Текст книги "Target Manhattan"

Автор книги: Brian Garfield

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Eastlake (Cont’d)

Yes, we were going all out. We had the truck loaded by three twenty. That was ten minutes earlier than I’d anticipated. I called Mr. Maitland to tell him the money was on its way. I rode over in the truck myself, with the guards.

At what time did you arrive at the bank?

The traffic was fairly heavy, and you know how narrow those streets are. It was only a few blocks, but it took about ten minutes to get across to Beaver Street. We drew up in front of the bank building. A group of men were waiting for us at the curb. Police officers were diverting pedestrian traffic. Mr. Maitland was there, and several officials with him, and a man whom someone pointed out to me as Charles Ryterband.

This was down at street level? They had come downstairs to meet you?

Yes. They told me the money was to be transferred directly from our truck to Ryterband’s car. The car was being brought around just then by two policemen, who parked it immediately behind our armored truck. Someone was carrying a large portable radio set of some kind, which they placed inside the car on the passenger seat. Later I was told that was a two-way radio, by which Ryterband kept in contact with his partner in the airplane.

And you transferred the money into the car?

Yes, sir. We had packed the money into two cases.

Suitcases

Actually they were fiberboard document cases-the handiest things we’d had available-but they were similar to large suitcases, yes. We placed them in the trunk of the car. Ryterband insisted on opening them to make sure they contained the money. Then he locked the trunk lid over them and went around the side of the car to talk to his partner by radio.

Could you hear what was said between them?

Yes. It was very brief. He told his partner the money had been delivered, that it was now in the car and that he was preparing to drive away from the bank, alone. He said something like, “They’ve kept their part of the bargain, Harold.”

Did you hear Harold’s reply?

First Ryterband said, “I’m leaving now.” Then his partner on the radio said, “Roger. Out.” Then Ryterband got in the car and drove away.

What time was that, Mr. Eastlake?

It was exactly three thirty-five.

Brian Garfield

Target Manhattan

Azzard (Cont’d)

He was a badly rattled man. Scared to death. I was afraid he was going to drive right into a telephone pole, and that would be that. But he got away to the bridge all right. We had the bleepers on his belt and the money. There was an unmarked convoy on his tail, of course-two triangulation vans and a couple of plainclothes cars to boot. They stayed out of his sight, though.

You hadn’t had much time to conceal anything in those suitcases, had you?

Enough. One of our electronics boys had fixed up the cases while they were being loaded over at the Federal Reserve.

Oh, I see.

Our trackers followed him across the bridge and onto the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. He was a little ahead of the rush hour so he made fairly good time, even without speeding.

He then went onto the Long Island Expressway?

A few miles out beyond Queens, yes. Then he came to rest. Our vans moved in, triangulating by radio. They stopped about two hundred yards from his beacon. After a little while the beacons split up. They were different frequencies, we could tell which was which. Our agents could, that is. I was still at the Merchants Trust, but I was in radio contact with our field teams.

I understand that. What happened when the radio devices separated?

We’d more or less expected something like that. Obviously he’d taken the money out of our containers and transferred them to something else. As it turned out, he also switched cars, but that had no effect because we’d planted the bug on his belt, not his car. That bug-the one on his belt-moved away. The other two bleepers-on the suitcases-stayed put. We let him get some distance away before our men moved. One team followed the moving signal-Ryterband. The other moved in on the stationary signals. They found the empty suitcases in a private two-car garage, along with his car, which he’d left there. Meanwhile the second team of agents followed Ryterband north toward the shore of Long Island Sound.

At what time did this take place?

He reached the garage, where he made the switch, at approximately four fifteen. He left the garage at four twenty-three.

Was he in communication with Craycroft throughout that time?

Yes. We’d brought a radio up to the bank; we were monitoring their communications. They kept it very brief-maybe they didn’t want us homing in on Ryterband’s transmissions. Anyhow, he simply reported the successful conclusion of each step of his operation. He’d say something like, “Step two, completed.” Craycroft would say, “Affirmative.” That was about the sum of it.

At what time did Ryterband reach his destination?

The bleeper stopped moving at four fifty-six.

