Lady from Como (eBook)

CHAPTER 1
BACK FROM
CHAOS

Jeff Wiler is a tired man—tired of the same monotonous grind, day in and day out. He is tired of being alone. And he is tired of reliving the events of the past two horrible years. Now, in his mind, there is little to look forward to. Above all, he misses the love of a woman—the right woman, if one ever comes along.

He was born in 1938 in Vallejo, California, often called “Valley-Joe” by locals, and raised in Lodi, California, where his parents currently live. His father, Alvin, worked in Vallejo for the Sperry Flour Company located on the Carquinez Strait, across the bay from the C &H Sugar refinery in Crockett, California. In 1929, Sperry became part of the General Mills Company. The company was initially known for its cereal but later became a flour producer.

Alvin and his wife, Helen, had only one child, Jeffery Alvin Wiler. Shortly after World War II, and after 20+ years in Vallejo, the family moved to Lodi, California, where General Mills had a cereal plant. Alvin had been transferred and, keeping his salary and seniority, moved his family to Lodi, where he currently works. He plans to retire soon.

As a child, Jeff’s breakfast was usually CherriOats—later renamed Cheerios.

Jeff went to Lodi schools and played high school football for the Lodi Flames. He played under the legendary coach, John Giannoni.

Giannoni served as a physical fitness instructor and football coach at Lodi between 1951 and 1964. He coached the Flames to six Central California Conference and Sac-Joaquin Conference championships, including three undefeated seasons.

In football, Jeff played end. He was a good athlete, but a football injury dashed his chances for an athletic college scholarship. His grades were high, as were his SAT scores, so he qualified for the University of California at Berkeley. At UC, he lived in the school dorms, usually going home on the weekends—Mom and Dad assured him his expenses were covered. He thrived in the Bay Area from the start. He found vitality in the pace of life there.

Nothing against Lodi—it was just too quiet for him as a young man setting out on adulthood and the independence that came with it. In 1969 the song “Lodi” was released by Creedence Clearwater Revival, with the lyrics, “Stuck in Lodi Again,” which made more than one person smile. Jeff later looked back, thinking, ‘yep, that’s how I felt, too!’

As a junior at UC, Jeff had taken temporary part-time jobs offered by the university. On one job, he met Rita, who worked as a secretary in the Registration Office. Their relationship developed over a few months and became romantic.

In his last semester as a senior, Jeff took Rita to meet his parents in Lodi. Two months after the introduction, they announced their engagement. His parents were cordial but a bit shocked. Jeff was very young to be married and still had years of college to complete. Way too young. And so was Rita, for that matter.

Within a few weeks, Jeff informed them that Rita was pregnant. They were not surprised, having deduced that after the prior visit. They had already put together a financial plan to help Jeff get through the remaining years of school. And they accepted the possibility that the dad, Alvin, might have to postpone retirement by a year or so.

Rita was determined to make it all work. She planned to continue working up to just before the due date. Her pay was decent, and she would be able to take maternity leave when the baby was born.

Jeff was very relieved when he learned that monthly payments would continue from his parents while he was still in school. A lot to expect, but thankful.

Throughout the whole time, Rita supported Jeff in several ways—even the occasional get-togethers Jeff had with his good friend, Flavio. They had become close in college and she was very considerate in allowing Jeff a bit of freedom to go out with Flavio—doing guy things. She recognized his need to socialize with his peers at his young age—especially with a new baby.

A second child, Laurie, was to arrive the year of Jeff’s graduation from Law School in 1963.

***

The following years were good ones, career-wise. Jeff poured all his energies into his job and was very successful. However, it wasn’t long before their lives and interests diverged and he and Rita divorced.

He had not socialized much since he divorced, which was before the Black Panthers case.

Despite the recent stress and chaos, he never regretted staying in the Bay Area to live and work.

Relations with Rita had become more agreeable recently. They were getting along well even though she had moved to San Diego, taking their two daughters, Suzy and Laurie, with her.

