well be right: We’ll never get him.
“We should be able to do it ourselves, no grand jury, nothing. Just go into court and say, ‘All right, Your Honor, Commonwealth vee McKeach et al.: here’s the deal. Arthur F. McKeon, alias “McKeach,” alias “Uncle Mack,” is a menace to the good order of society. He commits all
sorts
of crimes. Here’s a partial list of all the wicked deeds we know he’s done as of the close of business last June thirtieth; we think that’s the end of his fiscal year. We’ll begin with his early career.
“ ‘We know around forty years ago he started extorting money from people; beating up people and killing people. He fixed horse races, prizefights, probably college basketball games, and at least one election each for seats on the Boston City Council and the Governor’s Council. He stole union funds, divertingmembers’ dues and embezzling their pension money. He corrupted public officials—tax assessors, cops on the beat, building inspectors, municipal liquor-licensing board inspectors, two state members of the Alcoholic Beverage Control, and a member of the state racing commission. Once he bribed a fire marshal setting occupancy limits for a dance hall. This was all back in the days when he was working for Brian Gallagher, otherwise known as Brian G., and more favorably, too, by most people—they knew Brian G. was tough, but they believed he had a heart.
“ ‘And we’re just getting warmed up here. We know as soon as McKeach figured he’d learned all Brian could teach him, plus a thing or two that Brian G.’d had no idea he was putting in his head, sometime in nineteen sixty-six McKeach, having become Brian G.’s first deputy, decided that all by himself
he
could make people do the things that he was now ordering them to do by transmitting orders from Brian. He realized what mattered when you ordered people around was their perception you had the power to hurt them if they didn’t.
“ ‘As it’d been, they’d seen him as having that power because Brian’d delegated it to him. But McKeach saw their perception
was
the power. This was before he started really reading books—mostly on electronic surveillance, I think, judging by his success in defeating it—but as a lot of people’ve since learned to their sorrow, Arthur may’ve lacked formal schooling but his intuitive intelligence was topnotch. He didn’t read Lord Acton’s book, but he found out just the same that power abhors a vacuum, and he figured out if he created one in the space that Brian occupied, the power would then probably pull
him
in to exercise it—for
himself
. All he had to do was make Brian go into a very deep sleep some night, and immediately take control; then
he
would
have
the power.
“ ‘I doubt Brian G.’d taught or intended to teach Arthur that. Most likely he didn’t realize McKeach’d learned it until the instantwhen he got out of the back seat of his seven-passenger black Caddy Fleetwood in the parking lot behind the old Boston Arena and saw his best pal McKeach coming out of the shadows, firing. There’s gratitude for ya, huh?
“ ‘We’re inclined to believe what he was firing was probably his favorite weapon, thirty-caliber M-two selective-fire military carbine fitted with a thirty-round, staggered-row box magazine, modified to about eighteen inches in length by sawing off the stock. We think this because we found nineteen spent shell casings in the immediate area. Medical examiner determined that a total of eleven out of thirty rounds hit Brian G. in his head and thorax. The wounds were instantly fatal. Doctors in the emergency room at BCH dug three rounds out of Brian’s driver and the lab techs found four bullets embedded in various parts of the limo. We dunno where the other slug went, but if he could put nineteen pretty much where he wanted them, firing a light-weight and very nervous weapon at full automatic, you’d have to say that McKeach probably deserves
“We should be able to do it ourselves, no grand jury, nothing. Just go into court and say, ‘All right, Your Honor, Commonwealth vee McKeach et al.: here’s the deal. Arthur F. McKeon, alias “McKeach,” alias “Uncle Mack,” is a menace to the good order of society. He commits all
sorts
of crimes. Here’s a partial list of all the wicked deeds we know he’s done as of the close of business last June thirtieth; we think that’s the end of his fiscal year. We’ll begin with his early career.
“ ‘We know around forty years ago he started extorting money from people; beating up people and killing people. He fixed horse races, prizefights, probably college basketball games, and at least one election each for seats on the Boston City Council and the Governor’s Council. He stole union funds, divertingmembers’ dues and embezzling their pension money. He corrupted public officials—tax assessors, cops on the beat, building inspectors, municipal liquor-licensing board inspectors, two state members of the Alcoholic Beverage Control, and a member of the state racing commission. Once he bribed a fire marshal setting occupancy limits for a dance hall. This was all back in the days when he was working for Brian Gallagher, otherwise known as Brian G., and more favorably, too, by most people—they knew Brian G. was tough, but they believed he had a heart.
“ ‘And we’re just getting warmed up here. We know as soon as McKeach figured he’d learned all Brian could teach him, plus a thing or two that Brian G.’d had no idea he was putting in his head, sometime in nineteen sixty-six McKeach, having become Brian G.’s first deputy, decided that all by himself
he
could make people do the things that he was now ordering them to do by transmitting orders from Brian. He realized what mattered when you ordered people around was their perception you had the power to hurt them if they didn’t.
“ ‘As it’d been, they’d seen him as having that power because Brian’d delegated it to him. But McKeach saw their perception
was
the power. This was before he started really reading books—mostly on electronic surveillance, I think, judging by his success in defeating it—but as a lot of people’ve since learned to their sorrow, Arthur may’ve lacked formal schooling but his intuitive intelligence was topnotch. He didn’t read Lord Acton’s book, but he found out just the same that power abhors a vacuum, and he figured out if he created one in the space that Brian occupied, the power would then probably pull
him
in to exercise it—for
himself
. All he had to do was make Brian go into a very deep sleep some night, and immediately take control; then
he
would
have
the power.
“ ‘I doubt Brian G.’d taught or intended to teach Arthur that. Most likely he didn’t realize McKeach’d learned it until the instantwhen he got out of the back seat of his seven-passenger black Caddy Fleetwood in the parking lot behind the old Boston Arena and saw his best pal McKeach coming out of the shadows, firing. There’s gratitude for ya, huh?
“ ‘We’re inclined to believe what he was firing was probably his favorite weapon, thirty-caliber M-two selective-fire military carbine fitted with a thirty-round, staggered-row box magazine, modified to about eighteen inches in length by sawing off the stock. We think this because we found nineteen spent shell casings in the immediate area. Medical examiner determined that a total of eleven out of thirty rounds hit Brian G. in his head and thorax. The wounds were instantly fatal. Doctors in the emergency room at BCH dug three rounds out of Brian’s driver and the lab techs found four bullets embedded in various parts of the limo. We dunno where the other slug went, but if he could put nineteen pretty much where he wanted them, firing a light-weight and very nervous weapon at full automatic, you’d have to say that McKeach probably deserves
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