THE RETURN OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON (eBook)

Chapter 1

WE’RE BACK—JACK

“Sister, Sister”

We have just finished taking down the Bank of Saxony in Hawaii, and now the next mission awaits.

Jordan has been telling the story of our Nazi hunting. He has done a good job. Now it’s my turn to tell the story in this next part of our journey.

It all goes back to second grade. That got glossed over previously. I don’t know if people understand how profound this tale is. The fact is we were scared to our souls when Sister Ansilio told us about Nazis and how they killed her brother in Normandy, France. She told us these bad men were killing families over in far-away Europe. We were so shocked to hear this that we couldn’t go on living knowing the world was such a bad place, but Sister convinced us we could help bring justice to the world.

“When you grow up, Hunter and Jordan, you can help bring Nazis to justice. Many of them have escaped prosecution for their crimes. They also stole money and everything they could take from their victims.”

“But how can we do anything?” Jordan asked.

“Talk to your parents. They know about these bad men. And they may know my brother’s friend who was in the Resistance.”

“I don’t think we know about Resistance,” I said.

“We don’t teach the Resistance in second grade, boys.”

“I know what it is,” Jordan said. “My dad said they’re saving us Jews.”

“Yes, they are, and they are going after Nazis. Yes, they are, boys.”

“So that’s what we can do when we grow up a little more,” I said. “We’ll do Resistance.”

“Right, Jordy?”

“We promise we will, Sister. We’ll keep the promise, too. Maybe we’ll even join Resistance.”

“Those are all excellent ideas, boys. I’m very proud of you. I will pray the good Lord looks out for you and keeps you both safe and strong so that when the time comes, you will be ready to deal with these bad people.”

“Then what?” I asked.

“That’s a good question, Hunter. We are about justice, not death. The guilty should go to jail. We do not want more violence and death.”

“But what do we do?” I asked.

“You need to, you know, mess them up like. No shooting or killing.”

“Like really jack them around, Sister?” Jordan asked.

“Yes, yes. You boys have what it takes to make their lives miserable. You boys give me trouble every day. You’re little hooligans. But I know you’re good inside, and boys like you will always do the right thing in life if given a chance. You become the leaders in war and peace. And this is war.”

“You can go join your classmates on the playground. You will get to go outside even though your detention JUG (Justice Under God) was for the full lunchtime. Go now. Play. Thank you for listening, boys.”

“It’s okay, Sister. We’ll help you when we grow up. This I great. Now I don’t have to be a fireman. I can be a Nazi hunter and be with my best buddy Jordan. We’ll do a good job.”

“He’s right, sister,” Jordan said. “We won’t let you down. I’m just glad you asked us for help. Most people just give us a hard time, but you believe in us. That means a bunch.”

“Amen, Jordan.”

“I agree,” I said.

Of course, we skedaddled to the playground, but the playground would never be the same again after that day when we learned about Nazis. There was a time when recess meant everything, but that all changed after our commitment.

We would still play hard during recess in grade school, but our interests had expanded.

We grew up quick-like after our pledge to Sister Ansilio. She had our number, that’s for sure, but we always respected her, even when she gave us those damn JUGs. The relationship with her changed. She was no longer our jailhouse guard. She became our big sister and mentor. It’s hard to explain the whole thing, but she had a major impact on our young lives. In a sense, I don’t think we were ever kids again after that day she told us about Nazis. We began to feel like we were grown-ups. Jordan and I began to visit the city library together to read and study about Nazis all through grade school. During those years, we also got to know Tom Charlebois, an old army buddy of Jordan’s dad. We later learned Tom was with the French Resistance. Tom knew we were going to be Nazi hunters when we grew up so he always told us stories about his run-ins with Nazis during the Second World War. And eventually, when we were sixteen, he told us to come work with him if we were serious. We took that deal the night it was made on the back porch at Jordan’s house. The same night, we drank our first beer and ate pretzels.

That’s how it all started and came together. Tom said one of his Resistance fighters was Sister Ansilio’s brother, Johnny Cantoni, who fought in the First World War in Italy. While fighting on the Italian front near Schio, east of Lake Garda, Johnny met Ernest Hemingway, and both were later brought together again at the Maggiore Hospital in Milan.

That was the connection that led Johnny to the French Resistance. Hemingway invited Johnny Cantoni to hang out with his Lost Generation gang in Paris. The two men were instant friends, according to Sister, because Johnny also shared a love for boxing. Rumor was he and Hemingway taught boxing in Paris to make money to pay their bills. Johnny also met Hemingway’s friends who would later be part of the French Resistance.

Johnny Cantoni boxed with Hemingway and his friends at the Circle American Boxing Club on the Boulevard Raspail in Paris.

Although Johnny was an Italian boy from Cicero Illinois, he had an instant love for Paris and its people. He even married a French girl and stayed in France to become a successful sculptor. Then, as the Nazis came into France, both Johnny and his wife joined the Resistance. They had no children so they were free to fight the Nazis without worry about a family. Both Johnny and wife Celeste partnered with Tom Charlebois and his fighters. Women made up nearly 20 percent of the total force in the Resistance. Celeste was very involved in smuggling incarcerated and wanted dissidents out of France. She teamed up with Helene Studler and organized the escape of Francois Mitterrand who said he wanted to become the president of France someday.

When Jordan and I were still at St. Adalberts School, Tom told us about a former American soldier who was with the Resistance. His name was Johnny the American. That’s all we knew back then. He was a demolition expert who blew up hundreds of bridges and countless railroad installations prior to D-Day in June 1944. We later learned the whole story about Johnny Cantoni, the American.

Because of his expertise with explosives and demolition, Johnny Cantoni became an agent in the Special Operations Executive, known as SOE. The agents of SOE assisted Resistance groups throughout occupied European territory.

One of Johnny’s biggest successes with the Resistance was the sabotage destruction of the Norsk Hydro Plant in Norway in 1943 which manufactured heavy water for Hitler’s atomic bomb program.

Because SOE was set up by Churchill at the beginning of the war in 1940, the Resistance was able to communicate and coordinate with Britain leading up to D-Day.

Tom told us that Johnny and his team were in Normandy for weeks leading up to D-Day Operation Overlord.

“Yes, he was very involved. The Resistance never disclosed the loss of our most wanted by the Nazis. We would not give them the satisfaction of knowing they killed our leaders. Since Johnny was a top man in the Resistance, his death during the early days of D-Day was not reported. Johnny did receive the Legion d’Honneur which is the highest honor France gives to a civilian or member of the military.”

“We saw the medal,” Jordan said. “Sister Ansilio showed it to us in school. She even pinned it on our shirts and let us walk around the lunch room wearing the medal during the Christmas program. It was a beautiful green and white star-shaped medal attached to a red ribbon.”

“We never forgot, did we, Jordan?”

“We never will.”

And of course, we never did. We stopped to see Sister whenever we got back in town. We talked about life in general. Once in a while, she mentioned Johnny and how he was the greatest brother anyone ever had. He always gave. Then he gave more and more. A real man for all men, like the Jesuits talk about. That was Johnny, she said. Sister didn’t know it, but we both wanted to be like Johnny. Fight the Nazis and, if necessary, die in a blaze of glory, which wasn’t far from the truth about SOE. Churchill started SOE to set Europe ablaze! That’s right. Anyway, we were young and ambitious. We were never foolish. Our mission was too serious.

So, over the years, we heard stories from Tom about the missions of Johnny and his SOE boys (and girls).

One great story was about Johnny and a Scottish...