Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs (65 page)

33
Ibid., 170; King,
Drug Hang-Up
, 44–46. John Martin Murtagh and Sara Harris,
Who Live in Shadow
, 114–16.

34
“The Czar Nobody Knows,”
New York Post
, Anslinger archives, box 5, file 10.

35
Williams,
Drug Addicts
, 22.

36
Ibid., 91. A good account of the wider persecution can be found in King,
Drug Hang-Up
, 47–58.

37
Anslinger archives, box 1, file 9.

38
Acker and Tracey,
Altering American Consciousness
, 238.

39
Sloman,
Reefer Madness
, 199. See also King,
Drug Hang-Up
, 71.

40
Henry Smith Williams,
Luther Burbank
, 316.

41
Anslinger archives, box 8, file 8, memo marked “California.”

42
Anslinger archives, box 3, file 6, HSW letter to Beck.

43
Anslinger archives, box 3, file 6, letter titled “Memorandum for Mr. Gaston” by Anslinger.

44
Acker and Tracey,
Altering American Consciousness
, 238.

45
King,
Drug Hang-Up
, 61.

46
 
Acker and Tracey,
Altering American Consciousness
, 238.

47
 
In 1955, Dr. Hubert Howe testified before a Senate subcommittee explaining that he and his colleagues would like to prescribe opiates “but doctors have been scared away by the Federal Bureau.” See King,
Drug Hang-Up
, 125–26. See also 139–40.

48
 
Anslinger,
Protectors
, 219.

49
 
Acker and Tracey,
Altering American Consciousness
, 242.

50
 
Anslinger,
Murderers
, 221–22.

51
 
Ryan Grim,
This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America
, 44.

52
Alfred Lindesmith, writing in
The Washington Post
, as reproduced at http://www.onlinepot.org/addictandthelaw/AddictandtheLaw/chapter01.htm.
Liberty
magazine, February 26, 1938, 43. Anslinger,
Protectors
, 53–54. Anslinger doesn’t name Hansen in this passage about a crooked agent, but it seems clear from the context that he is discussing him. We know this because the “Lady in Red” whom he discusses was a key part of Hansen’s case: see the
Liberty
magazine report cited above.

53
National Archives, San Francisco, court cases Nevada, files 9580 and 9581. Williams,
Drug Addicts
, 100–101.

54
There are three possible interpretations of Hanson’s criminality. The first is Henry Smith Williams’s interpretation: that he was working for them all along, closing the clinics because they wanted him to. The second is that he was working for them all along, but his bribery consisted only of the kind of thing drug dealers pay the police for today: to turn a blind eye. And the third is that he started taking their bribes only after he left California and was posted to Nevada. I favor Henry’s interpretation: Hanson’s own colleagues at the FBN wondered out loud if he had been working for them during his time heading the L.A. bureau. See
Official Detective Stories
, August 1, 1939, 43.

55
Acker and Tracey,
Altering American Consciousness
, 255.

56
 
Henry Smith Williams,
Survival of the Fittest
, 309–10. This isn’t a simple change. Sometimes Williams voices his old prejudices, although with less vigor than before—they are eroding. See Williams,
Drugs Against Men
, ix.

57
 
King,
Drug Hang-Up
, 61.

58
 
Sloman,
Reefer Madness
, 83.

59
 
“The Tsar Nobody Knows,”
New York Post
, Anslinger archives, box 5, file 10.

Chapter 3: The Barrel of Harry’s Gun

1
The historian David Bewley-Taylor has done brilliant work on this, and it was only possible to fully retrace what Anslinger had done in the international sphere through his brilliant work.

2
 
Anslinger archives, box 2, file 20.

3
McWilliams,
Protectors
, 150; Erlen and Spillane,
Federal Drug Control
, 194.

4
Davenport-Hines,
Pursuit of Oblivion
, 275, 284.

5
This Week
magazine, March 7, 1948, 22. See also Anslinger,
Murderers
, 207–11.

6
Valentine,
Strength of the Wolf
, 68.

7
McWilliams,
Protectors
, 153. Valentine,
Strength of the Wolf
, 211.

8
For the full story, see chapters 2 and 4 of David Bewley-Taylor,
The U.S. and International Drug Control 1909–1997
. See also chapter 21 of King,
Drug Hang-Up
.

