COCOA STEFANI: “Hey, my name is Stefani. I’m lookin’ for my brother.”

CARMEN CATALINA: “Carmen Catalina-You like to take chances.”

COCOA STEFANI: ” No that’s not it, Carmen. I don’t wanna be here. My brother … I think he was workin’ deals in the city. “

CARMEN CATALINA: “For shipments.”

COCOA STEFANI: “Yeah.”

CARMEN CATALINA: “Where?”

COCOA STEFANI: “New Hampshire. Prince William. I think they were flyin’ stuff back. Lots of stuff.”

CARMEN CATALINA: “Give me a name.”

COCOA STEFANI:“ I have no idea. And neither do the cops. Anthony was slick. That was his nickname.”

CARMEN CATALINA: “Slick and Cocoa.“

COCOA STEFANI:”Yeah… Somehow he had a plane leave New Hampshire. Word on the streets somebody was flyin’ down here.”

CARMEN CATALINA: “There are hundreds of connections, amigo. You have two futures. Wastin’ ya time trying to track down what happened to your brother. The other outcome is: someone will kill you.”

COCOA STEFANI: “I understand. Thanks.”

CARMEN CATALINA: “Piensa en ti hermano. Piensa en cuando estaba contigo.”

COCOA STEFANI:”Gracias.”

DULLIO STEFANI: “Hey.”

COCOA STEFANI:“Dullio, I just left my contact in Queens.”

DULLIO STEFANI: “I told ya to wait until I get back.”

COCOA STEFANI: “I ain’t waitin’ no more, for you stallin’ Duillo.“

DULLIO STEFANI: “Cocoa, you have to accept that we haven’t heard from Anthony for two months. Even Rita accepts it.”

COCOA STEFANI: “ I don’t accept nothin’ Dullio.

DULLIO STEFANI: “I have to do business in Oregon. Then I’ll fly back.”

COCOA STEFANI: “Great, then you can buy me a drink at Estévez‘s on 86th Street.”

DULLIO STEFANI: “Check in with me tomorrow.”

COCOA STEFANI: “Oh sure. You take care Dullio.”

What would you do? What would you do if someone extremely close to you vanished? And what’s more what if that person or persons is presumed dead? I have a hunch that you’d search and search until you couldn’t search anymore. You’d put yourself at risk until you were worn down. But even then, you would have never given up. That’s the situation Cocoa initially encountered and years later he tried again. Only this time Matthias Jones gets involved. What transpires solidifies their relationship forever.

Let’s take a look at people who have mysteriously disappeared. Incredibly there are hundreds of people gone missing never to return.

We’re in 2007 and in the mountains of Montana. . A woman named Barbara Bolick goes for a hike with a family friend Jim Bitterroot. The lady is in good shape and not the first time she’s hiked. They stop for a snack. So, she goes down the trail for one last look. Bye. Bye. Here we are decades later with no answers. She left her belongings behind and was afraid of heights…

Tax Day: April 15, 2005, Centre County, Pennsylvania: Ray Gricar homicide prosecutor. Told girlfriend he was taking the day off to travel to Lewisburg to shop and stroll. Bye. Bye. Car found next day. Laptop : Found: Six months later under a bridge. Hard drive gone. The damaged unusable drive was found months later. But Gricar never was found. Details here: Or in depth here.

June 27, 1995, at 4:10 a.m: Jodi Huisentruit, Iowa news anchor- disappeared from apartment complex parking lot. Signs of a struggle, belongings -two shoes, two earrings, and her car key outside of her car… Bye. Bye. Fate unknown but there are many clues. In Depth Video on YouTube : The Case of Jodi Huisentruit: Disturbing Details Revealed | True Crime Story & Missing Persons Case.

If you want to see a whole project dedicated to missing people with updates then click here. Or go to the Charley Project.org.

With Anthony Stefani Cocoa never suggests his brother is alive. Although he may hope Anthony is alive Cocoa wants closure. For the first time Cocoa shows Jones a black and white framed photo of Cocoa and Anthony at Club Max, both remarkably similar in appearance.

Anthony’s Story is full of action down in New York City. And it is in this story that the real story concerning Bucky Driscoll is revealed. Uncle Dullio is on full display against the bad guys. And Jones, a coach from Hamilton College is dead center of the action.

At the same time there’s a strange murder in Hamilton, which involves Hamilton Fletcher. It is this murder and how Jones solves it, that leads him in the direction of Anthony Stefani. Bucky Driscoll manages to almost get Jones killed, but in the end, it is Jones and Uncle Dullio who follow the lead toward Anthony.

So if we’re talking cold case I have to mention Hoffa. Not that I have even a theory about what happened to Jimmy Hoffa’s body. Those who performed his execution have saturated the press and cronies with garbage information designed to have everyone bouncing from state to state with excavation teams. What I will present is a very good assessment of what is know about Hoffa’s disappearance. It’s called Jimmy Hoffa: A closer look at the labor leader’s life, work and disappearance— on YouTube.

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JERRY ST. CLAIR: “Jerry St. Clair… You a witness, Bub?”

“No, I’m here to see if a professor at Hamilton College is linked to Albert Fiore.”

JERRY ST. CLAIR: “ I don’t tolerate so called cub reporters such as yourself trying to hack in on my exclusive story.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, old man.”

JERRY ST. CLAIR: “Oh so you think the old duffer can’t pound the pavement for the scoop of the century?”

“What?”

JERRY ST. CLAIR: ” It was a deadbeat night in a deadbeat town. I wuz cranking out special reports and exclusives before you were even thought of flatfoot.”

“Get lost pal.”

JERRY ST. CLAIR: “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Cubby? I think you’re a Hamilton Fletcher plant.”

“Fiore is linked to that professor and you don’t have the goods, Jerry.”

