by R. P. Wolff
“What are we supposed to do?”
“Well, we’re supposed to find out what happened there,” replied Hall. “Who knows, maybe it was a commie that did this.”
Andrew Perry secretly hated these frequent discussions about “commies.” Hoover was obsessed with Communists. Perry had no problems with spying on potential Russian spies, but Hoover had his men spying on people who clearly weren’t Russian spies but more like political opponents of Hoover. One time, Perry was on a surveillance team on a U.S. congressman. The word was that he was a suspected commie. They didn’t see the congressman doing any spy work, but he was cheating on his wife. Perry had to type up detailed reports that supposedly went directly to Hoover.
Although Perry vocally objected to the Dodge County assignment, he secretly looked forward to it. Maybe he might actually catch a real bad guy instead of Hoover’s political enemies. He was sick of the meaningless surveillances of potential commies.
“I can’t believe that five people have been killed in two days,” said Perry.
“I know,” replied Hall. “We got the report just before we left that there were two more murders this morning.”
“I was only able to glance at the report. Can you summarize it for me again?”
“Sure, no problem.” Hall opened the file folder that had papers nicely bound to the file folder at the top. “Okay, we got a call from a Jewish attorney named Howard Goldstein. He’s from that annoying ACLU that Hoover hates.”
“Then why are we going down if Hoover hates the ACLU so much?” asked Perry. Perry was only putting on an act in front of Hall. Perry knew that most agents followed in the footsteps of their leader and were supposed to hate anything the director hated including commies and the ACLU, among many other groups.
“Like I said before, it came down from the White House.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right. Sorry, go on.”
“But it’s not just the Jewish attorney. It’s a reporter and a state trooper. Hoover thinks this will be national news by this afternoon. He expects that all the national networks will be there along with the pain-in-the-ass New York Times.”
“Shit, we better not fuck up,” said Perry.
“I know.”
“So continue on,” said Perry.
“Well, this Howard Goldstein claims that on the first night, his client, a Negro named Leon Brooks, was kidnapped and ready to be hung, but someone shot the three people who were going to hang him.”
“Was it a Negro?” asked Perry.
“No one knows because the guy was disguised.”
“What happened last night?”
“Almost the same thing except it was Leon Brooks’s brother, Deron Brooks, who was kidnapped. This time Howard Goldstein claims that it was the Sheriff that kidnapped Deron Brooks and brought Deron to an abandoned warehouse. Again, three white guys were allegedly going to kill Deron Brooks, but someone shot and killed two of them and injured the third one, who is still alive and is in stable condition.”
“Wow, this is amazing. We’re stepping into a hornet’s nest here. These locals are not going to like us being around.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot more information, and, here, is where it gets a little touchy. Dodge County is home to Atwood Baker, the Chief Justice on the Texas Supreme Court.”
“Yeah, so what does he have to do with it?”
“Don’t you know?”
“Know what?” asked Perry.
“He’s is believed to be the Imperial Wizard of the Klan in Texas. That is, he is the leader of the whole Klan. Goldstein suspects that Atwood Baker ordered the two hits that went bad.”
“Wait a minute, here,” said Perry. “We have a potential corrupt Sheriff and a corrupt Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. This is not a shit detail. This could be juicy.” Perry decided not to hide his excitement anymore.
“Yeah, you’re right. You and I could bring down the whole Texas Klan if we play our cards right.”
“Wait, I have a question,” said Perry. “If the FBI already knows that the Chief Justice is the head of the Klan, why haven’t we targeted him before?”
“That’s easy,” replied Hall, “because he’s not suspected to be a commie. Remember, the Klan doesn’t just hate Negroes, they hate Jews, Catholics, and they also hate commies, so Hoover hasn’t put the resources on them yet. Plus, as you might know, Hoover doesn’t care for Negroes as well.”
Perry liked what Hall was saying. It appeared that Perry wasn’t alone in his questioning of Hoover’s tactics.
“So how are we going to play this?” asked Perry.
“That’s a good question. We need to act low key because it’s just us. Let’s see what we can accomplish by ourselves, so we don’t have to give all the credit away.”
“How about this,” said Perry. “How about we pretend to be on the Sheriff’s side that we want to help them but not step on their shoes. Make them feel relaxed that we are only planning on being there a short while just to make sure it is only a local matter.”
“Yeah, I like that, but we need to speak to that Goldstein guy and his clients to get the real scoop.”
“Hey, what about that guy that is still alive,” asked Perry. “What’s his name?”
Hall flipped through the file. “His name is Paul Sawyer. He’s in the hospital recovering.”
“Why don’t we go directly to him—catch him off guard.”
“Hmm, that might piss off the Sheriff and ruin our whole plan.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but I think he could be the key. He may be able to tie everything to Atwood Baker.”
“Maybe, but it’s hard to get these guys to talk. We have to convince him somehow.”
“All right, how about this,” said Perry. “Why don’t we give the Sheriff an opportunity to speak to us before we speak to Goldstein and his Negro clients? Like we said before, let’s get them to relax and think that we will leave shortly. Then, we do some serious investigating and find out who did the crimes.”
