Operation Underworld (novel)
 | |
| Author | Paddy Kelly |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Published | January 2009 Fiction4All |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 368 (PB) |
| ISBN | 978-1-906558-15-4 Search this book on  . |
| Followed by | The American Way |
Operation Underworld, published in 2009, is a novel written by author Paddy Kelly. The title is taken from the real life operation instituted by the U.S. Navy in February 1942 following the false alert that German saboteurs had invaded the New York City waterfront in preparation for a possible invasion. The story is set five weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbour when America is poorly equipped to enter a world conflict. The story revolves around Mike 'Doc' McKeowen, a New York private investigator, Commander Charles Haffenden, a naval intelligence operative and Charles 'Lucky' Luciano, the then head of the New York Mafia. The World War II episode was a common story known to New York area Italian-Americans for many years but one that had never been novelized or much written about. The characters are involved with murder, a large sum of counterfeit currency and the misconception that a large scale invasion of Nazi saboteurs is underway.[1]
Plot[edit]
The first novel in the Building of Empire series, Operation Underworld is set in the Winter of 1942 Manhattan, New York and utilizes the burning of the French luxury liner Normandie as an inciting incident. The story features the introduction of Mike 'Doc' McKeowen, a former NYPD patrolman turned P.I. and his introduction is by way of one of the first transcontinental flights from Florida to New York.
It is only six weeks since the United States has joined the fight. Only 30 days into it and the U.S. Navy has lost nearly 100 merchant and fighting ships to the German Wolf Packs, the retooling of her factories is estimated to take at least a year, and even before that is completed, the men who work in those factories must become Marines, sailors and soldiers.
Charlie 'Lucky' Luciano, having been framed by the New York City District Attorney, Thomas E. Dewey, for pandering and then given a sentence five times in excess of what was called for by law, is in maximum security prison in Upstate New York, a facility nicknamed 'Little Siberia'. Dewey, who has his eye on the governorship as a stepping stone to the White House, has dedicated every waking hour to chasing gangsters and touts the fact that he has finally 'cut the head off the snake'.
Through a scheme concocted by a prominent Mafiosa, Alberto Anastasia, Naval Intelligence is duped into believing there is a widespread Nazi threat by saboteurs along the New City waterfront. This allows Luciano's men to regain control of the NYC/NJ waterfront and after the war, establish what is now referred to as the International Drug Cartel.
One afternoon a fire mysteriously breaks out on the promenade deck of the T.L.S. Normandie, the largest and fastest luxury liner of its time. The massive vessel is undergoing a refit to become the troop carrier U.S.S. Lafayette. The fire rapidly spreads and causes the ship to capsize in her berth. Wide spread panic along the Eastern Seaboard ensues as the press runs stories of German saboteurs at work in New York Harbor.
We meet Doc McKeowen in flight as he is returning from Miami where he has unsuccessfully tried to convince his estranged wife to return to New York. Doc has never been outside of NYC and is terrified of flying. To cope with his aviophobia he stays drunk during the flight which causes some friction with the pretty Cuban girl sitting next to him. As the Pan Am flight flies over Manhattan the passengers observe smoke emanating from the waterfront, unaware it is the Normandie burning.
At ground level chaos ensues as every fire fighting unit in Manhattan is called out to fight the rapidly escalating fire to prevent it spreading to the creosote coated docks.
The next morning an emergency meeting of Naval and government intelligence people is called and, in light of the lack of resources available, it s suggested that they approach the organized crime syndicate right there in the City. A plan is drawn and with the approval of the NYC Police Department's Italian Section, Operation Underworld is set in motion. In a meeting so secret not even the warden knows what is happening, Haffenden, Lansky and Polokoff, Lucky's layer, approach Charlie.
After being framed by the New York D. A., and sentenced to 50 years for a crime that warrants 10, while is concurrently fighting deportation to an enemy nation, Italy, where he is already condemned to death, in one of the most ironic decisions of the war, the Federal Government requests "The Boss of Bosses" to join forces with their most secretive of services, Naval Intelligence. In addition, Luciano is told he must remain in prison with no chance for compensation or parole. Lucky agrees on the premise none of the other gangsters know of the arrangement.
