Death in North Beach by Ronald Tierney Read Free Book Online Page A

cultural shift. The Beats catered to a small, highly literate audience. The Hippies were mass-marketed. Jazz, the musical backdrop for the Beats, gave way to the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.
    As Richard Sumaoang told the story, he preferred the Beats and remained camped out in North Beach, a neighborhood that was becoming rich in history, but drained of the spark that created such literary shake-ups as Allen Ginsberg’s Howl , a book so threatening to the ‘standards’ of ‘decent’ Americans that some thought it was an exception to ‘freedom of speech’. The case went to the Supreme Court.
    Each of the names that Lang mentioned brought about a wistful smile and a little story. Marshall Hawkes hung around North Beach in the early days, but was never a part of it, according to Sumaoang.
    â€˜He was too materialistic, too practical,’ Richard Sumaoang said. ‘There was this great fight between Hawkes and a painter named Anselmo about art, but some say it was about love. Hawkes denied being queer, but most people thought he was and Anselmo was just a lustful creature. They’re still fighting, I think.’
    â€˜What about Warfield?’
    â€˜He was a transplanted New Yorker,’ Sumaoang said. ‘That alone made him superior in his mind. He was never part of anything. He couldn’t be. That would mean he would subsume his personality to something larger. A movement, for example.’ Sumaoang smiled.
    â€˜What about Warfield’s mistress?’ Lang asked.
    â€˜Marlene? She’d have no reason to kill him. The theory was that whatever Warfield’s estate was – and it was probably only the potential future income on the copyrights because he spent every penny he got – it would go to his wife, unless of course, the wife dies first.’
    â€˜You’re saying if Marlene wanted someone dead it would be Mrs Warfield?’
    â€˜Yeah, I guess – if.’
    â€˜The wife then,’ Lang said.
    â€˜What changed with his death?’ Sumaoang asked. ‘That’d be the question I would ask. Elena was his wife through several mistresses, all known to her. She delighted in it. She was Mrs Warfield. That made her a celebrity of sorts. And she enjoyed that. And she didn’t have to put up with him, let alone sleep with him.’
    Sumaoang laughed.
    â€˜Didn’t she feel shame? Everyone knew.’
    â€˜Not a lot of shame being felt by anyone in that group.’
    â€˜There was a guy named Ralph Chiu. Also on Warfield’s enemies list.’
    â€˜Pretty straightforward,’ Sumaoang said. ‘Chiu was a political conservative. Some used to say he was very powerful among the Republicans in the city. All twelve of them.’
    â€˜Just politics?’
    â€˜There is a rumor that despite all the Italian businesses in North Beach, the Chinese actually own all the buildings. I don’t know the specifics but there was some sort of real estate issue between Warfield and Chiu.’
    â€˜What did Warfield have on Chiu?’
    â€˜I don’t know the answer to that. But between politics and real estate, progressives and developers, there are some suspicious deals and lots of animosity. Could be that.’
    â€˜Chiu wasn’t part of the North Beach people then?’
    â€˜Not in any movement sense. Just like the Italians weren’t part of the movement.’
    â€˜I thought North Beach was all about the Italians.’
    â€˜Listen, the Italians, the people who had businesses here, didn’t find the likes of us lovable. They were family people. Catholics. Hard workers. We didn’t work. We hung around coffee shops and bars. We didn’t dress right. We didn’t play by the rules. The top Italians here were pretty conservative. In today’s terms, they were very family values.’
    â€˜Can you handle another bottle of water?’ Lang asked.
    Sumaoang smiled.
    â€˜I’ll pace