Grofeld (Cont’d)

Captain, you’ve made a thorough study of Harold Craycroft-his background, to some extent his motivations. In the course of this detective work have you interviewed psychiatric experts?

Yes, I have.

Now, as the time drew close to the five ten deadline on that Wednesday, May twenty-second, the most crucial question in your minds must have been, “Will he drop those bombs, or won’t he?”

That’s it in a nutshell, yes.

The ransom had been paid, not much more than a half hour late, as it turned out. You then had to use your best judgment as to whether Craycroft would accept that or whether he would bomb the city anyway. Now, you’ve just stated that you’ve obtained psychiatric opinions on Craycroft. You must have asked these experts whether in their judgment Craycroft intended to drop the bombs.

I did, naturally. But it was like the parable about the blind men trying to describe the elephant. I talked to four shrinks and got four opinions. They could have been talking about four different guys. I’d expected that, actually. When you go to trial, you can always find experts to give testimony on both sides of the case. It doesn’t mean anybody’s lying. They have different opinions, that’s all. Nobody except a clairvoyant could have told us what was actually going on inside Craycroft’s head at that particular time.

Then you really had no way to be absolutely certain of his intentions?

None at all.

You had to rely on judgment and intuition, then.

You could put it that way.

Is there some other way you’d prefer to put it, Captain? I’d like to be as clear as possible on this point.

Look, we’d been monitoring conversations between Ryterband and Craycroft for several hours that afternoon. We hadn’t heard Craycroft say, “I’m not going to drop the bombs.” Everything we heard led to exactly the opposite conclusion. Add to that the fact that Ryterband himself was obviously afraid of Craycroft’s intentions-he didn’t seem to know either, any more than we did. But he knew Craycroft a lot better than the rest of us did, and if Ryterband was scared, we had to be scared, too. Add to that the fact that Craycroft was obviously deranged. I mean, nobody ever really questioned that. The point is we knew just one thing for certain: that he was unpredictable. He couldn’t be depended on to do the sensible thing or the logical thing or the compassionate thing. He was listening to the sound of his own private drummer; we couldn’t hear the beat of that drum, and we had no way of anticipating his moves.

Therefore, I take it, you reasoned that you had to assume the worst.

Mr. Skinner, if a stranger points a loaded gun at you, you don’t know for sure that he’s going to pull the trigger. But if you get a chance, you’ll sure as hell duck out of his line of fire. Or, given the chance, you’ll shoot him first.

The law of self-defense.

I’m not talking about the law. I’m talking about natural reaction-common sense. He had a loaded gun pointed at us. And we couldn’t get out of the way. If we could be sure he wouldn’t shoot, that would be one thing. But all we knew was what we could see. We took steps designed to remove the threat. Defend ourselves. Whatever you want to call it. We had to try. Craycroft had a screw loose. He might let fly at any time. We had no guarantee he’d wait until ten minutes after five. We had no guarantee of anything. The sooner we tried to neutralize him, the better-in terms of odds.

Mr. Toombes acquiesced to that line of reasoning?

Yes. But I was the one who talked him into it. If you’re looking for someone to pin the blame on.

I’m not, Captain. I’m only trying to get the facts.

You’ve got to remember, I think, that we had Adler and the FBI chief breathing down our necks, too. They wanted to blow him out of the sky regardless. The difference between our scheme and theirs was at least we were trying to insure that innocent bystanders wouldn’t get hurt.

Yes, I think the record makes that abundantly clear.

And actually there wasn’t much point holding off until the deadline. Suppose we’d waited until ten after five? What were we supposed to do? Let him drop the bombs and then go after him? It was pointless, really. We had to go after him. It was best to do it as fast as possible.

Doesn’t this contradict your earlier statement that you’d decided to wait until the last possible minute in order to feel out Craycroft’s intentions before taking action?

Maybe it does. All of us were rattled. I imagine a lot of people said and did contradictory things that day.

What changed your mind?

