THE NOSFERATU APPROACH TO URBAN RENEWAL

DATE: 6-16-69
      TO: Xerxes
      FROM: Jameson
      RE: Project Tinkertoy

Per your request, I assumed the shape of Rory McAllister, ghoul servant of the Ventrue Maria, In this guise I entered the office of the crimelord Shephard and commanded him to order an immediate retaliatory crackdown upon the merchants of the Water Street community. As you predicted, Shephard obeyed "McAllister’s"  orders without question. Within hours, endemic gang warfare drove most of the residents indoors; several mortals were killed and scores more wounded. Among the wounded was Meriwether, childe of the Brujah Trerza, who oversees Water Street and the surrounding evirons.

During the chaos, I donned The i1lusory guise of Officer Shay. As you said, the reside the Water Street area bear no love for that particular servant of the law. In this form, I hunted and foundthepopular street poet Sexton Lunchpail. Oncemorefollowing your orders, I proceeded to assault him withapolice  man’s truncheon. I left him alive but in need of hospitalzation.
Regrettable, but necessary.

After finishing this action, I journeyed uptown. Assuming the shape of the injured Meriwether, I retrieved my cache of explosives from its hiding place and crept up to the FirstBank-Drake & Co. Tower, where Maria maintains a haven. The priming, et al. went off without a hitch, but I allowed myself to be seen by Maria’s guards  (in my disguised form, of course) as I exited following the detonation. I easily lost my pursuers
– I have traveled the sewers of the area for years.

The rest was, as they say, a piece of cake., The incensed Maria mustered her policemen and gangsters,

sending them en masse into the Water Street area to quell the “rioters.” Of course, by this time there actually was a riot in progress, as the equally furious Tierza deployed her own mortal pawns. Lunchpail’s beating and the “fascist crackdown” had ignited the area, and it did not take much effort on Tierza’s part to stir the poor, minorities, hippies and sympathetic bohemian intellectuals into a violent mob. Water Street was aflame within hours, and the mob then rampaged up the main roads toward the business district and Maria.

Naturally, such a struggle drew our Kindred like flies to honey; I took the opportunity to sell morselsof information and psuedo-information to other Kindred, keeping in mind our ultimate purpose. I know that no fewer than three vampires met the Final Death last night. At any rate, aided by these newcomers,the mob managed to storm the police barricades and reach the business district.

You can the results in today’s paper. The media is calling it “the worst riot of the decade”; it seems to have surpassed even the         recent Watts tragedy. The FB-Drake, IBM and General Dynamics towers all suffered trmendous structural damage, and at least 30 percent of the area’s industrial parks are likewise closed. The dead and wounded are estimated to be in the thousands.

Of course, the lives and unlives lost are tertiary to our clan’s aim. The rate of property destruction, if I may boast, was high indeed. Both the Water Street area and the business district suffered tremendous damage, and extensive repair will be needed in both areas. I have contacted Waylon; he has assured me that all of the important construction companies in the city contain mortals loyal to our clan. Thus, rebuilding in both areas will include a significant amount of “unsolicited” con struction, secret catacombs, alcoves, antechambers, hidden rooms and the like, Sewer systems in both areas will likewise be expanded. I estimate that within six months our clan should have free and unrestricted access to both the elder and anarch “hotspots” of the city.