The Thousand-Dollar Cup of Crazy German Coffee

381 Monta Lane, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California 90024

January 17, 1968

Dr. Roberto Cajiao-Cigliuti, Calle 13 Norte No. 27, Cali, Colombia

Dear Sir:

Your name has been given me by the Person-to-Person Magazine Exchange Committee as one who would like to receive used magazines from the U.S. I think this is a fine idea, since I only throw my magazines away, and you might as well enjoy them down there in Colombia--a country which I'm sorry to say I've never visited. So I am today sending you current copies of Life, Look, The Saturday Evening Post and Playboy.

I am told by the committee that you are: "a physician of 26 years of age who knows English and would appreciate magazines of general interest."

From my atlas, I learn that Cali is a city of some 815,000, is situated at an elevation of 3140 feet in the valley of the Cauca river, not far from some of the coffee plantations.

As it happens, I am a great lover of coffees, and I use the plural advisedly. I roast and blend my own, using coffees from all over the world, including four varieties from Colombia.

I am 61, retired from business and a widower. I would enjoy corresponding with you about your country and your life, and thereby broaden my knowledge of the world and its people. In any case, I would like to hear from you when the magazines arrive, so I can be sure I have your correct address.

Sincerely yours, Faubus R. Broffman

January 23, 1968

Faubus R. Broffman, Esq., 381 Monta Lane, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California 90024, U.S.A.

Distinguished Sir!

I hasten to reply to your letter by return of the post. I will await the arrivals of the magazines with interest.

Also awaiting these periodicals will be my fiancée, Maria Valenzuela, who has the most acute avidity to read of life in the United States and all its goings on of glamor and exciting doings. Maria is very beautiful and my joy in life and we will be married when next I obtain a promotion, for you see I am a physician in the Colombia Public Health Service! I would never wish a "society medical practice on Park Avenue" as I have witnessed in the U.S. films with the rich flocking with their ailments, you see, but I am a fine physician none the least and have devoted my life to the public weal. I will never be wealthy and rich but I will never be poor at the other hand!

Your name struck a gong with me and I hastened to the public library and saw an article about you in the magazine of Time of April 24, 1964. Which I had remembered reading at that time as we have many Germans in Colombia from early times and among them is the prominent Broffman family.

The article as I am sure you know deals with your life as beginning with the capital of $500 and building same into a fortune of some $36,000,000, when you sold your interests out and retired to a life of luxury and ease at the mere age of 57! My congratulations to you, sir! Tell me please how you managed this grand success, and of the living of your life at this present time.

Fancy that you are a lover of coffees. I too! I must go now to take Maria to the films.

Yours sincerely, Roberto Cajiao-Cigliuti, M. D.

381 Monta Lane, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California 90024

February 2, 1968

Dear Dr. Cajiao-Cigliuti:

Thank you for your letter, in which you ask about my "grand success," and about my life now.

There are often in the U.S. corporations with hidden or undervalued assets, in cash on hand, real estate, patents, tax-loss carry-overs, etc. Sometimes, these corporations simply lack forward-looking management. One looks for these companies and then one buys their stock and gains control. Then, one can liquidate and realize these assets, or reorganize the operations of the company on a more profitable basis. The value of the company's stock will then rise, sometimes fantastically. One then sells out and uses the capital therefrom derived to buy into another and usually larger company. And so on. It is a simple process of pyramiding one's holdings. But a good deal of hard work is required, as well as a willingness to risk all, at times.

Now, I live in a comfortable, rambling house in Bel Air, which is in the hills above West Los Angeles, and UCLA university. I have many movie-star neighbors, and know a few of them slightly.

I have never remarried since my wife died ten years ago, because, quite frankly, I enjoy "playing the field" with younger ladies, even at the advanced old age of 61! Los Angeles is, happily, quite full of unattached and attractive young women.

I have managed to retain my teeth and my hair, and keep my body fit with tennis, golf, swimming in my pool and sailing my yacht.

A few years back, I had a heart attack, which almost killed me, but now, with lots of exercise, I feel better than ever. I neither smoke nor drink, for I don't want to shorten my life.

I have servants who look after me very well. A Negro named Hawkins is my butler, and his wife Cleo is my excellent chef. Also, I have a chauffeur and man of all work named Carlo. He is a handsome young satyr of Italian origin whose prowess with the ladies is astounding, if he is to be believed.

Congratulations on your lovely fiancée, Maria. Marry her soon and start a family. My wife and I never had children, to our regret.

Do tell me about your own life and work. Where do you live? What does your daily work consist of?