The passage of time. Don’t forget, we started talking about neutralizing him quite early that afternoon. At that point it would have been premature to try and shoot him down. I don’t know, maybe we should have tried to get to him before three o’clock. We never had that choice, though. We didn’t have enough time. But the five ten deadline gave us time to set things up, or at least time to try. It was a very simple proposition, actually. Craycroftwas going to do one of two things. He was going to fly away harmlessly at five ten, or he was going to bomb New York City.

And you’d been trying, as we said before, to feel out his intentions?

Absolutely. We’d been on the horn with him constantly, trying to get a rise out of him, trying to prod him into giving us a clue to his decision.

But he gave you no clues.

He gave us nothing at all. He never answered us. Once Ryterband left the bank and drove away with the money, we never heard another word out of Craycroft. I’m sure he could hear us if he wanted to, but it was quite possible he’d simply switched his receiver off. There was another transmitter aboard Ryterband’s boat, of course, and probably around four thirty or four forty-five Craycroft would be listening to pick up Ryterband’s signal that he’d made his getaway clean with the money. But between three thirty and four thirty, he had no reason to be listening to the radio. We probably were talking into a dead phone. But we did try.

Very well. Now, as to the attempt to neutralize the threat, as it was carried out in the air, you’ve indicated that the idea for the scheme came from Sergeant O’Brien and Mr. Harris and that you concurred in the plan, and you then approached Mr. Toombes with it. What was his first reaction?

I had to do a little talking. Finally he saw it was the only chance we had. He agreed we had to try it.

By this time you’d already made arrangements to put some of the plan in motion on your own initiative?

I’d issued orders to obtain the items Harris and O’Brien needed, yes. I hadn’t authorized the actual execution of the plan. But we were fighting against time. We could always decide not to use the stuff. But if we didn’t have it at hand, there’d have been no point trying to get authorization to go ahead. I sent for the chopper, the radio transmitters, the crop duster, and the paint. Then I talked to Toombes.

And Mr. Toombes agreed it was worth a try. What happened next?

Well, we didn’t have the authority to put the thing into operation. We had to go to the higher-ups.

By that you mean, mainly, the military.

Yes. What we were faced with wasn’t a police operation. I don’t suppose there’s an official designation for that kind of thing, but you could call it a counterinsurgency. It required a political decision and a military decision. Several departments were involved.

Did you seek authorization from the FBI?

No.

Why?

Two reasons. First, there wasn’t time to argue with Azzard. Second, the FBI was out of it by that point. Their job was to track Ryterband. They had no jurisdiction in the air. We had to go to the military for that.

To whom in the military? To General Adler?

No. He didn’t have command authority. What happened was we had an open line to General Hawley of the Air National Guard. He had his Starfighters in the air, of course, keeping tabs on Craycroft from a distance. He had been in communication with the Pentagon. I got on the phone with him…

At what time?

About ten minutes to four, I think. I got on the phone with General Hawley and asked him who had the authority to commit his planes to action. He said that order had to come from the Air Force Chief of Staff at the very least, and he was at that moment trying to get through to that office on another line. I explained very briefly what Harris and O’Brien had in mind.

How did General Hawley react to the idea?

He didn’t at first. He’s a cautious type. Evidently he needed to think it over. He said he’d get back to me after he’d talked to the Air Force Chief of Staff in Washington.

But time was getting very short, wasn’t it?

It was nearly four o’clock, yes. We had a bit more than an hour to the deadline. At this time Ryterband was on the highway in Queens, being tailed by Mr. Azzard’s radio triangulation vans. Our own people were assembling the materials Harris and O’Brien had requested. The crop-duster aircraft was on its way from Teterboro to Newark Airport, where we planned to fill its tanks. Several police officers were obtaining the radio transmitters and the electromagnet. The Port Authority helicopter was at the Wall Street heliport pad, warming up. A few minutes after four-just after I’d talked to General Hawley-I sent O’Brien and Harris down to the heliport. I believe they arrived there at about four twenty. In the meantime the paint we’d requisitioned-eighty gallons-had been delivered to Newark Airport by a second helicopter from the Wall Street pad.

This sounds extraordinarily intricate. I’m amazed you were able to coordinate it.

Well, I think it sounds more complicated than it was. The materials were fairly simple. We didn’t require any specially made equipment. That was what was so brilliant about the idea-it made use of fairly common ingredients and put them to extraordinary use.

