Family Secrets-Chapter One

In 1958, a young newspaper reporter discovers the notorious bank robber John Dillinger is still alive. But what else will he learn along the way?

Indianapolis, Indiana 1958

Bill Reeves, a tall, thin man, in his early 20’s, hit only every other step as he hurried up the concrete stairs to the front door of The Indianapolis Recorder.  Once inside, he went to the newsroom.  As he walked through the large room, he was struck by the smell of cigarette smoke and the sound of men pounding away on typewriters. As Bill walked by his desk, without breaking stride, he picked up a sheet of paper then went to the door of his editor, George Porter.   Bill took a moment to catch his breath before he straightened his tie, combed his wavy brown hair with his fingers and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” George said in his baritone voice.

Bill opened the door and saw George sitting behind his cluttered desk with a piece of paper in his hands and a cigar clenched between his tobacco-stained teeth.  A small frame hung on the wall behind him holding a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star he earned in the war.  George glanced up for only a moment before he returned his eyes to the paper.

“Oh, Reeves it’s you.  Is that the story on last night’s basketball game I’ve been waiting on?” 

Bill held out a piece of paper with a smile.  “Yes, sir.” 

“Good, set it down, um, somewhere, and close the door when you leave.” George shooed Bill away with his hand.

Bill set the paper down, but didn’t leave the room.  He closed the door then stood in silence staring at George.

George looked up and pulled the cigar from his mouth.  “What is it Reeves?”

Bill stood up straight and looked George in the eyes. “Sir, I have a story.  A story that I think will sell a lot of papers.”

George put his cigar back into his mouth, leaned back into his wooden high back chair and crossed his arms across his broad chest.  “I’m listening.”

“Sir, recently I inherited my grandpa’s house.   Yesterday I started cleaning up the place and I found a box of old photos.”

Bill reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and removed a photo.  “That’s when I found this.”

George leaned forward and snatched the photo from Bill’s hand.  He looked at the photo and slowly removed the cigar from his mouth. “That… That’s,” George said wide-eyed.

“John Dillinger,” Bill interrupted.

“John Dillinger the bank robber?”

“The one and only.”

“Who are the people standing next to him?”
“The one on the left is my grandpa, James Freeman, and the one on his right is my Uncle Harry Freeman.”

“Are you telling me your grandpa and uncle knew John Dillinger?”

“It seems so.  But that’s not all.  This photo was taken inside my grandpa’s house.  Now, look at the back.”

Red,

Thanks for everything,

John

George mumbled as he read the handwritten note on the back of the photo out loud.

“My grandpa had red hair, but only his friends called him Red.  Now look at the picture again.  Do you see that very pregnant woman in the background?  That’s my mom.”

“So, what’s your big story here, Reeves?   Your family once knew John Dillinger?  I hate to tell you this, but that’s not going to sell many papers.” George handed the photo back to Bill.

“No sir, I don’t think you understand, this photo was taken shortly before I was born in 1935.  John Dillinger was supposedly shot and killed outside the Biograph Theater on July 22nd of 1934.  My Grandpa told me a thousand times that it wasn’t Dillinger who was shot that night, and this photo proves it.”

“Look, Reeves, I don’t want to rain on your parade here, but I’m going to need a lot more than a single photo and the word of your dead Grandpa to run a story like this.  You want to be an investigative reporter, right?”

“More than anything,” Bill replied.

“Then I’m going to tell you what I tell every reporter who works here.  Verify everything.  I need facts, not just hearsay.  I need you to interview every person who was there when the picture was taken, and I don’t mean a phone interview.  I mean a face-to-face interview.  Look them in the eyes when you’re talking to them.  I need the exact date this was taken.  If what you are saying is true, I need to know how Dillinger faked his own death.  I need every tiny detail you can dig up.”

“That may take some time.  You see, my Uncle Harry lives in California.”

“Then I guess you need to ask yourself how bad you want this.  Listen, I can’t hold your job if you run off to California and chase this story.  But, if you come back with proof that John Dillinger didn’t die when the whole world thought he did, you won’t need that job in sports, you’ll be a full-fledged investigative reporter.”

Bill squared his shoulders and looked George in the eyes.  “I’m going to California, and I’m coming back with this story.”

 

Bill left the newspaper office and went straight to see his mom.  The springs of the screen door creaked then slammed the door shut when, Carol, a tall thin woman with brown curly hair, walked onto the wraparound porch to meet him.

“Hello sweetie, I’m surprised to see you.  Why aren’t you at work?”

“Listen Mom, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Sure, of course”, Carol said with a concerned tone as she sat down in the porch swing.

Bill sat down beside her in the swing and pulled the photo from his pocket.

