Rosselli Johnny - Handsome Johnny: the life and death of Johnny Rosselli: gentleman gangster, Hollywood producer, CIA assassin

The author and publisher have provided this ebook to you for your personal use only. You may not make this ebook publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this ebook you are reading infringes on the authors copyright, please notify the publisher at:

us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

For Dean

Who shot him?

Somebody with a gun.

DASHIELL HAMMETT, RED HARVEST

Remember, children, crime does not pay . Not like it used to.

JOE E. LEWIS, COMEDIAN

All right if I turn on the tape recorder?

Yeah. Its all right.

Can you tell me what you remember about that day and what you found?

Why are you talking to me anyway? Have you gone through the agency handling this?

Through the agency. In Miami?

This is still an open case.

Still an open case, yeah. Unsolved.

Never closed. And federal testimony was sealed. I havent discussed this case with anybody for some period of time. When was it, seventy-six?

Yes, seventy-six.

I dont want to give you any information that isnt correct. Youre welcome to ask.

Some guys found him some young guys fishing in the bay.

Yeah.

They found an oil drum floating in the water. They said they could see through the holes in the drum what they thought were human remains.

They saw something. They called it in. I went to the scene. We had the marine patrol boat come tow the drum up to the shore. We asked them to pull the drum up onto the back of their boat. But they werent going to put the damn thing on their boat. So they towed it to shore and we got a tow truck to take it out.

You knew right away there was a body inside the oil drum?

There was a stink coming out of it. We were pretty sure this thing was going to the M.E. office.

To the medical examiner?

Yeah.

You opened the drum there?

It was opened at the scene. The tow driver helped us open it.

What did you see inside?

It was a big blob.

A blob?

Exactly.

It didnt look human?

Gray-and-white blob. With a powerful smell.

The body was decomposed?

It was bloated. It was bloated as it could get inside of this drum. It was filled up with body gas and deterioration being in the water and salt water coming inside.

The legs were separated chopped off

Right. Jammed in there with the body. Along the side.

Not a pretty sight.

It was not something you saw every day. Then again

The oil drum was never meant to be found, right? An anchor or something probably broke off and it floated up.

Yeah.

Somebody screwed up.

Thats an opinion. My opinion is that it was not meant to come back to the surface.

How long was it before you got an ID on the body?

Couple of days.

The report says it was tough getting prints from the fingers because they were so deteriorated. All they could print was part of one thumb.

Yeah?

Said he was shot in the gut, and then the bullet was dug out of the flesh. One of the stories in the paper said he was still alive when they put him in the oil drum.

Well, if I knew about that I probably wouldnt say because its still an open case. If some guy somewhere wants to confess, the policeman can know if the guy is for real or hes full of it.

Murders were pretty common in that part of Florida.

They were shooting up half of Miami back then.

Cocaine wars.

Bodies were being found all the time. I think we came close to setting the world record for homicides.

But when you found out who was in the oil drum it became a big deal.

They all came down on us. Government. FBI. The press. The Central Intelligence Agency was interested in this guy. Senator Gary Hart runs down here and he wants to know all about it. Of course he was getting ready to run for president.

Did the government people try to control the investigation?

The whole city of Washington and the whole federal law enforcement that got involved with the Rosselli case were all full of shit. I firmly believe that they knew more than they were telling us.

Many people believe Rossellis murder was a result of his testimony at the hearings in Washingtonthat it was tied to all the talk about the CIA/Castro plot, the Kennedy assassination.

Johnny Rosselli had been talking way too much. We found out that he had pissed off a lot of people. He lived a charmed life for a long while. But he didnt realize he had gotten old and the charm had worn off.

He kept saying that nobody was going to bother a retired old man.

Well. He got that wrong.

Beverly Hills, California, May 6, 1966

Johnny Rosselli walked down Brighton Way. He was in no hurry, enjoying the warm spring weather and the streets full of pretty girls on their lunch break. Silver-haired and suntanned, groomed to perfectionhe was fresh from his weekly visit to Druckers Barber Shopin big dark glasses, custom-made suit, alligator shoes. A hard-looking, confident-looking man in late middle age, he appeared very much a part of that opulent neighborhood. Passersby might have taken him for a motion picture producer or a powerful agent, even an old movie star, one of those tough-guy actors from the days of black-and-white.

Nearing the corner of Brighton and Rodeo Drive he paused before crossing, and as he stood there he felt a sensation at his back, a sudden change in the atmosphere, like the chill from a dark cloud crossing the sun.

With a glance over his shoulder he saw two men in black suits coming up the sidewalk, coming up, flanking him at the corner.

One of the men said, John. We need to talk to you.

He gave no reaction and started across the street. They followed, and on the other side they moved ahead of him and blocked his way.

Staring through big dark lenses, Johnny Rosselli said, You know how it goes, fellas. If youve got a problem, go talk to my attorney.

The second man said, You dont want your attorney to know about this.

The first said, This is different, John. Something new. You need to take a look.

The second man held out a buff-colored envelope.

Johnny looked at the package but kept his hands at his sides.

Listen. For your own good. The Bureau knows who you are.

Johnny looked past him, as if no one were there and nothing had been said.

Do you understand? We know everything.

The first man held out a business card. It read DuPars Restaurant, with an address in Thousand Oaks.

This is a place where we can meet. After youve had a look in the package.

Johnny glanced at the card but did not take it, and he did not take the package, saying, If youve got a subpoena give it to my attorney. I dont know what youre talking about.

He started walking again.

Have a nice day, John, said the second man. Well be seeing you.

* * *

Halfway to the next corner he stopped and looked back. The two FBI agents were gone.

You have a nice day, too.

Vaffanculo.

In the ass.

* * *

He entered his place on the eighth floor of the Glen Towers Apartments, a large, modern, sleekly furnished apartment with a sweeping balcony view of western Beverly Hills. Slipped under the door was the envelope one of the men on the street had tried to give him.

He picked it up and dropped it on the glass-topped coffee table in his living room.