American Tabloid

American Tabloid is a 1995 novel by James Ellroy. It was TIME magazine's Best Book (Fiction) for that year.

Spoilers follow

The story begins on November 22, 1958 and follows five years of American history. The main plot follows three rogue American law-enforcement officers and their involvement in the the Mafia, the 1960 presidential election, the Bay of Pigs, and the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Kemper Boyd is an FBI agent who is personally selected by Director J. Edgar Hoover to infiltrate the staff of Hoover's personal nemeses, Senator John F. Kennedy and his little brother Robert Kennedy. Kemper quickly succeeds and becomes enamored of Jack's wealth and charisma, even while he arouses the suspicious of the straitlaced Bobby.

Ward Littell is Boyd's former partner, an ex-Jesuit seminarian whose liberal sympathies make his assignment, spying on American socialistss for the Red Squad, nearly unbearable. He is overjoyed when Hoover, in exchange for assistance on another assignment, transfers him to the Top Hoodlum program, formed to combat the Mafia.

Pete Bondurant is a former Los Angeles Sheriff's deputy, and billionaire Howard Hughes's current bodyguard, drug dealer, and pimp. His organized-crime contacts and experience come in handy when the CIA hires him to form an alliance between the Agency and the Mob, against Fidel Castro.

The historical cast also features Sam Giancana, Carlos Marcello, Jack Ruby, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr, Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, and Jimmy Hoffa. It is followed by a sequel, The Cold Six Thousand.