Paul Davis On Crime: U.S. Navy

Showing posts with label U.S. Navy. Show all posts

Friday, September 19, 2025

Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Sentenced To Six Years In Bribery Scheme

The U.S. Justice Department released the information below:

WASHINGTON – Admiral Robert P. Burke (USN-Ret.), 62, of Coconut Creek, Florida, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 72 months in prison in connection with accepting future employment at a government vendor in exchange for awarding that company a government contract, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

Following a five-day trial, a federal jury found Burke guilty on May 19 of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts from the United States. In addition to the six-year prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden ordered Burke to serve three years of supervised release, to pay $322,850 in restitution, and to pay $86,748.08 in forfeiture.

Joining in the announcement were Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Economic Crimes Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Stanley A. Newell of the DoD Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Transnational Operations Field Office, and Assistant Director in Charge Reid Davis of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division.

“Integrity — not cash — is the currency of public service. Admiral Burke rose to the pinnacle of the U.S. Navy, entrusted with leadership and honor. But instead of leading by example, he cashed in that trust — turning four stars into dollar signs and trading duty for a corporate payday,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro. “Today’s sentence sends a clear message: if you sell your honor and trade your influence, you’ll pay the price — in prison time.”

“No individual, regardless of rank or prior service, is above the law,” said Special Agent in Charge Newell of the DCIS. “The actions uncovered in this investigation represent a serious breach of the public trust and dishonor the values of integrity and accountability that military service demands. DCIS remains committed to ensuring that corruption of this nature is met with consequences.”

“Any individual involved in corrupting Department of the Navy acquisitions will be held accountable, regardless of rank or position,” said Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross of the NCIS Economic Crimes Field Office. “NCIS remains steadfast in bringing those to justice who commit crimes that erode public trust in the Department of the Navy’s procurement process.”

"When Burke awarded a contract to Kim and Messenger's company in exchange for future employment, he put himself ahead of thousands of civilian and military personnel serving under his command," said Reid Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Criminal Division. "As today's sentencing demonstrates, the FBI remains committed to bringing government officials — even four-star admirals — to justice when they abuse their positions of power for personal gain."

Burke’s co-defendants, Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger, were the co-CEOs of a company (Company A) and provided a workforce training pilot program to a small component of the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019. The Navy terminated that contract with Company A in late 2019 and directed Company A not to contact Burke directly about contracting actions.

Despite the Navy’s instructions, the co-defendants met with Burke in Washington, D.C., in July 2021, to reestablish Company A’s business relationship with the Navy. At the meeting, the co-defendants agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy Admiral to steer a contract to Company A in exchange for future employment at the company. They further agreed that Burke would later use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award another contract to Company A to train a large portion of the Navy with a value one of the co-defendants allegedly estimated to be in the “triple digit millions.”

In December 2021, Burke ordered his staff to award a $355,000 contract to Company A to train personnel under Burke’s command in Italy and Spain. Company A performed the training in January 2022. Thereafter, Burke promoted Company A in a failed effort to convince another senior Navy Admiral to award another contract to Company A. To conceal the scheme, Burke made several false and misleading statements to the Navy, including by falsely implying that Company A’s employment discussions with Burke only began months after the contract was awarded and omitting the truth on his required government ethics disclosure forms.

In October 2022, Burke began working at Company A at a yearly starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options.

This case was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the FBI’s Washington Field Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca G. Ross for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Trevor Wilmot and former Trial Attorney Kathryn Fifield. It was investigated and indicted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein.

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Found Guilty In Bribery Scheme

The U.S. Justice Department released the information below on May 19^th:

WASHINGTON – Admiral Robert Burke (USN-Ret.), 62, of Coconut Creek, Florida, was found guilty of bribery today in connection with accepting future employment at a government vendor in exchange for awarding that company a government contract.

Following a five-day trial, a federal jury found Burke guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts from the United States. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden scheduled sentencing for August 22, 2025.

The verdict was announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, Matthew R. Galeotti Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Economic Crimes Field Office, Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen of the FBI Washington Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Stanley Newell of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s (DoD OIG) Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Transnational Field Office.

“When you abuse your position and betray the public trust to line your own pockets, it undermines the confidence in the government you represent,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro. “Our office, with our law enforcement partners, will root out corruption – be it bribes or illegal contracts – and hold accountable the perpetrators, no matter what title or rank they hold.”

According to court documents and as the evidence proved at trial, from 2020 to 2022, Burke was a four-star Admiral who oversaw U.S. naval operations in Europe, Russia, and most of Africa, and commanded thousands of civilian and military personnel. The two co-defendants Kim and Messenger were the co-CEOs of a company (Company A) and provided a workforce training pilot program to a small component of the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019. The Navy terminated a contract with Company A in late 2019 and directed Company A not to contact Burke.

Despite the Navy’s instructions, the co-defendants met with Burke in Washington, D.C., in July 2021, to reestablish Company A’s business relationship with the Navy. At the meeting, the charged defendants agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy Admiral to steer a contract to Company A in exchange for future employment at the company. They further agreed that Burke would use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award another contract to Company A to train a large portion of the Navy with a value one of the co-defendants allegedly estimated to be “triple digit millions.”