JERRY ST. CLAIR: “Listen to me Cubby. Brad Davis is a low life perverted scum bag joined at the hip to that double dealing piece of rat crud Boston garbage called Albert Fiore. Davis was transplanted into the tiny hamlet of Hamilton… state of New Hampshire right under Hamilton Fletcher’s patrician nose. And you know why?”

“Why?”

JERRY ST. CLAIR: Dr. Bradford Davis was a genius, and he was supposed to make Fletcher an even richer and more conniving bastard than he already is. Genetic patterns, Cubby. Genetic patterns. And Fiore is snoopin’ around trying to get a cut of the operation. Got it?”

“You don’t know that”

JERRY ST. CLAIR: You think I’m some demented screwball with no verifiable accomplishments. My career blasted off the ground with a gruesome murder in ’47. I learned how to dig for the details, Cubby. And dig deep.

“And you just walked in and took on Fiore and Davis.”

JERRY ST. CLAIR: It’s all in the book, Cubby. Murder at Tolby Lake, the demise of Davis at the lake house with Fletcher himself as a suspect. And let’s not leave Fiore at the starting gate. And the innocent little girl Pollard- she had the gun. What do you think of that? Leave it to the professionals, Cubby.”

“I’ll make a note of it, Jerry.”

JERRY ST. CLAIR: “I have a late-night date with my typewriter- Selectric. An exclusive byline on page one. Put your shoulder to the wheel Buffalo and go get ’em!”

“You’re a legend., Jerry”

If Hamilton Fletcher had Professor Brad Davis develop a patent on a particular gene sequence he could generate new income into his financial portfolio. As the patent-holder Fletcher would have the right to undertake research and development involving that gene for 20 years.

Brad Davis has a girlfriend on campus, a student named Amy Pollard, who after his murder just happens to be a possession of the murder weapon. But Davis as the old Jim Croce song about Rapid Roy the stock car boy says: ‘He’s got honeys all along the way.’ And one of those honeys, Desiree, works at a Fiore a strip joint off the Expressway in Boston.

When Murder at Tobey Lake was first written and sold for palm pilots the blurb summed up the plot.

Brad Davis loves women. Brad Davis uses women. Hamilton Police Chief George Strickland thinks a woman, a student at the college, killed Davis. Matthias Jones completes the school year and plans a summer of relaxation away from his coaching duties. Jones is at a party at Nigel Kent’s, the Dean of students, house.In the beginning of this Palm Pilot novel, Jones has words with a snooty, attractive English professor, Maggie McKay. When George Strickland calls on the phone and informs Jones of the murder at the lake house, Jones finds himself at odds with Maggie as he tries to find Davis’ killer.

And what is not said is how McCay, now Wilmont in the paperback tries to protect her student and friend Amy Pollard. Wilmont like Jerry St. Clair is one of those characters who drops into the series creating turmoil with Jones.

Davis is getting death threats, Even the night before he got into a drag-down fight at Club Max.

Jones, Cocoa and Jerry St. Clair follow the leads for Brad Davis’s killer to Boston.

So Davis has a character flaw. For a writer a character flaw is a gift from the gods. Look what Robert Lewis Stevenson did with Jekyll and Hyde. Dr. Henry Jekyll attempts to physically divide his good and evil sides. And this is such a great metaphor for human character. Nice going Jekyll you drank too much evil. And so does Brad Davis.

Davis is like Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus as the good angel attempts to halt his taking the evil path. But the bad angel is powerful. Faustus becomes a disciple of magic. The metaphors, demons and players are numerous, It is only in the end when all is lost that Faustus admits he had sold his soul. Davis never gets to admit anything because he is murdered.

Where do we begin to tell the story? So much success and so much nosediving behavior. 1990: Might have accidentally shot his fiancée Kelly Preston. He was later involved in a prostitution scandal. 1996: arrested for assaulting then girlfriend Brittany Ashland, 1998: suffered a stroke due to cocaine overdose, 2009: arrested for assaulting his then-wife Brooke Mueller, 2010: found naked and intoxicated in his room, later hospitalized, 2014: sued by a dental technician for assault and battery, 2015: HIV Positive, second ex-wife Denise Richards claimed abuse and attempted murder!

On the lighter side is the above mentioned ‘smokin’ Jerry St. Clair‘ as well as cottage dwellers Gus and Irene who follow all of Brad Davis’s arrivals and departures at the lake house. Jones, trailed and pestered all the way to Boston by Jerry St. Clair, realizes that because Davis bloodied Hamilton Fletcher’s nose, the Fletcher patriarch may have had a connection to the murder. But he’s baffled by Pollard and the gun. And what about the Boston connection and Desiree?

Ah, but remember what Agatha Christi said in Murder on the Orient Express : “The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.”

Hamilton Fletcher overlooked Brad Davis’s shortcomings because the financial rewards. Brad Davis what a cad. And you can take that to the bank, Hamilton Fletcher.

Robert P. Fitton

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PAPERBACK

“Can you tell me how to get to Club Max?”

“You need ta show me some form of I.D. Duck face. Do you know who I am?”

“Yeah, a slob who’s trying to eat two donuts at once.”

“I’m Kip Bosco.”

“Oh, yeah that crooked vice cop.”

“Don’t make me have to beat you up.”

“I heard that one of Matthias Jones players fell in love with a wild woman right here at Club Max.”

” Maybe yes… Maybe no.”

“Anyone ever tell you you’re very aggravating?”

“That’s enough, Duck Face.”

” Put away the handcuffs!”

“Hey Bosco! What the hell are ya doin’? You don’t treat my customers like your shit-bum friends and dirty cops.”

“This clown is causin’ trouble, Cocoa.”

“That right?”

“He wants to know how one of your girls set up the kid from Hamilton College.”

” I had nothin’ ta do with it, Fat Boy. Woman was a hooker. Hey Bruno. Get Bosco the hell out of here. No. I’m out back.”

“I’m packin’ heat, Cocoa.”

“The only thing you’re packin’ Kip is a forty-six waist.”

“Excuse me the name is Daniels.”

