Widespread Panic
Freddy Otash, ex-marine drill instructor in WWII and all-around tough guy, becomes an LA cop. He and his fellow police surveil, arrest and too often carry out hard justice on the streets. Freddy’s work leads him to a gig as investigator for Hollywood’s Confidential magazine. This novel is Freddy’s recollection of his many capers from 1949 to 1960.
The film industry is besotted with sex, drugs, and money. Freddy downs Dexedrine and booze at all hours. His work takes him to close encounters with top players—young Senator JFK, James Dean, Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor, underage Natalie Wood, and Lois Nettleton. Freddy circulates with the hangers-on, too. They populate private films where the cast never gets paid in money. The producers worship Hitler or Stalin, and high school coeds get groomed to become hookers. Serial killer Caryl Chessman attracts Hollywood luminaries who shout his innocence. Strange deaths, arson, and rapes add to the mix. Freddy fights like a wolverine with his bare hands, knives, or guns. He and his helpers are masters at installing hidden listening devices and cameras. These talents land legitimate scoops and hush money pay-offs to suppress the scoops.
Ellroy’s prose fits the hard-boiled dark storylines. “The night becomes me. I assume my Pervdog pose. My hophead side sidles forth and fuels me.” Details take readers back to seedy Dragnet-style scenarios in black-and-white starkness. They run from interesting and hilarious to gruesome and stomach-turning. Freddy’s first-person voice rattles on about many characters and storylines but always rings authentic. It’s the way Freddy would write or talk. Readers looking for a crusty tour of Hollywood’s underbelly of seventy years ago will be drawn in and swept along.
