Mary

By John P. Flannery

Karl Bogan was an investigator in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and was married for many years to Mary.

I’m thinking about him now because it’s that time of the year when past remembrances crowd in on us for those we care about and how they suffered or overcame their challenges.

Karl had a long career in the police department before becoming a federal investigator.

Karl’s reputation was so well known that his career was believed to be the inspiration for the tv crime show, Kojak, and the lead character, played by a bald headed actor, Telly Sevalas, who always got his man.

Karl had a bald head and shared some of the actors mannerisms.

Karl said he met Telly, and they had a picture taken together, and others remarked how much they looked alike, both bald, engaging, and warm persons. Both closers.

Telly asked Karl if he would rather play a part on a show, Kojak, like Telly did.

Karl said, “I do the real thing. I chase the most dangerous animal on the planet, the two-legged animal.”

In an investigation involving fraud in a summer feeding program out of my old neighborhood in the South Bronx, assigned by US Attorney Bob Fiske, Karl served a number of subpoenas for questionable summer lunch records at the homes (mostly) of those who agreed to be feeding sites in the program, overseen by a Brooklyn contractor, the B’Nai Torah Institute.

The charges we investigated were that the Ag Dept was being bilked for no show jobs, and spoiled milk and green meat fed to poor children who deserved better.

Congresswoman Liz Holtzman had tried to blow the whistle on the program, and there was pushback that her claims were unjustified.

We didn’t think so, ran an intense investigation, and were able to indict a number of the “players.”

Ultimately the investigation led to more misconduct by the Insitute including bribes by the Institute’s head, Leib Pinter, who ultimately pleaded guilty to bribing Congressman Dan Flood to secure undeserved work training funds. See — https://www.nytimes.com/1978/02/20/archives/bnai-torah-institute-in-brooklyn-is-target-of-3-us-investigations.html

During the trial of the Institute in lower Manhattan, at Foley Square, going late into the evening, I had a somewhat resistant witness on the stand.

Karl came over to the court house, to look in to watch the trial for awhile.

At the break, ordered by the court, Karl took me aside and asked if that wasn’t the witness he served months earlier.

I said definietly.

Karl said, “When I was there, at her home, I picked up some illegal betting slips that were laying around on the floor, and kept them.”

“Could you get them before we resume?” I asked.

Karl said, he kept shoe boxes marked by month and year and threw into those boxes what were interesting and might be useful in the future.

Karl said, “I might still have them. I can go back to the office to check.”

Our office was an elevator ride away.

When we resumed, I asked if I could approach the witness, and dropped the betting slips before her, out of the sight of the jury, having marked them for identification.

She looked at them, and then me. Her hands were shaking.

I didn’t question her about the slips. I wasn’t sure I had a good way to do that.

I just wanted her to tell the truth. I questioned her about the feeding program instead. This evidential jolt, thanks to Karl, cleared the way for her to say what really happened.

Then something terrible happened, as these things do, out of the blue, and without seeming warning, Karl’s Mary had cancer.

It quickly became clear she was not going to defeat it.

Karl spoke to those who cared about him and Mary.

We tried to help him.

Unknownst to Karl, Mary made all the arrangements for her passing, to save Karl the grief. When he thought to do it himself, Mary reassured him everything had already been taken care of.

We tried afterwards to be with Karl, on the theory that the year after someone close dies, is a difficult time, and the survivor, Karl, might himself give up the ghost if he thought so much about that.

Karl told me, “I miss being in bed with Mary. Don’t get me wrong, John, I’m not talking about sex. We had a comfortable feeling when we were together, and I miss that company and the affection we had for one another.”

Karl buried himself in his work — as best he could — and while working with another Assistant US Attorney, he had some private time and met the Assistant’s mother.

This assistant’s mother had lost her husband to cancer. It was a terrible event they shared.

Over time, Karl and she got along, found friendship and companionship, and they married each other.

Her name was Mary.