Camel Press
PO Box 70515
Seattle, WA 98127
For more information go to: www.camelpress.com
www.richzahradnik.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover design by Sabrina Sun
A Black Sail
Copyright © 2016 by Rich Zahradnik
ISBN: 978-1-60381-211-5 (Trade Paper)
ISBN: 978-1-60381-212-2 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016939803
Produced in the United States of America
* * *
* * *
In memory of Tim Gunther,
husband, father, firefighter, writer,
and my great friend.
(It’s not Vonnegut, Tim. Never could be. So it goes.)
* * *
There was a great deal of contemporary newspaper coverage of the U.S. Bicentennial that helped in my research. For the exact details on the sailing ships and naval vessels that participated in Operation Sail and the International Naval Review on July 4, 1976, I am indebted to three books: The Tall Ships: A Sailing Celebration by Hyla M. Clark, Search for the Tall Ships: A Sketchbook of the Ships that Came to Operation Sail 1976 … and How They Were Found by Frank O. Braynard, and Operation Sail 1976 by Joseph Gribbins. In addition, the article “The Harbor Police: Patrolling the Waterways” in the April 1968 issue of Spring 3100, the NYPD’s magazine for police officers and retirees, was helpful in understanding the history and operation of the NYPD Harbor Precinct.
I gained insights into the New York heroin trade of the mid- to late seventies, particularly in Harlem, from Mr. Untouchable: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Heroin’s Teflon Don by Leroy “Nicky” Barnes and Tom Folsom. Finally, I must credit The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge by T.J. English for an important and critical view into how the NYPD and the FBI operated during the period, and in particular, treated African Americans.
Huge thanks to my editors at Camel Press, Jennifer McCord and Catherine Treadgold, who did so much to get this book ready to go out and meet the world. Finally, thank you and love to my wife Sheri and son Patrick for being here, there and everywhere as I travel the writer’s road.
* * *