“So what?”

“I’m helping Coach Jones solve the Club Max Murder, Watson.”

“Get lost, stiff and you Bosco you’re all done.”

“I say, that is rather rude.”

“Rude is my middle name. Scram. You know what ta do with Fat boy, Bruno.”

“Hands off the blazer, Bruno. This was the last one left at the thrift store.”

The Club Max Murder has a hooker, a Sherlock Holmes buff, and a crooked cop. The stage is set for a naive football player to fall head over heels for the proverbial hooker who was hanging out at Club Max. To keep your attention, we’ll talk about actress who have played hookers in the pre-code era on big screen

Joan Crawford in Rain a 1932, a pre-code film drama. Crawford plays prostitute Sadie Thompson. Also, in 1932 Marlene Dietrich scintillates in the film The Blonde Venus. Same year Harlow with Gable in Red Dust with the infamous bath scene now colorized.

Okay, I could continue this angle ad infinitum. The point is that Jones’s star player Joe Svoboda links up with the antithesis is his girlfriend, Marlena Peterson. But then the hooker is dead, and Svoboda was seen running from a upper level apartment, Jones’s star player is in huge trouble.

The crooked cop who’s always on the take is Kip Bosco of the Prince William Police Department. Bosco is all too happy to accuse Cocoa of being a pimp and Svoboda of murdering the lady. The stereotypical cop on the take is an eye opener like the prostitute. Bosco isn’t dangerous, just a self aggrandizing incompetent fool who thinks he can beat everybody up. On TV and in movies the corrupt law officer can be much more dangerous.

While Kip Bosco packed away Big Mama’s donuts, Carson Wolf (Punisher) could easily pack a Glock 17.

“Tonight’s the night you’re gonna die, Frank. The third time’s the charm. The fricking Punisher? You’re pathetic. I almost feel sorry for you. We knew exactly where you’d be. Exactly where to go to get you. You bored your squad shitless talking about your homecoming tradition. Picnic in the park, Frank? You really were your mama’s little apple pie, weren’t you?”

Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in NYC: Tammy Hattley. (Not in original Daredevil Comic) Blackmailed into working for Kingpin. Later leads entire FBI sub-division of handpicked and blackmailed agents.

The late Bill Paxton played Detective Frank Rourke a dirty cop who simply took what he wanted because he deserved it!

In the Club Max Murder, we can’t trust Kip Bosco unless of course we slip him a couple of Ben Franklins. And how does Svoboda talk his way out of fleeing the scene of the woman’s murder. And add a knife being found in the alley below. Enter the Sherlock Holmes buff. Mr. Daniels is in this book for several reasons. Everyone knows Sherlock Holmes. Daniels is a nudge which messes up what Jones is investigating to save his star player. Yet Daniels does have an extensive data base of Sherlock Holmes quotes and stories locked inside his head. And he drives this 1957 Edsel.

Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed at this writing 254 times in movies and TV. (Guinness Book of Records)

The Great Mouse Detective link

The Granada Series: Jeremy Brett as Holmes, maybe the best adaptation of Holmes.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes Link

Holmes from different angles.

Enola Holmes Link

With so many versions of Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Daniels is probably the nudge version. But he astounds Jones at Club Max with one little idiosyncrasy: this nudge is a ladies’ man which makes no sense and with his mild manners it’s incredible how he puts away the hard liquor. And Jones is stuck with him. But alas what Cocoa has in store for Daniels is a case of ‘he got what was coming to him!’

Why the fascination with Holmes? Because most of us don’t take in the detail and process it like Holmes. That is a magical quality. And with magic comes invincibility and power. I can picture Mr. Daniels over the years reading and watching Holmes. And now right in his very apartment building he gets to take up the gauntlet.

And let’s not forget all the other characters who react to Holmes and Daniels in the Club Max Murder. Great way to drive a story. But little old Jones is snooping around while Daniel’s performs his theatrics. While everyone can respect Jones and his side road theories, they also are off on the adventure with him against those who don’t want to be caught.

Wow. I almost left without mentioning the suspects. Which I won’t. I’ll only say they are very convincing and the last showdown on the Hamilton College campus is a doozy! It’s The Club Max Murder by R.P. Fitton.

I’m Robert P. Fitton and I’m out of here!

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Matthias Jones Series: Six Feet Under

New Hampshire Statute of Limitations: Murder: no time limit

“I would like to address the citizens of Hamilton, New Hampshire. I speak specifically about the unusual disappearance of one Harrison Mobley twenty-five years ago. A long time ago. Mr. Mobley was a professor at Hamilton College and an assistant to former coach Lark Larsen. Harrison Mobley was here today and gone tomorrow. Mr. Mobley had come to blows with members of our community. He was aware of certain lewd allegations from others, and he was involved possibly in a love triangle. What I would like to do today is to clarify some of these rumors and most of all find out the whereabouts on Mr. Mobley.“

“I would like to call to the stage the former coach Lark Larsen, beloved by one and all in the town of Hamilton. Come on up here Lark. Lark you knew Mr. Mobley, correct?“

LARK LARSEN: “Oh that’s just an ugly rumor. You know how people like to make things up.”

“Ah, yes, Lark. We all know how some people can exaggerate.”

LARK LARSEN: ” Well if that’s all I’m busy as a bee today. I have to go.”

“Many people in town say you parked your De Soto and were heavily inebriated on a certain summer night in front of Matthias Jones’s house, Jones the present owner. You confronted Mr. Mobley.”

LARK LARSEN: “Oh dear… well he knew something.”

“About what?”

LARK LARSEN: ” Something personal.“

“That was twenty-five years ago. What was it, Lark? And what about the so called ‘Big Blow Out?”

LARK LARSEN: “I have to go now…Oh, I’m doomed! Doomed!”

“The patriarch of this town Mr. Hamilton Fletcher. Sir, could clear up this mystery surrounding Mr. Harrison Mobley?

