popular musicians, the "names," even, who really were making big money for musicians-and they
had nothing.
For that matter, all the thousands of dollars I'd handled, and I had nothing. Just satisfying my
cocaine habit alone cost me about twenty dollars a day. I guess another five dollars a day could
have been added for reefers and plain tobacco cigarettes that I smoked; besides getting high on
drugs, I chain-smoked as many as four packs a day. And, if you ask me today, I'll tell you that
tobacco, in all its forms, is just as much an addiction as any narcotic.
When I opened the subject of a hustle with Shorty, I started by first bringing him to agree with my
concept-of which he was a living proof-that only squares kept on believing they could ever get
anything by slaving.
And when I mentioned what I had in mind-house burglary Shorty, who always had been so
relatively conservative, really surprised me by how quickly he agreed. He didn't even know
anything about burglarizing.
When I began to explain how it was done, Shorty wanted to bring in this friend of his, whom I had
met, and liked, called Rudy.
Rudy's mother was Italian, his father was a Negro. He was born right there in Boston, a short,
light fellow, a pretty boy type. Rudy worked regularly for an employment agency that sent him to
wait on tables at exclusive parties. He had a side deal going, a hustle that took me right back to
the old steering days in Harlem. Once a week, Rudy went to the home of this old, rich Boston
blueblood, pillar-of-society aristocrat. He paid Rudy to undress them both, then pick up the old
man like a baby, lay him on his bed, then stand over him and sprinkle him all over with talcum
powder, Rudy said the old man would actually reach his climax from that.
I told him and Shorty about some of the things I'd seen. Rudy said that as far as he knew, Boston
had no organized specialty sex houses, just individual rich whites who had their private specialty
desires catered to by Negroes who came to their homes camouflaged as chauffeurs, maids,
waiters, or some other accepted image. Just as in New York, these were the rich, the highest
society-the predominantly old men, past the age of ability to conduct any kind of ordinary sex,
always hunting for new ways to be "sensitive."
Rudy, I remember, spoke of one old white man who paid a black couple to let him watch them
have intercourse on his bed. Another was so "sensitive" thathe paid to sit on a chair outside a
room where a couple was-he got his satisfaction just from imagining what was going on inside.
A good burglary team includes, I knew, what is called a "finder." A finder is one who locates
lucrative places to rob. Another principal need is someone able to "case" these places' physical
layouts-to determine means of entry, the best getaway routes, and so forth. Rudy qualified on
both counts. Being sent to work in rich homes, he wouldn't be suspected when he sized up their
loot and cased the joint, just running around looking busy with a white coat on.
Rudy's reaction, when he was told what we had in mind, was something, I remember, like "Man,
when do we start?"
But I wasn't rushing off half-cocked. I had learned from some of the pros, and from my own
experience, how important it was to be careful and plan. Burglary, properly executed, though it
had its dangers, offered the maximum chances of success with the minimum risk. If you did your
job so that you never met any of your victims, it first lessened your chances of having to attack or
perhaps kill someone. And if through some slip-up you were caught, later, by the police, there
was never a positive eyewitness.
It is also important to select an area of burglary and stick to that. There are specific specialties
among burglars. Some work apartments only, others houses only, others stores only, or
warehouses; still others will go after only safes or strongboxes.
Within the residence burglary category, there are further specialty distinctions. There are the day
burglars, the dinner-and theater-time burglars, the night burglars. I think that any city's police will
tell you that very rarely do they find one type who will work at another time. For instance
Jumpsteady, in Harlem, was a nighttime apartment specialist. It would have been hard to
persuadeJumpsteady to work in the daytime if a millionaire had gone out for lunch and left his
front door wide open.
darsice
(darsice)
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