Word: egans
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...which William Keating described his adventures on the waterfront as a racket-busting assistant to Manhattan's district attorney. An honest pier boss (Mickey Shaughnessy), who refuses to holler uncle when the musclemen apply the pressure, is burned with half a dozen garlic-smeared slugs, and Keating (Richard Egan) is assigned to make the case against the goons who got him. He gets nowhere fast. The longshoremen, as usual, are afraid to talk. The victim himself refuses to "rat." The affable union boss (Walter Matthau) plies the racket-buster with bribes and threats. His chief witness disappears. But somehow...
...Egan also poured out his feelings to world figures, dashed off messages to General Douglas MacArthur ("For many years I have thought you were a phony, but I beg your pardon now"), Russia's First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan ("I believe the bells of the world should be tolled for the death of free speech in the U.S."), proposed to his city council that he and his wife be sent to Russia, where he and Nikita Khrushchev could thresh things out. The council declined...
Sugar & Arrows. By that time, some Aurorans were voicing a lusty opinion of Egan's stewardship. They stuffed sugar into the gas tank of his auto, burned him in effigy, shot flaming arrows into his six-room house. The arrows, some said, came from Indians. "Many people are mad at the mayor," explained one man. "I do not see why the Indians should be excluded...
Despite this show of disapproval, Egan somehow managed to look good to a lot of his constituents. His antics brought Aurora plenty of publicity, and after each squabble, he tried to make it seem that Paul Egan, the man of the people, was defending the city against entrenched interests. When the city council refused to pay for spraying the area against mosquitoes and flies, the Mayor guaranteed the payment out of his own pocket, sprayed the city, later collected $7,000 in contributions from the townspeople...
Last week, after a roaring re-election campaign, Paul Egan clomped to victory with a 4,000-vote margin - 1,000 votes better than his plurality in 1953. Crowed Egan as he spat triumphantly into his desk: "It all proves one goddamned thing. You can't fool the people. The world is watching a new concept of government, where the people make themselves heard above the horse manure of the vested interests. The world will be hearing from Aurora in the next four years, you can bet your tail on that...