Brian Garfield - Target Manhattan

Your name, please?

Walter F. DeFeo.

Will you read your official title and position into the record, please.

Im the director of the New York Civil Defense Emergency Control Board. Our office is at Three Oh Five Broadway.

You understand the purpose of this inquiry?

I understand it, Mr. Skinner. Im not sure if you do.

I see. What is it you think I dont understand?

Officially youre supposed to be doing an in-depth investigation of the disaster to find out how we might have done a coordinated job of heading it off. Youre here, ostensibly, to find some way of insuring that this kind of thing never happens again. That the idea?

Essentially.

Thats the avowed purpose. Actually youre looking for scapegoats. The mayors got his tail in a wringer and he needs to find somebody he can pin it on. Get rid of the stink. Pass the buck.

You think Ive been commissioned to create a frame-up or a cover-up?

I wouldnt say that. I dont know you only by reputation. Your reputations good enough. But I still think some poor bastards head is going to roll when you get finished with your investigation. Maybe itll be my head-who knows? Im close to retirement, it wouldnt do me much damage if I had a can tied to my tail. Am I the sacrificial goat?

Mr. DeFeo, youre only the fourth witness whos appeared here. Ive got weeks of interviews ahead of me.

Then maybe youll listen to a word of advice from an old hand in the business of political legerdemain. Youre an academic, not a politician. Thats why I think you probably dont understand this kind of operation. Im not impugning your sincerity. Im only pointing out that mayors and governors and presidents devote half their time in office to the assembling and appointing of commissions of inquiry, and that the only invariable rule of politics is that nothing ever comes of these inquiries. Except for the occasional rolling of the occasional head. The whole ritual is an exercise in waving the right hand violently in front of the public eye in order to distract attention from what the left hand is doing under the table. In a case like this one, of course, the left hand is doing nothing at all. Thats exactly what it should be doing, but the public wouldnt go for that. The public wants to know how it happened and why it happened and why somebody didnt have an instant solution to take care of the problem the minute it arose. The public wants blood, Mr. Skinner. Thats why the mayor needs a scapegoat, and thats why youre here, and I doubt you really understand that. I doubt you understood it before, and I rather doubt you understand it now.

I dont think were getting off on the right foot. If it will reassure you, Ive received no instructions-either explicit or implied-to pin blame on any individual or group of individuals. My job, quite specifically, is to determine whether theres any way we can prepare better preventives for future contingencies of this kind.

You cant, Mr. Skinner. But of course thats what the public wont buy. We live under the constant threat of instant extermination. Emotionally nobody but a suicide can contend with that. We want guarantees. We want them, but of course they dont exist. How could they? Look, its meaningless trying to pin the blame on anybody or trying to forestall future wild-card attacks. This kind of thing falls under the classification of acts of God. You cant expect anybody to anticipate every wild delusion of every deranged mind out there. My civil-defense office has a handful of employees. Our area encompasses nearly twenty million people. Do you think we can read twenty million minds? There was no way to predict that a kook in a thirty-year-old bomber would circle over Manhattan Island threatening to demolish the city if we didnt pay him five million dollars ransom. Somebody could do exactly the same thing again tomorrow over Washington or Philadelphia or Los Angeles and wed be no better prepared for it than we were for this one. Its a hurricane, Mr. Skinner, its a tidal wave, an earthquake. Dont you see, its simply a crime-and the only way you can prevent a crime is to know in advance that its going to take place.

Not necessarily. Its possible to look at this kind of behavior as a disease. Weve found preventives for a good many diseases.

You wont find any for this one.

We wont know that until weve tried, will we?

Ive said my piece, Mr. Skinner. Lets get on with the questioning.

Very well. I have the feeling the interviewer has just been interviewed, but lets try to get back on the track. Perhaps you could give me a brief summary of what part you took in the events, and then we can go into detail.

Well Ill make it very brief, and you can call for expansion on whatever details you want. Id just returned to my office from lunch. I had a call from Joel Azzard of the FBI. He was downtown at the Merchants Trust Bank. He told me what the situation was. I only half-believed him. I had to go over and look out the window before I was convinced.

And you saw the plane?

Damnedest thing I ever saw. Id seen the things in newsreels during the war and I dont suppose Id thought of them since then. It looked so close you could almost reach out and touch it. Right over the rooftops.

What did you do?

I notified various appropriate authorities.

For example?

Well, air-traffic control at the three New York airports, for example. And the police department, division of harbor patrol. I mean, the police were in on it by then, but evidently it hadnt occurred to them to notify the harbor division. I did so, and they made every effort to clear the harbor of traffic. Barges, pleasure craft, that sort of thing. There wasnt time to clear the liners and big freighters out, of course. But there was some talk of trying to shoot him down into the Hudson or the East River and we attempted to clear those bodies of water.

Successfully, I gather.

Yes, we had all traffic off the rivers by about half past three. And air traffic had been put on stand-down. Outgoing flights were postponed and remained on the ground. Incoming flights were diverted to Boston and other airports. You can imagine the number of irate passengers. But that was the least of it. Christ, its been weeks and you can still smell the smoke uptown.

Your name, please?

Philip B. Swarthout.

You reside at Two Eighteen East Forty-ninth Street in Manhattan?

Thats right, yes.

Your official position, Mr. Swarthout? This is for the record.

Assistant Deputy Mayor of New York. My job is to coordinate operations of the various security and emergency departments in the city government. And maintain liaison with outside agencies that function in the city-the FBI, the Narcotics Bureau, that sort of thing.

You understand the purpose of this inquiry?

Yes, certainly.

Do you have a prepared statement youd like to offer at this time?

No. Was I expected to prepare one?

Not at all. A few witnesses have asked to read their statements into the record. I thought you might

Id like to try to help clear this thing up. I came here to answer questions. Its your investigation, Mr. Skinner-you ask them, Ill try to answer them.

The commission appreciates your cooperation, Mr. Swarthout. All right, lets begin with the chronology. When did the incident first come to your attention?

You mean the time of day

The time and the circumstances.

I was ready to go to lunch-it must have been about twelve twenty. I had a call from the Police Commissioners office-Deputy Commissioner Toombes. He said hed been on the horn with the president of Merchants Trust-he said they had this nut on their hands.

By this nut you mean Harold Craycroft?

No. Craycroft was the one in the airplane. The one in the bank was Charles Ryterband, but we didnt know that at first. Hed given his name as something else-William Roberts, something like that.