“It was becoming like an obsession.”
Supporting that obsession: camera work. Illegal: “I took snatch pictures and sold them to sailors and Marines up from Diego.”
Obsession focus: the Kafesjians.
“I sort of circled around them. I found out J.C. and Tommy pushed dope and had these police connections. Lucille was a floozy, and Tommy was vicious. It was sort of like they were my pretend family. Tommy had this buddy Richie, and the two of them played this jazz music really lousy. I used to follow them, and I watched them get into some kind of big fallingout over Lucille. Richie got popped selling dope up in Bakersfield. He got sentenced to Chino, and I was in an E-Z Kleen shop one day, and I heard Tommy tell Abe Voldrich that when he got out Richie was dead meat.”
Early ’56–two bombshells hit him simultaneous: One–he’s outside a Southside E-Z Kleen. Huddled up: J.C. Kafesjian and Dudley Side 231
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Smith–nineteen years older than that news pic.
Two–he gets popped selling snatch photos.
“I figured Dudley Smith and the Kafesjians were dirty together. I couldn’t _prove_ anything, but I thought maybe Smith gave J.C. a skate on that poison liquor he sold. After a while I just believed it.”
He started hatching revenge plots–this Eyeball Man inside him fed him plans. He pleaded guilty to selling pornography–his lawyer said beg for mercy.
“At the County Jail this guy told me about the X-ray lab at Chinewhat a good job it was. I figured I could get ajob there if I got sentenced to State time,
’cause I knew so much about photography. See, I had a real plan now, and I wanted to do a Chino hitch so I could get next to Richie.”
The judge hit him with three-to-five State. They bought his X-ray experience snow job: Wylie Davis Bullock, go to Chino.
“So I went to Chino and got next to Richie. He was a lonely kid, so I befriended him, and he told me this AMAZING goddamn story.”
Amazing:
The Kafesjians, the Herricks–who fathered whose children? Phil Herrick and J.C.–bootleg dealers back in the ’30s. The blind man killings–Richie said yes, maybe-it might be Dudley Smith’s wedge. Incest: maybe/quasi/brother/father perv stuff.
“I guarantee you you have never heard nothing to compare to the stuff Richie told me.”
Richie, sissy/voyeur:
“He told me he was in love with Lucille, but he wouldn’t touch her because she might be his half-sister. He said he loved spying on her.”
Richie, compulsive talker:
“He put things together for me. I figured out enough about Dudley Smith to know that he met up with Herrick and Kafesjian some time right after the killings. I figured Smith got cozy with them and took bribes not to snitch that they brewed that liquor. I knew now. I knew these two crazy families killed my family.”
Richie, talking vengeance on Tommy:
“I knew he didn’t have the balls for it. I said just wait–I’ll get you your revenge if you promise not to bother the Kafesjians.”
Richie promised.
“Then his mother wrote him and went through this sob-sister suicide routine.
Richie walked Chino–fucking minimum security, he just _walked_.”
Richie stayed loose.
_He_ got paroled two months later.
“I tried to find Richie. I staked out the Kafesjian and Herrick houses, but I never saw him.”
“That Lucille, though–wow. I used to watch her do the shimmyshimmy naked.”
Months ticked by. “One day right before she killed herself I saw Old Lady Herrick leave a letter in her box for the postman. I snuck up and grabbed it, and it was addressed to Champ Dineen, this jazz clown that Richie worshipped.
There was a P0 box address, so I figured Moms and Richie were working a mail-drop thing. I sent Richie a note at his box: ‘Dig Lucille do the shimmy Side 232
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shimmy in her window. Now you be patient and I’ll get you your revenge.'”
The note worked–months ticked by–he peeped Richie peeping Lucille. AMAZING: peeper Richie, amateur bug man–that electronics class did him solid. He walked the straight and narrow himself–movie jobs, parole confabs–nobody knew the Eyeball Man kept his dick hard–