James P Simpson - Flak Bait: Eight Decades Dodging Flak as a Bombardier, FBI Agent, Trial Lawyer, and Texas Maverick

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This book is dedicated to Connie and to our children, Simone, Scott, Jamie, and Greg.

Copyright 2007 By James P. Simpson and Geoffrey Leavenworth Published By Eakin Press An Imprint of Wild Horse Media Group P.O. Box 331779 Fort Worth, Texas 76163 1-817-344-7036 www.EakinPress.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ISBN-10: 1-940130-92-1 ISBN-13: 978-1-940130-92-7

Contents

1. Foreword by Michelle Sierpina
2. Introduction by Liz Carpenter
3. Authors Note and Acknowledgments
4. The War
   1. An Encounter in Los Angeles
   2. Lana Turner and Me in Palm Springs
   3. One a Day in Tampa Bay
   4. Aboard the Ile de France
   5. The Irony of War
   6. The Battle of the Bulge
   7. Homecoming
   8. From the German Front to the French Riviera
   9. France Revisited
   10. My Friend Manuel
5. College Years
   1. Entering UT
   2. The Water Was Cold But the Rock Was Hot
6. The FBI Years
   1. Telegram from J. Edgar Hoover
   2. The Ten Most Wanted
   3. The Deserter
   4. On the Trail of Communists in Minnesota
7. Galveston and the Rackets
   1. A New Life and Bride in Texas
   2. Why I Opposed Organized Crime
   3. The Campaign
   4. A Bribe Offered
   5. The Runoff
   6. After Defeatthe Beginning of the End
   7. The Isle of Vice
   8. The Balinese Room and the Texas Rangers
8. Fifty Years of Law Practice
   1. Defending Motherhood and the Right to a Public Education
   2. A Decade of Free Dry Cleaning
   3. High School and the First Amendment
   4. Banking at the Sailors Retreat
   5. Starting College of the Mainland
   6. Death on the Highway
   7. Madalyn Murray OHair
   8. A Tranquil and Steady Dedication
9. Appendix
   1. Three Men Who Cracked an Empire, The Texas Observer, June 14, 1957
   2. Campaign Speech, James P. Simpson, Candidate for County Attorney, Galveston County Democratic Primary, July 25, 1954
   3. Padlock on the Balinese, The Houston Press, June 10 and 11, 1957

Landmarks

1. Table Of Contents

Foreword

Find a comfortable spot, turn off the phone, sit back, and prepare to become intimately acquainted with a fascinating array of characters and their stories. You will chuckle, you may cry, and you will certainly laugh out loud as Jim Simpson, storyteller extraordinaire, recounts his lifestories with riveting realism. Jim displays the wit of Will Rogers and Mark Twain, the sensitivity of Viktor Frankl or Martin Buber, and the unassuming, aw shucks charm of the Texas country raconteur.

Jim introduces his life through the eyes and ears and eccentricities of the famous, the infamous, and everyone in between. His reflections as a young man flying bombing missions in World War II must be read by everyone who has a vote in every nation in the world. His look at the activities of the criminal element in the 1950s reminds that courage, persistence, and integrity can triumph over evil. His love of family, from his devotion to his mother in Copperas Cove to his adoration of Connie and their family serves as the finest role model of family values and personal principle.

Several years ago, Connie Simpson persuaded her husband to join a life story writing group because his life comprised so many amazing stories. Lovingly, he accompanied her, although he was reluctant. Despite himself, he wrote and shared his stories, surprised at the awestruck reaction as the other group members soaked up his every word. With time his writing evolved and became even more authentic and compelling.

We owe collective thanks to Jim Simpson for generously offering readers his head full of memories, his heart full of compassion, and his souls window on four score and more of life on this planet.

MICHELLE SIERPINA, Ph.D.

Director, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

University of Texas Medical Branch

Galveston, Texas

June 2007

Introduction

From the skies over France and Germany to chicagos gritty south side, Jim Simpson has defended our nation against the tyranny of foreign dictators and organized crime. But the most remarkable aspect of his life story may be his quiet defense of our Constitution right here at home. Against school boards and civic leaders who thought that pregnancy undermined a girls right to a public education, that the right to publish a newspaper does not extend to high school students, or that an atheist can be deprived of her constitutional right to free speech because of her unpopular beliefs.

These are among the toughest battles because they must be fought against fellow citizens, neighbor against neighbor. Of course, these threats are posed by people who stridently believe in America, but who think that the views of the majority take precedence over the rights of the minority, if not the rule of law altogether. protecting our constitution requires daily vigilance, as todays headlines make only too clear.

in his corner of the world, Jim Simpson has provided that constant vigilance. I wonder if he and his brand of citizenship can be cloned?

These pages are part of a rich literary traditionthe memoir. how do you write a memoir? Find your scrapbooks, your snapshots, and a typewriter, computer, or even an old quill will do. if you are in your eighties, find a young kinsman like Geoff leavenworth, with a fresh memory and nimble fingers and get going!

Dont edit as you go. Chronological order helps. Birth through education, jobs, marriage, childrenwork time and play timeuntil you are done. Now all you need is a publisher like Eakin Press, with an experienced editor like Virginia Messer, and there it isyour life and times. Now all you need is a snappy title like Flak Bait, and you have a book. Your eight decades of dodging flak as bombardier, FBI agent, trial lawyer, and Texas maverick are open to the world.

Youll be proud and glad. I was.

LIZ CARPENTER

Author and former press

secretary to the late

Lady Bird Johnson

Authors Note
and Acknowledgments

Two events helped shape this memoir. First, I was influenced by the story of John Bradley, who never spoke of his war experience and whose son discovered his role at iwo Jima only from the contents of boxes of old photos and letters. The son, James Bradley, recounted his fathers experience in the best-seller, Flags of Our Fathers. While I was never as reticent as Bradley, I also found myself reluctant to talk much about my war experiences in the years immediately followed the Second World War. I realized that I didnt want one of my grandchildren to discover some of my old photos or letters someday and have to try to piece together what I did in england, France, and Germany.

Second, my wife Connie and I had the good fortune to begin taking classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. I had done a fair amount of writing in the practice of law, but our work at the Institute was different. We were writing our storiesfor ourselves and for our classmates. With encouragement of my family, I began to collect this writing, and eventually, we considered the possibility that the stories might amount to a book. From the outset, Connie, a former FBI stenographer, helped me get the stories on paper. and my daughter Simone and her husband Geoff, a writer and ultimately my co-author, pitched in with editorial and production assistance. My son Jamie helped collect the archival photos, so it really was a family affair.

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