The Anderson Tapes (24 page)

OFFICER: Yes.

[Lapse of fourteen seconds.]

NEW YORK OPERATOR: I have the New York City Police Department for you, Maine. Will you go ahead, please.

MAINE OPERATOR: Thank you, New York. Hello? Is this the New York City Police Department?

OFFICER: Yes, ma’am. May I help you?

MAINE OPERATOR: This is the operator in Gresham, Maine. I have a collect call for anyone in the New York City Police Department from Sheriff Jonathon Preebles of County Corners, Maine. Will you accept the charges, sir?

OFFICER: Pardon? I didn’t get that.

MAINE OPERATOR: I have a call for anyone in the New York City Police Department from Sheriff Jonathon Preebles of County Corners, Maine. It is a collect call. Will you accept the charges, sir?

OFFICER: What’s it about?

MAINE OPERATOR: Will you accept the charges, sir?

OFFICER: Can you hang on a minute?

MAINE OPERATOR: Yes, sir.

[Lapse of sixteen seconds.]

O’NUSKA: Sergeant O’Nuska.

OFFICER: Sarge, this is Jameson. I’ve got a collect call from a sheriff up in Maine. They want to know if we’ll accept the charges.

O’NUSKA: A collect call?

OFFICER: That’s right.

O’NUSKA: What’s it about?

OFFICER: They won’t tell unless we accept the charges.

O’NUSKA: Jesus Christ. Hang on a minute—I’ll be right over.

OFFICER: Okay, Sarge.

[Lapse of forty-seven seconds.]

O’NUSKA: Hello? Hello? This is Sergeant Adrian O’Nuska of the New York Police Department. Who’s calling?

MAINE OPERATOR: Sir, this is the operator in Gresham, Maine. I have a collect call for anyone in the New York City Police Department from Sheriff Jonathon Preebles of County Corners, Maine. Will you accept the charges, sir?

O’NUSKA: What’s it about?

MAINE OPERATOR: Will you accept the charges, sir?

O’NUSKA: Hang on a minute… . Jameson, what can it cost to call from Maine?

JAMESON: A couple of bucks maybe. Depends on how long you talk.

I call my folks down in Lakeland, Florida, every month. Costs me maybe two—three bucks, depending on how long we talk.

O’NUSKA: I’ll never get it back. I’ll get stuck for it. You mark my words, I’ll get stuck for it… . Okay, Operator, put the sheriff on the line.

OPERATOR: Go ahead, sir. Sergeant Adrian O’Nuska of the New York City Police Department is on the line.

SHERIFF: Hello there! You there, Sergeant?

O’NUSKA: I’m here.

SHERIFF: Well … good to talk to you. What kind of weather you folks been having?

O’NUSKA: Sheriff, I… .

SHERIFF: I tell you, we had a rainy spell last week. Four solid days like a cow pissing on a flat rock. Let up yesterday though. Sky nice and clear tonight. Stars out.

O’NUSKA: Sheriff, I… .

SHERIFF: But that ain’t what I called to tell you about.

O’NUSKA: I’m glad to hear that, Sheriff.

SHERIFF: Sergeant, we got a boy down the road. Smart as a whip.

Willie Dunston. He’s the son—the second son—of old Sam Dunston. Sam’s been farming in these parts for two hundred years. His folks has, anyways. Well, Willie is the smartest kid we’ve had in these parts since I can remember. We’re right proud of Willie. Wins all the prizes. Had a writing of his published in this here scientific journal. The kids these days—I tell you!

O’NUSKA: Sheriff, I… .

SHERIFF: Willie’s in his last year in high school over in Gresham.

He’s interested in all things scientific like. He’s got himself this telescope, and I saw with my own eyes this little weather station he built with his own hands. You want to know what kind of weather you’ll have tomorrow down there in New York, you just ask Willie.

O’NUSKA: I’ll do that. I’ll surely do that. But Sheriff, I… .

SHERIFF: And Willie’s got this ham radio setup he built in a corner of the barn old Sam let him have. You know about this shortwave radio, Sergeant?

O’NUSKA: Yes, I know. I know.

SHERIFF: Well, maybe about fifteen-twenty minutes ago, I got this call from Willie on the telephone. He said on account of it was Saturday night and he could sleep late Sunday morning, he said he was out there in his corner there in the barn, listening in and talking to folks. You know how these shortwave radio folks do.

O’NUSKA: Yes. Go on.

SHERIFF: Willie said he picked up a call from New York City. He said he logged it in real careful and he figures it was about two minutes after two o’clock. You got that, Sergeant?