HAMILTON FLETCHER: “You’re damned right I’ll clear this up right here. Right now!”

“Sir, it’s been rumored there was bad blood between the two of you. Mr. Mobley and yourself.”

HAMILTON FLETCHER: “It only goes to show you that there are those who would go to any lengths to bring down a member of a prestigious family in this town and all of New Hampshire. Yes, sir!”

“I understand that Pudgy Wilson saw Mr. Mobley throw a brick through the windshield of your Lamborghini.”

HAMILTON FLETCHER: “No it was a rock. I can’t help it if Mobley was a lunatic!”

“L.G. Bentley was a young lawyer than and can verify-“

HAMILTON FLETCHER: “Well, good for him.”

“Apparently you lost a great deal of money and you tripped Mobley into the bushes and said: And I quote. ” You keep your big trap shut, Mobley if you know what’s good for you.”

HAMILTON FLETCHER: “That’s not provable. I fact it’s a joke.”

“Not according to court records.”

HAMILTON FLETCHER: “You listen to me. You take your court records and shove them where the sun don’t shine!”

” How were you involved with the gangster Mickey Snowden?”

“Well, I guess that’s all we’re going to hear from Hamilton Fletcher.”

ARNIE DEWARS: ” What about Mobley’s girlfriend, Lady Godiva? She was up in the bedroom. Va-Va-Va Boom!”

“Your name sir?”

ARNIE DEWARS: “Dewars. Arnie Dewars.”

“Thank you, Mr. Dewars.”

ARNIE DEWARS: “You wouldn’t believe what I saw through my old man’s binoculars! Va-Va-Va Boom! Right Pudgy?”

PUDGY WILSON: “And what about the brown Toyota kept circling the common? And Mickey Snowden’s Cadillac? My father Butch saw it all.”

“Maybe Mobley just wanted to disappear.”

ARNIE DEWARS: “Oh yeah? Maybe he was murdered!”

“Okay let look at this a little closer if it was murder, New Hampshire has no statute of limitations.

There have been murder victims who have turned up alive later. And that is possible with Mr. Mobley.

There was the case of Richard Hutton who fit the profile of one of John Gacy’s victims. Thirty-five years after Gacy’s arrest Hutton turned up ALIVE in Montana!

Jane Doe case from Pennsylvania. Several women escaped from a nearby youth home and were murdered. The remaining missing girl Betsy Longjahr was assumed to be the last ID’d body. But she turned up ALIVE!

Another possible Gacy murder but not… Harold Lovell-1978 disappeared. Lovell had done yard work for Gacy. Gacy in fact did try to lure him into the house but he didn’t go in and was found ALIVE some time later. “A few times, he tried to get me into the house, but I wouldn’t go . . .  Thank God that I didn’t.”

Listen to this:

A degenerate named Frasier in prison for raping and murdering a nine-year-old girl, and three other known victims. Natasha Ryan, missing, was assumed to have been on of the other victims. The police later found her with an older boyfriend where she muttered: “the lie had become too big.”

Okay, it should be clear right now that Harrison Mobley could have been murdered which means that the murderer could still be out there and be charged. Or Mobley may have had a good reason to leave Hamilton, New Hampshire and was living in anonymity at a faraway location.

I wanted to write this book for some time because I could take a look at the younger version of the characters that reside in Hamilton, New Hampshire. Many of the personality traits of the present day people were in full force but in a younger version of themselves.

What happened to Harrison Mobley?

Robert P. Fitton

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“You’re Dullio Stefani, defensive tackle for the “Fighting Irish.”

UNCLE DULLIO: “I had a good run in South Bend.“

“At Notre Dame you were known as ‘The Wall.”

UNCLE DULLIO: “Yeah. Nobody got by me. Just the way it was.”

“Let’s talk about Matthias Jones.”

UNCLE DULLIO: “Jonesy’s best friends with my nephew, Cocoa.”

“How does a coach of the college football team get involved with the power players?”

UNCLE DULLIO: Most of the time Jonesy has Cocoa’s back and visa versa. And yeah there are times when they get involved let’s say sensitive situations. There’s always some chump tryin’ ta push his way into control.“

“Did you know Charlie DiPiro?

UNCLE DULLIO: “The Boss was the best.”

“But Albert Fiore is in power now.”

UNCLE DULLIO: “Not for long.”

“What do you mean?”

UNCLE DULLIO: “Cocoa’s takin’ care of it.”

“I won’t dig any deeper.”

UNCLE DULLIO: “That’s smart.”

“One final question.:

UNCLE DULLIO: “Yeah.”

” Did you really, I mean personally bust up Chic Cory’s gym on North Main Street in Prince William?”

UNCLE DULLIO: “They put Jonesy in the ring with Kid Palooka, professional fighter. Jonesy didn’t too shabby either. But Palooka could have killed him. So I destroyed the place. They deserved it. Cocoa had Mayor Picatta fine Chick as well as somebody from the state. And Palooka was on his ass.”

“Amazing. Thanks for your time, Dullio.”

“You need anything. Just call the club in Prince William.”

“Whoa, tough handshake.”

“Stay safe.”

Having the clean-cut Matthias Jones, hovering of on the edge of mob business, and sometimes dragged into the thick of the fight, provides an explosive contrast with the wacky naive town Hamilton New Hampshire and the underworld. And there’s a sense of security with the unstoppable Uncle Dullio.

In the Life and Times of Charlie Diaper we see Cocoa’s loyalty to his old boss Charlie DiPiro. The current boss Albert Fiore is clever in how he deposed Charlie and nicknamed him Charlie Diaper because of his debilitated condition.

Let’s take a little journey back in time and outline how certain chieftains came to power.

Gambino was not as subtle as Albert Fiore in the Jones Series. With a little help from his friends, specifically Vito Genovese, Gambino eliminated Albert Anastasia in 1957.

