As they awaited take off Eddie leaned forward and asked Johnny "I know the Needle and you had something going on and we're going back to the city because of it, but more than that I don't know.  What's going on?".   In response, Johnny asked Eddie to change seats so he could fill him in during the flight.

It was a long and winding story. 

Johnny started by telling Eddie he was not just any "n...." as Eddie had called his brother at El Morocco.  He then disclosed that he was a direct descendant of the Father of our Country, George Washington. (Blogger's note: As set forth in Linda Allen's 2004 book "I Can Not Tell A Lie", George Washington fathered West Ford in a 1784 sexual liaison with a fair skinned slave named Venus at his brother's plantation.  The issue, while passing for white, carried this fact down to today in a family oral history. In our tale, at some point they reverted to the family name Washington).

Johnny told Eddie that harboring this heritage in a white skin had never been easy. To say the least, it helped make Johnny Washington an extraordinary, driven individual with a very very special chip on his shoulder. 

Johnny then revealed that the Washington family was deeply involved that Summer in supporting Jackie Robinson's pioneering efforts to break Major League Baseball's color line, saying, "In 1947, no matter how light my skin, it is still one shitty row to hoe being a Negro".

He added that his family had a direct connection to Jackie, as younger brother Kenny, Earl's identical twin, played in the same 1939 UCLA football backfield with Jackie. He reminded Eddie that in the previous year Kenny had broken the National Football League color line.

Johnny confessed that he had held his tongue when the "Needle" did his thing and needled that Truman "has been good to your people" and when Eddie discounted brother Earl as "just a dumb n....".

Johnny had controlled his emotions because he had a dream that seismic change was coming as a result of Kenny and Jackie's pioneering.  He could not imagine that someday someone of his race would sit in Truman's Oval Office, but he knew that he had to do all in his power to protect Jackie and keep him alive to allow for the possibility of his dream.

This is why Earl had been killed. He had been Jackie's personal body guard and protecter. There being innumerable conspiracies of hate being marshaled against Jackie.

Johnny and Kenny hoped to gain control of, or neutralize, our county's most powerful private army: Organized Crime.  Behind all of this week's carnage was the alarm and concern of The Syndicate that if the color line was broken their gambling operation would be turned on its head.

As the plane began its descent into Gotham, Johnny thanked  Eddie for rescuing him and asked if he was in.