In October 2022, Burke began working at Company A at a yearly starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options.

This case was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the FBI’s Washington Field Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca G. Ross for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorneys Trevor Wilmot and Kathryn E. Fifield of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. It was investigated and indicted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein.

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Navy HELIOS Laser Aboard USS Preble Zaps Drone In Latest Test

The Warzone website offers a U.S. Navy released photo of the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Preble successfully test-firing its High-Energy Laser with Optical Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS).

You can read the piece via the link below:

Navy HELIOS Laser Aboard USS Preble Zaps Drone In Latest Test

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Fat Leonard Case: Leonard Glenn Francis Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison For Massive Bribery, Fraud And Disappearance

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information today:

SAN DIEGO – Leonard Glenn Francis (seen in the above photo), mastermind of an unprecedented bribery and fraud scheme targeting the U.S. Navy, was sentenced in federal court today to 180 months in prison and ordered to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy and a $150,000 fine. Francis was also ordered to forfeit $35 million in ill-gotten proceeds from his crimes.

Francis’ sentence reflects admissions in his first guilty plea in 2015 concerning bribery and fraud, his extensive cooperation with the government, and his guilty plea today for failing to appear for his original sentencing hearing in 2022. U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino handed down a 164-month sentence for bribery and fraud and 16 months for failing to appear, to be served consecutively.

Francis admitted today in his second plea agreement that he fled the country to avoid his sentencing hearing in September 2022. Around September 4, 2022, while he was on house arrest, Francis cut off a GPS monitor he was required to wear and disappeared, first fleeing to Mexico, then Cuba, and ultimately, Venezuela. He was later arrested in Venezuela and brought back to the U.S. on December 20, 2023.

Francis, 60, a Malaysian citizen most recently living in Singapore, was initially arrested in San Diego on September 16, 2013, and remained in pretrial custody until December 18, 2017, when the court granted his request for release pending sentencing due to a medical condition. Francis served four years and three months in custody before he was released on bond and ordered into house arrest. He remained on bond under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services for almost five years, from December 17, 2017, until he fled the U.S. on September 4, 2022. He has remained in custody in the U.S. since his return on December 20, 2023. Based on today’s sentence and the court’s finding that Francis has so far served 2,333 days of his sentence - including time spent in custody in Venezuela at the request of the U.S. government - Francis has an estimated 8.5 years remaining.

According to admissions in his initial 2015 plea agreement, and other court documents, Francis and his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, or GDMA, which provided services to U.S. Navy ships in Asia Pacific ports, gave co-conspirators millions of dollars in things of value, including over $500,000 in cash; hundreds of thousands of dollars in the services of prostitutes and associated expenses; hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses, including airfare, often first or business class, luxurious hotel stays, incidentals, and spa treatments; hundreds of thousands of dollars in lavish meals, top-shelf alcohol and wine, and entertainment; and hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury gifts, including designer handbags and leather goods, watches, fountain pens, Kobe beef, Spanish suckling pigs, designer furniture, Cuban cigars, consumer electronics, ornamental swords, and hand-made ship models.

Francis admitted that in return, U.S. Navy personnel and command staff advocated on behalf of Francis and his company during the procurement process and provided classified information about various U.S. Navy ships’ port visits, proprietary U.S. Navy information such as details about competitors’ bids for U.S. Navy contracts, and information about Naval Criminal Investigative Service and U.S. Navy investigations into GDMA’s practices, among other things.

In his 2015 plea agreement, Francis also admitted to defrauding the U.S. Navy of tens of millions of dollars by routinely overbilling for goods and services provided, including fuel, tugboats, and sewage disposal.

GDMA the corporation was also sentenced today to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $36 million fine.

According to the government’s sentencing memo, Francis’ scheme to defraud the United States over many years and the entrenched bribery and corruption he fostered within the U.S. Navy were aggravated and egregious. By contrast, once caught, he pleaded guilty, and cooperated extensively with authorities.

Over the course of several years, Francis met with government investigators dozens of times to discuss unprecedented levels of corruption within the U.S. Navy. Francis provided detailed information about hundreds of Sailors, from petty officers to admirals, and turned over financial records, photographs, receipts and Navy contracting documents. Corroborated information from Francis substantially assisted the United States in its investigation.

“Mr. Francis’ sentencing brings closure to an expansive fraud scheme that he perpetrated against the U.S. Navy with assistance from various Navy officials. This fraud conspiracy ultimately cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars and weakened the public’s trust in some of our Navy’s senior leaders. Mr. Francis’ actions not only degraded the 7th Fleet’s readiness but shook the Fleet’s trust in its leadership who furthered his corrupt practices,” said Kelly P. Mayo, the Director of the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS). “The exhaustive joint investigation exemplifies the lengths DCIS and its investigative partners will go to in order to pursue justice for the American taxpayer and our warfighters. DCIS will continue to protect our nation’s precious resources so they are not lost to illicit schemes that only serve one’s greed and self-aggrandizement to the detriment of our national security.”

“Leonard Francis put the safety of our warfighters and Department of Navy assets at risk,” said NCIS Director Omar Lopez. “He disregarded the law and lined his pockets by bribing U.S. Navy officials and others to exploit sensitive national security information. NCIS remains committed to protecting Department of the Navy personnel and resources. As we reach the final sentencing in this complex and intensive procurement fraud investigation that spanned over a decade, I want to thank the countless NCIS professionals and partner agencies involved.”