Now, you’d commandeered most of these materials on your own initiative and authority…

Some of it was on Mr. Toombes’ authority, and the fact that he knew the people he was dealing with at the Port Authority. It was the Port Authority people who arranged for the crop duster, through the New Jersey Mosquito Control Commission.

But as you’ve said, neither you nor Mr. Toombes-nor, in fact, anybody at all inside the bank office that you were using for your headquarters-was authorized to give orders to the military.

Well, we just had to hope for voluntary cooperation.

At what time was contact resumed between you and General Hawley of the Air National Guard?

He called me back at about four ten, four fifteen.

What did he say?

He’d managed to reach the Air Force Chief of Staff in the Pentagon. He’d received a conditional go-ahead to take action on his own initiative if it seemed appropriate. Those are more or less his words to me.

What did he mean by “conditional”?

Under no circumstances were his planes to use air-to-air missiles.

Because that could endanger the city?

Yes. They’re heat-seeking missiles…

We’ve had that explained to us. In other words, the Starfighters could employ cannon or machine guns but not missiles.

That’s right.

What about the risk of striking Craycroft’s armed bombs with cannon or machine-gun fire?

Well, in theory that was covered by Harris and O’Brien’s plan.

In theory.

We didn’t have any precedents, did we?

Now, at this point in time-you must have concluded your conversation with General Hawley at about four twenty Yes. I immediately went to the police-band radio and made contact with Harris and O’Brien. They were at the heliport, they’d just arrived there.

And you told them?

I told them I was issuing the go order. They were to execute the plan.

O’Brien (Cont’d)

I’ll use my notes here, if you don’t mind. All right, it was about twenty after four. Here’s the time-out on everything. The Starfighters were already airborne-had been, for hours. The banana chopper from PA was at the heliport. Another helicopter had delivered the eighty gallons of white paint to Newark Airport, where they’d poured it into the spray tanks of the MCC crop duster. The pilot was a guy named Williston. According to my notes, he took off from Newark in the crop duster at four seventeen. It only took him a few minutes to fly across the Hudson-he just flew straight over, there was no other air traffic in the area.

Except for Craycroft.

Except for Craycroft. All right, Harris and I were going aboard the banana helicopter with the three transmitters and the electromagnet apparatus. It took six men to load the gear on the chopper, and our pilot was worried we might not be able to take off with that much weight on board. Then we got a call from Captain Grofeld.

What time?

Four twenty-five. He said he’d been authorized to issue the go order. We were to establish direct air-to-air radio contact with Williston in the crop duster and with the Air National Guard pilots in the Starfighters. General Hawley and Captain Grofeld would be on the same frequency. Of course we were taking a hell of a risk using open radio channels, but there wasn’t any other way to do it.

What risk?

Well, if Craycroft happened to be monitoring that particular frequency, he’d know every thing we were planning. We’d done our best to fool him, but we had no way of knowing whether it was working.

How did you try to fool him?

Ordinary contact was maintained between the air elements and the ground on the standard Air National Guard frequency. We figured if Craycroft was monitoring anything, he’d be on that band. We kept up intermittent chatter on that band. In the meantime the real orders were being delivered on a different frequency, one we’d designated by coded instructions that Craycroft couldn’t follow. Or at least we assumed he couldn’t. It was the Air National Guard code book, and he wouldn’t have had access to that, since the codes are changed frequently.

So you maintained a deception on the regular frequency, and executed the real plan on another frequency.

That’s right.

Very well. Now, at four twenty-six, approximately, you took off?

Our pilot revved up the two rotors. For a minute there it didn’t look like we were going to get off the ground at all, but finally we got off the pad. There wasn’t much breeze; otherwise I think we might have drifted against some goddamn building before we had enough altitude to clear them. It seemed to take forever to get above the buildings with that weight aboard. Anyway we established our radio contacts on both frequencies With the elements in the air and on the ground?