A short time later Doc accidentally sees a District Attorney eating lunch in a restaurant in the Uptown district with Meyer Lansky and Lucky's lawyer, Polokoff, and becomes suspicious. He and Louie follow the lawyer and the D.A. and en route Doc meets Nikki in the lobby of the Woolworth Building. She is attracted but rebuffs his advances and after he leaves Treasury Agent Johnson grills Nikki on who Doc is. To facilitate the Underworld operation Johnson and his men are given the task of supplying the funds needed.
Louie finally inveigles Doc into calling Nikki and they date. On his way home from Nikki's place Doc is accosted by three men in suites. Having been a street cop he makes a good account of himself and from two of the beaten men he confiscates I'Ds and large amounts of cash. The men are Treasury Agents.
Meanwhile, the government operation, under the direction of Commander Haffenden but has yielded no results. This worries both the Mafia and Naval intelligence. To allay fears all around an innocent German is abducted, beaten and killed then dumped in the Hudson. Fake photos are passed to Naval Intelligence and the victim is chalked up as a saboteur scouting landing locations. Everyone is temporarily satisfied.
At a late night 'baptism' in Doc's office Harry reveals the money Doc confiscated is phoney. Nikki appears outside the office in tears. An elderly colleague has been found in the bay off the Brooklyn shore. He was the much loved mail clerk at the Woolworth Building.
Operation Underworld is escalated and the net is spread wider into New Jersey and out to sea but still yields no results.
Doc, now in possession of Haffenden's little black book with the damning information fears for Nikki and Kate after they have been threatened by Johnson's crew and decides to confront him. McKeowen proposes a trade-off, no more threats to Nikki and Johnson gets the book. By Johnson's arrangement they meet in the Hayden Planetarium where Johnson has alerted the NYPD that he is meeting a dangerous spy.
Doc evades the arrest and he and Johnson finally face off that night on the Staten Island Ferry where Doc is critically wounded but exposes the counterfeiting scam and kills Johnson.
Characters[edit]
Mike 'Doc' McKeowen[edit]
a former NYPD patrolman who is fed up with the force's tolerance towards corruption is the protagonist. Doc is now a private investigator who has hit an extended streak of bad luck when his partner secretly launched his own Uptown investigation firm taking all the high-end clients with him and McKeowen's wife abandoned him for financial reasons. Doc is a fan of the Negro Baseball League, in particular Satchel Page, and wears a trademark baseball cap from the league to accompany his brown leather bomber jacket. McKeowen's undying belief in people, even in the depths of some of the worst personalities he is constantly exposed to, is his major weakness. Combined with the fact that he is 'loyal to fault', he is taken as a fool or a rube by many. This however, belays his uncompromising tenacity. McKeowen cannot tolerate bullies and with little or no respect for money, survival in the most capitalistic city of the most capitalistic country in the world sometimes makes life less than a day at the beach. His saving grace is his ability to see and connect chains of events clearly and from them deduce the truth.
Louie Mancino[edit]
is a garbage collector for the city of New York and is a wanna- be P.I. who hates Italian gangsters with a passion fuelled by his pride in being Italian. At present he is a hanger-on who likes Doc because he allows Louie to hang around the Greenwich Village office and run errands in between pretending to study for his P.I. licence exam which he has little hope of passing. Louie is married to his high school sweetheart Doris who is desperate to have children despite Louie's reluctance and constantly concerns herself with McKeowen being newly unattached, something she sees as contrary to the natural order of the universe. Mancino's defining characteristics are his loyalty to Doc and his limited ability to use words correctly in context. His extreme caution in dangerous situations is misinterpreted as cowardice, which doesn't bother Mancino, yet he is capable of unexpected bouts of bravery when provoked.
Charles 'Lucky' Luciano[edit]
is the current head or Capo di capi of what has become the 'Mafia', headquartered in New York City. He appears only a few times in the story. Once while in prison and once later when he is eventually released from prison. Luciano, as are all the non-fictitious characters, is portrayed as they are recorded in the historical record.
Meyer Lansky[edit]
aka the 'Accountant', a Jew he is Charlie's boyhood friend and the man who inadvertently helped Luciano come to the conclusion that the ethnic gangs had more to gain by joining forces. He is quiet, reserved and intelligent and above everyone, has Lucky's ear. Lansky is a survivor and has every intention of reaching old age at any cost and so isn't ashamed that he is not 'a strong-arm'.
