Three the Hard Way
James Ellroy Chats about Underworld USA

By John Hood

Dig. Mau Mau militants knocking off ghetto liquor stores. An unhinged J. Edgar Hoover heaving heavy over Archie Bell & the Drells. An FBI cut-out cutting everybody else outta the rad action. A holed-up Howard Hughes buying up Vegas and scarfing down nuclear-strength narco-cocktails. MLK shot dead. RFK ditto. Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray on ice and spitting conspiracy.

Such is a mere smidgen of the action that fast tracks James Ellroy’s “Blood’s a Rover” (Knopf, $28.95), part three in his “Underworld USA” Trilogy. Like ’95s “American Tabloid” and ’01s “The Cold Six Thousand” (Vintage $14.95 and $15.95, respectively), this is sprawling, brawling, stone-walling fiction based on brutal hard fact. And like both its predecessors, this book will kick your ass. Most though it’s the work of a master, the kinda cat who can throw a thousand lines in the air and have them all ravel back into a single purpose. Is it history? Sure. History as peeped through the eyes of a visionist who sees things very differently from you and me. It’s also knock-down, drag-out, smash ’n’ grabbing fun. If, that is, you’re idea of fun is multiple murder.

The Lead caught Ellroy in Chi-town on the eve of a MIA hit that will find him holding court and spilling tale at the Gables branch Books and Books. Miss it, miss him, and you miss out.   

So you’ve wrapped up the Trilogy, how do you feel, relieved?

Yeah, I feel relieved. The books are there. I’ve recreated 1958-1972 America. I’ve rewritten history to my own specifications. It’s a good empty feeling. Now I’m out here selling the book across country. And it’s a gas.

The dog is straining at his chain. You get to let him off his hook. And he gets to grind two cats.

How much real dirt didya dig up before getting with the Trilogy?

I hired a researcher. I don’t like doing research. These books are 90% fiction. They’re true to fact as far as they’re true to fact. And then I extrapolate fictionally.

You know the names of your protagonists – especially Dwight Holly and Wayne Tedrow – sound like the names of some shady ops one might stumble upon in a history book. I mean, they sound just like who they are. Where did you get ‘em, outta the blue?

When you’ve got ’em, you’ve got ’em. Dwight Holly I especially love. That is a guy you don’t wanna fuck with. It’s kind of a funny name for a guy like that.

Yeah, Holly’s either gonna fold or he’s gonna blow up. He’s walking that fine line. Tedrow too.

All of these guys. Holly, Tedrow, [Don] Crutchfield. They’re all suckers for women.

Don Crutchfield’s a real-life character. You can find him on pi4stars.com. And we’re old friends. I decided to use him as a fictional character in this book, although he’s a real character, doing things he did do and things he didn’t do. And I gave him my own window-peeping past

And what about Mesplede?

He’s in the previous book, The Cold Six Thousand. You know where I got that name? The French critic, Claude Mespede.

I know The Badge played a pivotal role for you, didya ever get to meet Jack Webb?

No, Jack Webb crapped out in ’82 and I never got to meet him.

I interviewed Joseph Wambaugh once, and he seemed pissed that Webb always got so much more attention. Are you a Wambaugh fan?

I am a fan of Wambaugh. Wambaugh’s early work jazzed me.

“The Onion Field,” all those?

“The Onion Field,” “The Choirboys.” The early work.

Do you read any other contemporary crime writers?

Nah, I don’t read at all. I don’t read. I don’t go to movies. I don’t have a cell phone. I don’t have a computer. I have a landline phone; I don’t have a cell phone. I have an assistant who taps into Facebook and does all that shit for me. And I lie in the dark and I think of this shit.

But surely you saw “L.A. Confidential” and “Black Dahlia.”

“L.A. Confidential” is a very fine movie. I’ve been [heavily] compensated by selling the book rights for these movies. So I would never rag about a bum movie being made from one of my books. I don’t think about it a helluva lot. HBO has the option for the first two books in the Trilogy; they may option “Blood’s a Rover” as well. I don’t think about it much.

If you weren’t writing this crime stuff, do you think you’d be out there in The Life?

No. I can only write. I’m a storyteller. I’m a brooder. I’m a thinker. I’m a worshiper. I’m a conjurer. I’m meant to be isolated. I’m meant to be alone in a room telling stories.

James Ellroy reads from “Blood’s a Rover” Saturday, Oct. 3, 7 p.m. at Books and Books 265 Aragon AvenueCoral Gables. For more information call 305-442-4408 or log on to booksandbooks.com

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