Other books consulted concentrate on individual figures in the case: the thoughtful, thorough Ethel Rosenberg: Beyond the Myths (1988) by Ilene Philipson; the first-rate The Brother (2001) by Sam Roberts, examining David Greenglass; the well-written if self-serving On Doing Time (1974, 2001), Morton Sobell’s autobiography; and the well-researched, expertly crafted The Invisible Harry Gold (1982) by Allen M. Hornblum, which for all its merits is unconvincing in rehabilitating its subject’s role in history.
Of the post–Cold War looks at Soviet espionage during the Stalin era, Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev’s The Haunted Wood (1999), dealing with previously sealed KGB records, proved for me a dry and sleep-inducing read. Much better is The Man Behind the Rosenbergs (2001) by “KGB spymaster” Alexander Feklisov and Sergei Kostin, although the title is an exaggeration—Feklisov never met Ethel Rosenberg—and the book may be of questionable reliability.
The Frank Olson case has, to date, produced only one book, H. P. Albarelli Jr.’s painstakingly researched A Terrible Mistake (2009), a mammoth undertaking (for writer and reader alike) that covers not only the Olson death but CIA mind control efforts in general throughout the Cold War. Labeling A Terrible Mistake definitive is not premature, though it does suffer slightly from repetition and the lack of a sharp editorial hand. Nonetheless, I am indebted to the author for his scholarship and dedication, and this crucial book.
Other Olson research included chapters or major sections of Dead Wrong (2012), Richard Belzer and David Wayne; The Magician, (2008, 2010), Ben Robinson; The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004), Jon Ronson; Raw Deal (1998), Ken Smith; The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate” (1979), John Marks; and A Voice for the Dead (2005), James E. Starrs with Katherine Ramsland. Also helpful was the documentary Investigative Reports: Mind Control Murder (1999), directed by David Presswell and written by JoAnn Milivojevic. Finally, the Olson family’s Web site—the Frank Olson Legacy Project—brims with information and numerous links to related articles (www.franksolsonproject.org).
Among articles utilized are “The Olson File” (London Mail, 1998), Kevin Dowling and Phillip Knightly; “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (2000, Gentlemen’s Quarterly), Mary A. Fischer; and “What Did the C.I.A. Do to Eric Olson’s Father?” (2001, New York Times), Michael Ignatieff.
Dashiell Hammett is one of four writers who inspired me at an early age to write crime fiction, and who instructed me in how to do it, in their very different ways. The others are Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, and Mickey Spillane. But first came Hammett, whose The Maltese Falcon I consider the greatest private eye novel ever written, unlikely to be surpassed.
So I came to this project having already read a lot about Hammett—everything I could get my hands on, really—but I can’t point to one book on his life as the definitive one. All of the following are worthwhile, and each provided material for my characterization of Hammett: Dashiell Hammett: A Casebook (1969), William F. Nolan; Dashiell Hammett: A Life (1983), Diane Johnson; Dashiell Hammett: Man of Mystery (2014), Sally Cline; Shadow Man: The Life of Dashiell Hammett (1981), Richard Layman; Hellman and Hammett (1996), Joan Mellen; and Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett (2001), edited by Richard Layman with Julie M. Rivett.
Hammett never headed up a committee like the one that hires Heller here, but he was a vocal Rosenberg supporter, as were those I appointed to his fictional committee, and he was involved with many such leftist causes and groups—interesting, because if ever a man seemed more an individualist and less a joiner, Hammett was it.
Two strikingly different looks at the life of Roy Cohn are The Autobiography of Roy Cohn (1988) by Sidney Zion and Citizen Cohn (1988) by Nicholas von Hoffman. Drew Pearson references include Confessions of a Muckraker (1979) by Jack Anderson with James Boyd; Drew Pearson: An Unauthorized Biography (1973) by Oliver Pilat; and Drew Pearson Diaries 1949–1959 (1974), edited by Tyler Abell. Also consulted were Frank Costello: Prime Minister of the Underworld (1974) by George Wolf with Joseph DiMona, and Kefauver: A Political Biography (1971) by Joseph Bruce Gorman.
