For All Nails #86: The World Joan Made


NCCC affiliate, Boston, Mass., Northern Confederation
11:43pm Eastern Time, March 5th, 1973

The vitavision screen shows a woman in a white tennis outfit (white collar
shirt and knee-length white skirt) standing in a locker room

		TENNIS WOMAN

	...feel confident, the confidence that comes from wearing Fresh
	anti-perspirant.

We DISSOLVE to a close-up of a bottle of Fresh anti-perspirant against a
black background.  To the bottle's right are the words FEEL FRESH ALL DAY in
white block letters.

		VOICEOVER

	Fresh anti-perspirant, so you can feel fresh all day.

In the bottom right corner of the screen a small stylized representation of
the Kramerica Building appears, along with the words WE'RE KRAMERICA in small
white sans serif letters.

We CUT to a still photo of the Hoboken Strip at night, every neon sign from
every casino is lit up in a gaudy explosion of light.  The words CLOSING TIME
WITH WALT MACANUFF appear in white in the upper left corner.  The MUSIC is an
instrumental cover of Simon Carleigh's "Is Love Vain?"

We DISSOLVE to a shot of Shaeffer & Maroni's Genuine New Orleans Band as they
bring "Is Love Vain?" to a quick conclusion.  The AUDIENCE applauds, and we
CUT to a shot of Walt MacAnuff seated at his stool as he applauds along with
them.

		MACANUFF

	Thanks, boys, that was great!

The applause dies down, and MacAnuff turns to face the camera.

		MACANUFF

	Our first guest tonight is the author of two bestselling history books.
	She's here tonight to tell us about her latest book, _The Kronmiller
	Conspiracy_.  She's young, she's personable, and she's easy on the
	eyes.

	Raise your glasses for Joan Kahn!

The AUDIENCE applauds again.  The Walt camera PANS to the left to track the
entrance of an attractive blonde woman in her early thirties.  An OTL viewer
might initially mistake her for a young Gloria Steinem.  She is wearing a
white blouse, a calf-length black skirt, sensible shoes, and round spectacles
with oversize tortoiseshell frames.

MacAnuff, ever the gentleman, rises from his stool with the help of his cane,
and shakes her hand.  Kahn smiles at MacAnuff, and leans over to give him a
kiss on the cheek.  The AUDIENCE makes a collective "Ooooooh" sound as
MacAnuff blushes.  The two take their seats.

		MACANUFF

	Joan, thanks for being here tonight.

		KAHN

	Thanks for having me, Walt.

		MACANUFF

	Joan, you've made a career out of writing controversial books.
	What made you decide to take up investigative history as a career?

		KAHN

	Well, I've always enjoyed solving puzzles.  My father would buy me
	these puzzle books, and I'd just eat them up.  Then I started reading
	mystery books, especially the Herakles Perry novels.

		MACANUFF

	_Murder on the Flaglerville Express_.

		KAHN

	Exactly!  I loved that book.  Then in high school I read Boatwright's
	biography of Pedro Hermión, and I got hooked on the mystery of
	his assassination.  The thing is, after the assassination, there was so
	much suspicion directed at Miguel Huddleston, that when the
	Fuentes Commission cleared him of complicity in Hermión's death,
	everyone decided that Zangora must have been acting alone.

		MACANUFF

	The "lone gunner" theory.

		KAHN

	That's right.  And ever since then, anyone who rejects the "lone gunner"
	theory just goes back to trying to prove the Huddleston conspiracy
	theory, which is even less likely.  But living here in the Northern
	Confederation, I had access to records that weren't available to the
	Fuentes Commission, or anyone else in the USM for that matter.
	So I was able to discover the Mendoza connection between Henry
	Gilpin and Emiliano Zangora.

		MACANUFF

	I should point out here that not everybody found your "Mendoza
	connection" convincing.

		KAHN

	(Shrugs.)  That's the history business for you.  Apart from the
	Huddleston theory supporters like Menzer, there are plenty of people
	like George Loring who still idolize Gilpin, and refuse to believe he
	could have plotted Hermión's death.  But the evidence is there, for
	anyone with an open mind who wants to look at it.

		MACANUFF

	Let's move on to your current book, _The Kronmiller Conspiracy_.
	Once again you take an unorthodox view of an episode in Mexican
	history, the fall of Benito Hermión in 1901.

