DEATH BY PARKING – Episode 4 – Stack Parking When we got to the car, it was boxed in. Stack parking is the


I It Just Gets Better


and Better BY JVH


TWASABEAUTIFUL EVENINGATTHEHOLLYWOODBOWL.WEWERE celebrating Paulo’s engagement to Grace. Shirley and I were two proud parents. The wine was perfect, the food from Joachim Splichal’s Patina restaurant served in our box was delicious; and of course the LA Philharmonic was playing Tchaikovsky.Whatmore could one say?


way at the bowl. Paulo and I noticed a problemwith the car behind us, and before long, the LAPD was there, along with the coroner. It was a dead body, lying onmy business card.The woman, Sarah, turned out to be Shirley’s sister-in-law’s best friend; she also was the niece of a formermob capo de capos. This guy, who went by the name ofWilliam Smythe-Jones,


had cut a deal with the Feds and now seemed to be running them, rather than the other way around. He was with his grand-niece Melissa. Shewas the dead ringer for Betty Beeson, hermother, the woman who was killed sitting next tome about 18months before. Curiouser and curiouser. When Sarah was kidnapped, Smythe-Jones wanted me to be


the go-between. (I guess my detecting wiles impressed him after I botched the capture of his daughter who was running the mob’s LA operation.) He told the kidnappers they had to deal with me. His “scenario” was just super: “When we got the ransom note, I immediately contacted my


‘handler’ at the Bureau. I told them I wanted you involved, and here you are. Thank you for that. I only wish you could have been on board sooner.Maybe Sarah wouldn’t be dead.” Therewas oneminor problem. Sarah hadmy business card in


her hand, and the kidnappers knew who I was before she was tak- en.They had to have been able to set up all that parkingmess at the


Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation


1. Publication title: Parking Today 2. Publication number: 1095-5062 3. Filing date: September 16, 2009 4. Issue frequency:Monthly 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: 12 6. Annual Subscription price: $0.00 7. Address of publication: 11810 Pacific Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90066, Contact: John Van Horn, Phone: 310-390-5277


8. Complete mailing address of Publisher: same as above 9. Names and addresses ofPublisher, Editor,Managing Editor (same person): JohnVanHorn, 11810PacificAve., LosAngeles,CA 90066


10. Owner:Bricepac, Inc., 11810PacificAvenue, LosAngeles,CA90066; Shareholders, JohnVanHorn,RobynVanHorn; same address


11. Bond or mortgage holders: None 12. Tax status: Unchanged 13. Publication title: Parking Today 14. Issue date for circulation data: September 2009 15. Extent and nature of circulation:


a. Total number of copies (net press run)


b. Paid and/or requested distribution 1. Outside-County Paid/RequestedMail Subscriptions 2. In-County Paid/RequestedMail Subscriptions


3. Sales through dealers and carriers; other non USPS paid distribution


d. Nonrequsted Distribution byMail 1. Outside-County Nonrequested Copies 2. In-County Nonrequested Copies


3. Nonrequested Copies Distributed Through the USPS by Other Classes ofMail 4. Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside theMail e. Total Nonrequested Distribution f. Total Distribution


g. Copies Not Distributed h. Total


i. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation


HollywoodBowl. Plus, they left the ransomnote onmy doorstep. I explained all this to Smythe-Jones, or whatever his name was. “So you were involved before I contacted you.” He paused.


“This ismost interesting; itmakesmatters easier.Manning, I want you to find the killers ofmy niece.” I won’t go into the part aboutMelissa’s thinking she was my


daughter. She wasn’t, unless they changed how one makes babies, but Paulo helped and let her down easy. When I got home, the house was filled with kidnappers in


masks. They told me that Sarah’s death was a mistake, and the idiots that did it would be “taken care of.” They also told me that the kidnapping was still on, but with a different victim,Melissa’s twin sister,Mandy. This had become a soap opera, and Iwas between the bar and


the tub. I met the next day with Smythe-Jones and put the squeeze on


him. He toldme the “rest of the story”: “When I sent ‘Karen’ – that’s Betty Beeson’s real name – out


here to LA to oversee the family business, I didn’t realize what a problem we had. That grade B actressMaria LaFlonza with her Howard Hughes connections, the problems with the parking scams, all the hands sticking out looking for payoffs in City Hall – it was probably toomuch for a young girl to handle.


Continued on Page 48


Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12Months


14,810 9,641 487 10,128


Actual No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date


14,736 9,873


00 697


4. Requested Copies Distributed by OtherMail Classes Through the USPS 00 c. Total Paid or Requested Circulation


2,843 425


3,268


13,396 1,414


15,167 76%


16. Publication of statement of ownership: Publication required;will be printed in the October 2009 issue of the publication. //s// John Van Horn, Publisher.


OCTOBER 2009 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com 47


00 00 2,721 296


3,017


13,587 1,149


15,000 78%


10,570


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