Research on a certain iconic beauty of the fifties included Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend (1996, 1998), Karen Essex and James L. Swanson; Bettie Page: Queen of Curves (2014), Petra Mason and Bunny Yeager; The Real Bettie Page (1997), Richard Foster; and the documentary Bettie Page Reveals All (2012), written by Doug Miller and directed by Mark Mori. No disrespect to Miss Page’s memory is meant by the fantasy of her sexual relationship with Nathan Heller—my enthusiasm for Bettie predates by decades her latter-day discovery.
Bobby Kennedy research included American Journey: The Times of Robert Kennedy (1970), Jean Stein and George Plimpton; The Enemy Within (1960), Robert F. Kennedy; Robert Kennedy: His Life (2000), Evan Thomas; RFK: A Candid Biography of Robert Kennedy (1998), C. David Heymann; and RFK: The Man Who Would Be President (1967), Ralph De Toledano.
Location reference came from New York Confidential (1953), Jack Lait & Lee Mortimer; New York in the ’50s (1992), Dan Wakefield; No Cover Charge (1956), Robert Sylvester; The Village (2013), John Strausbaugh; Stork Club (2000), Ralph Blumenthal; The Waldorf-Astoria (1991), Ward Morehouse III; and Washington Confidential (1951), Jack Lait & Lee Mortimer. In addition, WPA guides to New York City, New York State, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., were consulted, including New York Panorama (1938). Prison reference included Sing Sing (2005), Denis Brian; and Sing Sing (Images of America), (2003), Guy Cheli. Also helpful was a Sing Sing Internet photo gallery by Karl R. Josker.
The Internet has become an indispensable research tool for the Heller memoirs, and that I once wrote these books without it now seems unimaginable. Small facts were checked dozens of times during a writing session—for example, the spelling of once common and now obscure products, the names of radio/TV shows and popular music of the era, and the point at which slang terms and phrases entered general usage. Information on everything from the Waldorf Cafeteria to the Senate Caucus Room came from searching the Net. Acknowledging each Web site that provided a scrap of two of research would expand this bibliographical essay to an unwieldy length; my thanks to all of them.
My friend and longtime research associate George Hagenauer made a trip to Iowa for a key brainstorming session, and did much reading and digging on McCarthy, Cohn, and the Rosenbergs. A Wisconsin resident himself, George was an enthusiastic advocate for the inclusion in this novel of the day Communists “took over” Mosinee in Senator McCarthy’s home state.
I had intended to open the novel with Hammett testifying to McCarthy’s committee, but looking at various newspaper articles on, and magazine accounts of, this bizarre event (Racine Journal Times, Wausau Daily Herald, American Legion Magazine, OAH Magazine of History) swung me to George’s thinking—specifically, that this was a perfect nutshell view of the nuttiness of Red Scare America in the fifties. There’s no record of McCarthy having been present, but he should have been, so I put him there; he was certainly a key supporter and possibly an architect of the stunt. Footage of the mock takeover can be seen in the documentary Atomic Cafe, mentioned below.
George and I at times divided up research reading. He read the massive and essential The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy (1982) by Thomas C. Reeves and guided me to key pages, while I concentrated on Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy (2006) by Tom Wicker and Joseph McCarthy (2000) by Arthur Herman, looks at the man and his era from the left and right, respectively.
Other McCarthy books consulted included McCarthy: The Man, The Senator, The “Ism” (1952), Jack Anderson and Ronald W. May; McCarthy (1968), Roy Cohn; Senator Joe McCarthy (1959), Richard H. Rovere; and The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy (2009), James Cross Giblin. Encyclopedia of the McCarthy Era (1996) by William K. Klingaman proved helpful as a general reference.