Note: You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine Q&A with Craig Whitlock, the author of Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced the U.S. Navy, via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Counterterrorism Magazine Q&A With Craig Whitlock, The Author Of “Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked and Seduced the U.S. Navy”

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Chapter One: Butterfly

A friend and fellow Navy veteran who visited Olongapo in the Philippines while serving in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War asked to read Olongapo, the crime thriller I’ve written and hope to soon publish.

I told him that I had posted five of the chapters on my website, and he asked that I repost the chapters.

Below is chapter one, Butterfly.

The below story originally appeared in American Crime Magazine.

Butterfly

By Paul Davis

I lived in what we considered a tough neighborhood in South Philadelphia when I was a teenager in the 1960s. I ran with a tough crowd on the mean streets of South Philly, but I would later discover that Olongapo in the early 1970s was a truly tough town.

I recall an old Navy chief telling me and other young sailors on the USS Kitty Hawk about the notorious port city as the aircraft carrier sailed towards the Philippines in November of 1970. The chief, who had been around the world while serving many years in the U.S. Navy, told us that Olongapo was the wildest place he had ever seen.

“Once you walk across the bridge over Shit River into Olongapo, you’ll be corrupted quickly by sexy bar girls, cheap booze, available drugs, and all sorts of crime,” the old chief said with a mischievous grin.

During the Vietnam War, Olongapo, the city located next to the massive U.S. Navy Base at Subic Bay in the Philippines, was like Dodge City, Las Vegas, and Sodom and Gomorrah all rolled into one. The U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet ships that operated off the coast of Vietnam during the war were frequent visitors to Subic Bay, as the naval base provided repairs and replenishment to the warships.

As the pent-up American sailors left the ships and swarmed into Olongapo, the city’s shadier elements were waiting. Sailors walked out of the naval base’s gate and crossed over the small bridge above the Olongapo River, called “Shit River” by the Americans due to its muddy brown color and pungent smell. Despite the filth and pollution, several small children on boats were willing to slip into the river and dive for the coins the sailors tossed from the bridge into the water.

On the other side of the bridge was Olongapo’s main street, Magsaysay Drive. Known as the “Strip,” there was a seemingly endless line of bars, restaurants and hotels all lit up in colorful neon lights. The street was noisy and crowded with passing American sailors and Marines, street vendors, drug dealers, pickpockets, thieves, con artists, armed robbers and innocent-looking young shoeshine boys who were known to hold a razor against a sailor’s heel until he handed over his wallet.

Also on the crowded street were scores of young, attractive Filipinas enticing sailors to come into their bar with blown kisses, swaying hips, pushed out breasts, and shaking derrieres. Occasionally a girl would use strong-arm tactics, such as grabbing a young sailor by the arm and yanking him into the bar and announcing loudly that she had a “Cherry Boy” virgin.

Crossing Magsaysay Drive was often a case of bravery or foolhardiness, as one could be hit by one of the ubiquitous “jeepneys,” Olongapo’s colorfully decorated minibuses that were converted from American jeeps abandoned after World War II.

The American dollar was like gold in the early 1970s, and one could spend a wild night in Olongapo drinking, eating, dancing, and staying in a hotel room with a local beauty for only about $20.

I was 18 years old when I first visited Olongapo in 1970. I was a cocky, street-smart South Philly kid, as well as a lean and muscular amateur middleweight boxer, so I was not intimidated by the barrage of sights, sounds and smells of this strange town like so many other young sailors who first experience it. I was also not fazed when a bar girl grabbed my arm outside of a bar and yanked me towards the bar’s entrance.

“You so young and handsome,” the pretty Filipina said as she tugged my arm. “You Cherry Boy?” I pulled my arm loose from her grip and replied, “Not hardly.”

Thankfully, I had good friends on the aircraft carrier who had visited Olongapo during the Kitty Hawk’s previous combat cruise, and they warned me about the dangers and pitfalls, as well as the delights, of the notorious city. As an aspiring crime writer, Olongapo sounded like just the place for me.

All American servicemen were duly warned of the dangers when visiting Olongapo’s bars and other establishments. One rule pounded into the sailors by the older sailors was not to “Butterfly” in individual bars. To butterfly was to associate with two bar girls, called “Hostesses,” in any one bar. The bar girls were protective of their claimed sailors and the money they earned from the sailors buying them whisky (actually Coke) and champagne (actually 7-Up). The price of a drink for the girls was only about a buck, so the sailors didn’t mind paying this apparent scam. But the bar girls resented another bar girl poaching on their moneymakers.

When a sailor would butterfly, whether on his own initiative or by the encouragement of another bar girl, the aggrieved bar girl would often fly into a rage and attack the other bar girl, and sometimes the offending sailor.

Even before I set foot in Olongapo, I heard the much-repeated cautionary tale about an American sailor who committed the offense and paid a dear price. The bar girl he had been seeing was so mad when he flirted with another bar girl that she attacked the girl on the dance floor. To the consternation of the bar’s manager and the utter delight of the American sailors, the two girls pulled hair, and kicked and punched each other.

