The below story is chapter 23 of Olongapo, my crime
thriller that I hope to publish this year.
The story originally appeared in American Crime Magazine.
The Hit
By Paul Davis
Chief Boatswain’s Mate Mark Mackie was not a popular chief in
the USS Kitty Hawk’s Deck Department. The veteran sailor from Nevada served 22
years in the U.S. Navy and worked on a variety of ships in his career. Prior to
reporting to the USS Kitty Hawk in 1970, Mackie served on a 50-foot swift boat
in Da Nang Harbor in South Vietnam.
Six feet tall and built like a football lineman, Mackie was a
tough, no nonsense senior enlisted leader who inspired respect, if not
popularity. He was a stern taskmaster, and he rode his subordinates
hard.
He was especially hard on a 3rd Class Boatswain’s
Mate named Harold Smith, a thin and weak-chinned 25-year-old sailor from New
Jersey. Mackie felt that petty officers should work harder than seamen, a
notion that BM3 Smith did not agree with at all. Smith thought that once he
became a petty officer, he would just tell seamen what to do. Mackie thought
Smith was a piss-poor excuse for a petty officer and sailor, and the chief
called him a “fuck-up” and a “non-hacker.”
Also on Chief Mackie’s personal “shit list” was a seaman from
Nebraska named Harry Stillman. Chief Mackie called Stillman a disgrace to the
United States Navy and a disgrace to the human race. A slovenly, overweight,
and somewhat dim 23-year-old, Stillman was a chronic marijuana user. In the
days before mandatory drug tests, many young sailors smoked marijuana
recreationally, but Stillman took it to an extreme.
“Do you know why Harry is named Stillman?” a Navy wit asked the
sailors in the Deck Department’s berthing compartment. “It’s because he is so
fucking wasted on pot he can’t move.”
Stillman was always buzzed from smoking pot, and the pot gave
him the “munchies,” so he snacked continually on large amounts of Coke, Ritz
crackers and small cans of Vienna Sausage. He purchased the soda and food from
the “Gedunk,” which is what sailors call the ship’s store.
Stillman was also always first in line at the galley for his
three hearty meals a day, and he was a regular nightly visitor to the galley
for Midnight Rations, called “MIDRATS.” MIDRATS offered hot dogs, hamburgers,
grilled cheese sandwiches and French fries to the sailors going on late watch,
as well as to other sailors who liked a late-night fast-food
meal.
Having taken enough abuse from Chief Mackie, Smith suggested to
Stillman that they pool their money and hire a Filipino hitman to murder Chief
Mackie on the following day when the Kitty Hawk once again visited Subic Bay.
Stillman was all for the conspiracy, as long as Smith did all of the planning
and work.
Smith was one of Lorino’s customers, and the meth dealer was
asked to join the murder conspiracy and chip in to pay the killer. Lorino
passed. Although Lorino was not much of a worker, he got along with Chief
Mackie. And what did murdering a tough chief have to do with business?
Upon the recommendation of Winston, Smith and Stillman went to
the Americano in Olongapo and spoke to Walker. Walker introduced the
petty officer and the seaman to Banoy Abad. Sitting across from Abad, Smith and
Stillman were frightened, but Smith managed to propose that Abad “hit’
Mackie.
“For one hundred dollar American, I kill the man, sure” Abad
told Smith and Stillman.
Smith, who had $800 dollars on him, was surprised that the scary
Filipino criminal would murder Chief Mackie for so little. It was said that
life was cheap in Olongapo. Apparently so was death.
Banoy Abad was a needle-thin and pinched-faced psychopath even
before he began to use shabu, but once he became a regular user of crystal
meth, he was off the chart crazy and extremely violent.
Abad, who never knew his father and whose mother was a street
prostitute, grew up wild and crazy on the streets of Olongapo. He began his
criminal career as a shoeshine boy. While giving a sailor a shoeshine, he would
whip out a straight razor and hold it against the unsuspecting sailor’s
Achilles Heel.
The sailors were at first surprised that a little Filipino kid
had a razor against their heel. But most sailors knew a laceration of the
Achilles tendon was painful and would cripple them, so they pulled out their
wallet and gave their cash over to the small street urchin.
Abad grew up to be a frighting armed robber who preyed on drunk
sailors, street vendors and bar girls. He and his partner in crime, Rizalino
Cruz, another uber-thin and half-crazed meth-head, were notorious street
bandits and murderers.
Smith told Abad what bar the chief frequented while in Olongapo
and he showed the Filipino hitman a photo of the chief. The photo of Chief
Mackie had been posted on a bulletin board after he was named “Sailor of the
Month.” Smith had ripped the photo off of the bulletin board.
Later that evening, as Mackie and a bar girl left the bar, the
two Filipino hitmen attacked Mackie with Butterfly knives. Although Mackie was
drunk on San Miguel beer, he saw the Filipinos rushing towards him out the
corner of his eye. He pushed the girl aside and threw up a sharp elbow which
Abad ran straight into, causing the assassin to fall backwards. Cruz stabbed
Mackie in the chest, and the chief grabbed the shorter man’s head in a vice and
threw him up against a jeepney in the street.
Abad recovered quickly from Mackie’s blow and was up and
charging the chief again. Mackie hit Abad in the throat with his open palm. The
blow instantly killed Abad and he dropped to the street. Cruz started to run,
but Mackie caught him by his wrist and elbow and broke the hitman’s arm. Cruz
dropped his knife and screamed out in pain. Holding on to Cruz’s broken arm,
Mackie used his right leg to sweep the Filipino’s legs out from under him, and
Cruz landed on his behind. Still holding onto Cruz’s injured arm, Mackie kicked
him several times in the side.
Officers from the Olongapo City Police Office, followed almost
immediately by the U.S. Navy Shore Patrol, arrived on the scene of the
attempted murder. The Philippine police officers took Cruz into custody.
Lieutenant Colonel Cesar Rosa examined Abad as he lay in the street. Rosa
looked up and announced to the other officers that the notorious criminal was
dead.
Rosa smiled.
The Shore patrol took Mackie to the Subic Bay hospital and the
Olongapo police took Cruz to a local hospital. Abad was taken to the morgue.
Cruz was interrogated harshly by Rosa as a doctor treated him, and he gave up
Smith and Stillman without hesitation. He did not mention Walker’s involvement,
as he feared the Old Huk.
Rosa passed the information from Cruz to the American NIS, and
the special agents sought out and arrested Smith and Stillman.
After he was arrested, Smith thought briefly about giving up
Walker and Lorino the meth dealer as a means of getting a lighter sentence, but
he thought better of it. As Smith was not a particularly brave man,
he feared making these two violent criminals his enemies.
An Olongapo police officer on the Old Huk’s payroll called
Camama and reported the attempted assassination to the gang leader. The officer
gave all of the details to Camama. The Old Huk, who already knew that Walker
had introduced the American sailors to Abad, was displeased at Walker’s
reckless, and profitless, actions.
The Old Huk ordered Jackie Sicat to reproach Walker for mixing
up with that crazy man Abad and the even more crazy Americans. Sicat entered
the Americano and beckoned Walker to come to him. Walker edged over to Sicat
and stood silently as Sicat proceeded to call him an idiot and fool for mixing
up with Abad and stupid Americans.
“I just introduced them as a favor to a regular customer,”
Walker explained. “I didn’t know what was going down.”
“Old Huk say if police come here and involve us, you be face up
dead in Shit River,” Sicat said.
Lorino, who was standing nearby, was glad he passed on getting
involved in the attempted murder.
© 2024 By Paul Davis
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