So how did Vito stay in power with a pending trial? Oh that was simple. All the witnesses were killed. Case close. Charges dismissed. Oh, there’s more. Adding Carlo Gambino and Meyer Lansky to his murder’s row Vito ‘removed’ Albert Anastasia. And the old Luciano family was now the Genovese Family. Wow!

Speaking of Albert Anastasia… a despised boss who sent chills throughout the underworld. He was a protégé of Lucky Luciano and with Lepke Buchalter led the hit squad dubbed ‘Murder Inc.‘ This Albert wiped out the head of the Mangano family in 1951. His track record also included Joe Masseria in 1931.

I can’t not mention Capone. I remember standing in Capone’s solitary cell at Alcatraz in San Francisco harbor. They had fattened up Capone so he couldn’t escape in the deadly currents of the bay. I asked myself how could Capone have been so feared to be locked solitary.

Let’s start with the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Seven members of the South Side Gang eliminated with Thompson sub machine guns by unknown assailants. How many people did Al Capone kill in all? -Linked to over 700 and associated with hundreds of murders.

Writing about Capone is hard boiled. The Jones series while expressing bravado is not hard boiled. But the Charlie Diaper story is a fight for power with Jones in the middle of the action. Also in the action is an off the wall sports reporter named Billy Bobcat who mucks up the waters for Jones with his big mouth. Cocoa is not too fond of this guy either.

I have to ask as the finale of this particular blog as to why the fascination with mob bosses, all of whom were killers and destroyers of lives. Part of it is the magnitude of the enterprise. Nobody I know would put the squeeze on people fueled by murder. When I read about the Civil War’s death and destruction, I’m studying a realm that I will never experience. The power of the bosses goes off the charts too. And yet many of these guys went on and on year after year finally succumbing to the courts or death. One can sit back and read out such things without the risk.

“Be careful who you call your friends. I’d rather have four quarters than one hundred pennies.”

Al Capone.

Robert P. Fitton

BUY AT AMAZON

“Did Matthias Jones think he’s fall right into a murder investigation when he moved to Hamilton?”

Cocoa Stefani: “How the hell do I know? Jonesy just like his old man has a nose for investigation. Bruno bring us over a couple of cold beers.”

“You own this place?”

Cocoa Stefani: Yeah. I’ve owned the club for five years. Club Max-Thanks Bruno.”

“This slasher was a series of brutal murders?”

Cocoa Stefani: “Sicko. Jonesy was taken’ his life into his hands by goin’ after the Slasher.”

“Jones hang out here at Club Max?”

Cocoa Stefani: “ The club is Jonesy’s home away from home. Everybody likes Jonesy. Especially Bibi.”

“You’ve worked with Jones on murder cases?”

Cocoa Stefani: Let’s just say we’ve saved each other’s hide on more than one occasion.

“I’ve heard that Club Max has connections to certain people.”

Cocoa Stefani: “Yeah, so what. I’m associated with ‘friends’ in Boston.

“Your brother Anthony was close to you.”

Cocoa Stefani:” Anthony’s gone. I’d say now Jonesy kind-da fills that gap.“

“And your father was the notorious Johnny Stefani.”

Cocoa Stefani: “Notorious. Yeah, I like that. My old man left when Anthony and me were teenagers. My mother, Rita and Uncle Dullio kept tabs on us. One thing about my old man. Anybody that crossed him lived or died to regret it.”

“You have a nice place here Mr. Stefani. Thanks.”

Cocoa Stefani: “ Stop by here any time. The girls are very… friendly.”

“Whoa…”

A prescription for Death

The Slasher…. One word can make a title or a book. Jones walks into four unsolved serial murders in the Hamilton area. The same modus operandi- This blog/Podcast is not designed to be gruesome but there are exceptions.

Throat slashed and duct tape over the mouth. And the more recent the stench of gin. Even Mayor Picata in Prince William is under pressure to solve the crime. Jones becomes interested in the case when some of his players describe a murder in a high-end fashion shop in downtown Hamilton and bring him to the scene of the crime.

What are some of the egregious cases of multiple murders?

Jack the Ripper

I have to start with the stealth, the bloody, the brutal murders of Jack the Ripper. The only scary Star Trek episode when I was growing up was Wolf in the fold when Scotty apparently had brutally murdered women. ‘Scotty the Ripper’ of course was set up and the weirdo Mr. Hengus played superbly by John Fielder apparently housed the essence of the Ripper. The Ripper bounced around the galaxy and moved into space.

          The real Ripper’s notoriety came with his operating in the dark. He was never caught. What the Ripper did to the women will be left to the listeners to this podcast to research or not.

John Wayne Gacy

          The so-called normal guy yet trickster by day- the murdering scumbag by night, his basement a necropolis of discarded victims. By the numbers this psychotic brutalizer killed and tortured countless innocent human beings.

LETHAL INJECTION: MAY 10, 1994

Ted Bundy

          Bundy’s death count is close to Gacy’s but Bundy was like a killer on tour around the United States. Bundy eventually tried to up the ante, taking greater risks but guess what?  His highway to fame ended via the electric chair: January 24, 1989.

Jeffery Dahmer

Hey Dahmer the only thing I will say is: two inmates got you on November 28, 1994.

Ladies and Gentlemen Jones moves out of character in the Prince William Slasher because of his anger at the Slasher. Let me join in that effort. I was stunned at the number of serial killers and we’ll leave it at that. Let’s go back to Matthias Jones and the Prince William Slasher around the Prince William and Hamilton area of the New Hampshire coast.

As Hamilton Police Chief George Strickland says:

“Prince William is terrified and many people here in Hamilton are uneasy.”

I think that’s the key with this Matthias Jones book. In a town of misinformation and whackos even the rumor of a serial killer spread by loud mouths such as Arnie Dewars and Bucky Driscoll can wreak havoc.

–“Yeah the duct tape was slapped on the mouth after the murder Buckster!”

“Hey maybe they didn’t want said deceased to open their mouths, Arnie.”

