Blind Item #10 - A Birdie Blind Item
Interesting, the choice of subject matter by the best-selling writer whose one particular work you may have read, or even now seen. By interesting, I mean, his late father, and his own past. If you're a student of a particular generational movement, way back in the day, or have even seen the movie about a certain incident, it all seems justified. But that's only part of the story.
Yes, he married, of course, but his secret predilections were closer to those of his longtime, literal follower. In fact, according to the deathbed confession of a recently deceased former vice cop, he was the one behind a string of disappearances in the district famous for theater and other, more discreet services. He would earn the boy's trust by plausibly claiming he was reporting on their plight, even giving them money for food and a place to stay. But when they came to trust him well enough to get into his car, it was the last anyone would see of them. And, really, when it came to most of the boys, who would even miss them?
The son knows nothing of his father's secret life. Who might have? This other writer, who famously left the country for good before any of it happened. Whenever the father would visit, one or two boys employed as a certain kind of household servant would vanish, presumed, usually, to have run away.
Yes, he married, of course, but his secret predilections were closer to those of his longtime, literal follower. In fact, according to the deathbed confession of a recently deceased former vice cop, he was the one behind a string of disappearances in the district famous for theater and other, more discreet services. He would earn the boy's trust by plausibly claiming he was reporting on their plight, even giving them money for food and a place to stay. But when they came to trust him well enough to get into his car, it was the last anyone would see of them. And, really, when it came to most of the boys, who would even miss them?
The son knows nothing of his father's secret life. Who might have? This other writer, who famously left the country for good before any of it happened. Whenever the father would visit, one or two boys employed as a certain kind of household servant would vanish, presumed, usually, to have run away.
Buckley?
ReplyDeleteHunter Thompson and his son Juan?
ReplyDeleteNathaniel /Peter Benchley?
ReplyDeleteLucien Carr/Caleb Carr?
ReplyDeleteDickey? They guy who wrote Deliverance? Wasn't he supposed to be a closet pederast?
ReplyDeleteThe book/movie is the real clue...we all have read/or seen? I AM STUMPED!
ReplyDelete" On the Road?"
Delete" Generationsl Movement" though? Could it be one of the Beat movement? Kerouac or Burroughs? Did any of them have kids?
ReplyDeleteI thought the book\film was Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
ReplyDelete@marianne Elba Lucien Carr was one of the beat movement. He murdered an admirer. His son Caleb wrote The Alienist, which was a limited series on TNT
ReplyDeleteThank you! Now its getting interesting. Wasnt the" Admirer" a stalker? That could be the "Literal Follower "
DeleteAn attempt to translate: a best-selling author wrote a book about a generational movement his own father was part of. The father was secretly a homosexual rapist/murderer. There was an incident in the movement that at least one movie was made about. The father had a writer friend who famously left the country before all this, and the father would go visit this friend abroad once in a while and kill a couple of his houseboys.
ReplyDelete@drkdragon777 OK now I get it.
ReplyDeletethe "Movie about a certain incident" was "Kill Your Darlings" which made Carr look like a bit if a psychopath for sure.
So the blind is saying Carr was a pedo murderer like the killer in his sons book?
Who was the writer who left the country William S Burroughs?
Burroughs's was a self confessed murderer and pedophile himself so I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't in on the whole thing. Fucked up that Lucien Carr had a son himself. I don't buy that he wouldn't have an inkling if his father were a serial killer.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking beatnik movement so the Carr guesses look right.
ReplyDeleteCarr also famous for the Alienist which is now also a TV show
ReplyDelete@Adrian Grimples Caleb Carr wrote The Alienist. His father Lucien was the subject of " Kill Your Darlings" and ( the blind says) a real life killer.
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Carr
Paul Bowles was associated with the beats and lived in Morocco where there were boys available. The Alienist was about a psycho killing boys who had prostituted themselves.
ReplyDeleteIn one of Burroughs many MANY drug fuelled perverty screeds he mentions visiting a friend in Tangier and making two Arab kids have sex with each other.I think they were all awful bastards.
ReplyDeleteEver seen “naked lunch”? It puts the “m” in meta.
ReplyDelete+ For the Benchleys. Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, made into a movie, His father was one of the most famous theater critics in US history -- for the New Yorker in the 20s, part of the famous Algonquin Round Table, a leading member of the "Lost Generation"
ReplyDelete+1 could also be the Beat Generation and the movie Kill your darlings / Lucien Carr , follower Ginsberg
ReplyDeleteNot sure for the writer who left for good before anything happened, most repatriated. If it is the Benchleys, it could refer to Gertrude Stein who moved to france in early 1900s and stayed til she died.
Colonel Gentleman
ReplyDelete@Geeljire - can't wait to see the 3epi arc of season 7! Aug. 5th...
DeleteFormer New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald was in an Ann Arbor, Michigan, courtroom this morning, a witness in a child-porn prosecution captioned State of Michigan v. Kenneth Gourlay. But when Eichenwald took the stand, it could have been renamed “$2,000 Check v. Journalism 101” — and Eichenwald’s testimony showed he knows he broke the rules.
