Getting the dirt on JFK.

My latest novel, ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964, deals with an America where President Kennedy survived the events of November 22nd, 1963 and lived to run for re-election the following year. As we now know, JFK had more than a few skeletons rattling around in his closet during his administration, including a history of extramarital sex and a secret medical file, both of which could have destroyed his political career if they had become known to the public while he was in office. In my book, a fictional Texas oil tycoon named Wade Harbinson (a composite of several real life individuals), decides to go fishing for dirt on the President in order to ensure his defeat. However, Harbinson decides he’s going to need a some help in order to pull off his scheme, so he reaches out to another powerful man.

Excerpt:

It comes down to having to fight fire with fire, and when you go after big money, you go get bigger money. So I made a few calls and got in contact with a man whom I had known for a quarter of a century, but had not seen in the flesh since about 1954: a fellow Texan named Howard Hughes. There are few men I admire as much as my late Daddy, but Howard is one of them; he’s a man who understands completely what a buck can do for you. After catching up some old friends and commiserating on the sorry condition of our beloved country, I explained to him the purpose of my call; I had a proposition to make, one only a certain type of individual would be able to take me up on. Said proposition being his: in return for derogatory and extremely damaging information about the President of the United States, I was willing to pay the sum of one-half million dollars. It would go without saying, but I would be sure to reiterate that this information must come with fully documented proof, the kind which would hold up not only in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion. It must be unimpeachable. So much so, that the minute John F. Kennedy was to concede defeat on the evening of November 3rd, I would sweeten the deal with another half million.

What I needed from Howard was a name of someone with the connections to pull this thing off, while at the same time, affording me and the Goldwater campaign the right amount of insulation from any and all acts which might cross certain legal and ethical lines, and bring the wrong kind of attention from either the vultures in the press or the proper legal authorities. There are those who might blanch at my actions, but I saw it as nothing more than doing my due diligence as a member of the Goldwater for President campaign; those Kennedys were known for playing rough themselves and turnabout is always fair play.

“Wade, I applaud you for doing this,” was Howard’s reply when I explained the purpose of my call, “and there is nothing I’d like more than seeing that son of a bitch who’s ruining this country get tossed out on his ass, I mean he’s proposing laws that would mix the races-disgusting. But old Joe taught those boys well; it won’t be easy getting anything on them; for some reason, they inspire a lot of loyalty. And they do know how to buy silence.”

I pressed my case, telling Howard it was our duty to the country to leave no stone unturned; my reasoning must have worked because he told me to sit tight while he made some inquiries and then he’d call me back. My friend and fellow Texan proved to be true to his word when my phone rang at three the next morning and he gave me a name.

That was how I ended up in a back room of the Carousel Club in Dallas Texas, sitting across a table from a man named Vance Harlow.
 

My book, BIG CRIMSON 1: THERE'S A NEW VAMPIRE IN TOWN, can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E
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My alternate history novel ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m
and on Smashwords at: http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH

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