By the way--would you happen to know anything about "crazy German coffee"? It was mentioned once in a novel I read, years ago. It is a coffee that is supposed to come from Colombia, and (in the book) is the most fabulous and unique coffee in the world.

I am off soon to Punta del Este and the Film Festival. A charming young actress has asked me to escort her! I suspect she has marriage in her mind. I have something else in mine.

Sincerely, Faubus Broffman

March 2, 1968

My dear Mr. Broffman:

How modest you are! "It is a simple process of pyramiding one's holdings," you say! Indeed! Time magazine refers to yourself as a "financial genius." The article also describes you as one who is compelled to be the winner at the cost of all. A business conflictor (obvious) is quoted saying you are ruthless and heartless. Is this not a prejudiced comment, sir, do you think?

The magazines arrived! I was delighted as I devoured their contents! Interesting, there is an article in The Saturday Evening Post magazine about the actress Raquel Welch, who is a dead ringer to my Maria, instead that she (Miss Welch) is not so ample in the bosoms. To proof, I am sending you a "snap" of Maria and myself. Maria is on the left in the bathing dress with the long hair and without the spectacles! Ha, ha! I hope you have had good fun in Punta del Este with the actress! I have never been to Uruguay, but then I have never deserted Colombia except for Panama for a week, because it takes money to travel!

Your friend, Roberto C.-C.

P.S. I have never learned of this "crazy German coffee"; neither has my friends. But I will ask my cousin in Bogota who is a wealthy coffee broker and drives a 1966 green Buick sedan.

March 11, 1968

Dear friend Roberto:

I'm happy you received the magazines. Carlo has mailed you other shipments of magazines, since the first.

Your Maria is indeed a "delectable dish." Were I you, I wouldn't let her out of my sight!

You mention that I was described as one who had to be a winner at all costs. I suppose there is some truth in it. I came from a very poor family, and early on I resolved to be first in all things, and this has influenced my life in many areas.

The charge that I have been "ruthless and heartless" came not from a "conflictor" but from the son of a man who had built up his own business. When I took control, I had to ease the old man out, for he was growing senile. The man took his own life, which saddened me greatly, but you have to be up to the mark in business or make way for those who are. It is sad but it is true.

I am enclosing a photo of myself and my actress friend, taken at the beach in Punta del Este. The young lady was unfaithful to me four times (to my knowledge) during the time we were in Punta del Este. When I chided her about this, she claimed it was necessary for "public relations." I would have called them "private relations"! Actually, I did not mind too much, so you see I am not really ruthless. Our great financier Bernard Baruch once said, "It is better to have ten percent of a good investment than a hundred percent of a bad one!" It applies to women as well as stocks and bonds, especially when you are 61.

I have chartered a 150-foot power yacht out of Honolulu. It has a crew of six and a French chef and I am taking six guests all around the Hawaiian Islands for two weeks of relaxation.

You have yet to tell me about your life and work.

Don't put yourself to any trouble about "crazy German coffee," whatever it is and if it is. It might well have been an invention of the novelist.

Sincerely, Faubus Broffman

March 21, 1968

Sir Faubus R. Broffman, 381 Monta Lane, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California 90024, U.S. America

Dear Mr. Broffman:

Do not read one other word in this letter unless you promise to me that you (continued on page 210)Crazy German Coffee(continued from page 92) will not tell Roberto that I have written to you! Because I do not write English at all this letter is being writing by my female cousin Angelica for me as I tell her in Spanish, you see.

I want to come to the U.S. America so badly! I have read of this actress Raquel Welch who has so many millions of dollars and a Rolls-Royce auto, and Roberto says I am much more pretty than she is, you see.

I have seen your "snap" and you are a handsome and kindly man of generosity.

Angelica knows an attorney who says that to enter the U.S. America I must need a visit visa and also someone in the country who will make me not become a "public charge."

It will cost $253 to fly from Cali to Los Angeles, stopping planes at Panama where it happen lives an aged aunt of mine I would like to see anyway. That is economy one-way ticket.

I of course do not have any money.

Please be of help to me, dear Mr. Broffman, but do not tell Roberto! I do not love him at all anymore.

Yours most faithful, Maria Valenzuela

Calle 19 Sud No. 2 Apto 9, Cali, Colombia

P.S. I am bigger in the bosoms than Raquel Welch, you see.

March 23, 1968

Dear friend Faubus:

What a delight to cruise in the waters of Hawaii! Did you have along a pretty female companion or two?

Poor Maria! The film Fantastic Voyage (they go in a tiny submarine through the blood vessels into the brain and it is highly educational) is now playing in Cali and she has gone five times to see this Raquel Welch and she is full of crazy ideas, and is much to be like a child with her silly dreams.

