In this first episode, we jump into the world of 1950 Puerto Rico. There's been a recent break-in at a lab inside of New York Presbyterian hospital in San Juan. As soon as the FBI station chief, John Spillers finds out, he takes an unusual interest in the case. He sends special agent Anton Ramler to recover the stolen items—stashed in a wooden crate.
The world that Ramler and Spillers find themselves in is one of heightened paranoia: the cold war has just started. 75,000 communist troops, armed by the Soviet Union, have just crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. The FBI has a massive presence on the island of Puerto Rico. Luis Muñoz Marín is governor. No one knows it, but he’s in the back pocket of J. Edgar Hoover because of secret files proving he’s a drug addict from his bohemian days in New York City opium dens. Hoover uses this leverage to ensure that Marin plays nicely in the ongoing suppression of the Puerto Rican independence movement, led by the nationalist party. If you’ve never heard of this movement, it’s because the FBI did its job. Starting the in the 30s, they enlisted the aid of tens of thousands of informants—regular citizens—to spy on their neighbors—anyone suspected of harboring sympathies with the independence movement. Even high school students.
Episode 1 starts a couple weeks before major island-wide armed uprisings, that culminate with assassination attempts on Governor Marin and President Harry Truman.
https://roughmasters.substack.com/p/1-the-crate