9
Anslinger,
Protectors
, 19.

10
King,
Drug Hang-Up
, 225.

11
Bewley-Taylor,
U.S. and International Drug Control
, 105.

12
Ibid., 48.

13
Anslinger archives, box 5, file 8, article headlined “Gains in War on Dope Told by Anslinger”—no byline or reference to which newspaper.

14
Jonnes,
Hep-Cats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams
, 104; John Rainford,
Consuming Pleasures
, 150; Blackburn,
With Billie
, 53.

15
Jonnes,
Hep-Cats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams
, 104.

16
McWilliams,
Protectors
, 184.

Chapter 4: The Bullet at the Birth

1
Donald Henderson Clarke,
In the Reign of Rothstein
, 19.

2
Ibid., 9.

3
Leo Katcher,
The Big Bankroll: The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein
, 227. Carolyn Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 31.

4
David Pietrusza,
Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series
, 10.

5
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 19.

6
Pietrusza,
Rothstein
, 3.

7
Pietrusza,
Rothstein
, 3.

8
“Rothstein: Puzzle in Life, Still Enigma in Death,”
Pittsburgh Press
, Nov 13, 1928, p. 1.

9
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 232.

10
Guys and Dolls
was based on Damon Runyon’s short stories, which were inspired by Arnold and Carolyn. See http://www.newrepublic.com/article/109050/american-shylock-arnold-rothstein-1882–1928#, accessed February 24, 2012.

11
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 50.

12
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 19.

13
Katcher,
Big Bankroll
, 30.

14
Nick Tosches,
King of the Jews
, 34.

15
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 40. Pietrusza,
Rothstein
, 2.

16
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 78

17
Ibid., 42.

18
Pietrusza,
Rothstein
, 43; Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 20.

19
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 30.

20
Ibid., 142–43.

21
Clarke,
Reign of Rothstein
, 305.

22
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 97.

23
Pietrusza,
Rothstein
, 198.

24
Daniel Okrent,
The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
, 221.

25
Jonnes,
Hep-Cats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams
, 77.

26
Katcher,
Big Bankroll
, 238.

27
Valentine,
Strength of the Wolf
, 7.

28
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 172.

29
Tosches,
King of the Jews
, 209.

30
Clarke,
Reign of Rothstein
, 5.

31
Ed Vuiliamy,
Amexica
, 4.

32
“Indict Arnold Rothstein: Charged With Shooting Two Detectives,”
New York Times
, June 7, 1919.

33
Tosches,
King of the Jews
, 288. Clarke,
Reign of Rothstein
, 6–7, 40–48.

34
Ibid., 52.

35
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 130.

36
Pietrusza,
Rothstein
, 321.

37
Ibid., 323.

38
Reinarman and Levine,
Crack in America
, 68.
Steven Pinker hints at this in his excellent book
The Better Angels of Our Nature
, in which he points out that “as drug trafficking has increased” in Jamaica, Mexico, and Colombia, “their rates of homicide have soared.” See page 89.
Miller,
Case for Legalizing Drugs
, 67–68.

39
Clarke,
Reign of Rothstein
, 50.

39
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 120.

40
Ibid., 34.

41
Ibid., 52.

42
Ibid., 34.

43
Ibid., 16.

44
Ibid., 31-3.

45
Katcher,
Big Bankroll
, 214.

46
Clarke,
Reign of Rothstein
, 32.

47
Ibid., 304.

48
Rothstein,
Now I’ll Tell
, 116.

49
Ibid., 238.

50
Ibid., 240.

51
Ibid., 241.

52
Ibid., 237.

53
Katcher,
Big Bankroll
, 1.

54
Sherwin D. Smith, “35 Years Ago: Arnold Rothstein was mysteriously murdered,”
New York Times Magazine
, October 27, 1963.