'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, was the crime of the 20th century. Like many of the military and intelligence people I met while serving in the U.S. Navy and later as a Defense Department civilian employee, I believed Fidel Castro killed Kennedy. Kennedy attempted to kill the communist Cuban leader and the dictator announced publicly that he intended to return the favor.
Nearly a week after Superstorm Sandy forced the evacuation of barrier island towns all along New Jersey's coast, gamblers trickled back into Atlantic City alongside people who live in neighborhoods the tourists rarely see.
Stephen Hunter is a prizewinning journalist who, until his recent retirement, was chief movie critic for The Washington Post. In addition, for about three decades, Mr. Hunter has moonlighted as a novelist, well-known for entertaining fiction recounting the exploits of Vietnam War sniper Bob Lee Swagger and Bob Lee's father, Pacific war veteran and Arkansas sheriff Earl Swagger.
When he started the book, he said, everyone thought a conspiracy was behind the killing.
"The whole downstairs gone," Mr. Hunter said. "All gone."
Gamblers return to Atlantic City, where residents had most to lose →
