Chapter 23: Details about the actual Hellfire Club were taken from two excellent books on the subject: Evelyn Lord, The Hell-Fire Clubs: Sex, Satanism and Secret Societies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), and Daniel P. Mannix, The Hellfire Club (Lake Oswego OR: eNet Press, 1959). The details of the club during the eighteenth century are directly from those two books.
Chapter 24: Some of the testimony was taken directly from the transcript of the Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Third Congress, Second Session, April 21, 22, and June 4, 1954. Danny Gaines of IC Comics is based on William M. Gaines of EC Comics, and the comics described are based on ones that the juvenile delinquency subcommittee focused on in the actual hearings.
Epilogue: Phil Strongfellow is fictitious but Douglas Stringfellow was indeed a real Utah Republican congressman profiled on This Is Your Life who apparently lied about his heroic war record with the OSS. You can read more about him in Lee Davidson, “Scandalized Utah Congressman Believed His False War Stories; Douglas Stringfellow’s Autobiography Says He Preferred Being Seen As Lying About WWII Service and Not ‘Crazy,’” Salt Lake Tribune, December 30, 2013, and Vern Anderson, “For Politician Who Concocted a Tale of Heroism, the End Began on TV,” Associated Press, October 30, 1994.
Descriptions of Eisenhower’s Oval Office came from Anthony Leviero, “President Hangs 7 Office Pictures,” New York Times, March 25, 1953, and Bess Furman, “The Oval Room: Eisenhoweriana,” New York Times, November 30, 1958.
Eisenhower’s views of the military-industrial complex were taken from his farewell address as well as from Charles J. G. Griffin, “New Light on Eisenhower’s Farewell Address,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 22, no. 3 (Summer 1992): 469–79. Eisenhower’s views on McCarthy were taken from his own Mandate for Change, 1953–1956 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963), as well as from David Nichols, Ike and McCarthy: Dwight Eisenhower’s Secret Campaign Against Joseph McCarthy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2017). Much of the notion of Eisenhower setting a trap for McCarthy was inspired by that informative book. Eisenhower’s relationship to the intelligence community is detailed beautifully in Stephen Ambrose, Ike’s Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment (New York: Doubleday, 1981).
That said, let me reemphasize that this is a work of fiction.
Acknowledgments
This book could never have happened without the faith, wisdom, and partnership of my editor and publisher, Reagan Arthur, whose guidance and support were invaluable. I am also deeply indebted to my attorney Bob Barnett, who steered this project from the very beginning.
At Little, Brown, Maggie Southard and Shannon Hennessey have been enthusiastic boosters in publicity, as have Pamela Brown and Ira Boudah in marketing. Pamela Marshall, Marie Mundaca, Mary Tondorf-Dick, and Tracy Roe made it all sing and flow. The artistic gifts of Allison Warner and Chelsea Hunter have been so thrilling to watch, while Joseph Lee and Leslie Armstrong have helped in myriad other ways too numerous to detail. I also want to offer a deep thanks to deputy publisher Craig Young and digital and paperback publisher Terry Adams.
Early on in the writing process, Judy Sternlight helped me take an idea and give it a narrative structure and framework that turned it from a vision to reality. My pal Matt Klam provided editing love and attention early on that took the book to a new level—I’m lucky to benefit from the friendship of such a gifted writer. My dear friends Josh Flug, Lisa Cohen, Paulette Light, and Alana Fishberg offered keen insights and observations.
Thank you to all the amazing people at CNN, headed by the inimitable Jeff Zucker and including my wonderful team. Deepest appreciation to Jay Sures at UTA.
That I was fortunate to have been born to parents who instilled in me the belief that I could and should try to accomplish any endeavor almost goes without saying, and lucky me, but they also offered support and suggestions, as did my supportive stepmother. I have the best brother in the world, and he too had lots of interesting thoughts and constructive suggestions.
Lastly, my wife, daughter, and son were always understanding and of course are fundamentally the reasons I do anything, really. And it is my wife to whom this book is dedicated. I love you, honey.