Jones quickly learns that the wounds of the victims are all from the 7-inch blade, with the two recent victims doused in gin. He also meets a knockout slightly aging model. Wendell Harris described her as:

“Oh, Pia was a top model in New York and LA., Now she’s real hoity-toity in Prince William. Lots of moola.”

Now Jones has to deal with her advances while tracking down the slasher.

Jones meets the town’s newspaper owner Tom McGill and they start talking about the case.

“The blade was a 7-inch razor, never found and the case is unsolved. The FBI got involved and the thing fizzled.  But this is interesting. The other women were killed on Saturday nights also.”

When the Slasher strikes at Club Max Jones becomes thoroughly immersed in the case. Then the part that makes the story smoke. Jones begins getting threatening calls directly from the Slasher. So, Jones is in jeopardy from the slasher and becomes just a wee bit nervous. Readers and listeners can pick up the Slasher’s rampage from here.

In the words of Charlie Manson:

“Believe me if I started murdering, they’d be none of you left.”

I am out of this place!

Hey Charlie. We’re here and you’re not.

Robert P. Fitton

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Paperback

Hamilton Fletcher: Who the hell are you?

You’re Hamilton Fletcher. You are the CEO of the largest paint and coatings company east of the Mississippi.

Hamilton Fletcher: Exactly right.

The college founded by your ancestors still exists today in Hamilton, New Hampshire. Made possible by your management and financial prowess.

Hamilton Fletcher: I’m beginning to like you, my boy. Tell me more.

Hamilton, New Hampshire’s sports teams are A#1.

Hamilton Fletcher: Well, that’s true now since I fired that bumbling jackass, Lark Larsen. I only wished he had left town.

So, you’re happy with coach Mathias Jones?

Hamilton Fletcher: Absolutely.

How do you fund the college?

Hamilton Fletcher: Of course, we procure our money from a diverse number of sources and organizations.

Can you elaborate, sir?”

Hamilton Fletcher: One rule I learned long ago is not divulge you source of income… No matter how nefarious.

“Then your ventures are very profitable.”

Hamilton Fletcher: When it comes to money, young man. My time is your time.

So, Hamilton College is a secure school with an esteemed faculty-”

Hamilton Fletcher: I wouldn’t go that far.

Oh, are there problems at Hamilton?”

Hamilton Fletcher: Problems with the security personnel. That walking disaster area Bucky Driscoll.

“Fire him!”

Hamilton Fletcher: Oh, dear God I wish I could.

We’ll leave it at that.

Hamilton Fletcher: Right.

There seems to be a very odd  fact about Hamilton… An extremely high rate of murders.

Hamilton Fletcher: Murder, Mayhem, and Monkey Business. Like I always say: You don’t like it in Hamilton… Then move the hell out! Very simple. I have a meeting with the college trustees. Have a good evening.

Thank you, Mr. Fletcher I will.

Hamilton Fletcher: “Hawlings, where the hell is my Scotch and water? Make it a double!”

If for any reason you are dissatisfied with Fletcher Coatings I’ll give you a hundred bucks!

Hamilton Fletcher, CEO Fletcher Coatings

(subject to BIG limitations)

First let me give you a Boomer Alert. For those not familiar with the term. We were born from 1946 to 1964. And I have to warn you all who are accustomed to serious murder mysteries that you have just left the city of Prince William and have crossed the line into Hamilton, New Hampshire. This is not Mary Higgins Clark, nor is it Sue Grafton, Robert B. Parker or Ed McBain. None of these fine accomplished authors would be caught dead in Hamilton, New Hampshire.  On second thought maybe they would be caught dead.

Take the opening scene of The Strange Death of Dr. Povitch. The security officer for Hamilton College (there’s only one guy) has lost the key to the gate of the school’s observatory. As Jones and his friend Professor Fred Dempsey wait to drive into the observatory, Bucky Driscoll whacks and hacks away at the chained lock on the observatory gate-with three feet of snow blanketing the Hamilton area. Might there just be the most enduring scientific principle at play here? Is it possible to be dumber than dumb? Yes, of course. You won’t see any Bucky Driscoll characters consistently in the hard-boiled crime books.

Angel Martin comes close in the Rockford Files and Magnum PI has some odd funny characters. Hamilton, New Hampshire is loaded with over-the-top bobble head characters bouncing about like a pinball as the solid citizens just don’t seem to be bothered the eccentricities.

Dr. Povitch is a brilliant professor and scientist but he’s solid or normal. He has a running feud with Father Jim Gallagher about some grant money that Gallagher was going to use to build a satellite chapel in Hamilton. In the opening scene at observatory Fred Dempsey is also solid. And poor Jones  seems to be sandbagged by the bobble heads, such as Bucky at every turn. One thing about the Bobbles is that they don’t seem to know they’re strange, eccentric, or bizarre.

Here’s the catch within all the madness: The actual unlocking of the murder is not wacky all though there are wacky scenes with the strange, eccentric, or bizarre characters. Having the crude Bucky in the presence of the esteemed doctor is an old theme. The Marx Brothers were geniuses in doing just that and the Stooges’ zaniness is collides with the snobby rich or someone who is ‘ the boss.’

But somebody has to die in a murder-mystery and for Dr. Sergi Povitch- the bell is tolling. How would Dr. Povitch just croak at his telescope? At first Jones thinks it’s a heart attack. But the medical examiner, Clayton Morris finds that the Doctor was……..POISONED!

Oh dear oh dear who would want to poison the good doctor? Who would have the motive? Who would have the means? Who would have the opportunity? Who-Who-Who?

Ah ha-We have Gallagher who served Povitch his last meal but could not contain his anger at the doctor. Jones’s star player Duff whose secret drug problem, known to only Dr. Povitch. And what about Povitch’s companion Elsie McIntire? Was she just after his money? Many times, when I’m writing a Jones book, I let the culprit float out there for a while and maybe even change the murderer. Helping Jones solve the murder is the ever-incompetent Bucky. I like to bring in a flamboyant character to  muck up the investigation or sometimes help the investigation. And also important the connections to local Club Max- owner Cocoa Stefani brings the sometime naïve Jones from Indiana into a world of high-powered Mafia figures ans nefarious characters.