O’NUSKA: I got it.

SHERIFF: He said it was from a real smart kid in New York City he had talked to before. This kid said a robbery was going on right then and there in the apartment house where he lived. The address is five-three-five East Seventy-third Street. You got that Sergent?

O’NUSKA: I’ve got it. It’s five-three-five East Seventy-third Street.

SHERIFF: That’s right. Well, Willie said the kid wasn’t receiving and didn’t answer any questions. All he said was that there was a robbery going on in his house and if anyone heard him they should call the New York City Police and tell them. So then Willie called me. Got me up. I’m standing here in my skin. I figure it’s probably nothing. You know how kids like to fun. But I figured I better call you anyhow and let you know.

O’NUSKA: Sheriff, thank you very much. You did exactly right, and we appreciate it.

SHERIFF: Let me know how it comes out, will you?

O’NUSKA: I’ll surely do that. Thanks, Sheriff. Good-bye.

SHERIFF: Good-bye. You take care now.

[Lapse of six seconds.]

JAMESON: For God’s sakes.

O’NUSKA: Were you listening in on that?

JAMESON: I sure was. That’s pretty nutty—to have a Maine sheriff call us and tell us we got a crime in progress.

O’NUSKA: I think it’s a lot of shit, but with all this stuff on tape, who can take a chance? Send a car. That’s Sector George, isn’t it?

Tell them to cruise five-three-five East Seventy-third Street. Tell them not to stop—just cruise the place, take a look, and call back.

JAMESON: Will do. That was some long-winded sheriff … wasn’t he, Sarge?

O’NUSKA: Was he? I guess so. Toward the end there he was getting to me.

2:23:41AM.

DISPATCHER: Car George Three, car George Three.

GEORGE THREE: George Three here.

DISPATCHER: Proceed five-three-five East Seventy-three. Signal nine-five. Proceed five-three-five East Seventy-three. Signal nine-five. Extreme caution. Report A-sap.

GEORGE THREE: Rodge.

2:24:13AM.

OFFICER: New York Police Department. May I help you?

VOICE: This is the Wichita, Kansas, Police Department Crime Communications Center. We got a phone call from a ham radio operator stating that he tuned in a call from New York stating that a robbery… .

2:25:01AM.

OFFICER: New York Police Department. May I help you?

VOICE: My name is Everett Wilkins, Junior. I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I’m calling from. I’m a ham radio operator, and a little while ago I got a… .

2:27:23AM.

OFFICER: New York Police Department. May I help you?

VOICE: Hiya, there! This here’s the chief of police down in Orange Center, Florida. We got this little old boy here who’s like a nut about electronics and shortwave radio, and he says… .

2:28:12AM.

SERGEANT O’NUSKA: Jesus Christ!

2:34:41AM.

GEORGE THREE: Car George Three reporting.

DISPATCHER: Go ahead, Three.

GEORGE THREE: On your signal nine-five. Five-story apartment house. Lobby is lighted but we couldn’t see anyone in it. There’s a truck pulled up in the service alley. We saw two men loading what appeared to be a rug into the truck. The men appeared to be wearing some kind of masks.

DISPATCHER: Stand by. Out of sight around the corner or some place.

GEORGE THREE: Will do.

2:35:00AM.

JAMESON:Sarge, the car says it’s a five-story apartment house. No one in the lobby. Truck parked in the service entrance. Two men, maybe masked, loading what appeared to be a rug into the truck.

O’NUSKA: Yes. Who’s on duty—Liebman?

JAMESON: No, Sarge, his son was Bar-Mitzvahed today—or yesterday rather. He switched with Lieutenant Fineally.

O’NUSKA: Better get Fineally down here.

JAMESON: I think he went across the street to Ready’s.

O’NUSKA: Well, get him over here, God damn it! And call the phone company. Get the lobby number of that address.

2:46:15AM.

OFFICER: New York Police Department. May I help you?

VOICE: My name is Ronald Trigere, and I live at four-one-three-two East St. Louis Street, Baltimore, Maryland. I am a ham radio operator, and I heard… .

2:48:08AM.

OFFICER: New York Police Department. May I help you?

VOICE: This is Lieutenant Donald Brannon, Chicago. We picked up a call from New York that stated… .

2:49:32AM.

JAMESON: Sarge, the phone company says the lobby number of that apartment house is five-five-five, nine-oh-seven-eight.

O’NUSKA: Call it.

JAMESON: Yes, sir.

2:49:53AM.

LIEUTENANT FINEALLY: What the fuck’s going on here?

NYPDSIS recording #146-83C.