Nikki[edit]
is the result of Doris' meddling using her husband Louie as a forced puppet to set Doc up with a new girl. Nikki, a receptionist in the lobby of the Woolworth Building, lives alone with her young daughter Kate in a Brownstone walk up on 14th Street not far from The Village. She is a former librarian and a reader and as such carries a substantial vocabulary far in excess of her peers. Her husband was killed in China fighting with the Flying Tigers before the U.S. entered the war.
Harry[edit]
is the owner operator of Harry's Front Page News a combination newsstand and candy store located on the ground floor of 1929Christopher Street, down stairs from Doc's office. The store has the only door in or out of the premises and so Harry sees everyone. Harry's seemingly meagre living from the news stand is in conflict with the fact that he never seems to sell anything. Harry who lost a leg in the First World War, acts as a full-time lookout for visitors to the building.
Redbone[edit]
is the elderly caretaker, originally a New Orleans Cajun, of the building on Christopher Street. His opinion is greatly valued on a variety of subjects and he is a regular at Doc's 'baptisms', all night bouts of drinking whiskey and rumination about the state of society, the war and the world in general.
Treasury Agent Johnson[edit]
works for the U.S. Treasury. He is less than a few months from retirement, is very good at his job and has several times been decorated for bravery. He is a crack shot and, facing forced retirement, has started to come to believe that the government owes him more the $75.50 a month his retirement will net him. He is openly hostile to the idea of women seeping into government investigative positions. He is unintentionally pugnacious believing himself to be magnanimous and gracious.
Lieutenant Commander Charles Haffenden, U.S.N.[edit]
is the navy's appointed guardian of the New York City waterfront as well as most of the entire Eastern Seaboard. As such implementation and day-to-day management of Operation Underworld falls to him. Haffenden is not at all adverse to working with anyone who can contribute to the task of protecting America's shores. Anyone to include the New York Mafia. His working relationship with the heads of the Mafia however, is heavily resented by the New York and Washington politicians who have founded their careers in pursuit and prosecution of the Mafia who garner spectacular headlines for the politicians when needed. Haffenden, with zro political ambitions, is oblivious to this dynamic as well as its future implications. 'The Commander' as he is known to the Mob members, garners great respect from them largely because he extends them the same courtesy. Unbeknownst to any, including his wife, Haffenden keeps a little black book with contact details of his underworld connections. He along with Meyer Lansky and Luciano's lawyer are the only people with 24-hour unrestricted access to the prison where Lucy is being held.
Locations[edit]
Luxury Liner Row[edit]
The story opens six weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Luxury Liner Row or The Manhattan Cruise Terminal on the West Side of Manhattan in the Hell's Kitchen district of New York City. The T.L.S. Normandie, a French luxury liner belonging to the Vichy French, the largest at the time, has been confiscated by the U.S. authorities at the outbreak of World War II. The massive vessel is under refit into a troop carrier for the U.S. which is desperately short of military resources.
1929 Christopher Street[edit]
1929 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village is the location of Doc McKeowen's office as well as the building which houses Harry's Front Page News, a candy store/news stand.
The Woolworth Building[edit]
The Woolworth Building on 233 Broadway is the location of some of the offices of Naval Intelligence and the workplace of Nikki, a receptionist, and Lieutenant Commander Charles Haffenden. The iconic, ornate building's rich history, along with several other New York City landmarks, contribute to the period ambience of the story.
The Waldorf Astoria[edit]
So as to avoid the well known offices of Naval Intelligence, the mezzanine of the Waldorf Astoria is where Commander Haffenden set up his private office for the duration of Operation Underworld and from where he ran the day-to-day workings.
The Hayden Planetarium[edit]
The Hayden Planetarium serves as the launch of the climax when Johnson demands McKeowen meet him there for the exchange of the little black book.
Staten Island Ferry[edit]
The iconic Staten Island Ferry is the setting of the final scene of the story.
Washington D.C.[edit]
Locations in Washington D.C., to include the White House, the headquarters of the F.B.I. and the Department of the Treasury are the three locations used in the capitol.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Review: Operation Underworld by Paddy Kelly - Independent.ie". independent.ie. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
General references[edit]
- Kelly, Paddy (2009). Operation Underworld, Ebook: Fiction4all. 368
- Campbell, Rodney (1977). The Luciano Project: The Secret Wartime Collaboration of the Mafia and the U.S. Navy, New York: McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-009674-0 Search this book on .
External links[edit]
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