Right. The Starfighters, the crop duster, General Hawley, at Floyd Bennett Field, and Captain Grofeld at the bank. Williston’s crop duster was circling over Astoria, Queens, by the time we took station above midtown Manhattan. The Starfighters were circling at about five thousand feet-just below the bellies of the clouds. Now, we had established with General Hawley that Harris and I would call the shots from the helicopter, since we were in visible contact with what was going on. He’d agreed to that, with Captain Grofeld.

Go on, please.

We flew north at about forty miles an hour, moving uptown. We were holding to an altitude of seventeen hundred feet in the helicopter. That put us a couple of hundred feet higher than Craycroft’s bomber and some distance inside the oval of his flight path. He was traveling at about three times our speed, and he passed outboard of us on the way north.

The timing of your scheme was precarious, wasn’t it?

Very touchy. Very. The crop duster and the Starfighters had to coordinate their moves. The jets had to hit him immediately after the crop duster, If they were even a few seconds too late, it wouldn’t work because Craycroft would have time to react.

Describe the events, please.

We all had visual contact with one another, of course, and that made it easier. The technical problem was to get the crop duster out of the way of the jets.

Yes, I understand that.

You know it’s damned hard to describe the action when five things were going on simultaneously.

You’re doing very well so far, Sergeant.

I’ll try, anyway. The Starfighters were to come in from the west-from above the Palisades, on the Jersey shore. They had to fly straight at Craycroft. Collision course. At the same time, the crop duster had to come in from the east-behind Craycroft, because he had to be moving parallel to Craycroft. Now, the way we’d set it up, the crop duster would make its pass and then break right, turning north and dropping down a few feet. Then two of the Starfighters would make their passes and turn left-also north, but climbing away so they wouldn’t knock the crop duster around in their afterwash.

Right. Go on.

At the same time our helicopter had to be south of Craycroft’s plane. Our exact position didn’t matter, but we had to be within about a half mile of him when the planes made their passes at him. Our transmitters were pretty weak-that was on purpose-and we had to be in close range to make sure we were jamming his radio reception at that point.

I’m still with you, Sergeant.

(Laughter) Okay, I’ll try to keep it simple. We flew across town at about the level of Ninety-sixth Street, and we hovered at sixteen hundred feet directly above the Central Park Reservoir.

At what time did you reach that point?

Four forty. Craycroft was doing his little ballet over Brooklyn at that point. We could see him quite clearly-the air wasn’t very hazy. Of course, that meant he could see us, too.

Go on. What happened next?

We’d timed his circuits, of course, we knew it took him about three minutes from the time he crossed the East River into Manhattan to the time he made his turn at the top of Central Park. I started the stopwatch when he was crossing over above the Williamsburg Bridge.

That gave you a three-minute countdown to attack him?

Right. The jets were throttled down to three hundred miles art hour. They started in from a point fifteen miles due west of that point.

“That point” being his turn over Central Park?

Yes. In other words, starting from where they were, the jets would intercept Craycroft at a point roughly above Ninety-sixth Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Their run was timed to coincide with his.

I’ve got that. Proceed, please.

In the meantime the crop duster had a maximum airspeed of about a hundred and sixty miles an hour. It was a converted Piper Apache, by the way. Anyhow, it started from a point above Queens, some eight miles due west of that same interception point. The crop duster had to intercept him just ahead of the jets.

Of course.

Harris and I had our hands on the radio transmitters, ready to broadcast our jammer signals. Of course, we could see what was happening, and we’d push the buttons at the exact second when the crop duster went into action.

Now, let’s establish the exact purpose of this complicated maneuver, shall we?

The purpose was simple. To blind him and confuse him as to his location and bearings. The execution wasn’t so simple, of course.

And the jets were to deflect him from his course, is that right?

Two of them were. The third one was waiting to pounce on him.

All right. Go on with your narrative, Sergeant.

It all happened simultaneously, as I said. That’s what makes it hard to describe clearly. But I’ll do my best. Craycroft came up the East Side. He started his leftward turn, cutting across the Germantown area, slicing off a northeast corner of the park, reaching the apex of the turn right over the northern tip of the park at Lenox Avenue. At that point the crop duster had also crossed the East River and was about fifty feet above the bomber. The crop duster was flying parallel to him, a bit to his left. The crop duster passed him and was perhaps thirty feet ahead of him when the bomber, making its leftward turn, passed under the tail of the crop duster.