HASKINS: Now it’s a quarter to three. Maybe a smidgen before. We were all in Five B. The second team had caught up with the first.

The tech was having trouble with a wall safe. This was the apartment of Longene, the theatrical producer. We already had his collection of gemstones, and the brothers had taken a very nice Kurdistan down to the truck. We figured the wall safe for Longene’s cash and his wife’s jewels—if she
was
his wife which I, for one, am inclined to doubt. Then Ed Brodsky came running in, breathing hard. He had just pounded up all the stairs. He told Duke a squad car had cruised by, just as he and his brother were loading the rug into the truck. Duke cursed horribly and said the cruise car for that street was supposed to be in the coop at that hour.

QUESTION: Is that the term he used—”In the coop?” HASKINS: Yes, Tommy, it was. Definitely. Duke then asked Brodsky if he thought the fuzz had seen him. Brodsky said he couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought they had. Just as the car came past, Ed and his brother were carrying the rug out the service entrance. The inside of the service staircase was lighted. We had to keep the lights on so the brothers wouldn’t break their necks coming downstairs with the stuff. Brodsky said he thought he saw a white blur as the face of the driver turned toward him. Ed and his brother were still wearing their masks, of course.

QUESTION: What did anderson say to this?

HASKINS: He just stood there a while, thinking. Then he called me over to a corner, and he said he had decided to cut the whole thing short. We would just hit the things we were sure of. So he and I went over our checklists together. We decided to do the wall safe in Five B, which the tech was still working on. We’d skip Five A completely. This was where the crippled boy was in his bedroom, but there was really nothing worth risking our necks for.

Then we’d go down to Four A and get Sheldon’s coin collection and also spring his wall safe. That’s all we’d do there. Then we’d move all the tenants from Four B to Four A, and then we’d do as much as we could in Mrs. Hathway’s Four B apartment as I anticipated a veritable treasure trove there. So we agreed on this, and Duke told everyone to move faster—we were getting out.

About this time he also sent the spade down to the lobby and told him to stay there, out of sight, but to report any police activity in the street outside. That maniac from Detroit would guard the people in Four A. Just then the tech sprung Longene’s wall safe, and we got a nice box of ice, some bonds, and at least twenty G’s in cash. I took this as a good omen, although I didn’t like the idea of a prowl car going by outside.

Continuing excerpts from twenty-four-hour tape, NYPDCC-31AUG-ISEP.

2:52:21AM.

JAMESON: Sir, there’s no answer from the lobby phone at five-three-five East Seventy-third Street. It’s not even ringing.

LIEUTENANT FINEALLY: Get back to the phone company. Ask them if they know what’s wrong. Sergeant.

O’NUSKA: Sir?

FINEALLY: The captain picked a good weekend to go to Atlantic City.

O’NUSKA: Yes, sir.

FINEALLY: Who’s the standby inspector?

O’NUSKA: Abrahamson, sir.

FINEALLY: Get him up. Tell him what’s happening.

We’ll call him as soon as we know.

O’NUSKA: Yes, sir.

FINEALLY: You … what’s your name?

OFFICER: Bailey, sir.

FINEALLY: Bailey, get out the block map for the Two fifty-first Precinct.

Find out what address is back-to-back with five-three-five East Seventy-third Street. That’s on the north side of Seventy-third, so the house backing it will be on the south side of Seventy-fourth.

Probably five-three-four or five-three-six. Get a description of it.

BAILEY: Yes, sir.

2:52:49AM.

FINEALLY: You want me?

JAMESON: The phone company says the lobby line is completely dead, sir. They don’t know why. And they get no answer from any other phone at that address.

FINEALLY: Who told them to try the other numbers at that address?

JAMESON: I did, sir.

FINEALLY: What’s your name?

JAMESON: Marvin Jameson, sir.

FINEALLY: College?

JAMESON: Two years, sir.

FINEALLY: You’re doing all right, Jameson. I won’t forget it.

JAMESON: Thank you, sir.

2:59:03AM.

BAILEY: Lieutenant, the house backing on five-three-five East Seventy-third Street is five-three-six East Seventy-fourth Street.

It’s a ten-story apartment house with a small open paved space in back.

FINEALLY: All right. Who talked to the car that saw the masked men—or thought they saw masked men?

JAMESON: I talked to the dispatcher, sir.

FINEALLY: You again? What number was it?

JAMESON: George Three, sir.

FINEALLY: Where are they now?

JAMESON: I’ll find out, sir.

FINEALLY: Fast. Sergeant.

O’NUSKA: Sir?

FINEALLY: You think we ought to bring in the inspector?