Better Dead (44 page)
Authors: Max Allan Collins
My friend and longtime research associate George Hagenauer made a trip to Iowa for a key brainstorming session, and did much reading and digging on McCarthy, Cohn, and the Rosenbergs. A Wisconsin resident himself, George was an enthusiastic advocate for the inclusion in this novel of the day Communists “took over” Mosinee in Senator McCarthy's home state.
I had intended to open the novel with Hammett testifying to McCarthy's committee, but looking at various newspaper articles on, and magazine accounts of, this bizarre event (Racine
Journal Times
,
Wausau Daily Herald
,
American Legion Magazine
,
OAH Magazine of History
) swung me to George's thinkingâspecifically, that this was a perfect nutshell view of the nuttiness of Red Scare America in the fifties. There's no record of McCarthy having been present, but he should have been, so I put him there; he was certainly a key supporter and possibly an architect of the stunt. Footage of the mock takeover can be seen in the documentary
Atomic Cafe,
mentioned below.
George and I at times divided up research reading. He read the massive and essential
The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy
(1982) by Thomas C. Reeves and guided me to key pages, while I concentrated on
Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy
(2006) by Tom Wicker and
Joseph McCarthy
(2000) by Arthur Herman, looks at the man and his era from the left and right, respectively.
Other McCarthy books consulted included
McCarthy: The Man, The Senator, The “Ism”
(1952), Jack Anderson and Ronald W. May;
McCarthy
(1968), Roy Cohn;
Senator Joe McCarthy
(1959), Richard H. Rovere; and
The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy
(2009), James Cross Giblin.
Encyclopedia of the McCarthy Era
(1996) by William K. Klingaman proved helpful as a general reference.
Any book looking at McCarthy and his era must take into account the classic documentary
Point of Order!
(1963), directed and produced by Emile de Antonio and Daniel Talbot, which skillfully (if not always fairly) edits the many kinescope hours of the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954 into an entertaining, sometimes thrilling film. I made use of both a DVD and the published transcript. Other films viewed include
The Atomic Cafe
(1982), produced and directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader, and Pierce Rafferty (“Duck and cover!”);
Citizen Cohn
(2001), written by David Franzoni and directed by Frank Pierson;
The Edward R. Murrow Collection: The McCarthy Years
(1991), produced by Bernard Birnbaum and written by Russ Bensley and Sam Roberts;
The Real American: Joe McCarthy
(2011), written by Lutz Hachmeister and Simone Holler and directed by Hachmeister; and
The Unquiet Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
(1974) written by Alvin Goldstein and directed by Alan Moorman.
Unusual things that turn up in research often don't make it into the Heller novels. For readers who share my affinity for Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer and the film
Kiss Me Deadl
y (1955), the following historical tidbit may mind-boggle: in 1950, before any arrests in the Rosenberg case were made, an FBI agent named Spillane was searching for an iron box containing a piece of plutonium (pilfered by David Greenglass).
Thanks to my friend and agent, Dominick Abel, who has worked mightily to keep the Heller memoirs alive; and my editor, Claire Eddy, whose enthusiasm for Nate Heller and his creator is much appreciated and reciprocated.
As usual, love and thanks go to Barbara Collinsâmy wife, best friend, and valued collaboratorâwho was working on her draft of our next “Barbara Allan”âbylined novel while I was writing this one. Despite the demands of her writing, she endured my constant need for a sounding board, providing tough-minded suggestions and patient support.
BOOKS BY
MAX ALLAN COLLINS
The Memoirs of Nathan Heller
Triple Play
(novellas)
Chicago Lightning
(short stories)
Chicago Confidential
Angel in Black
Majic Man
Flying Blind
Damned in Paradise
Blood and Thunder
Carnal Hours
Stolen Away
Neon Mirage
The Million-Dollar Wound
True Crime
True Detective
The Road to Perdition Saga
Return to Perdition
(graphic novel)
Road to Paradise
Road to Purgatory
Road to Perdition 2:
On the Road
(graphic novel)
Road to Perdition
(graphic novel)
With Mickey Spillane
Murder Never Knocks
Kill Me, Darling
King of the Weeds
Complex 90
Lady, Go Die!
Kiss Her Goodbye
The Big Bang
The Goliath Bone
The Consummata
With Barbara Collins (as Barbara Allan)
Antiques Fate
Antiques Swap
Antiques Con
Antiques Chop
Antiques Disposal
Antiques Knock-Off
Antiques Bizarre
Antiques Flee Market
Antiques Maul
Antiques Roadkill
Quarry Novels
Quarry's Choice
The Wrong Quarry
Quarry's Ex
Quarry in the Middle
The First Quarry
The Last Quarry
Quarry's Vote
(aka
Primary Target
)
Quarry's Cut
(aka
The Slasher
)
Quarry's Deal
(aka
The Dealer
)
Quarry's List
(aka
The Broker's Wife
)
Quarry
(aka
The Broker
)
Writing as Patrick Culhane
Red Sky in Morning
Black Hats
With Matthew Clemens
No One Will Hear You
You Can't Stop Me
Fate of the Union
Supreme Justice
Â
*
A Forge Book
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Max Allan Collins
is the author of the acclaimed graphic novel
Road to Perdition
(basis for the Academy Awardâwinning Tom Hanks film) and its sequels. An independent filmmaker, Collins lives in eastern Iowa. You can sign up for email updates
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CONTENTS
Â
BETTER DEAD
Copyright © 2016 by Max Allan Collins
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Michael Graziolo
Joseph R. McCarthy photograph courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Information Agency
Bettie Page photograph courtesy of CMG Worldwide
Robert F. Kennedy photograph courtesy of the Executive Office of the President of the United States
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-7828-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-6078-0 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466860780
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First Edition: May 2016