The durham mob, p.5
The Durham Mob, page 5
CHAPTER 10
It was graduation at the university from which they all graduated, except Gene. Charles decided to go south to party with the graduates. Charles took a quick trip to Durham and told his law school buddies to come to New York City as soon as they got out of school for the summer and he would give them jobs. This made Charles feel important. They would be grateful and look up to him. He was not just hiring them, he planned to use them. He hired a hundred of them.
A month before, Charles had flown to DC to do some showing off. On the flight, Charles called one of the flight attendants over and said in a loud voice, I want to buy everybody on the plane a glass of wine or whatever they drink.” The flight attendant told him that she could not make that announcement. It was against the rules. Charles became enraged. “Because I’m black, I can’t buy all these white folks a drink?”
“No,” said the attendant. “This is highly improper. This can’t be done.” Swazy, who was a little reluctant to try to calm Charles, whispered to him, “Let it go before they put all of us in jail.” Charles calmed down but was still murmuring under his breath. When they arrived in DC, they went to see Bob who had been substitute teaching in D.C. Bob was very happy to see them. After a little small talk, Charles bragged to Bob that he will be making more than $30,000 per week, although the scheme hadn’t actually started but that was what Charles was expecting to make and he wanted to impress Bob. Bob thought he was crazy until Charles turned to Swazy and said to him, “Give Bob $200.” Swazy took out the two hundred dollars in small bills and handed it to Bob. Bob stood there frozen, trying to figure out what was happening. Where did Swazy get two hundred cash, or where did Charles get it? Charles told Bob, “Before you go to camp, come to New York and work for me a few weeks and you can make even more. I’m making twenty thousand per week.”
He had said three minutes earlier that he was making $30,000. Since Bob didn’t trust Sid, he pulled Swazy aside and asked, “What the hell is going on? Is this for real?” Swazy told him it was as real as that $200; that he should come to New York and he would see for himself. Bob trusted Swazy more than the others, so he believed him, but he knew there must be some monkey business going on. Where could Charles get so much money that he carried around thousands of dollars and had Swazy as his assistant? He enthusiastically promised to come. Bob is also a childhood friend and college classmate. There was a good chance that he wouldn’t make the team, so Charles told him, “Listen, come up before you go to camp and work for me until you have to leave for football camp. If you don’t make it at football, you can always come back and stay with us. I hope it works out for you, but if it don’t, call me and come back. Some powerful things are about to happen, and you can make some big bread.”
When Bob was drafted to play professional football, he was given a signing bonus. He spent much of it on his buddies, Swazy, Charles and Wake. They were that close. Bob was to leave for training camp in a few months to resume his career, but he enjoyed spending much of his off time with his best friends
“Sounds good to me.” Bob went to New York and moved in with Charles, Sid, Swazy and Wakefield. Charles made Wake his assistant and gave Bob a two-week job so he could be earning some money while waiting. Swazy was still working at the Welfare Department and lazy Sid just hung around the house like a spider waiting to catch some pussy. “Oh, how’re the guys doing?” asked Bob. “Is Sid still chasing pussy like a mad man?”
“Nothing has, has changed, home boy, with, with those guys or, or me. Later,” said Sid.
After two weeks Bob left for football camp. After a few weeks of training camp, he didn’t make the team, so he quickly returned to NYC. Bob moved back in. He was now in the thick of it and loving it because he would be making much more money than the $15,000 a year, he would have made playing football and being knocked around.
The week before July 1st, everyone got very busy preparing for the big steal. Bob wanted to see what Charles was talking about. Now, there were four people staying with Charles in his three-bedroom apartment. Charles had asked William to make up five hundred names for him and put a social security number next to each one. He explained the system with the Social Security numbers the way Coy explained it him. “…and if the computer throws them out, we will just make up some more until the computer accepts them.”
“I really don’t want to do anything that can get me put me in jail,” said William. “If you write social security numbers, isn’t that illegal?”
“Making up five hundred names won’t get you put in jail and just writing down social security numbers is not illegal. It’s what you do with them could be a problem. You just write them and don’t worry! I need somebody intelligent I can depend on. Do this right for me. I know you trust your brother. Ask him what the deal is.”
“Okay, as long as I stay in the background, “responded William.
“While you’re at it, make up five hundred for me,” said Coy. “Can you handle that?”
“When do you guys need these names?”
“Like yesterday,” said Coy.
William set about this tedious task of making up five hundred names. He needed a system. He decided to start with his first-grade class in elementary school. Every kid’s name he could remember. “I’m writing every kid’s name who ever went to school with me.” The idea was exciting, but he had never broken the law, and certainly didn’t want to now. He thought, ‘These guys have made up their minds and have rationalized that it’s okay. No doubts. Straight ahead to whatever it is they’re doing.’ Of course, William did understand that it was something illegal about to happen, but he rationalized that he was only writing some names. That was not illegal. He just had no idea exactly what was going to happen with those names, he just knew it was probably illegal.
