A FERRIE TALE

Beddow’s debut historical novel offers a story of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination that involves the Mafia—and a second shooter.

It’s 1963, and Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana’s patience with President Kennedy has worn out. He helped Kennedy win the 1960 election against Richard Nixon; in return, Kennedy was to “lay off the mob” and help Giancana regain his Cuban casino empire, which Fidel Castro had closed. Not only has nothing been done about Castro, but the president’s brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, is relentlessly pursuing Giancana’s colleague, New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello. Using inside information on the president’s November travel schedule, the mobsters hatch a plan to kill him in Dallas. Marcello’s team consists of Dave Ferrie, a quixotic pilot and devout Catholic who’s been thrown out of two seminaries for being gay; Lee Harvey Oswald, whose main goal in life is to do something that will make him famous; Sergio Arcacha Smith, a dapper, Cuban-born military sharpshooter; “Dr. Mary,” a scientist with a cancer-inducing bioweapon; and Jack Ruby, a Dallas club owner with close connections to the Dallas police who became Oswald’s killer. As the plot progresses, Beddow takes readers on a vividly detailed tour of New Orleans from Ferrie’s perspective, highlighting various neighborhoods, restaurants, and clubs. The author also beefs up the narrative with myriad secondary characters, including backgrounds for each of the conspirators. The author’s copious use of real people, places, and events in this novel, along with his well-structured, descriptive prose, may cause some to think they’re reading a historical account, despite the lack of cited sources; however, it’s clearly stated up front that this is a work of fiction.

A provocative fictional rendering of the events surrounding November 22, 1963, that’s sure to fire up conspiracy theorists.