“Okay,” said Hall, “let’s head straight to the police station and pay a visit to the Sheriff. Then we can interview the prisoners.”
“Who exactly is in jail?” asked Perry.
“Well, it is that Leon Brooks, his other brother, his father, and some other Negro. Deron Brooks is being hidden for us to meet with directly.”
“This is really a hornet’s nest,” replied Perry.
~~~~
It was a little past nine o’clock in the morning, and the FBI arrived into Dodge County driving north on Highway 191. They first went through the black residential neighborhood and noticed that the streets were fairly empty, which surprised them.
“Why are the streets so empty?” asked Perry. “I was expecting there to be some kind of riot.”
“Patience, my friend,” replied Hall. “It’s the calm before the storm.”
Using a map, Hall directed Perry to their destination. On the way, they drove down Vine Street, which was the Negro business area. This street was bustling with activity. The Negroes appeared to be happy, almost cheering out on the streets. This seemed odd to Perry after what Hall had read from the file.
They kept driving and entered the downtown area. They saw a sign that read: If the sun has set, get your black ass out of here.
“That’s a very welcoming sign to Negroes,” Perry said sarcastically.
“Yeah, such Southern hospitality,” said Hall.
They finally arrived at the police station. Again, it was odd that there was not that much activity outside the police station considering that there were just five murders in two days. Perry thought there would be a massive crowd of black people demanding that the police release the black suspects, but there was not one black person outside. This was odd. Something was not right, thought Perry.
Perry and Hall parked their car, walked up the stairs, entered the police station, and approached the policeman behind the counter.
Perry spoke in a calm, profession
al, non-threatening manner, “Hello, my name is Special Agent Perry and this is Special Agent Hall. We’re from the Federal Bureau of Investigations. We’re here to see the Sheriff. Is he available?”
“What do you guys want?” asked the policeman behind the counter.
“Well, if you must know, we’re here about the five murders.”
“How did you know that there were five murders?”
“We heard. It’s all over the news. There have been five murders here. Everyone is going to know about this. It’s going to be national news.”
“Well, this a local matter,” said the policeman. “We don’t really need you to investigate our local matter.”
“Yeah, you might be right on that,” replied Perry. “We were just told to come on down here. There are just the two of us as you can see, and we’re supposed to see if this is a federal matter. And if it’s not a federal matter, then we can get out of here quickly. You know we really don’t want to be down here—we were just told to come down here. So if it’s just a local matter, then we will be gone.” Perry was putting on the bullshit for their first phase of their plan.
“Oh,” said the policeman in a much more relaxed tone.
“So, can we speak to the Sheriff?” asked Hall.
“Well, actually I’m the Sheriff’s son. My name is Tyler Mason. Everyone calls me Junior.”
“Oh, hi Junior, how are you doing?” asked Hall.
“All right … I guess.”
“Well, can we speak to the Sheriff?” asked Perry. Perry noticed that they had now asked several times to speak to the Sheriff.
“Well, um, he actually had a late night because of all this action, and he is taking a nap right now—a much needed nap. However, he may have gotten enough by now, so I’ll check to see if he can speak to you.”
Perry and Hall glanced at each other, and Hall gave Perry a slight nod, which indicated for Perry to ask more questions.
“So do you have any suspects?” asked Perry. “I understand you had some suspects arrested.”
“Oh, we had prisoners, but we released them.”
“You released them?” asked Perry. Now, Perry knew why there wasn’t such a commotion outside.
“Yeah, we released them. You know, we didn’t have enough evidence at this time to press charges.”
“Really,” said Perry.
Hall spoke. “What about someone I heard that escaped?”
“Who did you hear that from?” asked Junior.
“Again, we hear things,” said Hall. “So someone escaped?”
“You have to talk to my dad.”
“Okay, can you go ahead and see if you can find him?” asked Hall.
“Sure, why don’t y’all have a seat, and I will see if I can get the Sheriff for you.”
After about five minutes, Junior returned. “I’m sorry, he’s still sound asleep. Can you come back later?”
Perry replied. “Sure, we can do that, but we wanted to give the Sheriff an opportunity to speak first and get his side of the story before we speak to anyone else. We thought that this would be fairest thing to do. Again, we really don’t want to be down here, and we would like to wrap it up as soon as possible.”
Hall interjected. “Can you wake him up and see if he’ll want to speak with us first before we speak to the lawyer who called the FBI?”
“Okay,” Junior said hesitantly. “I hate to wake him up, but let me see what I can do.”
~~~~
“Dad, dad … wake up.”
The Sheriff slowly opened his eyes to the realization that his idiot son was trying to wake him up when he told him not to disturb him.
“What the fuck … I need some sleep. What are you waking me up for?”
“Hey, the FBI is here, and they want to talk to you.”
“So tell them I’m fucking sleeping.”
“They’re insistent.”
“Well, make up something.”
“Hey, you know what; you might want to speak to them because they said that they really don’t want to be here. And if this is a local matter, then they’ll leave.”
