As for whether Fletcher actually fell in love with Holiday, Hari believes that he did. Her biographers Julia Blackburn and Donald Clark studied the only remaining interview with Jimmy Fletchernow lost by the archives handling itand they wrote about what he remembered in detail. His soul was, I don't know what. Rhodes takes a moment to remind me of the final scene of the film: Fletcher bent over against a black door that will not open. So it's like, if I'm constantly being fed by this person, I'm going to obviously emulate them in some way, he says. For years, American pharmacists sold a product called Mrs. Winslows Soothing Syrup, which contained morphine and alcohol. But I'm the kind of person, bro, I got to see where I'm going. WebJohn Joseph Connolly Jr. (born August 1, 1940) is an American former FBI agent who was convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and murder charges stemming from his In real life, Anslinger served as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a predecessor to the Drug Enforcement Administration, from 1930 to 1962. So for more than a year, Fletcher follows Billie Holiday everywhere. Harry had heard whispers that she was using heroin, andafter she flatly refused to be silent about racismhe assigned an agent named Jimmy Fletcher to track her every move. It tells the story through three central characters: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Fletcher, who was one of the first Black federal agents, and Harry Anslinger, the Really, really small like that.. Billie paid her debt to society, one of Holidays friends wrote, but society never paid its debt to her.. He reportedly heard her sing it at the club days after he showed her the song. Chinese-Americans, racists warned, were luring white women into their opium dens for sex. But if you cut that off, obviously yes, he says. To Harry Anslinger, Billie Holiday was like the symbol of everything that America had to be afraid of, Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, said inan interview withWNYC Studios. So now, on top of the cirrhosis of the liver, Billie went into heroin withdrawal, alone. We may earn a commission from these links. The full sourcing for this article can be found in the books endnotes. Black Americans love this country, often at our peril.. He'd heard rumblings that the singer was using heroin and assigned Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), a Black FBI agent, to follow her, journalist Johann Hari revealed in his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, per Politico. Some of the nicer ones have feelings enough to hate themselves sometime for what they have to do . He called Judy Garland, another heroin addict, in to see him. The Japanese man couldnt breathe. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. One night, in 1939, Billie Holiday stood on stage in New York City and sang a song that was unlike anything anyone had heard before. He says its simpler than all that: I needed this feeling again. Thats not to say he didnt appreciate his string of soldier-driven action thrillers. Once it was all over, White told the authorities he strangled this Jap because he believed he was a spy. It's about having the opportunity to be a part of those paintings and be as profound a color as you can. What followed was an onslaught of visibility. There was a distinct question that the interviewer had about their love, and it was just his response that really gifted me a unique answer, he told Refinery29. Via wire-tapping, undercover agents and even assassination, King, Hampton and Holiday were followed and harassed by government agencies, especially the FBI They sided with Billie against Anslinger and White, and found her not guilty. She died addicted. That's our life. Abusive husbands, drug addiction, and the endless hunting of her by federal authorities led to a tragic, early end. Before our conversation begins, Rhodes turns his camera out to show me the snow outside the sliding door of his moms house in Austin. Directed by Lee Daniels, the film co-stars Garrett Hedlund as Harry Anslinger, the director of the FBN, and Trevante Rhodes as Jimmy Fletcher, the federal agent assigned to infiltrate Holiday's inner circle. Theres not a lot known about the condition, but it affects approximately three percent of the worlds population. They summoned a grand jury to indict her, telling her that unless she disclosed her dealer, they would take her straight to prison. She was the type who would make anyone sympathetic because she was the loving type. The man Anslinger sent to track and bust Billie Holiday had, it seems, fallen in love with her. There was a distinct question that the interviewer had about their love, and it was just his response that really gifted me a unique answer, he says. It was just like, I just felt better., Rhodes work, up to that point, was primarily in student filmsshoestring budgets with even smaller crews. In the end, the Treasury Department told Anslinger he was wasting his time taking on a community that couldnt be fractured, so he scaled down his focus until it settled like a laser on a single targetperhaps the greatest female jazz vocalist there ever was. She died on July 17th, 1959, at the age of 44. Moonlight is magenta, in case you were curious. ", Day adds: "I was obsessed with that movie and Diana Ross's performance, but the movie was done in the early '70s; [J. Edgar] Hoover and Harry J. Anslinger were still in power, [Holiday's abusive husband] Louis McKay was still alive, and the technical director on that film. Ill strip, Billie said. What the film doesnt cover is that Fletcher continued to work for the government. Because in one of the books I read [I found] that's something that he really prided himself on, his ability to really maneuver and be whoever he needed to be in any