsubstantiated.”

And the rumor that black-militant organizations plotted and executed the heist?

Scotty Bennett laughed heartily. “Why mince words? Black militants are grandstanders who always claim credit for their deeds. The Panthers and US are informant-infiltrated, and we would have picked up leads by now. We’ve got two rowdy militant groups causing woo-woo in L.A. now, the Black Tribe Alliance and the Mau-Mau Liberation Front, but for the life of me I can’t see them executing anything more complex than a liquor-store job or a purse snatch.”

And the leader of the gang? The ruthless mastermind who killed his own men at the scene?

Scotty Bennett laughed even more heartily. “Tell him this,” he said. “When I let that buckshot go, there’s no taking it back.”

DOCUMENT INSERT: 7/27/68. Internal FBI memorandum. Marked: ” Stage-1 Covert”/”Director’s Eyes Only “/”Destroy After Reading.” To: Director Hoover. From: SA Dwight C. HoUy.

Sir,

The following states the design and goals of our COINTELPRO aimed at discrediting and disrupting the black-militant movement at large and more circumscribed and localized black-nationalist groups in specific. Pending your approval, I have named the program OPERATION BAAAAD BROTHER. It is a nod to our less-than-successful OPERATION BLACK RABBIT and ironically celebrates the Negro verbal tic of using “bad” to mean “good.” Male Negroes often address each other as “brother,” which I thought you might appreciate. As I’m sure you know, a Negro extremist group called the “Black Nationalists of New Libya” precipitated racial violence in Cleveland, Ohio, this past week that left eleven dead, including three white policemen. This is the perfect time to initiate a physically small-scaled COINTELPRO that may well achieve large-scale national results.

It is my firm belief that both the BLACK PANTHER PARTY (BPP) and the UNITED SLAVES (US) are too well known and well infiltrated already. I believe that our goals would be better served by operating the Los Angeles-based BLACK TRIBE ALLIANCE (BTA) and MAU-MAU LIBERATION FRONT (MMLF). Our COINTELPRO could put them on the map and wholly discredit them concurrently. By controlling the public perception of two lesser-known groups at the outset, we would also discredit the black-militant movement as a whole. I have studied the initial Bureau intelligence reports on the BTA and MMLF that you sent me and have requested Intel Division dossiers on their members from LAPD. I firmly contend that they are perfect COINTELPRO targets and that their destruction should be the ultimate goal of OPERATION BAAAAD BROTHER. I believe our goal should be accomplished in this manner:

1.-Both groups are rumored to be considering the sale of narcotics as a means to finance their activities, which might provide us with avenues to exploit their inherent criminality and publically underscore the point that criminal activity and subversive political activity are one and the same thing.

2.-We must find a high-caliber confidential informant who will ingratiate him or herself with one or both groups and report back with assiduously detailed briefs on their political activities. I believe that a female informant would be the most effective. A woman schooled in left-wing-revolutionary jargon would have a greater chance of eliciting confidences and inspiring indiscreet conversation and would most likely be better able to maneuver between the two (male-dominated) groups without creating rancor. Toward the end of recruitment, I have confidential Bureau informant #4361 assisting me.

3.-The linchpin of the incursion should be the placement of a male Negro infiltrator, mandated to uncover and report the criminal activities of the BTA and MMLF. Ideally, the infiltrator should have had police experience. Also ideally (but much more unlikely), he should possess a past history of racial animus for whites. Toward that possibility, I have requested a wide array of police agency personnel files and am currently seeking to secure a viewing of the hate-mail subscription lists of the late Wayne Tedrow Sr. and Bureau confidential informant Dr. Fred Hiltz. Wayne Tedrow Jr. has refused to grant me access to his father’s lists, but I will persist with him.

4.-Pending your consent, I would move to Los Angeles and establish a full-time temporary residence there, along with a cosmetically obscured front office for OPERATION BAAAAD BROTHER. Per initial operating expenses, I would request $60,000 in cold funds.

In conclusion:

I strongly believe that the BLACK TRIBE ALLIANCE and MAU-MAU LIBERATION FRONT offer us an unparalleled opportunity to disrupt and discredit the subversive designs of the black-militant movement at large. I await your appraisal and response.

Respectfully,

SA Dwight C. Holly

DOCUMENT INSERT: 7/28/68. FBI telex communiquй. From: SAC Marvin D. Waldrin, Las Vegas Office. To: Special Agent Dwight C. Holly. Marked: ”Confidential 1-A: Recipient’s Eyes Only.”

SA Holly,

Per your preceding memo (Confidential 1-A memorandum #8518) requesting information on rumors pertaining to the 6/9/68 death of MR. WAYNE TEDROW SR., I have developed the following information:

A.-Rumors that MR. TEDROW’S death was in fact a homicide, all unsubstantiated, are circulating, according to Bureau informants within the Las Vegas Police Department and Clark County Coroner’s Office.