The Filipino manager and his waiters pulled the two girls apart. The offended girl then went to her purse and pulled out her Batangas knife, a weapon more commonly known as a “Butterfly” knife. The knife had two handles with the sharp blade concealed in the groves of the handles. When flashed, flipped and fanned by someone who knew what they are doing, the butterfly knife was a most scary and deadly thing.

This bar girl knew how to use the butterfly knife and she charged the butterflying sailor and slit his throat as he sat in a chair. He died on the way to the base hospital.

On my first visit to Olongapo in early December of 1970, I went into one of the bars with some shipmates and met a pretty girl who sat with me as I bought her drinks. I had fun drinking and dancing with her, and we ended up in a hotel room for the night. I returned to the ship the following morning and we soon shoved off for our first “Yankee Station” line period in the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam.

We spent Christmas on Yankee Station, but we pulled back into Subic Bay on December 31st,New Year's Eve. Not everyone was glad to see us. The American sailors stationed on the base and on smaller ships hated when an aircraft carrier pulled into port. With the carrier’s 4, 700 men going ashore with money in their pockets and eager for action, the city’s inhabitants went all out to receive them.

In a case of reverse butterflying, two sailors stationed on the base at Subic Bay resented the Kitty Hawk’s sailors taking over the city on that first night in port. One base sailor was truly angry, as his regular girl at the bar ignored him and cuddled up to a young Kitty Hawk sailor. The base sailor got drunk along with his pal and when the girl went to the restroom, the two base sailors pounced on the Kitty Hawk sailor. They beat him to the floor and one of the two assailants broke a bottle of beer over his head.

The Kitty Hawk sailor was beaten unconscious before other sailors and the Filipino waiters could break it up. The Philippine police and the U.S. Navy Shore Patrol rushed into the bar and took hold of the two base sailors. The Kitty Hawk sailor was gravely injured, and he was taken by two Shore Patrol petty officers to the base hospital. The two base sailors were released by the Philippine police into the custody of two other Shore Patrol petty officers and a junior officer. The Shore Patrol petty officers handcuffed the pair and escorted them to the base, where they were charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder by civilian Naval Investigative Service (NIS) special agents.

The story of the assault on the Kitty Hawk sailor spread quickly all over Olongapo. I heard the story from another sailor as I sat in the Starlight bar with two of my shipmates from the Kitty Hawk’s Communications Radio (CR) Division. Dino Ingemi was a solid six-footer with thinning dark hair. He was an outgoing and funny guy from the Bronx and everyone in the division liked him. Mike Hunt was also a popular guy. He was a brawny, laid-back Californian whose light brown hair, ski nose and easygoing manner belied his background as an outlaw biker prior to enlisting in the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army. Both Ingemi and Hunt were Olongapo veterans, having visited the wild city the year before during Kitty Hawk’s previous combat cruise.

As I was half-Italian on my mother’s side and I grew up in a predominantly Italian American South Philadelphia neighborhood, I called Dino Ingemi my paisan.

"Just another fun night in Olongapo, Paul," my paison said. "That kind of shit won't happen here at the Starlight."

The Filipino band at the Starlight had everyone jumping and dancing to their renditions of popular American songs of the time. The Filipino musicians were incredible mimics, sounding like Sly and the Family Stone with one song, the Four Tops with another, and then went on to sound eerily like the Beatles in yet another number.

We were all dressed in “civies,” as sailors called civilian clothes, and I was wearing a short-sleeved tan and black Italian knit shirt and black slacks. I was something of a clotheshorse, and I differed from most of the other sailors, who were usually clad simply in tie-dyed t-shirts and jeans. Thankfully, the then-chief of naval operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, the enlisted man’s hero, allowed sailors to go ashore in civies rather than in uniform.

We sat at a table drinking bottles of San Miguel, the local beer, when I was approached by Linda Divita, a slim, pretty girl who swayed around me to the music and then pulled me up from my chair to dance with her. Linda had long dark hair and long lovely legs beneath her short black dress. The low cut of her dress afforded one the view of her mostly exposed small breasts.

Dino Ingemi approved.

“She’s got a great ass and cute little tits,” Ingemi said to me when we finally sat back down. I nodded in agreement as Ingemi was smacked on the arm by Marlena Abadiano, the pretty girl he had been seeing since he first visited Olongapo the year before.

Dino Ingemi was very social and made friends easily. He had become close with the Starlight manager, Samuel Rosalita, during the previous cruise. Rosalita joined us at our table and laughed and drank with us. He gave me his business card and another card that read “Welcome to the Starlight: Charming A-Go-Go dancers, Beautiful Ladies and Outstanding Combos.”

I mentioned to Ingemi that Rosalita looked like the entertainer Sammy Davis Jr, and Ingemi began to call him “Sammy,” much to the manager’s delight. Rosalita chuckled and shook his head at everything Ingemi said.

I had a fun night drinking and dancing with Linda that New Year's Eve at the Starlight, and when the bar closed, I took her to a nearby hotel. I was drunk and worried that the girl would steal my money when I fell asleep, so when she was in the bathroom, I looked for a place to hide my slim black leather wallet that held my Navy ID and my cash. I looked up at the light fixture mounted on the ceiling six feet above me. Thinking I was clever, I tossed my wallet up onto the glass fixture underneath the light bulb.

