Tuesday, October 21, 1997

The King of the Fleas - 43

The wheelchair bound, accordion playing, ex POW, "King of the Fleas" (Roscoe Martin) spotted the Commanderr of his old Vietnamese prison camp on a US street, and killed him. He had been a captured deserter from his unit and was tortured, but when he gave in to the Viet Cong he was pronounced "king" over the other prisoners and was given special respect by the guards. He was used to get information about which prisoners were pilots and could be taken to Russia (it turns out that Harm's dad was one of them). He was then left untouched and had to watch as the commander had all the remainder of the POWs in the camp killed. A policeman (Costas) was outwitted by Bud, in taking custody of Martin, who turned himself in to Harm. Chegwidden started the interrogation but left. Martin was deliberately vague and rambling so, when Harm got anxious and "pushed" for information, Martin lied and told Harm that it had been his father who was the the informer. Harm finally gave up trying to make sense of Martin's ramblings and told him to leave, which made him finally admit that it had been him who was the weakest captive and made "king" by the dead Viet Cong CO. Harm promised to defend him during his trial. Dalton pursued Mac.

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