ReplyDeleteEarlier this week, the Times disclosed in an editors’ note that Eichenwald had “loaned” $2,000 to 18-year-old Justin Berry, the subject of a controversial series Eichenwald published in December 2005, which led to a congressional hearing about the danger of Webcams to kids, and to charges against several gay men accused of molesting Berry and helping him manage his porn sites. Eichenwald and the Times had previously disclosed reporting irregularities — that Eichenwald spent several weeks in contact with Berry without disclosing that he was a reporter, that he helped put him in touch with authorities — but news of the loan first appeared in yesterday’s paper. He and the paper received a barrage of criticism over the news (he’s also received criticism from this reporter, in an incident explained here), and on the midwestern witness stand today, he tried to explain.
The reporter said he’d first contacted Berry by instant messenger after reading posts in a Yahoo message board for fans of his. When Berry asked, “What do you do?” Eichenwald — who composes songs for a hobby — answered, ” I write music.” (Berry “didn’t ask the right question!” Eichenwald explained, chuckling. “The right question is: What do you do for a living?“) Soon, Eichenwald said, he saw a post “offering Justin for sale to the highest bidder for the night.” Fearing Berry was under 18, Eichenwald offered to send $2,000, but only if Berry provided a full name and a mailing address. He got both and sent the check but opted not to turn the information over to the police. Instead, he said today, he made a date to meet Berry at Los Angeles International Airport. There, he asked Berry for I.D., saw the boy was over 18, and informed him he was “not gay” and in fact a Times reporter. Eichenwald said he also handed Berry a copy of Conspiracy of Fools, his 2005 book about the Enron scandal, asked him to get off drugs, and said that he “paid that money to save your soul … I gave you clean money. You’re giving me clean money back.”
"Previously disclosed reporting irregularities"
Delete"[I]nformed him he was 'not gay'"
Deletewow. Just spent the last hour going down a rabbit hole of Carr and Burroughs...
ReplyDeleteDidn't Birdie also drop a blind not too long ago purportedly about William S. Burroughs being a serial killer via juicing people up with hot doses, including one that resulted in Jim Morrison's death? Carr picking up boys in the theater/red light district, then later overseas snuffing the friends' houseboys.
ReplyDelete"The Alienist is an American period drama television series based on the novel of the same name by Caleb Carr. The ten-episode limited series[1][2] first aired on TNT as a sneak peek on January 21, 2018, before its official premiere on January 22, 2018, and ended on March 26, 2018.[3] The series stars Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning as an ad hoc team assembled in mid-1890s New York City to investigate a serial killer who is murdering street children. The series incorporates fact with fiction by including the characters that are historical figures, such as Theodore Roosevelt, who held the post of police commissioner from 1895 to 1897.
Premise
"The psychological thriller drama is set in 1896, when a series of gruesome murders of boy prostitutes has gripped New York City. Newly appointed police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt calls upon Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a criminal psychologist and John Moore, a newspaper illustrator, to conduct the investigation in secret. Joining them in the probe is Sara Howard, the headstrong secretary to the police commissioner, as well as the Jewish twin brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson, both detective sergeants in the NYPD."
Lucien Carr was a career journalist as well for the UPI.
ReplyDeleteCaleb Carr's wiki has some interesting items:
Much of Carr’s fiction deals with violence perpetrated by people whose behavior has its origins in childhood abuse.[6][12] These stories are rooted in Carr's family history. The author's father, Lucien Carr, was born in 1925 in New York City. Lucien's parents separated when he was five, and the balance of his childhood was spent in St. Louis, where both the elder Carrs, Russell and Marion, had been born to socially prominent families.[13] When he was 12 or 13, Lucien met 28-year-old Scout Leader David Kammerer, who developed a romantic passion for him and whom Caleb states sexually abused Carr from the time they met.[14] This is in apparent contradiction to Jack Kerouac's biographer Dennis McNally's account that Lucien Carr had always insisted, which William Burroughs (a childhood friend of Kammerer in St. Louis) believed, that he never had sex with Kammerer.[15] Kammerer followed Lucien wherever the younger man went—including moves to out-of-state schools. Eventually, the two landed in New York City.[5] Lucien had left University of Chicago after a failed suicide attempt, which he tried to pass off as a piece of performance art, and enrolled at Columbia University.[16] Kammerer followed him and took up residence in the West Village, not far from where his friend William Burroughs was by then living. While at Columbia, Carr met Allen Ginsberg and, through another friend, Jack Kerouac. Lucien in turn introduced the two men to one another and to Burroughs. This circle of friends, with Lucien Carr at its hub, became the nucleus of the Beat Generation. On the outside looking in was David Kammerer.