Linda came out of the bathroom and threw her arms around me and laughed crazily. She was loopy drunk, but she was wild, sexy and fun in bed with me right up until the moment she passed out in my arms. In the morning, I could not wake her. I knew she was alive, as she moaned and muttered, but she would not move from her face down position on the bed. I found a handful of “Red Devils,” a barbiturate, on the bedside table next to her purse. I didn’t know how many of the pills she took, but I was concerned.

I dressed her and left the room. Rosalita’s business card did not have a telephone number on it, so I went to the front desk and I slipped five dollars to one of the clerks and asked him to go and get the Starlight manager.

I went back to the room and saw that Linda was still out. About a half hour later, there was a knock on the door. Rosalita came in, accompanied by one of his waiters and an older woman who was the Mama-San for the bar. Rosalita thanked me for contacting him and then looked at Linda on the bed. He cursed her in Tagalog. The two men lifted Linda and took her out of the room. After they left, I looked up at the ceiling light and tried to retrieve my wallet, but it was beyond my reach. I went down to the front desk and asked the clerks for a ladder. They looked puzzled. I returned to my room with two Filipinos and a ladder in tow. They stood in the doorway in amazement as I climbed the ladder and retrieved my wallet.

I gave each of the hotel clerks a five-dollar bill for their trouble as I was leaving the hotel room. The two Filipinos took the money as they laughed uncontrollably.

“Fuck you,” I said to them, although I had to laugh along with them.

Back at the carrier, I took a shower, ate lunch in the galley and then I took a nap in my rack. When I awoke, I took another shower and changed into a black dress shirt and light gray slacks. I met up with Hunt and Ingemi and we all headed out to Olongapo and the Starlight. We took a table and Marlena came over with Hunt’s girl Carmelina and sat with us. I was thankful that I didn’t see Linda. Rosalita came over to the table with a waiter armed with a tray of San Miguel beers.

Marlena whispered into Ingemi’s ear, and he nodded. Marlena got up and left the table. She returned to our table with a beautiful girl that she introduced to us as her sister, Zeny Abadiano.

Zeny had long, raven hair with bangs cut just above her dark, sultry eyes. She had a pretty face and an alluring figure. At 5’ 11,’ I towered over her five-foot stature when we danced. In addition to her being an exotic beauty, Zeny was sexy, smart and funny. I was drawn to her immediately.

And I forgot all about Linda.

After the bar closed, Ingemi, Hunt and I took the girls to a nearby hotel. In my hotel room, I took Zeny in my arms, unzipped her dress and let it fall to the floor. I told her she was beautiful as I kissed her madly, and we fell across the bed.

A couple of hours later, I heard a pounding on the door. I jumped up and retrieved my pocketknife from under the pillow. I heard Linda on the other side of the door.

“Paul! Paul! Open up!” I heard her holler. “I want to talk to you!”

Zeny pulled the sheet over her head and giggled. “Oh, you think this is funny?” I told Linda to go away.

“Paul, open up. I want to talk to you!” Linda said in a screeching and blood-curdling voice. Of course, I didn’t open the door. I then heard what I presumed were hotel employees arguing with Linda in Tagalog, and thankfully the voices outside the door finally ceased.

“So, you think a crazy, drugged girl coming to the room was funny,” I said to Zeny as I took her once again in my arms.

I was awakened in the morning by a pounding on the door. Not again, I thought. But then I heard Ingemi’s voice. I hollered out to Ingemi that I would be ready in a half hour. I took a shower with Zeny and afterwards I sat in a chair, and she stood in front of me nude and dried my hair with a towel. She took my pocket comb and combed my short, dark brown hair, carefully parting it on the left side. I pulled her wonderfully luscious body towards me and hugged her.

I met Ingemi and Hunt outside of the hotel and we grabbed a jeepney and headed back to the ship.

Later that evening, Ingemi and I returned to the Starlight.

Zeny and Marlena were waiting for us and the four of us took a table. Rosalita waved to us and motioned to a waiter, who quickly came over with San Miguel beers. While we were drinking at the table, Linda suddenly appeared by my side. Zeny grabbed my arm and snuggled up close to me. Linda was clearly angry and deranged.

“You butterfly, you motherfucker!”

“Get the fuck out of here,” I replied calmly, tilting my head slightly to the right while trying to sound like a South Philly half-a-hoodlum.

“I get you good, motherfucker,” Linda said with a snarl.

Rosalita rushed over to the table and spoke harshly in Tagalog to Linda. She spat on the table and walked away. Rosalita apologized and left us. Zeny and Marlena were unfazed, and Ingemi was laughing uncontrollably. Linda sat at a nearby table with some poor sailor and began cursing me loudly in English and Tagalog.

“She crazy,” Zeny said, kissing me to further anger Linda.

Linda then began to fling lit cigarettes at us. Then she threw a beer bottle that hit our table. Ingemi, who was no longer laughing, got up and walked over to Rosalita. Rosalita listened briefly to Ingemi and then marched over to Linda, and he must have told her in no uncertain terms to cut it out.