I hope soon to marry her and settle her down with a baby. Now she works in a store in Cali where she sells dresses for ladies and can buy them herself for a percentage off and she does, spending all of her money, alack!

You have asked me twice about my life and my work and so I will tell you if you do not mind it dull.

I do work in the field of nutrition and also toxicology, you see, which is related. The Indians of Colombia are very poor and also not nourished, their diet consists of mostly starches, sugar products and alcohol and also they chew the coca bean (not cocoa) which is a narcotic to hide their hunger symptoms.

Malnutrition and acute deficiency of vitamins is the fourth most important source of deaths here.

Sad to we nutritionists of education is that even when these sources of protein such as fish, milk, eggs, soybeans and so forth are readily at hand the Indians will not eat them for they have prejudicial cultures from long past ages.

These conditions result not only in diseases but a lack of energy of the body and the mind, and those impulses to offset one's unfortunate lot are dissipated with the typical thought: "Para que?" (What for is the use?)

We in the Public Health Service are dedicated to end this vicious circle.

I live alone in a small apartment on the third story of an old house which overlooks a quiet garden most luxuriant. Maria lives some streets away with her female cousin Angelica.

I must make many arduous field treks on foot sometimes up into the mountainous Andes where live the Indians, which we examine and treat them with medicines and inoculate and try to teach them to grow and consume the more proper foods for their health.

As I wrote previous I will never know richness but at least I do not idle my precious time without helping the world into which I was born.

My cousin who is the coffee broker in Bogotá writes to me that he has indeed heard of "crazy German coffee," and will write to you care of me about this thing. He is amazed that you have heard of it and I still do not know what it is myself.

Sincerely, Roberto C.-C.

P.S. More magazines have arrived for which I give you thanks.

381 Monta Lane, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California 90024

April 2, 1968

Miss Maria Valenzuela, Calle 19 Sud No. 2 Apto 9, Cali, Colombia

Dear Miss Valenzuela:

I did not receive your letter of March 21. By this I mean that you are a naughty girl who should be spanked.

Los Angeles is full of beautiful girls who would like to be movie stars but who must work as salesgirls and waitresses, and sometimes with nothing on above their waists.

Stay where you are in your own country with a fine man who loves you. Do not write me again or I will tell Roberto.

Sincerely, Faubus Broffman

April 4, 1968

Dear friend Roberto:

Your work does not sound at all "dull," but highly interesting. You should be proud to be doing such important work for your people.

The Hawaii cruise was quite enjoyable. We fished and ate too much and played cards and danced and lay about and had a great time. Yes, we were not without agreeable females.

I will be eager to hear from your cousin about "crazy German coffee." I am particularly curious about why it is so called.

Another shipment of magazines was mailed to you today, courtesy of Carlo. He runs down to the post office in West-wood Village with them in the Rolls, but without his chauffeur's uniform. He picks up young ladies that way, he says! They think it is his car. Too bad for them if they are so motivated, I say.

Your friend, Faubus Broffman

April 6, 1968

Darling Mr. Broffman:

You must not turn down my pleadings for help!

It is not only that I do not love Roberto but I do not like him at all! Already he is losing at 26 his hair and is becoming fat in the belly and beside he is so grave and without jollity and talks only of feeding soybeans to the Indians!

I do not want to be his wife! Only because we have grown up together since childhood we are to be married.

At the littlest, could I not have the briefest trip to the U. S. America to look around, before I marry Roberto and have his children?

Then I will never leave Colombia again until I die and am old!

Please assist me to make the briefest visit and I will be so greatful to you and I will do anything, just to see the lovely Hollywood and the U.S. America for a brief visit!

Roberto banged me in the face last Sunday.

Please I beg you to help me!

Your servant, Maria Valenzuela

April 9, 1968

Dear Mr. Broffman:

Another packages of magazines has come by and are much appreciated by me.

I have just returned from a trek into the Andes. It was very sad indeed for a child died in my arms of poverty and malnutrition of the worst nature.

Since you sign yourself my friend, I can express my thought more freely, which is that it is a dramatic contrast from the lifes of these starving poor people and a life of indolence and luxury and voyages to Punta del Este and Hawaii in a power yacht and a Rolls-Royce with a driver to run the errands.

Pardon me if I speak my mind.

Your friend, Roberto C.-C.

April 17, 1968

Dear Miss Valenzuela:

If you will go to the American consulate in Cali and ask for a Mr. James Harkins, you will find that my attorney has sent all the necessary papers to enable you to enter the U.S. America on a visitor's visa.

A round-trip first-class ticket on Braniff to Panama, thence to L.A. via Pan American, is awaiting you with the American Express representative in Cali.

