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Dear Mr. Tedrow,
This letter follows up your colleague Jean-Philippe Mesplede’s recent trip to the D.R. to view casino-site locations and to discuss the possibility of building said hotel-casinos in this country. I am pleased to tell you that President Joaquin Balaguer is very anxious to have your businesses here and has pledged considerable resources in an effort to convince you to come. A brief history will give you a sense of the D.R. and our island neighbor Haiti and will, above all, convince you that this is a safe place for American tourists and your overseers and their hotel-casino perso
The D.R. comprises the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, and Santo Domingo, discovered by Columbus in 1492, is considered to be the oldest city in the Western world. I
President Balaguer is no flamboyant Rafael Trujillo, but President Balaguer knows how to keep dissent at a low roar and understands the importance of maintaining a tidy nation that American and European tourists will want to visit. He is on superbly good terms with the military, should crack-downs or clean-ups of Haitians or left-wing insurgents be required. And President Balaguer is willing to proactively invest in your hotel-casino foray by pledging land free of charge for casino sites in Santo Domingo proper and outside of it (see addendum report for structural studies and soil-composition studies). He will grant Hughes Air the exclusive flight rights to reserved VIP landing strips at the Santo Domingo Airport, will build extra runways for the increased air travel free of charge and will supply un-skilled Haitian and Dominican peasant workers for the casino build. A construction company that he is part owner of will supply building materials at a reduced cost and my security firm and La Banda stand ready to provide 24-hour security for the building sites. I am recommending four Cuban men-WILTON MORALES. FELIPE GУMEZ-SLOAN, CHIC CANESTEL and CRUZ SALDнVAR-as casino-site work bosses. They are Cuban mercenaries, Spanish- and English-fluent, and have pre-existing work relationships with the operatives in my security firm and the agents in La Banda. Again, I will stress: the threat of revolt or the shenanigans of left-wing gadfly groups will pose no threat to the casino build, and the presence of unruly Haitian йmigrйs and Dominican peasants will be curtailed before it can reach the point where it might upset visiting tourists. As of this writing, President Balaguer is preparing an addendum incentive package as his way to say “Bienvenidos!” to you and your investors’ group.
In summation, I can only state that you and your people would be well advised to say “Sн!” to our proposal. You will be welcomed to a country with a stable political climate, a solid economy and a leadership anxious to lend a helping hand.
Sincerely,
Ivar S. Smith, USMC (Retired)
61
(Las Vegas, 2/16/69)
The Clark County Sheriff’s sent more paperwork. Wayne went through the folder and pi
Interview notes-LVPD file repeats. Repeat dispo reports, smudged file carbons.
The file alcove was overpacked-let’s move chem bins for more shelf space. Stop, here’s something-
Wayne pi
It was tri-racial turf. Nellis AFB decreed that. The commercial strip was all slot joints and one-buck buffets. They were one-race-only deals. Whites had the Shamrock, blacks had Monty’s Mosque, the Mexicans had Al’s Alamo.
The residential streets were mixed and cut through diagonally. Wayne parked on Monroe and went walking. He’d read Ivar Smith’s report and summarized it for the Boys. The soil and structural stats were superb. Balaguer wanted their biz. He was paying them to come and build. The Boys said let’s go. Wayne called Smith in Santo Domingo. Smith said Balaguer wanted fifty grand a month personal. Wayne said okay. The Boys said okay. Wayne proposed a hands-off chit from Dick Nixon. Farlan Brown said we need a phone-chat liaison. Wayne’s candidate: Dwight Holly.
The prez was a cop buff and an FBI washout. He loved to schmooze with tough-guy Feds. Dwight “the Enforcer”?-none better.
The houses were all ant-sized and eroded cinder block. Windows were foil-crimped to beat the heat. Wayne started at 2082 and knock-knocked. It was 4:10 p.m. He got tri-racial residents off shift at Nellis. He smiled, he said hello, he showed Reginald’s picture. He got four no answers and fourteen straight nos.
He kept walking. A North Vegas PD car cruised by. A cop recognized him and went Pow!
He got three more no answers and nine more nos. He walked by a house with an open garage adjacent. He saw a black man vat-boiling on a hot plate. He smelled tropical plants and ammonia base.
The man waved to him. Wayne walked up. The vat fumes knocked him back. The man laughed and laughed.
They shook hands. The man squeezed words out between chuckles. He had a French island lilt. Wayne scoped the garage. It was his lab unkempt-cheap gear and tape-marked bottles.
Urera baccifera. Diodon holacantheus. Crapaud blanc. Theraphosidae E., Anolis colestinus, Zanthroxyllum matinicense.
Spiny plant powders, topical irritants, ground tarantulas, lizards and toads.
The man smiled. Wayne said, “Tetrodoxin posioning.”
The man bowed. “You are a chemist?”
“Yes.”
“Have you other things to tell me?”
Wayne sca