We resumed drinking, dancing, and having fun and I tried to ignore Linda. A while later I got up to go to the men’s room, which was on the other side of a wall that separated the bar from the rest rooms, the kitchen, and storerooms. When I came out of the men’s room, I encountered Linda in my path.

“You butterfly me, you son a bitch,” Linda hissed. “I kill you.”

From behind her back, Linda produced a Butterfly knife and began to twirl it in front of me. As she flashed and fanned the knife in a menacing fashion, I threw a short right punch that hit her square in the face. She went down, her nose and teeth bloody, and she lay motionless on the floor.

Rosalita and two waiters rushed in, and my immediate thought was that I would have to fight them all. But Rosalita cursed Linda, who lay unconscious. The two waiters picked up Linda and took her away.

Rosalita apologized profusely to me, and I walked back to the table and told everyone what happened.

From then on, whenever the carrier visited Subic Bay, I went to the Starlight and stayed with Zeny.

I never again saw Linda, and no one ever said what had become of her.

And I never asked.

Note: You can read other chapters via the below links:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Salvatore Lorino'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: The Old Huk

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: Join The Navy And See Olongapo

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Boots On The Ground'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The 30-Day Detail'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Cat Street'

Paul Davis On Crime: Chapter 12: On Yankee Station

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Cherry Boy'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Hit'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: Welcome To Japan, Davis-San

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Murder By Fire'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Admiral McCain'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Hit The Head'

Saturday, August 5, 2023

My Crime Fiction: The Old Huk

The below story is chapter four of a crime thriller that I hope to publish this year.

The character of Salvatore Lorino was introduced in chapter two. The below chapter originally appeared in American Crime Magazine.

You can read the chapter below:

The Old Huk

By Paul Davis

When the USS Kitty Hawk returned to Subic Bay for repairs and replenishment, Lorino went aboard. He reported to sick bay, where he handled over his medical records from the Subic Bay base hospital to the ship’s doctor. He was examined by the doctor, and he determined that Lorino was fit enough for a return to duty.

He then walked back to the deck division and handed over the doctor’s report to his chief. The chief, who liked Lorino, said he was glad to have him back aboard.

“The watch bill has already been posted,” the chief said. “So go hit the beach and enjoy liberty in Olongapo.”

“Thanks, chief,” Lorino said.

“Unless you’re tired of Olongapo…” the chief said with a grin.

“Nah, chief. I love Olongapo.”

“We all do, son.”

Before Lorino shoved off, he hunted down Winston. He found Winston lounging in the Deck Department’s berthing compartment. Winston was smoking a cigarette and drinking a Coke. “Hey, welcome back,” Winston said.

Winston laid down his Coke can on the deck and got up from his chair. He took Lorino by the arm and went to his rack in the middle of a three-tier stack of bunks. He lifted the mattress and the lid to the locker underneath his mattress and pulled out the meth in the paper bag.

Lorino made Winston a junior partner in his new shabu venture As Lorino’s immediate supervisor, Winston agreed to assign him to nonexistent tasks, which allowed Lorino to wander freely about the ship and sell the meth.

Lorino laid in his rack beneath Winston’s and pulled the gray curtain shut across the rack for privacy. He filled small plastic bags with the meth. He then got up and traversed about the carrier from the galley to the bridge and sold the bags of meth to a good number of enlisted sailors who wanted to be up and “wired” on meth as they drank, danced, and partied with the bar girls in Olongapo. Lorino quickly sold all of the meth and he turned a good profit. He gave Winston a small percentage of the profits.

Lorino and Winston left the carrier that evening and walked into Olongapo to buy more shabu. They entered the Americano and walked up to the bar.

“Hey, Chief,” Lorino called out to Walker who was at the other end of the bar. “Can we get a couple of San Miguels over here?”

Walker laughed and brought over two bottles of beer. He called over a short, muscular Filipino with a round face. The Filipino was clad in a cowboy hat, a leather vest over a t-shirt, tight jeans and cowboy boots.

“This is Cearro Valle, my bouncer,” Walker said as they all shook hands. “We call him “Duke,” like John Wayne the cowboy movie star.”

Valle grinned. “Howdy, pardner,” he said with a high pitch voice and a thick Filipino accent, which made the Americans laugh.

“Duke, Duke, do your John Wayne impression,” Walker said.

“Well, listen and listen good, Pilgrim,” Valle said as he pulled his cowboy hat down just above his eyes.

Everyone laughed. It was the worst John Wayne impression Lorino had ever heard, but it was the funniest. Walker slapped the short bouncer on the back.

“I love this guy.”

As they were laughing at Valle’s John Wayne impression at the bar, a sailor and a Marine began punching and grappling with each other on the dance floor. The other servicemen and bar girls moved back as tables and chairs were knocked over by the two fighters. Lorino thought Valle less a comical figure when he saw the bouncer break up the fight.

Valle easily pulled the two drunk servicemen apart. The two Americans looked down on the much shorter Valle and began throwing punches again. Valle kicked the sailor behind his left knee and the sailor fell to the floor. Valle threw his open right hand at the Marine’s throat, and he too fell to the floor.

Valle reached down and grabbed both Americans in a head lock under each of his muscled arms. Speaking softly to them, he dragged the two kicking and screaming servicemen to the bar’s door and tossed them out into the street.