And let’s look at a few other templates from 1960’s TV series. I know I’ve mentioned this before but it’s probably more important than the mystery aspects of the Matthias Jones books. In Hogans Heroes the characters around Hogan and his operation are ‘out to lunch for sure.’ Colonel Klink has distinct character eccentricities. Klink plays the violin and rather badly although Werner Klemperer could do very well with the violin. Schultz eats too much, knows nothing and sees nothing and is chummy with the prisoners. John Banner who played Schultz once there should be more people like Schultz in the world. And in the Hogan’s series there is always a character popping into camp who drives the rest of the show and has distinct attributes.

The series Newhart again brought in zany characters, highlighted by Larry and the two Darryls. Going to infinity and beyond to suspend disbelief were shows like Gilligan’s Island, I dream of Jeannie, and Bewitched. In Green Acres many of these Bobble heads are all around Eddie Albert who is competent and has been a lawyer in New York, yet they think he’s the odd duck. I like to put Jones in those situations. These types of characters can have some device or plan that sweeps everyone else along though the episode. Also, Major Hochstetter, always a threat, shows up sporadically in the episodes. So does Burkhalter with a little more power. This produces variety and a tension in  the episode. Bucky is the culprit in the Povitch book, showing up-to mess up.

Last but not least and you see it in every repeating book and TV show. The relationship of the characters. Take Star Trek the original series. Even though you might marvel at the science fiction or the far away planets or the unconquerable foes, it all revolves around the relationship of Kirk, Spock and McCoy as well as Chekov, Sulu, And Uhura. Holding the ship together is Scotty. The venue is different, but the mechanic are the same.

That’s what subtly influenced Matthias Jones with settings taken from places I’ve lived, worked or gone to school. I didn’t outline the series using shows or movies as a temple, but they were stuck in my brain and tumbled out into the books or audio.

As for Dr. Povitch- He’s still dead.

See you next week, Same time, same station.

Robert P. Fitton

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I run because it is now unmistakably clear that we can change these disastrous, divisive policies only by changing the men who are now making them.

              -Robert F. Kennedy

                                                    

“Dr. Raymond Meinkewitz I see you’ve made a return to Storybook Junction.”

RAY MEINKEWITZ: “Well, the fourth book in the Patch Kincaid Series is much too important even today not to comment on it.”

“Why is it more important than JFK’s Assassination and the Garrison investigation?”

RAY MEINKEWITZ: “Listen up. I don’t discount those events. They too changed history. But let’s look a little closer at where this book begins. The fall of 1967. In the words of Bob Dylan’s song- ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”

“Why do you say that?”

RAY MEINKEWITZ: “I have a different attitude now having survived my time with Patch. You see, The Title of the last book is called American Injustice, which is followed by Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. Vietnam should be subtitled or added to the title. Vietnam never would have happened  if Kennedy lived. The decision by Kennedy had been made and was in the process of being implemented by Secretary McNamara and codified by McGeorge Bundy in Kennedy’s NSAM 263 in October of 1963.”

“How does the book address this change?

RAY MEINKEWITZ: “Patch and I were on the way to Vietnam at the beginning of the book.

Why was that?“

RAY MEINKEWITZ: “Commander Beauregard had been imprisoned in an American jail which was a stinking pit. We get into two of the major themes of the war. Young American Men drafted against their will and mowed down in Southeast Asia. We experienced that nightmare firsthand. The death and destruction and  the atrocities carried out in the name of freedom. It was disgusting. And Patch was in the thick of the assassinations.”

“And how would things be different now if these things had not happened?”

RAY MEINKEWITZ: “Vietnam was a stain on the American psyche. A stain like that brings shame and guilt. Societal norms were diminished. And further with the assassinations so cleverly carried out exacerbated the horror. Without the execution of our beloved and competent leaders our political and social ideals would have been proudly elevated. So, I guess the word important doesn’t begin portraying the enormity our how our history was annihilated. We are the ones left to deal with it. I see that retrograde is about to begin.”

“Godspeed Ray Meinkewitz.”

When I was sixteen years old, I sat with a 3 ½” reel to reel recorder, hard wired into the speaker on my parent’s portable TV. Robert F. Kennedy was going to announce his candidacy for president of the United States. I was a huge admirer of President Kennedy and deeply affected by his assassination. I heard the words of Senator Robert  F. Kennedy and soon realized that he spoke with the poignant passion. More than that I distinctly remember feeling the call for justice in RFK’s announcement. The same way I felt about President Kennedy. I still have my 3 ½” Mylar reel, supplanted by video digital files, and when I hear Bobby Kennedy’s words, I still feel the passion and call for justice but now there is a sweet sadness that will never go away.

 

With Martin Luther King the process for me was like a slow drumbeat. As I grew into adulthood it became clear to me that Dr. King challenging insurmountable forces was nothing short of breathtaking. In the 1960’s day after day, month after month reports of civil rights marches, protests, denial of rights, and killing was a numbing process. I watched on TV the August 1963 March on Washington and listened closely to the flourishing rhetoric of Dr. King at the Lincoln Memorial. And later I understood more about his other speeches and read his writings about justice in the United States. My effort with this novel brings Patch to the truth about Dr. King’s death.

I did not fully comprehend the true nature of the RFK and MLK assassinations. That began in college with Mark Lane speaking at UMASS Amherst. I have detailed the assassinations in the Patch Kincaid Series with research meshed within a story narrative as seen through Patch’s perspective. One prevalent emotion persists, especially after wading knee deep into the history. That emotion is anger. And that emotion will someday depart in peace.