You wanted a brief visit here and that is what I will provide. You will stay here for a few weeks only, as my house guest. After you have seen the sights, you will return to Colombia. This must be understood before you leave.

Naturally, I will mention none of this to Roberto. Explaining this to him must be your problem, without bringing me into it. I think you will be a contented wife for him once you have got this travel bug out of your system.

There will also be $500 for you with the American Express representative for expenses. Cable me your arrival date. I will meet you.

Faubus Broffman

April 18, 1968

Dear Doctor:

Now, just a minute, please.

I worked damn hard for 18 hours a day for over 30 years to achieve financial success, and I think I have a right to enjoy the fruits of my toil, if you don't mind, sir.

To help the more unfortunate of the world, I long ago set up the Helen Broffman Memorial Foundation, which has already given away to "good works" over $6,000,000.

Is it that you are needling me in the hope of getting some money for your work?

Very well, sir. If you have any specific proposals for ways in which the foundation can help your poor Indians with financial grants, let me know them, together with the names of the proper authorities to contact.

Meanwhile, please do not tell me how I should spend my days, if you don't mind, and if you wish to remain my friend.

Yours, Faubus R. Broffman

Cali Colombia NL 872: XL4: 4:45 PM AP 26 68

Broffman 381 Monta Lane Bel Air LA C USA

After Stay Over with Aunt Panama

Arrive Pan AM Flight 516 LA International 10:30 PM April 30. I Love You.

Maria

Airmail--Special Delivery

April 27, 1968

Dear friend!

I was writing to apologize for my latest letter to you and forgive me for I was tired and bitter for the dying baby and I do not want a penny from you for the government pays for the work when I had the most terrible news!

Which was from Angelica who is Maria's female cousin.

Maria has flown away from Cali to Panama!

There lives an aunt of her there but they do not answer the telephone I have called.

I have a sickened thought Maria could be coming to Los Angeles to visit you--she is such a child! But where did she obtain the money for the ticket? She does not save. I fear she has stolen it from the store but I fear to ask because of the police! Please let me know if she comes to L.A. by any chance! I am frantic from anxiety and worry about my beloved!

Roberto

LA C 11:30 PM 4XLQ: 897 DDY URG 4/30/68

Roberto Cajiao Hyphen Cigliuti Calle 13 Norte No 27 Cali Colombia SA

This has been a Complete Surprise to me. Your letter arrived this morning and tonight Maria Called from Airport and I have met her and I have just Returned here to my Home. She is fine. She did not Steal any Money. She Just Wants to see Something of the World. I will send her Home Safely After a bit. Writing. Do not worry. She is in Good Hands.

Broffman

May 2, 1968

Dear Roberto:

Maria is fine, as I said in my cable.

It is a crazy thing that she has done, but it is better I think that she does such a thing now, if she has to, than after she is married to you.

She says she did not steal any money, and is shocked and angry that you would have thought so. She says she paid for her flight ticket with some money from an inheritance from her grandmother that she never mentioned to you.

From what I learn from her, with the language barrier, I gather that she has the normal, understandable fears of any young woman about to embark upon marriage. Being only 19, she wants to "sow some wild oats" before she settles down for good. I will keep an eye on her and make sure she behaves herself, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

Meanwhile, she will be a guest here in my house. I have two servants for chaperones.

As a courtesy to you, my friend, I will give her a whirl while she is here. I'm sure she'll soon tire of it and want to come home.

Maria has had to buy some new clothes, for her skirts are too long for current fashions. I must admit that mini-skirts look very well on her. Also, it is a pleasure to have such a decorative person around my swimming pool. Maria has been in every day.

Don't worry. I will take good care of her.

Your friend, Faubus

(Translated from the Spanish)

May 10, 1968

My darling Roberto:

Please forgive me, my beloved, for my foolishness. You are first in my heart and I will be back with you soon, but first I desired so desperately to see just a little of the world.

Mr. Broffman lives in a big mansion. I have a room on the second story which has a balcony which overlooks the spreading lawns and the huge swimming pool of marble.

Mr. Broffman gave a swimming party in my honor last Sunday and it was such fun! Think who came! Raquel Welch and her husband, who live not far away! She is very nice. Cary Grant the movie star also came by for a minute. He is so handsome!

Next week we are flying to Las Vegas in a chartered plane with some of Mr. Broffman's friends. Dean Martin is appearing there now and he is a golfing friend of Mr. Broffman.

I will return in only a few short weeks. I love you.

Your adoring, Maria

May 15, 1968

Dear friend Faubus:

I have received a letter from Maria which makes me feel full of fear, for I anticipate with alarm that perhaps she will enjoy so this "whirl" you are giving her in the world of ease and luxury and famous persons that her future life with me in Colombia will be as nothing but dull to her in the prospect, you see.