The sailor and the Marine resumed fighting in the street until petty officers from the Navy shore patrol pulled up to the bar. They hopped out of their jeep and broke the two servicemen apart and placed them in handcuffs. The two inebriated combatants were tossed into a jeep and taken back to the Subic Bay base.

After things settled down in the bar, Lorino pulled Walker aside and asked him if he could buy more shabu.

“I was hoping you’d come back in,” Walker said. “I told “the Old Huk” about you and he wants to meet you.

“Who? The Hook?”

“The Old Huk, pronounced hook, but spelled H-U-K,” Walker explained.

“Camama is the big boss around here. He was impressed with your beat-down of the two cops and the shooting of Reeinald. He wants to meet you.”

Walker told Winston to stay at the bar and he beckoned a girl to come over to keep the petty officer company. He told Lorino to follow him and the two walked out of the Americano and into the hotel next door to the bar. They walked past the reception desk, and Walker knocked on the door of a back room.

Walker and Lorino entered the back room and Lorino saw two Filipinos sitting on a couch. Walker introduced Lorino to Amado Camama, a small, elderly, and wizened man, who wore a white Barong Tagalog shirt with detailed embroidery and a mandarin collar.

Walker introduced Lorino to Jackie Sicat, a young skinny career criminal with long black hair. Sicat wore flashy “mod” clothing from the 1960s and large sunglasses. Lorino’s first thought was that Sicat was trying too hard to appear as a tough guy gangster. He knew wannabe guys like this who posed as gangsters in South Philly. Lorino instantly respected the Old Huk, but he disliked Sicat on first sight.

Sicat took a long drag on his cigarette and then told Lorino that the boss, who sat there impassively, liked his style. Reeinald Bulan, who was a Camama gang competitor, was confined to a wheelchair due to Lorino shooting him.

“Those two cops you beat up work for us now,” Sicat said. “They no bother you no more, and you no bother them. Understand?”

“Yeah, sure” Lorino replied.

“You deal with the chief, and you only buy shabu with us. No one else,” Sicat said. “Got it?”

“I got it,” Lorino said.

They all shook hands and Walker and Lorino left the room.

Back at the Americano, Walker told Lorino about Camama and Sicat.

Walker explained to Lorino that Amado Camama, known in Olongapo as “the Old Huk,” was the leader of the Camama gang. The gang controlled most of the crime in Olongapo. They were into drug trafficking, extortion, black marketeering, and other crimes. Camama was both feared and respected.

Walker said that Camama grew up in a rural village and joined the Hukbalahap, the Communist guerillas who fought the Japanese after they invaded and occupied the Philippines during World War II. Often armed only with a Bolo knife, Camama was an effective assassin.

“What’s a Bolo knife,” Lorino asked Walker.

Walker explained that the Bolo was a long knife with a curved blade that was similar to a machete and was a common tool, as well as a weapon, in the Philippines.

Walker said that during World War II, Camama was sent out by the Communist guerilla group to murder selected Japanese soldiers, villagers who defied the Communists, and rival guerillas that were led and organized by Americans.

After the war, Camama became a leader with the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan, the Communist People’s Liberation Army, known as the Huks, who fought the Philippine Government.

After the Huks were defeated by the Philippine government, with help from the United States, a fellow Huk guerilla named Oscar Sicat, who grew up in Olongapo, brought Camama back to the city with him. The two former Huks became feared armed robbers, and they later expanded their strongarm criminal activity and became a prominent organized crime group in Olongapo.

The two gang leaders later had a falling out and Sicat’s teenage son Jackie sided with Camama against his own father. He volunteered to set up his father for Camama. When the elder Sicat met his son at a bar, Camama came out from the back of the bar and attacked his former partner in crime with a razor-sharp Bolo knife. The son sat there quietly as his father was hacked to death.

Jackie Sicat rose in the Camama gang and became the Old Huk’s chief lieutenant. Camama, Walker told Lorino, was intelligent, prone to violence, good with a gun and a Bolo knife, and was totally ruthless. This skill set served Camama well as a Huk communist guerilla, and it served him well as he transitioned into a criminal gang boss.

Lorino, Winston and a bar girl named Marie sat at a table, drinking and listening to the Americano’s country & western band. Marie, a perky, cherubic young woman, hugged Winston and giggled. Walker sat down at the table and called his wife over. He spoke into her ear. She smiled and walked away. She returned briefly with a tall, beautiful girl in tow.

“This is Jade,” the mama-san said to Lorino. “She like you big-time.”

“Oh, yeah? You wanna drink?” Lorino said as he pushed out a chair for the bar girl.

Jade, dressed in a tight light blue dress, had long dark hair and an innocent pretty face, although she was a veteran hostess. She sat down next to Lorino as the mama-san called over a waiter. The waiter came over with beers for Walker and Lorino and a glass of whiskey for the girl.

“I love you, no bullshit,” Jade said with a throaty laugh as she snuggled up to Lorino.

Her use of the oft repeated Olongapo bar girl phrase that Americans got a kick out of, made Lorino, Winston and Walker laugh.

“Hey Jade,” Lorino said. “Like the Beatles’ song.”

“That was Hey Jude, Winston said.