 

 

Love is Strange is a song written by Bo Diddley and most known by Mickey and Sylvia’s rendition, although I like Buddy Holly’s 1957 recording. And love is strange. It was most difficult to bring Natalie and Patch together in a credible fashion. Patch still had hopes of returning to Apex Junction to Shari and the boys. I was constantly searching for an opportunity to bring them together as the story progressed and even feared I wouldn’t be able to posit their relationship. Ah, but I found a way. And what developed was exactly what the novel and Patch and Natalie’s own journeys required.

 

I did not fully absorb when I first heard that someone in my town had been killed in Vietnam. In the mid-sixties we used to play touch football on the street, holding up the game every time a car went by. Today that game would be impossible with the traffic. When we got a game going one of the kids just down the street would somehow show up. I just remember his smile and friendly attitude and he could catch the damn ball! Like many of my generation, he was one of many African Americans drafted to fight ten thousand miles away for a spurious cause. I never saw him again -the kid with the smile who could catch the ball. He left for Vietnam with that smile and was returned to the United States in a body bag.

 

He’s buried in Arlington and is commemorated in the final Patch book in Vietnam and later in the book. Writing these scenes was not easy and the audio required many takes. Rest in peace.

 

Robert P. Fitton

 

We had no cameras

To shoot the landscape

We passed the hash pipe

And played our Doors tapes

And it was dark

So dark at night

And we held on to each other

Like brother to brother

We promised our mothers we’d write

And we would all go down together

We said we’d all go down together

Yes we would all go down together

 

From Goodnight Saigon

  Billy Joel

 

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“I recognize this man as a member of the intel community.”

R.H.:  “Central Intelligence Agency.”

“Why would Jim Garrison need to be destroyed?”

R.H.:  “Because…because he had found the edge of the conspiracy to kill President Kennedy.”

“You know this?”

R.H.:  “Yes, I do.”

“Do you know who killed President Kennedy?”

R.H.:  “I honestly do not… wish to talk about it.”

“ Let me clarify. I was told that Clay Shaw worked for CIA. Garrison would have unraveled the plot with that knowledge.”

R.H.:  “I can’t comment on that.”

“You were involved in an operation  trying to stop information from getting to Garrison.”

R.H.:  “I can’t comment on that.”

“Patch Kincaid was severely injured because of your actions.”

R.H.:  “I know nothing of that. As far as Captain Kincaid he knew the risks in whatever he volunteered for. He was formidable.”

“What about Morocco, Gibraltar, France, and Great Britain?”

R.H.:  “Classified. I can’t talk about it.”

“Did you ever think, that what you were doing came out of a small group of people with a narrow-minded point of view?”

R.H.:  “I don’t like traitors. I’ve had my fill of traitors. And will take out  traitors when ordered.”

“You are the problem, Mr. Helms.”

R.H.:  “Go to hell…”

After listening to Helms’s testimony one is struck by the fact that Helms was walking line between the devil and the deep blue sea.

RPF

So, CIA was as pure as the new fallen snow in attempting to thwart the Garrison Investigation. Ha,Ha. Take a look at this memo from F.W.M. Janney.

As I have written before Baker Finch is a metaphor for all the agency dirty tricks, illegalities, and assassinations. The Garrison Group, chaired by F.W.M. Janney, was a serious group of individuals who recommended direct action against Garrison and were willing to confer with the defendant, Clay Shaw’s lawyers.

Welcome to the third book in the Patch Kincaid narrative. I did not designate the third and fourth books as American Injustice because it was a catchy phrase. Egregious is the only word I can use to describe the result of the agency’s action during the two-decade span from its inception in 1948. Conversely, the agency has protected the people of the United States from foreign threats. The agency is complex and diverse. To view it as one entity would not be accurate nor fair. But there were those within the agency that had a parochial attitude to what they perceived as threats. It is how the threats (real or otherwise) were dealt with that has damaged the agency and the country.

Patch enters the narrative in late 1966 and by early 1967 he becomes a part of an ultra-secret network, controlled by the illusive Denali. The mission is to get information to the Garrison investigation. But those in power try to thwart his efforts.  In the audio book I have melded contemporary audio 1967 in American Injustice: Jim Garrison. Just writing about the events of 1967 and 1968 or quoting someone is not enough. Listening to the investigators around Garrison as well as those who tried to destroy him gives reality to those who were not born in the 1960’s.

You can hear Mark Lane in 1967 debating David Liebler lawyer of the Warren Commission or Louis Nitzer in a feisty exchange. The NBC white paper is linked in the Kindle editions as is the Garrison response. Garrison’s investigator Gurvich who betrayed Garrison, is in the audio.

THE DESTROYERS

Eventually working out of Louisiana Patch and Meinkewitz commence operations against those who tried to take down Garrison.

The Mafia did not like being prosecuted by Robert F. Kennedy during the Kennedy Administration. They are still around in and out of jail during the Garrison Investigation.

How about Dean Andrews the double-talking attorney who was asked by Clay Shaw to defend Lee Oswald? And the CIA plants in the investigation including Perry Russo’s job offer in California- and the media itself, become part of the narrative. (I thought Oswald did it.)

I would be remiss if I did not mention Lieutenant Natalie Tompkins, who falls in love with Patch but Patch rebuffs her as he thinks he might have a chance to get back home to his wife and two boys. But don’t worry, it’s a long two books.

Tomkins’s boss is Commander Phineas Beauregard who reports directly to Denali. And Dr. Mike Cameron is an important researcher as well as a doctor who treats Patch after a bloody encounter. Both Phinney and Mike are off to Vietnam to interview a Dallas coordinator of the plot against JFK.

And holding the book together is Ray Meinkewitz, physicist, and time travel aficionado. Meinkewitz’s abilities both physical and mental are tested in the novel as he and patch attempt to front load Garrison’s investigation with information.

Many people would ask why The Doors, especially Jim Morrison have an undercurrent in this book that affects the future. It’s because time travel is a risky venture.

Robert P. Fitton

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