Any book looking at McCarthy and his era must take into account the classic documentary Point of Order! (1963), directed and produced by Emile de Antonio and Daniel Talbot, which skillfully (if not always fairly) edits the ma
ny kinescope hours of the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954 into an entertaining, sometimes thrilling film. I made use of both a DVD and the published transcript. Other films viewed include The Atomic Cafe (1982), produced and directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader, and Pierce Rafferty (“Duck and cover!”); Citizen Cohn (2001), written by David Franzoni and directed by Frank Pierson; The Edward R. Murrow Collection: The McCarthy Years (1991), produced by Bernard Birnbaum and written by Russ Bensley and Sam Roberts; The Real American: Joe McCarthy (2011), written by Lutz Hachmeister and Simone Holler and directed by Hachmeister; and The Unquiet Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1974) written by Alvin Goldstein and directed by Alan Moorman.
Unusual things that turn up in research often don’t make it into the Heller novels. For readers who share my affinity for Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and the film Kiss Me Deadly (1955), the following historical tidbit may mind-boggle: in 1950, before any arrests in the Rosenberg case were made, an FBI agent named Spillane was searching for an iron box containing a piece of plutonium (pilfered by David Greenglass).
Thanks to my friend and agent, Dominick Abel, who has worked mightily to keep the Heller memoirs alive; and my editor, Claire Eddy, whose enthusiasm for Nate Heller and his creator is much appreciated and reciprocated.
As usual, love and thanks go to Barbara Collins—my wife, best friend, and valued collaborator—who was working on her draft of our next “Barbara Allan”–bylined novel while I was writing this one. Despite the demands of her writing, she endured my constant need for a sounding board, providing tough-minded suggestions and patient support.
BOOKS BY MAX ALLAN COLLINS
The Memoirs of Nathan Heller
Better Dead*
Ask Not*
Target Lancer*
Triple Play (novellas)
Chicago Lightning (short stories)
Bye Bye, Baby*
Chicago Confidential
Angel in Black
Majic Man
Flying Blind
Damned in Paradise
Blood and Thunder
Carnal Hours
Stolen Away
Neon Mirage
The Million-Dollar Wound
True Crime
True Detective
The Road to Perdition Saga
Return to Perdition (graphic novel)
Road to Paradise
Road to Purgatory
Road to Perdition 2:
On the Road (graphic novel)
Road to Perdition (graphic novel)
With Mickey Spillane
Murder Never Knocks
Kill Me, Darling
King of the Weeds
Complex 90
Lady, Go Die!
Kiss Her Goodbye
The Big Bang
The Goliath Bone
The Consummata
With Barbara Collins (as Barbara Allan)
Antiques Fate
Antiques Swap
Antiques Con
Antiques Chop
Antiques Disposal
Antiques Knock-Off
Antiques Bizarre
Antiques Flee Market
Antiques Maul
Antiques Roadkill
Quarry Novels
Quarry’s Choice
The Wrong Quarry
Quarry’s Ex
Quarry in the Middle
The First Quarry
The Last Quarry
Quarry’s Vote (aka Primary Target)
Quarry’s Cut (aka The Slasher)
Quarry’s Deal (aka The Dealer)
Quarry’s List (aka The Broker’s Wife)
Quarry (aka The Broker)
Writing as Patrick Culhane
Red Sky in Morning
Black Hats
With Matthew Clemens
No One Will Hear You
You Can’t Stop Me
Fate of the Union
Supreme Justice
*A Forge Book
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Max Allan Collins is the author of the acclaimed graphic novel Road to Perdition (basis for the Academy Award–winning Tom Hanks film) and its sequels. An independent filmmaker, Collins lives in eastern Iowa. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Author’s Note
Epigraphs
Book One: Red Scare
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Book Two: Deep Creek
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
I Owe Them One
Books by Max Allan Collins
About the Author
Copyright
BETTER DEAD
Copyright © 2016 by Max Allan Collins
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Michael Graziolo
Joseph R. McCarthy photograph courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Information Agency
Bettie Page photograph courtesy of CMG Worldwide
Robert F. Kennedy photograph courtesy of the Executive Office of the President of the United States
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-7828-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-6078-0 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466860780
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First Edition: May 2016