The girls were doing well, both gradually becoming young ladies. Jeff had made it a point to speak to them on the telephone frequently. Thankfully Rita had supported that. Suzy had been born when he was in his undergraduate class, and Laurie was born shortly after law school. Understandably, the early marriage and subsequent births had placed a lot of pressure on both him and Rita.

Rita always had a compassionate side to her. Following the divorce, she would frequently arrange for Jeff to see the girls while she was in the Bay Area visiting friends and family.

But there was no possibility of a reconciliation.

After the divorce, Jeff was slow to let his guard down. He threw himself into his work as a way to avoid risking any possible romance. But eventually, loneliness crept in. Then he had a brief romance with Veronica, who swept him off his feet—without her even knowing it at first. She was a beautiful black lady who exuded beauty and intelligence. She was a clerical employee at the Alameda County Superior Court building where Jeff worked.

She dressed beautifully and, in fact, was a budding dress designer. She designed and tailored women’s clothing in her apartment, hoping to make it her career one day.

Jeff could not specifically describe what it was about her, but he was utterly taken in. Maybe his loneliness played a role. Whatever it was, her beauty and air of confidence created a magnet. It happens to many people once in a while; we meet someone with those qualities, and we are attracted.

He was still healing emotionally after losing her. He knew it would take time, but he still has ‘the blues’ most of the time. With the entire country going through chaotic times, it was hard to imagine a brighter future.

Little did Jeff know that the chaos of 1969 and 1970 still had momentum.

***

In the United States, the decade of the 1970s started amid a period of national unrest.

In the 1960s, the U. S. experienced widespread violence—increased crime, race riots in Birmingham, Harlem, Watts, Newark, and Detroit, and even more shocking events: the assassinations of John Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. The country reeled in the throes of an epidemic—one of insanity.

As the decade of the 1970s began, the country was still fighting in Vietnam after almost nine years, having entered the war on February 28, 1961. The country had become divided on the morality of the war. The Hawks and the Doves were two protest groups, each publicly demonstrating their opposite points of view. The Doves wanted peace and the Hawks encouraged more troops and more bombing raids. A protest rally on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University turned violent when four students were shot and killed—assuring that the insanity continued.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released statistics to the public, showing that the annual volume of major crime had risen substantially in the 1960s.

According to the New York Times, in 1969 Miami had the highest major crime of any American community, with 5,342 crimes per 100,000 population, the San Francisco Bay area, where Jeff lived, was second, with 5,329, followed by New York City with 5,220.

Richard M. Nixon had been elected as the 37th President of the United States on November 3, 1968, and took office on January 29, 1969, following Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The decade of the 1970s had begun with little optimism.

In March of 1972 Paramount Pictures released the movie, “The Godfather”, starring Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.

***

It is the evening of Sunday, April 30, 1972—tomorrow Jeff will face another Monday. As he sat on the couch in his El Sobrante apartment with a glass of Andre’ Cold Duck he stretched out his legs and sat back, trying to relax. It is almost a nightly routine for him.

As he sipped his sparkling wine, he looked over at his bookcase where his favorite book, “The Untouchables,” sat with dust on its top. It was a good book and later was a great television series about Eliot Ness, played by Robert Stack, and the FBI fighting organized crime in the 1920s. Jeff always thought that nowadays we need another Ness. But the real-life Ness had died of a heart attack at age 57—probably the result of stress.

‘I can relate to that,’ he thought. Then he finished his glass of wine, saying out loud,

“Here’s to another Blue Monday.”

Jeff is a prosecuting attorney for Alameda County and has worked in the District Attorney’s office for nine years. His Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from UC Berkeley and his law degree from UC Law School prepared him well for this prestigious career. His current superior is David Morgan, the temporary DA for the county, on loan from the San Francisco County DA’s office. David was appointed in 1970 to temporarily fill the vacancy...