Meanwhile the jets were where?

Just crossing the Hudson River, a bit south of the bomber and a mile to the west.

The bomber flew under the tail of the crop duster. Then?

The crop duster dumped its load. Eighty gallons of thick white paint in a high-pressure spray.

The spray hit the nose of Craycroft’s bomber?

It covered it completely. Painted the nose of the plane white and dappled the fuselage halfway back its length. The paint completely covered Craycroft’s windshield and side windows Windows which were sealed, so that he couldn’t open them to look out.

That’s right. Our intention was to blind him. We succeeded. Now, as soon as we saw the paint spray issue from the tanks of the crop duster, Harris and I hit every button in sight. This activated the three transmitters and the electromagnet. The transmitters jammed his radiocompass and his LORAN navigation system. The electromagnet deflected his magnetic compass.

So the effect on Craycroft was He abruptly found himself blinded. His instruments were going haywire-needles spinning all over the place. He no longer knew where he was or what direction he was heading.

Then the jets The two Starfighters hit him in tandem. They swept directly over the bomber, about twenty feet above his tail, and as they crossed above him they made steep banking turns to the left.

What was the effect of that maneuver?

The jet exhausts from both planes struck Cray-croft’s bomber at point-blank range. The bomber was pushed-literally pushed-nearly half a mile off its course.

Straight out over the Hudson River.

Yes, sir. That was where the third Starfighter hit him. Slammed him full of twenty-millimeter cannon fire. Knocked him straight down into the river. The B-17 came apart in several pieces before it hit the river.

And the bombs?

Well, that was the crux, wasn’t it? He’d reacted the way you’d expect. He pushed the bomb-release lever.

When?

A lot faster than we’d expected. Incredibly fast reaction. I mean he had to absorb what was happening to him, and then he had to understand he was being attacked, and then he had to decide what to do about it, and then he had to hit the bomb-release lever. He got all that done in not more than three seconds flat. It was fantastic. There was no way to have predicted he’d have reacted so fast.

Give us your eyewitness recollection, please.

The bombs seemed to fall from the plane just a split second after he’d been hit by the jet exhausts from the fighters. Long before he was over the river. Of course the bombs arched outward. He’d been in a steep turnfl when we hit him, and his forward momentum had been accelerated by the crashing blow of the jet exhausts. But just the same, he was still over Manhattan when he released the bombs. That was what we hadn’t anticipated. It was my fault. Mine and Harris’. We just hadn’t counted on him being so goddamned fast.

Go on.

We could see the bombs weren’t going to hit anywhere near the middle of Harlem. But at first-as the bombs fell away, for several seconds that were real agony-we couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t hit those high-rise buildings west of Broadway. The angle of our viewpoint was flat and we couldn’t really make out the trajectory. It looked like half of the Upper West Side was going to blow up, though.

And in the end…

They’re building a new sewage-treatment plant on the river side of the Henry Hudson Parkway. There are dozens of very tall cranes there. Construction machinery. The parkway itself has been closed for repairs, so there was no traffic on it. The bombs dropped in sticks on the highway overpass and about four of them crashed into that high tangle of construction cranes and booms. It was earsplitting. The shock wave knocked us around-in the air like a kite. A good deal of shrapnel went up, but because of the slant of the bomb fall, it all went out toward the river. It was a hell of an explosion-series of explosions. Incredible wreckage up there, as you know. The highway’s been buckled for nearly a quarter of a mile, and that sewage plant’s a complete ruin. But there were no casualties. That was the miracle. A watchman was stunned on the construction site, but he was inside the shack and it saved him. He’s recovered. There wasn’t anybody else there-they’re union workers, they’d quit work at four thirty.

Then none of the bombs actually went into the river as you’d intended?

Only two of them. They went in just offshore. The two explosions were still making incredible geysers of water when Craycroft’s plane was shot down.

How did you feel at that moment? Can you recall?

Scared shitless, Mr. Skinner. If those jets had been two seconds later, every last one of those bombs would have blown up an apartment house.