14- Bob, the charity case

Long after Frank Quackenbush died Jimmy kept this secret to himself as did the other conspirators, perhaps out of guilt perhaps out of some foolish idea that nobody really need to know the truth.

Even when Jimmy finally confessed his part in the conspiracy, he kept the details to himself, perhaps to protect others involved or protect himself, so the sequence of what happened and who did what I pieced together from bits Jimmy was willing to reveal, or guesses at who else was involved and the actual sequence of events.

At times, I suspected what was Jimmy’s real motivation, whether he was legitimately helping out Bob or whether he was protecting a source of pot that he knew was on its way to ruin if Jimmy did not act.

It is also difficult to figure out just who's idea was although once it was established it was Jimmy who had to carry out.

Everybody knew that Bob was a virgin he was the kind of geek still unpopular in the 1960s even though it was the age of free love.

Almost all of the women associated with the Garley Gang had latched on to the more popular people such as John, John Ritchie or even Richie Gordy.

And when it came to finding a girl for Bob it was hard to actually hook him up with anyone they already knew because whoever they tried already knew Bob.

Bob was the least cool person anybody knew.

Even the legendary Carol had better taste than that and Cosmic Judy wasn't crazy enough to actually go for someone like Bob.

Most of the gang were trying to pursue their own love interest and would not recommend any of the girls they were interested in for even such a benevolent cause as helping Bob lose his virginity.

Just who came up with Lori's name remains a mystery.

Perhaps it was a kind of lottery and various people put various names in a hat and pulled out one and Lori’s came out first.

At first Jimmy was reluctant because after all Lori was the love interest of Frank living with him in Manhattan.

Yet the more he thought about it the more perfect it was since Lori was someone who clearly had not much taste if she went for someone as completely dorky as Frank.

Besides Frank cheated on Lori so much that it was only fair that she cheat on him.

The big problem was convincing her to actually do this charity case.

In a very rare example of benevolence Jimmy -- driven by either Alf or Garrett -- made the trip to Manhattan when they knew Frank was still at work at the Little Falls Laundry.

Jimmy went up into the apartment alone, knocked on the door and Lori who had the kid in the other room looked at him puzzled and then looked around him to see if Frank was with him.

“Frank is still a New Jersey,” Jimmy told her.

Jimmy then said he needed to talk to her about something Frank should never know about, and then laid out the plan for her to have Bob come to the apartment when Frank wasn't there and for her to do the nasty deed that would set him free.

At first, she was appalled and told Jimmy that she is not a prostitute.

Jimmy told her that was the last thing Bob needed and said that this was a mission to mercy to help him get relief and it would be a crime to have his memory of his first experience come at the hands of a prostitute.

“This has to be with someone he likes and who likes him,” Jimmy said.

Lori told him she doesn't like Bob that much.

“Then look at it as an act of revenge,” Jimmy said.  “You know that Frank cheats on you with every teenybopper he can.”

It took some skill but Jimmy -- always the persuader-- managed to convince her to do it but only once and it had to remain a secret.

The plan involved distracting Frank long enough for someone else to sneak Bob over to Manhattan and then back again.

Since I was still in the army and could not get a pass on the date, they needed I was unavailable, and Jimmy didn't completely trust me to keep the secret since I was extremely loyal to Frank.

Thus, Jimmy had to become the distraction and arrange to meet Frank outside to Little Falls Laundry for what he told Frank was an adventure.

Most likely Alf and Garrick were assigned to drive Bob to Manhattan, while Jimmy arranged for Charlie and his Volkswagen to make the trip around New Jersey with Frank -- the same Volkswagen in which Charlie and Jimmy had been busted for pot a few years earlier in front of the Agora Coffee House in Montclair.

This made Jimmy nervous since a key piece of the plan involved getting frank stoned enough to go along with it and yet not get him stoned on something like LSD in which he would be out of control.

Since Bob was stoned most of the time in those days it didn't take much convincing to assure him that Lori had the hots for him.

Bob, however, liked Frank and apparently felt guilty about the whole thing and took all of Jimmy’s persuasive skills to convince him to do it and not tell Frank later.

Apparently even as Garrick and Alf edged Bob up the stairs of the East 5th Street tenement Bob had his reservations and kept trying to go back to the car.

Yet he was stoned enough at that point for them to maneuver him up to Lori’s door, pound on it, after which Garrick and Alf fled, their footsteps reverberating down the stairs even as Lori opened the door and greeted Bob.

Afterwards Lori made sure Bob got back down to the curb and to the car where Garrick and Alf waited to drive him home.

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