I trust you as a trusted friend to see that this does not happen.

Your friend, Roberto

P.S. I enclose a translation from the Spanish of a letter from my cousin in Bogotá who does not write English. It is a fascinating saga and will I believe have interest for you.

How interesting to me that your coffee enthusiast who is your American rich friend did hear of "crazy German coffee"! Fewest people have, even in Colombia.

Here is the story: It was in 1785 and some Germans came to Colombia and wished to plant coffee trees way high up in the Andes. They were called "crazy" for the altitude was too high and too frosty and also there were a forest of trees so thick like a grass lawn and you could not walk through them. The "crazy Germans" thought Aha! we will burn the trees to clear the ground! And so they set fires which burned for a year over thousands of square kilometers! When the fires were cold there was a meter of wood ashes on the soil, in which the "crazy Germans" planted coffee trees which regardless to say soon died from frost and insufficient rainfall, and the "crazy Germans" gave up the venture and departed.

Now passes 140 years or so, and in 1930 some government surveyors passing through this desolate area found to their disbelief under tall cedars a few of these coffee trees, still growing, although shaped badly and minuscule. The beans were tiny like peppercorns. Needing coffee to drink, these men roasted the beans and drank the coffee.

Such was their surprise and unimaginable delight! This was the most fabulous and unusual and delicious coffee ever tasted by man! In addition, it was the most marvelous of aphrodisiacs!!

Chemists I have chatted to about this phenomenon say it was possibly a chemical or organic transmutation of the soil from the fire plus the presence of potash and phosphate from the wood ashes which could produce such fantastic a coffee!

These surveyors picked every bean from the only ten trees growing and brought these back to Bogotá, and guarded this coffee with their guns.

I was then only 30 years of age but I resolved to taste this coffee, and I am shamed to tell you the whereby but I obtained enough beans for only one cup which I drank in solitude.

There resulted not only the most magnificent taste sensation of my life, but also the most marvelous feeling of well-being in all my body! Also, I have never had such a sexual appetite, nor a capacity, before or later in this life!

Alack, this was all the "crazy German coffee" there was, and if there is any again on these so distant trees I do not know, and it would take a expedition to find out and this would cost $1000, which would be foolhardy for it is 38 years since and I doubt if anyone can find the trees if there are any extant there.

But I thought your American friend could enjoy knowing the story of "crazy German coffee."

May 20, 1968

Dear friend Roberto:

I have been very busy with Maria, but I have a few minutes now to write to you, for Carlo has driven her down to Beverly Hills to buy some shoes to match some evening gowns which she bought for our trip to New York next week. I thought she should see the "bright lights of Broadway" before returning home.

I was fascinated by your cousin's account of "crazy German coffee." I enclose a check made out to you for $1000, which please give to your cousin, for I am taking him at his word about this expedition. I want him to go ahead with it at once. I fully appreciate the gamble involved, but am willing to take it.

I am more than a coffee "enthusiast." I am a coffee "nut." I have green coffees flown to me from all over the world. I keep them in a special freezer. I roast these beans myself, after blending, and then grind them, just before making my coffee, which I do in a special pantry forbidden to my servants, except to clean up.

So now you will understand better why I am willing to risk $1000 on the chance of getting some "crazy German coffee."

Maria is fine and enjoying herself. She has made a great hit with my friends. A motion-picture producer has shown some interest in her, but I suspect where his interest lies, and I have kept this from her. I have not allowed her to go out in the company of other men, though she has not lacked for offers.

Soon I am sure she will become bored with this dizzying round of social affairs and will want to come home.

Your friend, Faubus

(From the Spanish)

May 30, 1968

Darling Roberto:

Here we are in New York City! It is just like the cinema!

Every night we go to the theaters and the night clubs and dance, and in the daytime we do sight-seeing. We have flown to Boston for two days and also Washington, D.C. I went to the White House!

I am very tired and am longing soon to return to you, and lovely Cali. I have told Faubus that I must go home very soon.

I danced with Dean Martin at a party in Las Vegas. He is so sweet but so is his wife! Ha, ha!

I miss you, my darling!

Maria

June 5, 1968

Dear friend Faubus:

The expedition of several men have started off into the mountains some time ago. My cousin trusts these men. They must fly to a point and thence via a helicopter to a point and then by foot to look for the trees of coffee. They carry a short-wave radio to communicate with Bogotá.

I must be firm now and insist that you send Maria back to my arms, for I am so lonely. It has been so much longer than was said, and I must ask you that Maria be back in Cali by June 26 which will be two months from departure.

