REVOLUTION OF FOOLS, Back-Story

Since MURDER IN PANAMA is free for today, I thought it fitting for those of you who get the first of the series to see the back-story on the sequel – # 2 of the trilogy. 

As we work our way through the adventure called life, at some point we realize there are always some people who are like the comic book characters – the villains.  They are always an EVIL GENIUS disguised as the ones who are here to help us; the compassionate lawyer, the generous banker, the sympathetic mortician, and of course the scam artist posing as your friend.  Panama is has been a safe haven for those types of scoundrels for many decades. A few years ago there was a Colombian Ponzi scheme artist that was finally arrested in Panama, deported to Columbia, and then finally imprisoned in the USA on money laundering charges.  Although he’s in prison, he has outsmarted everyone.  He lost his conspicuous consumption items like homes, yachts, and cars, but his billions were never found. If he were to escape or be released, his punishment compared with his wealth will appear as a ‘slap on the hand’.

 Most countries in and around Central America consider the Panama Canal as a plumb they would like to pluck.  Schemes of governments are hatched daily to see how they can swipe this revenue generator from Panama.  The fact that Panama has no military makes it a natural target for those neighbors who seem to have the means and propensity toward aggression.  The USA is the deterrent.  The military might of the US keeps the wolves at bay.

BUT -- What would happen if the US fell asleep at the switch? OR, budget cuts went so deep that first response teams were crippled? OR -- perhaps some high echelon group wants to see a war in Central America to further their own interests. Perhaps you’ll have a REVOLUTION OF FOOLS?

I needed a plausible way for one country to partially invade a neighboring country using undercover Special Forces.  I looked at several ideas and spent some time with an employee in Panama’s migration office.  I looked at the easiest; being sponsored by a ‘lonely heart’.  I joined several of the on-line dating services and discovered thousands of desperate women looking for a man.  I decided to test this idea and actually reimbursed a lady friend of mine to sponsor a ‘stud’ to come to Panama. (I met him at the bus terminal and reimbursed his return expenses to Nicaragua.) The down side of this experiment/research was the thousand of queries I received from desperate and lonely women seeking attention. My lady friend was deluged as well. 

A neighbor and good friend of mine suffers a stomach condition for which he takes medicine.  One of the side effects of this drug is short term memory loss. It’s difficult to witness. Another old time friend is now in a state of dementia.  One of the reasons I use ozone therapy is to prevent any possibility of a stroke.  It is one of my fears – losing my intelligence.  The thought of just a small loss gives me pause. I had Jimmy Hart use a technique to drain intelligence from a genius. A genius who was too smart to ‘rat out’ his confederates or disclose where he kept his millions.   

I applied all the above scenarios and added the cast of unique characters created in MURDER IN PANAMA.  Jimmy Hart and his ‘associates’ foil a sinister plot to overthrow Panama and seize the canal. 

Tune in later for the back-story of HART RULES, the third in this JIMMY HART – MURDER IN PANAMA, trilogy.