Accounts of the Lucien Carr/David Kammerer story have varied widely. Whatever the truths behind their relationship were, it ended on August 13, 1944 in New York's Riverside Park. Carr stabbed Kammerer to death with a Boy Scout knife and dumped his body into the Hudson River.[18] Afterwards he went to Burroughs, who told him to turn himself in to the police. Carr instead sought out Kerouac, who helped him dispose of the murder weapon. Then the two went to a movie.[16] Finally, Carr went to the New York District Attorney's office. He was charged with second degree murder, pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter, and was sentenced to one-to-twenty years in prison, with a recommendation from the judge for psychiatric treatment.[13] He served almost two years of his sentence before being released on parole. Kerouac and Burroughs were arrested as material witnesses but soon were released.[19] The trial received a great deal of media attention in its day and thrust several of the principals—Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg—into the spotlight.[14]
After his release from prison Lucien went to work for United Press (later United Press International). While there he met and married reporter Francesca von Hartz, and the couple had three sons: Simon, Caleb, and Ethan. From 1946 until his retirement in 1993, Carr rose steadily through the ranks from copy boy to manager of the world news desk.[3]
Lucien inflicted physical and emotional abuse upon his wife and children. Caleb remembers being singled out for his father's beatings: "He was enormously threatened by me, from the time I was a child—threatened by my tendency to speak what I perceived. Alcoholics don't tend to like children like that." The physical and verbal abuse fueled by alcohol and rage didn't stop even after Caleb's parents divorced when he was eight.[20]
ReplyDeleteCarr didn't learn about his father's crime until he was 18. He recalls being shocked, "but not exactly surprised"
The frequent presence of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs in the Carr home was a "little unnerving". "They could be perfectly nice people one-to-one", Carr told Salon in a 1997 interview. "Kerouac was a very nice man. Allen could be a very nice guy. Burroughs was a little strange for a child. But they weren't children people. You needed to be grown up to be around them if you wanted to not be terrified. What they were up to was not gonna make any child reassured."
He at first preferred classic and then war movies, and became increasingly interested in military history. "Part of it was a desire to find violence that was, in the first place, directed toward some sort of purposeful end, and second, governed by a definable ethical code. And I think it's fairly obvious why I would want to do that," he told New York Magazine in 1994.
We all know Burroughs was a creep. But so was Ginsberg who later ended up supporting NAMBLA. Both were into young guys. And they both definitely traveled to Tangiers to seek out underage sex with the local boys.
DeleteOf the lot, only Kerouac was straight. And Kerouac was sure Lucien Carr was straight too.
Not saying one way or another, but how does Enty get his hands on a deathbed confession? And surely there was more than one cop who knew about these murders? And surely there would be a journalist who would write a history of Times Square missing kids and/or murders? What happened to the bodies? Where did they go? NYC is not the easiest place to lose a body. The East River keeps sending them upwards again.
ReplyDeleteJust asking questions....
Interesting history of the Carrs there.
Oh look copy and paste day again from two fucking trolls. Why don't we have competition who can copy and paste better ginsing, fucking itt or Brayson87? Let's do it tomorrow get your shit ready trolls!
ReplyDeleteIs this about Stephen King raping kids?
ReplyDeleteLucien Carr Burroughs
ReplyDeleteWith what innocence did I read The Alienist so long ago.
ReplyDeleteOh, and please don't be a Benchley. Robert Benchley is a humerous literary treasure.
ReplyDelete@Gentle
ReplyDeleteRemember this site is supposed to "entertain" us, not inform us of truthful things.
I worked for Burroughs's adopted son. He was....... pretty fascinating.
ReplyDeleteWho tf allowed Burroughs to adopt a kid? I mean if the lifelong heroin addiction wasn't enough of a red flag the ranting books laden with bizarre violence/sex should have been. And I have relatively normal friends waiting YEARS to adopt . Rich/famous people get away with everything under the sun.
ReplyDeleteI worked for James, his bibliographer and literary executor of the estate of William S. Burroughs. James told me William adopted him.
DeleteI read The Alienist years ago and encouraged my daughter to read it. She didn't but we both looked forward to the TV series. For some reason I can't watch it.
ReplyDeleteReading this I've found the brain bleach in Aisle 7. I'll save some for my daughter since i'll be sharing this with her.
As for Ginsberg and the others I have no words.
Some of this sounds like the story line in Patrick Melrose.
I cannot believe that Robert Benchley was a gay serial killer.
ReplyDeleteThe Carr guesses seem good, but I have vague sense that there are more recent options in the hippie movement that haven't been guessed.
The Beats were not even close to being Hippies, by timeline or inclination.
ReplyDeleteRobert Benchley was Peter Benchley's grandfather, not father. So there goes that theory.
ReplyDeleteSo Burroughs married a woman named Joan Vollmer who he shot in the head while drunk, supposedly playing William Tell. His son was not adopted but was from that marriage of a speed freak mom and junky dad.
ReplyDeleteI was reading somewhere many moons ago that Burroughs step-daughter was molested a drunk Kerouac when they lived in Mexico.
Google James Grauerholtz. He was adopted as an adult.
DeleteMy bad, James Grauerholtz.... James told me William adopted him.
DeleteEver watch The Alienist? It’s full of (male) child prostitutes being murdered. I found I just couldn’t watch it anymore. If the author’s pappy was a serial killer of male street kids, The Alienist would indicate the son at least suspected what was going on.
ReplyDeletePlot, that's exactly what I meant: more options in a different movement. Jeez.
ReplyDelete