Lorino shrugged. “What’s the difference?”

Although most young American sailors went wild over the pretty Filipinas in Olongapo, Lorino was more interested in business. He pursued his business opportunities rather than the company of bar girls. But now that he had secured a meth connection and began his drug dealing enterprise on the Kitty Hawk, he felt he could at last relax and have some fun with a bar girl.

Later that evening, Lorino saw Sicat enter the bar with an entourage of four other Filipino gangsters. He’s acting like royalty, or a Cosa Nostra capo, Lorino thought to himself. The chief rushed up to Sicat and guided him and his cronies to a table at the rear of the bar. Walker hailed a waiter, and motioned to his wife, the mama-san, who was already rounding up girls to sit with Sicat and his associates.

Lorino’s dislike for Sicat grew as he watched the little crime prince act like a big shot, a pezzonovante. He smiled to himself as he thought about smacking Sicat and knocking his sunglasses clear off his face.

An hour or so later, a short and wiry Filipino police officer in uniform entered the bar, followed by the biggest Filipino Lorino had ever seen. The Filipino cops headed for Sicat’s table.

“Who are they?” Lorino asked Walker.

“That’s an Olongapo cop, Lieutenant Colonel Cesar Rosa and his sergeant,” Walker told Lorino. “Rosa’s the worst kind of cop – fucking honest.”

“Yeah. We got some of those pricks in South Philly too.”

Lorino initially thought the cops were there to collect bribes, but he chuckled to himself as he saw Sicat visibly upset as Rosa pointed his finger in the gang leader’s face. Rosa spoke harshly to him in Tagalog.

“Some big shot gangster,” Lorino scoffed. “Afraid of a cop, even if the cop is a pint-sized Frank Rizzo.”

Lorino saw the puzzled look on Walker’s face.

“Rizzo. He’s a big, tough son of a bitch South Philly cop who’s now the police commissoner of Philadelphia,” Lorino explained.

As the bar was closing, Walker gave Lorino a key to a room in the Old Huk’s hotel next door to the Americano. Arm-in-arm, Lorino and Jade staggered to the hotel. He waved to the desk clerks in the hotel lobby, and they waved back. Lorino and Jade took the stairs to the second floor and to the room that the chief arranged for him. Once in the room, Lorino took Jade in his arms and pulled off her dress. They kissed and laid across the bed.

In the morning, Lorino was famished. He wanted an American breakfast of bacon and eggs. Jade took him to a small cafe, and she ordered for the two them in Tagalog. Lorino sipped his hot coffee as the waiter laid down two plates.

"What the fuck is this?"

“It’s Sinangag. It’s good. Eat it.”

Lorino obeyed and dug in. Jade was right. Lorino loved the fried rice, scrambled eggs and garlic.

After their fine meal, Lorino and Jade returned to the hotel room and laid about, smoking, drinking and having sex. Later that evening, Lorino and Jade left the hotel and went to the Americano, where they joined Winston and Belinda at a table.

While Lorino, Jade, Winston and Belinda were drinking at the table, a Filipino walked into the bar and strode up to Walker, who was behind the bar. He spoke briefly to Walker and then turned around and walked out of the bar. Walker called Lorino over to the bar.

“Let’s take a ride.”

Walker and Lorino left the bar and saw a jeepney with Camama, Sicat and a short muscular bodyguard sitting in it. Walker and Lorino piled in the jeepney.

The jeepney drove from the Americano to a series of shacks located against the Olongapo River. They all climbed out of the jeepney and walked to the back of a shack where three Filipinos were waiting. The back was lit dimly from the lights from the shack. Two of the Filipinos held handguns and the third Filipino, a small and slim young man, stood there shaking and crying.

Sicat brought out an old metal folding chair that had “Property of U.S. Navy” stenciled in black on the back. He opened the chair and Camama down and faced the crying man. Walker pulled Lorino back a bit and advised him to say and do nothing.

The visibly upset Filipino began speaking in rapid Tagalog as Camama sat there with a grim face. The frightened Filipino then let out a forced laugh.

“Remy is a dope,” Walker said in a whisper to Lorino. “His ass is on the line, and he just told a stupid joke.”

Lorino noticed that no one laughed.

Camama nodded and one of the Filipinos with a handgun stepped up behind Remy and shot him in the back of the head. He fell to his knees and then fell forward, his face splashing into the mud. Camama turned his head and looked directly at Lorino.

“Now that is funny,” the Old Huk said in English.

One of the Filipinos gunmen carried out an ice cooler from the shack and set it on the ground, not far from the dead body. The cooler, like the folding chair, had “Property of U.S. Navy” stenciled in black on it. The Filipino opened the cooler and handed out bottles of San Miguel. Lorino took one and Walker grabbed two for himself.

“Remy tried to go over to Bulan’s gang,” Walker explained. “The Old Huk didn’t like that. This is how he shows his displeasure.”

“Yeah, I got the point,” Lorino replied.

Back at the Americano, Walker put his arm around Lorino as they stood at the bar.

“You done good,” Walker said. “You didn’t react at all. The old Huk liked that.”

“I seen guys whacked before in South Philly,” Lorino replied and shrugged. “No biggy.”

“You got a future with us, boy,” Walker said beaming with delight.