Bill handed Carol the photo.  “I was going through some of Grandpa’s things, and I found this in a box of old photos.”

Carol looked at the photo with a smile.  “Your Grandpa was always so proud of this.”

“How in the world did Grandpa know John Dillinger?”

“Johnny grew up just down the street from us.   He was the same age as your Uncle Harry, so they went to school together.  He used to come over to our house all the time.”

“So, you knew him too?”

“Harry is ten years older than me, so I didn’t know Johnny as well as he did.  But yes, I knew him.”

“On the back, it says “thanks for everything,” what’s that mean?”

“Back in 1929, when the stock market crashed, your grandpa lost almost everything.  His entire life savings was just… gone.  When Johnny started robbing banks, your grandpa thought he was some kind of hero or something.  Like the banks deserved it for losing his money.  So, anytime Johnny was in town and needed a place to hide out, Daddy would let him stay at his house.”

“Would he just show up, or did Grandpa know he was coming?”

“Things like that weren’t discussed in front of the women.  I just know I had to help Mama cook for Johnny and his men when they were there.”

“Is that you in the picture?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Carol said with a smile.  “It’s kind of hard to miss me.  I was as big as a barn pregnant with you.”

“Do you know when this was taken?”

“Yes, it was taken in late March, just a little over a month before you were born in early May.”

“So, you’re saying this was taken in March of 1935?”

“Well, that is the year you were born,” Carol said with a laugh.

“Mom, John Dillinger was supposedly shot and killed in July of 1934, but yet, here he is in this photo that you say was taken nearly eight months later.  So, how did Dillinger fake his own death?”

“I was never told how he did it.  Like I said, things like that weren’t discussed in front of the women.  I just know he was still alive that night,” she said as he handed the photo back to Bill.

Bill calmly placed the photo back into his jacket when a dark blue Ford pulled into the driveway.   A strikingly handsome man about Bill’s age with jet-black hair emerged from the car wearing a grey suit and approached them.

“Pardon me, but I am looking for a Mrs. Carol Reeves, the daughter of the late James Freeman”, the man said with a proper southern accent.

“I’m Carol Reeves,” she responded suspiciously.

“It certainly is a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Reeves.  My name is Beauregard Swanson and I’m a reporter with The Florence Times in Florence, South Carolina, but you can just call me Bo”, he said flashing a huge smile.

“How may I help you, Mr. Swanson?” Carol asked in a pleasant tone.

 Bo pulled a notebook and pen from his suit jacket.  “Now, Mrs. Reeves, I was hoping to interview you for a story I am pursuing.  So, please tell me, how long have you lived in this neighborhood?”

“All of my life,” Carol replied proudly.

“So, is it true that the notorious gangster, John Dillinger, also grew up in this neighborhood?”

“Most people around here don’t like to admit it, but yes, that is true.  Why do you ask?”

“With the 24^th anniversary of his demise a mere four months away, I was hoping to publish a story about Mr. Dillinger.  So, why do you think, after all of this time, people are still so fascinated with a criminal?”

“Well, he was a larger-than-life character.  His crime spree lasted only one year, but in that time, he captured the attention of the entire country.”

“Now tell me, is it true your older brother, at one time, would carouse with Mr. Dillinger?”

“Mr. Swanson, I have three older brothers, David, who is the oldest, then Harry and then Tom who is six years older than me.  They all had a large array of friends.  I can assure you I didn’t know all of them.”

Bo flipped the page of his notebook.  “Well now, I find that to be very interesting.  Because, according to my sources, your entire family, including yourself Mrs. Reeves, not only knew Mr. John Dillinger, but his entire family as well.  But it was your brother Harry Freeman who knew him best of all.”

“And who are those sources?” Bill asked sharply.

“And you are?” Bo asked turning his attention to Bill.

“I’m her son.  Now who exactly are your so-called sources?”

“Oh, I’m afraid I can’t divulge that information, Mr. Reeves.”

“When Harry was in school, he had a friend named Johnny”, Carol interrupted.  “I don’t recall his last name, so I guess I may have met him.  But I can’t say for certain.  Now, I’ve answered your question, so I’m going to ask you to leave my property, Mr. Swanson.”

“Very well, Mrs. Reeves”, Bo said as he flipped his notebook closed and put it back into his jacket. “It was very nice meeting you both”, Bo said with a fake smile before he got into his car and drove away.

“Mom, is there anything else you can tell me about the day that photo was taken,” Bill asked urgently.

“Johnny arrived early in the morning and spent the day.  The only people there, other than Johnny, were me, your dad, your grandpa, all three boys and their wives.  The men spent a lot of time talking, but I was in the kitchen with the other women most of the day, so I never heard what they were talking about.  Johnny stayed until nightfall then he left.  That was the last time I ever saw him.”