You must keep your bargain, sir!

Your friend, Roberto

June 10, 1968

Dear Roberto:

This may well be the most difficult letter I will ever have to write. I will get directly to the point.

I have asked Maria to be my wife and she has accepted. We will be married here, in Bel Air, next week.

I know how angry and upset you will be, and how faithless to you you will think me. I am upset, too.

But the truth, which may be hurtful to you, is that Maria does not really love you, and would not be happy with you.

But I am in love with Maria as I have never loved before. The thought of her leaving me forever was just too much for me to bear.

I am not unaware of the problems that the disparity between our ages will cause. I know that my wealth is a highly important factor in her decision to marry me. I do not fool myself that she has a grand passion for me.

If you truly love her, find it in your heart to wish us well in this marriage.

Faubus

Cali Colombia SM NX227: 14 Urgent June 14 68 6:45 PM

Broffman 381 Monta Lane Bel Air Los Angeles Calif USA

You cannot do this! I Forbid it! This is Perfidy! You have no honor as a Man to Think you can Corrupt and Seduce and Steal my Beloved with your Millions! I beg you to Reconsider what you do! If I take my life in my own hands it will be on your soul forever I am in utter despair!

Roberto

Bel Air Los Angeles CAL XC 554 DL 16XX June 18 68

Cajiao Hyphen Cigliuti Calle 13 Norte No 27 Cali Colombia SA

Faubus and I Married Today. Forgive me but I would never make Good Wife for you. Please we beg you for your Blessing. Love.

Maria

June 26, 1968

Dear friends Faubus and Maria:

I have written so many letters couched in anger and vituperation and hatred was like a poison in my system but I have torn them all into little pieces and now the poison has gone I hope to the Almighty God!

I had to make a medical trek into the Andes up high and there alone in the arid peaks and snow I was able to reflect in a philosophy that we are mortals only and so small like ants and so short a time on this earth. I found forgiveness lying in my heart and I pour it forth to you. I think Maria is of a certainty that she would not make the best wife for me, for as always since a child she has yearned and dreamed of princes and fairy castles and rich gowns and pearls! Such would never befall her lot with me so simply a life.

I give you my blessings and my hopes for lifes enriched with all happinesses!

Sincerely, Roberto

P.S. I have just received this of interest from my cousin.

Tell your friend the coffee "nut" that I have heard via short-wave radio from the expedition that since all this trudging of the Andes they have at last found the coffee trees! But they are only numbering six at this present and very sparse of beans in all. But I will send all the coffee when the expedition returns, keeping only some for two cups for myself, and all the rest to Mr. Broffman for his delectability and joy!

(From the Spanish)

July 2, 1968

Dear Roberto:

Bless you so much for your kind letter full of love and understanding.

I am so happy in the marriage and Faubus is so kind to me and so gentle.

For a wedding present he gave me $25,000 for my very own. I have put it in a bank here.

Our wedding was very small and simple but afterward there was a grand gala here at the mansion, with 500 guests and Cary Grant and Dean Martin and the mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of California and also George Hamilton. And Paul Newman and his wife whom we have seen in the cinema. He is very handsome, with blue eyes. His wife is Joanne Woodward.

There were two orchestras.

Faubus talks of nothing but the arrival of this "crazy German coffee," and he says I will enjoy it too in a way.

My love to you, Maria

July 7, 1968

Dear friends Faubus and Maria:

I have the saddest of news to transport! It comes from my cousin and will explain the little packet I enclose of which be careful for it is rare indeed!

Tell Mr. Broffman I am desolate but the happening has been this: The men of the expedition returned on their feet to the meeting place for the helicopter with seven pounds of this "crazy German coffee" in two bags.

They boarded the helicopter and took into the air over the Andes. But some kilometers later there was mechanical failure and the helicopter fell into the tall trees many times before going to pieces. The pilot was killed and two men badly damaged. By radio the news was sent to me and also that in the tragedy the bags of coffee had busted and from the helicopter had scattered for miles in the very high winds and there was not one single bean to have, at all.

Another helicopter was sent to return the injured men and the others.

But all is not quite lost as it happens, for it has transpired that one of the injured men is religious, and also a thief. He had himself secreted a little amount of coffee on his person for his secret delectation at a later time. After the tragedy, he fathomed that God had punished his thievery and caused the accident and so he has given to me back the stolen coffee. Alack, it is barely two ounces in all--solely enough for one strong cup! I have had it roasted and ground myself and am enclosing it to you for Mr. Broffman, keeping not one trace for me.

As I said, I am despairing for this outcome, but I know your friend knew the gamble but he did not anticipate this tragic accident to boot.

