Nanette . . .

I pulled my time in Lompoc, it was different than El Reno, more mature and more dangerous, but I managed to get through it alive. When I got out I made no pretense of staying in Taylor. I had developed, after four and a half years behind bars one hell of an attitude. Taylor couldn't hold me, Taylor could never hold me.

I crisscrossed the nation a few times, from Los Angeles to New York and back again looking for whatever there was to find. The country was hip deep in the free love era and I was getting my share and then some. Everything was up for grabs, if it moved, take it to bed. Added to that was my insatiable appetite for drugs, mostly amphetamines and acid, although I experimented with heroin and other more dangerous drugs. And, of course, my old friend booze. Finally I decided to stop my running and I made Los Angeles my home, for want of another word. I lucked out, I suppose you could say, when I chanced upon Ginger. Ginger was a blowsy, blond-headed woman well into her forties and she took it upon herself to pay me for sex. That took care of my immediate problem of case, because I was still wanted by the feds for violating my parole. This little arrangement went on for about three or four months, with Ginger meeting me one to three times a week in the hotel where I stayed. Then one day she was gone. O never saw her again.

I got a job at a small print shop and moved into the Crystal Apartments with a guy by the name of Richard LaSalle sharing rent. The Crystal Apartments were geared for the young and it was a swinging place, living up to the free love which was sweeping the country. It was there that I met Nanette Schiavo, who would very soon become my wife. Nanette was unlike anybody I had ever met. At once sweet and timid and so quiet you hardly knew she was in the room. But Nanette was in the room and she would soon be in my heart. As all of this was going on, there was something about to break loose in Los Angeles which would put us all in peril, and it was just around the corner.

More tomorrow . . .

My Novels:

Write To Murder . . . http://www.lulu.com/content/956621

Margaret and David: A Love Story . . . http://www.lulu.com/content/1072842

My Mother's Revenge . . . http://www.lulu.com/content/1132742