Sid, Swazy and Wake came by to do their names They were all writing names and joking. Sid said, “I wouldn’t be doing this if they hadn’t killed Martin Luther King.”
Wake tried to top that, “The only reason I’m doing this is because they promised us forty acres and a mule, and I didn’t get mine.”
Everybody laughed and continued writing names. This was the first time that William had spent this much time with these guys. He knew Swazy’s brother, Thomas, very well. They had been in some of the same classes in high school, and had graduated together from high school and college. These other guys had the same thing in common, plus they had been good friends for many years. They knew very little about William’s life in New York except for what they had heard. He very seldom partied with them, nor knew their girlfriends. In spite of this, they had much in common. They had all gone to the same high school and university and they were all good and fun guys. Most of the guys from the South were honest and decent. Growing up in a small town where one’s name is one’s bond, made for honest people. The girls in New York, especially the Puerto Rican girls, loved the Southern guys, because they had “manners.”
“How many names do you have?” asked Swazy.
“I got two hundred,” answered William.
“Me, one fifty,” said Sid. “I can’t, can’t think of that many, many people. I’ve forgotten most, most people I went, went to school with.”
“How about some of those guys you served time with? Give them a check,” said Bob. Everybody laughed. Sid had served time as a juvenile, for stolen checks. Sid stammered, “Go, go go to hell, all of you.”
“Sid, you should feel right at home with these checks,” added Wake, “but this time for real money, not that chump change you were doing before.” Sid, smiling said, “I was just, just a lad my boy, just, just a lad.”
The fact that Sid was a juvenile when he went to jail meant that he was still able to go to college for that one year. He got a few jobs doing bookkeeping, which was his best talent, with the exception to his exceptional ability to charm the ladies. They labored on for hours with less talking and joking, sensing that what they were doing was going to be very lucrative but also very serious. Nobody talked about getting caught or going to jail, after all, they were only making up names, and that wasn’t against the law, no matter how the names would be used. William just went along because he was asked to and he trusted his brother. The other guys were already receiving a few hundred a week from Charles. Now, they were doing some work for the money. They knew they were going to get a raise from the few hundred when the big stuff starting falling. Only William was not receiving any money. He still was not aware that Coy was getting money from Charles. All the other guys assumed that he was getting a little something from Coy. When everyone had finished, had written his five hundred, they began stretching and yawning and getting ready to go home. Seven hundred and fifty of the names were for Charles, who said he needed the extra two fifty for his crew. Of course, five hundred were for Coy. William had written and contributed a few hundred for Charles. He didn’t mind at all, doing those for Charles, because he knew that whatever his fault, Charles was good to all of his home boys, after all, they were all staying at his apartment; even though he would occasionally yell at them and pretend to be angry. Most people never get a chance to make a lot of money, but many would take that chance knowing that they probably won’t get a second chance.
Coy decided that he needed five ladies to write his signatures. He called Linda, one of William’s ex dates and was still a friend. He called two other young ladies from his home town and Arlene, who was also one of William’s ex girl-friends and who was still a good friend, without mentioning it to William. Lauren was the lead girl. Coy felt pretty sure that he could trust these ladies. He offered to pay them $200 a week for working two hours two nights a week. But first, they had to do the initial set-up. He rented a room at the Holiday Inn on 59th Street, where he met the girls. The idea was not to work at his residence. Somehow, he felt that it was safer. All of this was occurring and William was not included, or made aware of. Coy asked Arlene not to tell William. Of course, eventually she did, but what could William say or do? Arlene usually did what she wanted, plus she was being paid.
Coy had copies of the New York City phone book and four copies of the list of names compiled by William. He told the girls to look in the phone books for addresses in Harlem and write one address next to each name. After that, they were told to fill out an application for each kid. The most important thing, and the most difficult, was for them to take one of the note books that he provided and record a signature for each kid. Each signature had to be distinct. They would have to copy that signature several times each week for eight weeks. Each kid would have to sign a time card every day, so there would be five signatures on each card. There were no punch clocks. The ladies were up to the task. They had no fear. They believed that their contribution was so small that no one would bother them. Rationalizing comes in handy when money is involved. The ladies worked on for several hours. Next, they filled out the applications with the addresses, school names, phone numbers, and finally, the signatures. When they had finished, Coy returned to check the work and to pay the ladies their first money. He found a few mistakes which were quickly corrected. He thanked the ladies and collected all of the applications. He told them they had to keep their signature list hidden, and certainly not to lose them. That would be a catastrophe. Once they had signed a certain way, they could not change a signature. He would have a big problem trying to throw away the applications of a lot of kids and stop issuing checks to them, so, losing a list was not an option. The ladies left and Coy took the applications home with him. Charles and Gene did the same thing. They chose young ladies they trusted and repeated the same scene giving their individual spin.
When all of the applications were collected from Charles and Gene, Coy put the information into the computer. They were ready to roll.