“I’m leaving town for a while.  I’m going to California to see Uncle Harry.  Will you be okay with that reporter snooping around?”

“Don’t you worry about me; your mama is tougher than you think.”

Bill kissed his mom on the cheek and started towards his car.

“Have you cleaned your grandpa’s house out yet?” Carol asked.

“No, I found this photo in the hall closet and stopped there.”

“Let’s go clean it now,” Carol insisted.

“Now…But mom, I can’t right now, I have to leave town.”

“Trust me, we need to do this now,” Carol said.

Bill scratched his head and gave his mom a puzzled look as she walked past him and got into his car.  Feeling like he had no choice, he shrugged his shoulders and drove to his grandpa’s old house.

 

As Bill walked into his grandpa’s house, many fond memories flooded his mind.  If he closed his eyes, he could almost smell the cherry pipe tobacco that once filled the air.

Most of the people in the neighborhood feared Bill’s Grandpa.  He had a reputation for being a hard-drinking, barroom brawler with a short temper and a fierce right hook.  But with Bill, he was always a gentle giant.

  

Without hesitation Carol went into her father’s bedroom and opened the top drawer of his dresser.  She felt around for a moment and pulled out a sock with something inside it.  Carol reached into the sock and pulled out a $10 bill.

“Your Grandpa didn’t trust banks, so he hid most of his money.  We’re going to have to look in every nook and cranny of this house to find all of his hiding spots.”

 

Bill and Carol spent the rest of the day and into the night searching for hidden cash.  Later that evening they both sat at the kitchen table looking at a stack of money totaling nearly $3,000.

“I’ve never seen this much money before,” Bill said running his fingers through his hair.

“If I know your grandpa, this isn’t all of it.  When you get back, we’ll have to go through the attic and garage too.  Your Grandpa loved you very much, and he made it very clear in his will that you get this house and everything in it.  He wanted you to have this money, so take it, it will come in handy for your trip to California”, Carol said patting his hand.

 

As Bill drove back to Carol’s home, she gave him a concerned look.

“What do you intend to do with that photo?” she asked.

“This picture is my ticket out of the sports section.  I’m going to be a front-page reporter after I break this story,” Bill replied with a grin.

“You know, Johnny went to a lot of trouble to hide the fact that he didn’t die that day.  How do you think he is going to take it if you tell the whole world he’s still alive?”

“I’m not too concerned about what he thinks.”

“Maybe you should.   I love you, but sometimes you can jump into things before you think them all the way through.”

 “I know what I’m doing, Mom.  You just worry too much.”

“I’m a mother, it’s my job to worry,” Carol replied.

 

Reviews

[Emily G]

Great first chapter! I am hooked already. I appreciate the fluidity you have when writing dialogue and certain details you add such as the "cherry pipe tobacco that use to fill the air". My only note is I would love to see more of what characters are thinking in certain moments. For example, when Bo appears and starts to question them. Adding things Billy might notice or think would help build the feeling you are trying to convey in that scene. Overall, great first chapter!

[Gary]

Thank you for the kind words. I can see where inner thought could add to character development. You have given me something to consider.

[Michelle Saldana]

Ooh, I really like this! Just some thoughts- I think that shortening some dialogues and delving deeper into Bill's motivations would elevate the story. Also, the introduction of Beauregard Swanson was intriguing- personally, I'd appreciate more hints about his intentions. Overall, it's an engaging piece.

[Gary]

Thank you for taking to time to read and comment. My goal was to give just a hint on both Bill and Bo's intentions with more being reveled with each chapter.

[Michelle Saldana]

As I continue reading, everything is starting to fall into place. It totally makes sense what you were doing with Bill and Bo's character developments.

Nicely done!

[SweetNutmeg]

Oooh, a great introduction. Very competent writing that rings all the bells of a reader's expectations. Your style is smooth and seamless. And I want to know more.

If you you'd like to return the review, I'm working on "The Past Follows." I think you are far and away a much better writer than I am, so I'd really value your input, if you are so inclined.

[Claire]

Great hook! Nice descriptions that involve all the senses. nice way of introducing your characters. I definitely want more!

[Gary]

Thank you very much for the kind words.

[Ayetsasdi]

I really liked this , Its written well, good story line, characters are strong, its interesting, obstacles are believable, motivations of the characters are explained well, it leaves you wanting to know exactly what is going to happen next ..

[KATHY SUE SILLS]

Okay, you've got my attention! I love mystery, suspense type novels! This was really good! I will be finishing the novel!

[KAREN]

This is awesome! It kept me hooked from start to finish! Definitely will read more!

[Gary]

Thank you very much for the kind words.

[KAREN]

You're most welcome!