And so, dear friend Faubus, I enclose this little envelope of coffee. No one will believe a man had to pay $1000 for one cup only of "crazy German coffee," but that is how it has come about, alack.

I know you would be preferring to roast and grind it yourself but my cousin did not know this.

I will be awaiting with eagerness the news of how this coffee tastes and makes you feel in the body.

Your friend, Roberto

Bel Air Los Angeles CAL SC 4X89922 JUL 11 68 Urgent

Cajiao Hyphen Cigliuti Calle 13 Norte No 27 Cali Colombia SA

Faubus died Suddenly this Morning of a Heart Attack. I am Writing.

Maria

Cali Colombia 448XY SC Urgent: NN4 JUL 11 68 9:14 PM

Maria Broffman 381 Monta Lane Bel Air Los Angeles CAL USA

I am Shocked Beyond Words with this Terrible News! My Heart Pours out to you my Sorrow and Sympathy Dear Maria.

Roberto

(From the Spanish)

July 14, 1968

Darling Roberto:

Thank you so much for your cable of sympathy. I am terribly upset still and Dr. Seller has had to give me something for sleeping.

It was early in the morning. Faubus had risen at seven A.M. and told me to go back to sleep. He went downstairs, eager to have this coffee.

A little later, I heard a terrible scream from him from downstairs and I jumped out of bed and ran down to hear Cleo the cook screaming, too, and I heard Faubus shouting: "My heart! My heart!"

I ran into the breakfast room where he had been drinking the coffee, and by this time he was dead on the floor.

The police came and also Dr. Seller, who said that Faubus had had a heart attack before and had been "overdoing" lately.

The police were very kind and did not ask any questions.

Faubus will be buried tomorrow. There cannot be any cremation because the attorney says that in his will Faubus said he wished to be buried beside his wife in a place called Forest Lawn Cemetery here.

The attorney says I am the only heiress except for a charitable foundation, and that I will have around $7,000,000 after the taxes will have been paid to the Government.

Meanwhile, says the attorney, he thinks the court will let me have $6000 a month to live and maintain the house.

Dr. Seller has signed the certificate of death that it was a heart attack.

My love, Maria

P.S.

Angelica Smith, P.O. Box 3793, Village Station, P.O. 922 Gayley Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90024

(From the Spanish)

July 18, 1968

Miss Angelica Smith, P.O. Box 3793, Village Station P.O., 922 Gayley Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90024, U.S.A.

My darling:

You must destroy this letter as soon as you have read it!

How I have missed you, and how I long to lie with you in my arms again! You have been a brave girl and I am proud of you. I know it was not easy to pretend to like this dirty old man. But now it is all over and there will be nothing but happiness for the two of us for all the days of our lives.

Think--to never again have to worry about money! We can live anywhere in the world, just do as we please!

I want to fly to Los Angeles to be with you. I am an old childhood friend, after all, who has come to comfort you in your time of sorrow.

You did not say that you had destroyed my letters to Broffman. Please do so at once if you have not.

Please send me at once $12,500, which is my half of the wedding present, you see.

All my love my darling, Roberto

(From the Spanish)

July 31, 1968

Miss Angelica Smith, P.O. Box 3793, Village Station P.O., 922 Gayley Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90024, U.S.A.

My darling one:

Why have I not heard from you? Are you all right? Has anything gone wrong? It has been nearly two weeks since I last wrote you at this address!

I go every day to the American Express representative, but you have not yet to transfer me the $12,500 which is mine.

I am greatly worried and upset. Please let me hear from you at once!

My love, Roberto

Cali Colombia Urgent 889 DDX: PP LM12 AUG 3 68 5:12 PM

Maria Broffman 381 Monta Lane Bel Air Los Angeles CAL USA

Please Cable at Once. I have Telephoned you to No Success. It is Urgent that I hear from you Soonest.

Roberto

(From the Spanish)

August 9, 1968

Dear Maria:

You must write me at once by return mail or you will be sorry indeed. I hope you are not trying to play any stupid tricks, for it will bring you great harm.

We have always been partners 50-50 in this from the beginning and you cannot back out now.

I should not like to have to write to the Los Angeles police.

I will expect that you will send me by cable the amount of $12,500 by August 15 at the very latest or you will regret it very much for the rest of your life.

Roberto

(From the Spanish)

August 13, 1968

Dear Roberto:

I am sending you $12,500 to the American Express representative. But this is all you will ever receive from me.

I would think very seriously before saying anything to the Los Angeles police.

I have kept carefully all your letters to Faubus, including the one in which you sent the coffee. Faubus also kept carbon copies of all letters to you, which I have.

