WILLIAM PHILLIPS
235
Little was known about his personal life or habits . He was said to
have an obsessive sense of privacy, and an almost paranoid need for se–
crecy. But there were newspaper clippings about three short-lived mar–
riages, one annulled because it had not been consummated. Another left
him with a daughter, brought up by her grandparents, who went to ex–
clusive schools and married an executive of the Fiat Company. The last
marriage, according to several newspaper stories, was to a young, wild–
looking blonde, an adventuress who, like Algie, had strayed from a
wealthy bourgeois family of doctors and lawyers.
This information led the Bureau to the American Communists.
Robins and Hastings made a routine visit to Communist headquarters in
an old high-rise on Twelfth Street, with a bookstore on the street level
that featured Marxist books and had overblown pictures of Marx and
Lenin on one shabby pink wall, and smaller photos of Castro and Che
Guevera. They flashed the badges they kept in an inside pocket and said
they wanted to see an officer of the party. They were directed to a
freight elevator to take them to the ninth floor, the famous floor of the
Party officials. Going by past experience, they did not expect to get
much information from the Party, but routine procedures had to be fol–
lowed. A big black man who looked like an overweight football line–
man showed them into a large, shabby room, with a scratched-up oak
desk and four old plastic chairs, strewn with papers and books. In a
white bookcase on one wall, they noticed some titles with the words
"revolution" and "working class."
Robins and Hastings flashed their cards again, and Hastings asked the
skinny man behind the desk, about thirty with thick glasses, what his
name was.
"Harry Raymond," he said.
An assumed name, thought Robins.
"Sit down. What can I do for you? You know, " he added, "we
don't have any dealings with the FBI."
"We're investigating a man by the name of Alfred Gianelli, who was
killed when a bomb exploded in a truck he was driving. We understand
he was a member of the Communist Party under the name of Donald
Somers and his publishing house printed Communist books."
"I don't know him personally," said Raymond. "Besides, we don't
give out any information about membership in the Party."
"This is a criminal investigation," said Robins. "He was carrying
bombs.
It
could be an act of terrorism, and you could be involved."
"I said I had nothing to do with Gianelli, and we have nothing to
do
with terrorism. You know Marx and Lenin opposed individual acts
of
terrorism like murder or assassination. You can read that for yourself
Do
you want some literature on the subject of terrorism? Anarchists ad-