The Sheriff couldn’t believe how stupid his son was. “Son, are you fuckin’ naïve? They’re just playing you. Don’t believe a fuckin’ word they say.”
“I know, but what should we do? We want them to go after the Negroes. If we avoid them, it will be difficult to implement our plan.”
“Okay, what have they been asking you?” asked the Sheriff.
“Well, they’re asking about Deron. They’re asking if Deron escaped.”
“That’s why I can’t talk to them right now. Stall them. Tell them that I will be glad to talk to them once I’ve had a little more sleep, but you’ll answer their questions for them. And then when they ask about Deron, you don’t know anything about it. Just tell them that they are going to have to talk to me about Deron, and then I’m going to have to figure out something to tell them.”
“Okay … all right, so I’ll go back down, tell them I did wake you up, and you’re glad to talk to them but just need some more sleep. You got hardly any sleep last night.”
“Yeah, that’s perfect,” replied the Sheriff. “Try that.”
“Okay, Dad, go back to sleep.”
“Wait,” said the Sheriff, “what time is it.”
“It’s almost ten o’clock.”
“When do you think you will do the job?” The Sheriff didn’t want to say the words “burn the social club” in case someone could overhear them.
“Probably in about an hour or two. I’ll keep tabs on the FBI to make sure that they are nowhere near the Social Club.”
“Be careful, Son. Don’t burn yourself.”
Chapter 17
Perry saw that Junior was walking his way—alone. “Is the Sheriff coming?” asked Perry.
“No, I’m sorry, he can’t speak to you right now, but he’ll be glad to speak to you once he’s had a little more sleep. He was up for more than twenty-four hours, so he just needs some more sleep. But I’m available to speak to you and get you up to speed.”
Perry glanced over at Hall. They both squinted their eyes at each other, which meant that they didn’t like what they were hearing.
Hall spoke. “Well, we really wanted to speak to the Sheriff.”
“I know that, but I can fill you in,” replied Junior. “Here, why don’t we go into one of the interview rooms, so we can have some privacy.”
“Okay,” said Hall.
Junior led them down the hall to the first interview room. Perry and Hall subtly inspected the room. Before everyone sat down, Perry asked, “Are there any cameras or hidden microphones in here?”
“No!” Tyler shot back defensively. “Not that I’m aware of.”
Hall started feeling under the chairs while Perry inspected the light fixture. Perry quickly found the hidden microphone. He pulled out a pair of wire cutters and cut the wire just above the microphone. He held the microphone up to show Junior. “How about this?” asked Perry sarcastically.
“Hey, I didn’t know that was there,” said Junior.
Perry shook his head. “Are there anymore?”
“Look, I didn’t know that one was in here.”
Perry realized that this wasn’t starting right, and they needed to tone down their interrogation. These guys were amateurs and stupid, Perry thought. Also, both Perry and Hall had recording devices in their bags, but the Sheriff’s son didn’t even think to confront them. They would use the tape recording later to see if they missed something during the interview.
“Okay, okay, let’s get started.” Perry said.
They all sat down with Hall sitting next to Junior. This was intentional to make it seem like Hall was on Junior’s side. Perhaps this would subtly make Junior more willing to cooperate.
“Okay, tell us what happened?” asked Perry.
Junior breathed heavily. “Well, I’m not sure where to start.”
Perry said, “I tell you what, why don’t y
ou start by pointing out on a map the two crime scenes.” Hall took out a map from his briefcase and spread it out on the table.
Junior pointed out the two crime scenes and indicated that the woods was the first crime scene, and the warehouse was the second crime scene.
“Okay, what happened at the first crime scene?” asked Perry.
“Well …” Junior sighed. “Three white people were brutally murdered.”
Perry opened a file folder and flip to a specific page. “Yes, we heard it was a Robert Bennett, John Favors, and Tom Jenkins. Is that correct?”
Junior paused staring blankly at the desk. “Yes, that’s correct.”
“Were they friends of yours?” asked Perry.
Junior sighed. “Yes. They were my friends.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Perry. At this stage of the questioning, Perry and Hall had previously agreed that Perry would ask all the questions. Hall was supposed to observe the witness and pretend to be the good cop. Perry nodded for Junior to continue with the story.
“Okay, we got a report that those three guys were missing from their wives, and then we also got a report that this Leon was missing. His father called the police. So we started looking for the missing people.”
“What time was it?” asked Perry.
“Well, this was early in the morning on Wednesday.”
“Where did you look for them?”
“Well, we went to the woods.”
“Why the woods?”
“I don’t know. Well, first of all, we drove around the streets, and we couldn’t find them on the streets, so we decided to hit the woods.”
“And how did you know where they were?” Perry sensed that the Sheriff’s son knew more than he was telling. Perry figured that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. And if the Sheriff was bad, his son was probably bad.
“We didn’t. My father and I were walking in the woods, and I went back to the car for something. Then I saw a group of people. It was our local police plus this Leon Brooks, his father, his brothers, and some friend of theirs. So they were showing the cops where the bodies were. So then we put two and two together, and figured that they were the ones that did the murders.”