Also, I poured the remains of his coffee from his cup into a little medicine bottle before I washed up the cup before the police and doctor came. And this sample I will always keep, for protection.

So it is you who will be very sorry indeed if you do not just keep this money and remain quiet. Do not be greedy.

Do not ever write to me again. I am going to marry Carlo when it is more seemly for a mourning widow, you see.

Goodbye.

Maria

Urgent--Special Delivery--Attention!!

August 16, 1968

Chief of the Police of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Distinguished Sir!

You will be interested in hearing of a murder which has been done in this bailiwick of yours only recently, namely the murder of Faubus R. Broffman!

If you will exhume his body and perform an autopsy, you will find much digitoxin in his system. This is a poisonous crystalline glucoside which can be refined from digitalis. I am a toxicologist, you see, and know this. Also, I myself put this digitoxin into some ground coffee which I sent Mr. Broffman to drink. It will produce an acute heart attack.

Mrs. Maria Broffman the widow was very much so a party to this plan, for she wished to inherit his millions of dollars when he was dead.

For proof of this I enclose a letter of Mrs. Broffman to me of August 13, in which she says she kept some of the poison coffee in a bottle! This you will find in her keeping! So she cannot very well lie to you that she was in ignorance!

I myself first conceived this ingenious plan, writing piteous letters from Maria to Mr. Broffman via "cousin Angelica" who does not exist at all.

Mr. Broffman then sent for Maria to enjoy her body, lying to me at the same time.

When Mr. Broffman inquired from me of "crazy German coffee," which did once exist but not anymore, I then invented a cousin I do not have in Bogotá, and also a $1000 expedition to find this coffee! This made the poisoning so easy!

Because Mr. Broffman was the manner of fellow who liked so much to take ruthlessly from others I of course played the angry jealous part to spur him into marriage with Maria, who was to give me half of the money when he died.

Now the stupid, greedy child has changed her mind to divide the money, so I am telling you this so she will go to prison, instead of having all the millions of dollars and the body of the oversexual chauffeur, too.

As for me, I now have $13,500 in cash, you see, and by the time you receive this epistle I will be far away in the world where I will never be tracked down by the forces of law and order! Ha, ha!

I think it was all a quite clever notion of me! Do you not agree, sir?

Sincerely, Roberto Cajiao-Cigliuti, M.D.

P.S. I do not feel guilt for this deed for Mr. Broffman was a greedy and dirty old man who lied to me and thought nothing of stealing from me my beloved fiancée or so he thought and he is just as well dead.

Cali Colombia Interpol Telex Code 717 DDX MV AUG 16 1968 6:13 PM

Chief of Police Thomas Reddin Los Angeles Calif USA

DR. Cajiao Hyphen Cigliuti Arrested here at Airport While Attempting to Board Plane for Lima, Peru. As per your request of July 11, he has been under our Constant Surveillance. Since Digitoxin was Inserted in Coffee here, Crime is Under Colombia Jurisdiction. Regards.

Tomas Hernandes-Mendez

Chief--Cali Police

Oficina Del Jefe DE Policia Casa Consistorial Cali, Colombia

Jefe DE Policía: Tomas Hernandes-Mendez

August 20, 1968

Chief of Police Thomas Reddin, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

My dear Chief:

This should be considered a personal letter, now that our two offices have taken care of the necessaries of the Dr. Cajiao-Cigliuti matter on the official level.

I greatly appreciate your having telephoned me personally about this matter, first on July 11 and, of course, several times since then.

Because of our phone conversations, I write to you as a friend. I write in English, because it is my second language.

I personally intercepted Dr. Cajiao-Cigliuti at the Cali airport, with two of my officers. I have known the doctor slightly for some years, and had always considered him a man of honor and a sincerely dedicated public servant.

When I told him that I was arresting him on the basis of information I had received from the Los Angeles police, he appeared shocked and surprised, and then his face filled with fury. In Spanish, he said, "The little bitch! The idiot! Has she lost her mind? She is just as guilty of this murder as I!"

I then told him that there had been no murder, and that Mr. Broffman was very much alive, because Maria had warned him that the coffee would be poisoned.

His eyes widened in disbelief, and his mouth fell open, and he cried out: "But the cable! Maria's letters! The money she sent me!"

I told the poor man that all these had merely been part of Mr. Broffman's plan to entrap the doctor, for attempted murder.

He stared at me for close to ten seconds without speaking, as the truth sank into his mind. Then he emitted a brief cry, fainted and fell to the floor. I had never before in my life seen a man faint. It was an unsettling experience.

I thought you would be interested in this firsthand account.

I will always be happy to be of service to you in any way that I can.

Cordially, Tomas Hernandes-Mendez