		KAHN

	(Nods.)  Well, the popular view today is that KA President Diego
	Cortez y Catalán was the driving force behind El Jefe's overthrow.
	But it's important to remember that all our information about Cortez's
	role comes from heavily-edited exerpts from his personal papers that
	were released by his successor, John Jackson.

		MACANUFF

	Are you saying that the Cortez Papers were forgeries?

		KAHN

	Not forgeries, no.  They tell the truth, but not the whole truth.
	Jackson had his own reasons for releasing the Cortez Papers.  By the
	late 1930s, Jackson had come to believe that Kramer Associates was a
	global power in its own right, and he wanted to emphasize the
	company's power and influence.  So he released a version of Cortez's
	private journals and correspondence that made it seem that Cortez was
	the mastermind behind the overthrow of Hermión.  For their own
	reasons, anti-Kramer historians like Frank Dana have also chosen to
	emphasize the company's influence on Mexican history, so the idea
	that Cortez pulled all the strings from behind the scenes has become
	the conventional wisdom.  I've tried to look past the conventional
	wisdom.

		MACANUFF

	That sounds like what you did in your second book, the one about the
	Kinkaid assassination.

		KAHN

	Yes, that's right.  In the case of the Kinkaid assassination, the anti-
	Kramer historians blame Kramer and Benedict, and everyone else
	either blames Rogers or Concepción.  I chose to look beyond what
	you might call "the usual suspects", and I found evidence among
	declassified CBI documents of a plot directed against Kinkaid by
	Governor-General McDowell.

	In the case of Benito Hermión, I've chosen to de-emphasize Cortez's
	role in an effort to see what other influences were involved in
	Hermión's fall.  And when you look past Cortez, what you see is
	Thomas Kronmiller.

		MACANUFF

	Now, I'm no history whizz, but even I know that Kronmiller was never
	Governor-General, so how could he be responsible for Hermión's fall?

		KAHN

	Kronmiller may not have been the king, but he was certainly the
	kingmaker.  He engineered Gallivan's ouster, and he played a pivotal
	role in Burgen's selection to replace him.  And the whole point of
	removing Gallivan, remember, was Kronmiller's belief that Gallivan
	was ignoring the threat posed by Hermión.  It's no coincidence that
	Hermión was ousted three months after Gallivan.  Removing Gallivan
	was the first step to removing Hermión.

		MACANUFF

	Just how certain are you about all this?  How conclusive is the
	evidence?

		KAHN

	Well, there's always a certain amount of deductive reasoning
	involved.  When there's no direct evidence, you have to do your
	best using indirect evidence.  How certain am I that Kronmiller
	orchestrated Hermión's ouster?  Not a hundred percent.  But I /do/
	hope that I've established a reasonable case, one that's at least as
	reasonable as the standard case against Diego Cortez y Catalán.

		MACANUFF

	Have you ever thought about investigating something more recent
	than the 19th century?  I'm sure there are plenty of mysteries to be
	found in the modern world.

		KAHN

	(Ponders for a second or two.)  One or two, yes.  Mind you, there are
	plenty of investigative reporters who specialize in current affairs.
	And of course we still have to deal with the legacies of Gilpin and
	McDowell, which can make it difficult for a private citizen to reveal
	matters that the government would prefer to keep hidden.  Timothy
	Liddy is much more careful with his own secrets than he was with John
	McDowell's.

		MACANUFF

	I suppose Liddy's successor will find plenty to occupy his interest when
	he gains access to the CBI's records.

		KAHN

	That's assuming he /does/ gain access to them.

		MACANUFF

	Surely you don't think Director Liddy would tamper with the Bureau's
	records?

		KAHN

	(Visibly restraining herself.)  Walt, one thing I've learned in my work
	is that there are /always/ attempts to conceal the truth.  But I've also
	learned that such attempts are invariably doomed to failure.  The
	truth always comes out.  And that goes for the present as well as
	the past.

		MACANUFF

	Well, it's certainly food for thought.  Thanks for coming by, Joan, and
	good luck with _The Kronmiller Conspiracy_.

		KAHN

	Thank you, Walt.  I enjoyed my visit.

		MACANUFF

	And we'll be right back with comedian Martin Stevens after this brief
	message from North American Motors.

The AUDIENCE applauds as the camera PULLS BACK from MacAnuff and Kahn.  The
band starts playing an instrumental cover of the Lokes' "Moving in Binaural"
and we

FADE TO BLACK