All of this was occurring and William was still in the dark. Coy didn’t keep it from him to protect him. He was obviously excluding him. All the while, things were getting chillier around the apartment between William and Lauren. Coy seemed to be using it to distance himself from William. He knew Lauren lied about William trying to molest her. He still wasn’t sharing the money like all the rest, and he didn’t invite William to any affairs they were having. When William was not seen at some get-togethers, where they had many new ladies, the others would ask where he was. Coy would simply explain that, “He is busy with more important things,” wink, wink. That implied that he was at home or somewhere else screwing some chick. Everybody would understand and laugh. “A man gotta do what a man gotta do!” Most of the time, William was not even aware that there was a party going on. He would find out later while talking to the other guys when they would jokingly say to him, “I hope it was worth it since you didn’t come to the party.” William would ask, “What party? When?” They would laugh it off. “You know what party. She probably had her legs around your neck and you couldn’t get loose.” And they would all laugh. When William tried to explain, they would say, “Your brother was there and everybody else. Come on, you knew!” William would just leave it alone. He now understood what was going on but not why. It couldn’t have been just Lauren telling Coy not to invite him. Lauren still didn’t forgive him for rejecting her. There were other reasons which William did not understand. When he asked Coy about this, he would say, “I thought you knew about the dance. Everybody else knew.”
“Everyone else knew because all of those guys lived together. You shoulda told me.” Coy would just go silent and walk away.
One Sunday, Arlene came to see William. They had thought about going to the beach. William would usually stay in much of the Sundays reading the New York Times. Arlene would insist on getting out of the apartment. Coy came out of his room with Lauren, dressed very casually carrying a shoulder bag. They said hello to Arlene and left. Arlene was looking out of the window and saw a line of cars; about five. She called William over to the window to show him. They recognized the lead car as the Jaguar that Gene Griffith drove. Behind, they saw Charles’ car and the other cars. Then Coy exited the building, greeted Gene, and got into his car with Lauren. William later learned they had gone to the beach to have a big party, and William was not invited. Arlene asked “What’s going on? Why didn’t they invite you, wherever they are going?”
“I have no idea. I didn’t even know they were going someplace.” Now it became clearer. There was no miscommunication or misunderstanding. Coy was deliberately excluding William. The others stopped asking why William wasn’t invited. They felt that they were brothers and that was family business. Individually, the others treated him well. After all, they were still home boys. They didn’t bring it up, except for Bob who asked one day quietly, “What’s going on with you and your brother?” He quickly added, “If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s alright.”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” responded William. And nothing more was said.
Nobody was interested in making any waves. There was too much money involved, especially since Coy was the key player. Nobody had any fear of being kicked out of the loop, not even Sid who was known as the “fuck up” of the group. These were not thieves or gangsters; they were opportunists.
William didn’t want to confront Coy or to demand anything. That wasn’t the kind of person he was. This was the first time he had treated him this way. There were little situations in the past when they disagreed on something, but they had never argued or even had long disagreements. Coy would not argue with anybody anyway. William didn’t know what to make of it and like Coy, he didn’t like confrontations. He decided to wait to see if things would change, although he knew he should have asked for answers sooner than later. A few days later, Coy pulled William aside and with a straight face, looking serious, said, “Don’t say a word to anybody, and I’ll give you $50,000 at the end of the summer.” William just looked at him without saying a word. He was thinking, ‘Why do I have to wait until the end? Why can’t he give me some of it now?’ William didn’t understand this nor did he believe it. Nothing with Coy made sense anymore.
CHAPTER 11
The first of July had arrived and everything was in place. That Thursday night, time cards were distributed by Bob and Gene, Charles and Coy received their respective time cards. They assembled their girls. Again, Coy rented a room at The Holiday Inn. His girls separated the cards based on the signatures. Each took out her respective master list of signatures and began signing each time card five times, Monday through Friday. The same thing was occurring at the same time with the other two conspirators. Charles was extra cautious. He would not touch anything. His time cards were delivered to Wakefield. Wake called the girls together, also at a motel. Charles certainly did not want anything to take place at his apartment. He wanted deniability. As much as he was in charge, he avoided being in the same room with the time cards. He even had Wake pay the girls their $200 each. Coy was more in charge. He was the orchestra conductor. He stood over the girls and supervised. Although Charles had a big ego, he had a greater fear of going to jail. He wanted to be able to say in the end that he never touched anything. Coy didn’t touch anything either except when he collected the applications to put them into the computer. He would not be able to say that he wasn’t involved. Gene was totally involved. He had this fear that something might go wrong, so he looked over his girls’ shoulders.
When all of the time cards had been signed, they were collected by the people in charge, and given to Wake to be turned in to Charles. And if anything went wrong, he would still be able to say he was just doing his job, that he didn’t know that the time cards were bogus. Coy was not worried like Charles. He was the accountant, Director of Fiscal Operations. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew that nothing could go wrong, as long as each person did his job; and the jobs were easy and simple. “A moron can do this,” he told them.