situation, whether it was with someone who was the ritziest or someone who was in the slums., At times in the movie, Fletcher is our entry point into Holidays world. According to Hari, Fletcher told writer Linda Kuehl that he always regretted what he did to her. Music hath charms, their memos say, but not this music. Indeed, Anslinger took jazz as yet more proof that marijuana drives people insane. The conviction also cost Holiday her cabaret performers license, which prevented her from singing at nightclubs for more than 10 years. . Maybe they would have been kinder to me if theyd been nasty; then I wouldnt have trusted them enough to believe what they told me.. They took a mug shot of her on her hospital bed. It was crazy. In the book, Hari tells stories of the casualties of the drug war, from its 20th century origins to profiles of contemporary dealers and users. That's something that [director] Lee [Daniels] wanted to embellish a little bit to show that aspect of a rich Black family during that era, because we don't see too many depictions of that, Rhodes explains. Anslinger sent Fletcher, one of the FBIs few Black Harry hated to hire black agents, but if he sent white guys into Harlem and Baltimore, they stood out straight away. And I had so many close conversations with her, about so many things, he would remember years later. Dont let them. The police threw the friend out. Now, after three years, he returns to play Jimmy Fletcher, a Black federal agent tasked by his white superiors with implanting himself in Holidays life to bring her Harry believed he could. This was the old Department of Prohibition, but prohibition had been abolished and his men needed a new role, fast. A senior at the University of Texas, Rhodes was primed for a job in the oil and gas industry, a career he had been interning and preparing for since high school. How they were carrying the paint. So I was like, Yo, I have to work with Lee.. Then we wont be searching around, pulling out your clothes and everything. Some damnbody is always trying to embalm me, she said, but the doctors came back and explained she had an array of very serious illnesses: she was emaciated because she had not been eating; she had cirrhosis of the liver because of chronic drinking; she had cardiac and respiratory problems due to chronic smoking; and she had several leg ulcers caused by starting to inject street heroin once again. He gets to play with her little dog. In the film, Fletchers mother insists that the feds interest in Holiday was squarely about silencing her incendiary performances of Strange Fruit. The song has become known as one of the most recognizable anthems of civil rights, painting a gruesome picture of the lynchings of Black people across America. Amid all of that came Moonlight. Knowing he must kill this man or be killed himself, the Chief drew his revolver, placed the muzzle over the negros heart, and firedintending to kill him right quick, as the officer tells it, but the shot did not even stagger the man. Cocaine was, it was widely claimed in the press at this time, turning blacks into superhuman hulks who could take bullets to the heart without flinching. . Harry hated to hire black agents, but if he sent white guys into Harlem and Baltimore, they stood out straight away. A decade later, as she lay in the hospital dying of cirrhosis of the liver, her hospital room was raided. Cause you can start working and just keep working and keep working, he says. It's easy to say you want to do something, but walking to do it is very, very difficult. Directed by Lee Daniels and starring Andra Day in her debut film role, Lady Day's on-screen journey includes being pursued by the FBI in light of her involvement with the civil rights movement, her struggle with drug use, and her complicated romantic relationships. As Hari writes, His job was to bust his Immediately after, Billie Holiday received her first threat from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. Then in 2012, right after his senior year, he decided to follow a theater professors advice and move to Los Angeles, which he said was a gamble in the most beautiful way, but most terrifying way. For years, he had been strong (a.k.a. Trevante Rhodes tells me that, to him, the color of The United States vs. Billie Holiday is maroon. In the film's depiction, Holiday's impact with the emotional song made her a target in the eyes of the federal government. I toiled whole-heartedly in the vineyards because it was fun, fun, fun, White boasted after he had retired from the Bureau. He was especially angered that this black woman didnt know her place. "Billie Holiday's styling fulfilled the bitterness and the shocking quality I had hoped the song would have," Meeropol said, according to The Guardian. Total silence. Harry told the public that the increase [in drug addiction] is practically 100 percent among Negro people, which he stressed was terrifying because already the Negro population . One is white, two is red, three is blue, four is yellow, for example. When finally a friend was allowed in to see her, Billie told her in a panic: Theyre going to kill me. Here was a black woman, before a mixed audience, grieving for the racist murders in the United States. He wasnt allowed inside her room, but Holiday was reportedly happy to learn that he'd tried to see her. Something some of us cannot know. The way I saw it is, at least in my life, I see a lot of people who will do anything to be successful or to better themselves, especially when they're trying to find themselves. And that may be true. Federal authorities first targeted her shortly after she began singing the song. Onlookers gather at the site where FBI agents search a field for the alleged remains of Jimmy Hoffa on June 17, 2013 in Oakland Township, Michigan. Whites men declared they had found opium stashed in a wastepaper basket next to a side room and the kit for shooting heroin in the room, and they charged her with possession. . He wanted to bring the full thump of the federal government down upon that scourge of modern society, his Public Enemy #1: Billie Holiday. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. According to an article written for Politico by Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Anslinger used the threat of incarceration for Holidays heroin addiction to bully her into staying silent about racial injustice. My mom raised two boys here by herself. .css-umdwtv{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#FF3A30;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:background 0.4s;transition:background 0.4s;background:linear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webkit-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}.css-umdwtv:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-position:100% 100%;background-position:100% 100%;}Fans online theorized about his disappearance, speculating that he wasnt committed enough for the industry. Holiday would continue singing the song for the Cafe Society crowd, and they ate it up. As The Guardian writes, "Maybe he had [fallen in love with her]. Maybe they would have been kinder to me if theyd been nasty; then I wouldnt have trusted them enough to believe what they told me. Not until much later did Fletcher realize how damning his role in Holidays life was. As an artist, you're trying to make something truthful, so that you get everyone's attention. In fact, after Fletcher assisted in getting Holiday arrested and sent to jail for a year, she didn't really see him much after her release, whereas in the film it's after her release where their involvement gets heavy. Just to imagine what he felt like after that, you know what I mean? I got enough to finish her off, he had pledged. Cocaine supposedly made Black people almost superhumanly strongNEGRO COCAINE "FIENDS" ARE A NEW SOUTHERN MENACE blared a 1914 New York Times headline. I wanted to do what Berry Gordy, Diana Ross, and Billy Dee Williams did. Along with Esquire, his work has appeared in NYLON, Vulture, and USA Today. I have a lot of friends who are murderers, he bragged years later, and I had very good times in their company. He boasted to his friends that he kept a photo of the man he had throttled hanging on the wall of his apartment, always watching him. However, it was originally written by poet, teacher, and activist Abel Meeropol, from New York. Billie, why dont you make a short case of this and, if youve got anything, why dont you turn it over to us? he asked. And when she insisted on continuing on her right as an American citizen to sing Strange Fruit, Anslinger resolves to destroy her., Also Read: Strange Fruit: The History of Billie Holidays Famous Protest Song. She's based (and born and raised) in Brooklyn, New York. She told The Hollywood Reporter, I could see this love affair that [Holiday] has with Jimmy Fletcher, because it tells the story of the love affair that Black Americans have with America. Still, he stayed true to his job. According to Hari, after Fletcher first raided her apartment for drugs, he took Holiday aside and offered to talk to Ansliger for her in an attempt to lighten her punishment, saying, I dont want you to lose your job. Soon after, they ran into each other at a bar and talked for hours, Hari said. Anslinger hated hiring Black agents, according to "They bust her, and it's pretty clear, I think, from reading the historical documents, that he planted drugs on Billie Holiday that night," Hari told NPR of the raid. When Jimmy was sent to raid her, he knocked at the door pretending he had a telegram to deliver. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. In his eulogy for her, the Reverend Eugene Callender told me he had said: We should not be here. After she failed to show any sexual interest in him, he drugged her to see if that would change. In the new film The United States vs. Billie Holiday, a little-seen segment of the great jazz singer's life is finally given the cinematic treatment. Man Id wake up and start crying for like a week. That said, its just as easy to view Fletcher as a traitor. Across the pond, the pharmacist for Queen Victoria, the global paragon of propriety, prescribed the royal family cocaine and heroin. We may earn a commission from these links. Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, and grew up in Baltimore. To be able to be hip with the cats when he was hip. She was alone. But when the details were looked at later, there seemed to be something odd: a wastepaper basket seems an improbable place to keep a stash, and the kit for shooting heroin was never entered into evidence by the copsthey said they left it at the scene. Billies greatest talent, after singing, was swearingif she called you a motherfucker, it was a great compliment. Anslinger took a break from Holiday's case but later returned with a different narcotics agent, Colonel George White. F rom his first day in office in 1930, Harry Anslinger had a problem, and everybody knew it. what happened to jimmy fletcher fbi agent Narcotics agents came to her hospital bed and said they had found less than one-eighth of an ounce of heroin in a Arrest and Convictions. Im going to do her up so goddam bad she going to remember as long as she live. He travelled to D.C. to see Harry, and he agreed to set her up. The agents were acting on a tip provided by Tony Zerilli, 85, a former mobster, who was released from prison in 2008. Whether or not they actually had a physical relationship is hard to say, but it does seem that Fletcher and Holiday did have some sort of relationship, though it may have involved a sense of betrayal. 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