Mike Sullivan

Michael "Mike" Sullivan (b. c. 1898) was a journalist. He was one of President Joe Steele's early critics, and suffered greatly for it, first being convicted of treason and being exiled to labor camp in Montana, and later fighting in the Pacific theater of World War II and the Japanese War. In addition to the physical danger and damage he suffered, he also lost his first wife to divorce. Ironically, his younger brother, Charlie, eventually became part of Steele's inner-circle, but could do nothing to help his brother.

Covering FDR
Sullivan first became wary of Steele in June, 1932. While working for the New York Post, Sullivan was sent to Albany to cover a press conference held by Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, Steele's primary rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Consequently, he was able to cover the subsequent fire at the Executive Mansion that killed Roosevelt, his wife, and several others.

As he'd covered the fire, Sullivan was also tasked with covering the Roosevelts' funeral. It was during the funeral that Sullivan first entertained the possibility that Steele (who was now the nominee) had somehow been responsible for the fire when an upset relative accused Steele. This idea became a firm conviction when Mike's brother Charlie shared with Mike (as well as Mike's girlfriend, Stella Morandini and Charlie's fiancé Esther Polgar) how he'd overheard Steele's aid, Vince Scriabin, relaying ambiguous orders on a long-distance phone call. While all agreed that Charlie hadn't heard Scriabin specifically order the fire, they also agreed that it was possible that Scriabin was nonetheless giving the go-ahead.

Investigating FDR's Death
While Mike Sullivan and the rest of the group let it go for the time being, after Steele won the election, Mike decided to pursue the matter further. He bribed a clerk at the Albany Fire Department to allow him to review the file on the fire after hours, where he discovered that the actual arson report was missing. The clerk assured him a report existed, but couldn't account for why it wasn't with the rest of the file. The clerk suggested the investigator, LT. Jeremiah V. Kincaid, had a personal copy.

Sullivan attempted to contact Kincaid, but was informed by his secretary that he didn't talk to reporters. When Sullivan spoke to Kermit Witherspoon, the AFD's public information officer at Witherspoon's home, Witherspoon further stonewalled. Sullivan decided to write a story about the fire, anyway, despite the advice of Stella. However, his editor at the Post, Stan Feldman, refused to run it, as Sullivan could produce no evidence to support his claims, and over Sullivan's pleas. Sullivan was determined to prove Steel's culpability.

Sullivan was horrified by the arrest of the Supreme Court Four and Steele's subsequent suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, much to the astonishment and horror of many. Steele argued that, while the country was not in a rebellion or at war with another country, it was at war with hunger, want, and poverty. Sullivan was completely unpersuaded, realizing that without Habeas Corpus, everyone was vulnerable to arrest.

Some weeks later, Sullivan received a copy of the arson report for the fire that killed the Roosevelts. The report came anonymously, although Sullivan suspected Kincaid himself had sent it. He brought the report to Stan Feldman, and shared with Feldman Charlie Sullivan's story about Vince Scriabin's long distance phone call. Feldman was nervous about running the story: the report implied that bottles of some flammable liquid may have played a part, but did not say conclusively that the fire had been an arson. However, Feldman agreed to Sullivan's plan to write about the report, and then write about the conflict between Roosevelt and Steele, and the fact that Roosevelt appeared to be on the verge of winning the nomination when he died. He promised he would make no accusations. Feldman agreed. The White House responded by having Vince Scriabin meet with Charlie Sullivan and warn Charlie to get Mike under control, even though the story made no accusations or libel.

Critic of Joe Steele
Mike Sullivan was horrified when the Supreme Court Four confessed their guilt and accused Louisiana Senator Huey Long and radio personality Charles Coughlin as part of their conspiracy. It took Stella to calm him down some. In a vulnerable moment, Mike proposed to Stella, and she accepted.

After Senator Huey Long was assassinated, Sullivan, already hated by the Steele Administration, was sent to Baton Rouge to cover the funeral. After witnessing the corrupt, overwrought spectacle of Long's funeral, he very briefly reconsidered his opposition to Steele, but realized he needed to keep fighting Steele, to make up for the incompetent opposition he saw in Louisiana.

Sullivan and Stella married a few weeks later. Charlie Sullivan was Mike's best man. Even at his reception, Mike Sullivan expressed anger at Joe Steele and frustration with the public's complacency. Charlie managed to calm him down, and Mike quietly enjoyed the remainder of his big day. However, Stella asked Charlie to try to keep Mike under control. When Charlie pointed out that Stella was now Mike's wife, Stella reminded Charlie that she was not a journalist, and that Charlie would have more influence on that basis.

In 1935, Steele introduced legislation that would allow the Federal government to draft prisoners out of local, state, and federal detention facilities and put them to work building infrastructure in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions. It cleared the House of Representatives quickly and quietly before anyone took notice. Mike Sullivan became aware of the bill after reading a column in the New York Times. Upon doing his own research, he concluded that the law would allow the Federal government to pull any person from any facility, without regard for why the were incarcerated for in the first place, and without any limit on how long they could be held. After consulting with Stan Feldman, Sullivan wrote a piece entitled "Land of the Free and Home of the Labor Camp".

In response, Vince Scriabin once again sat down with Charlie Sullivan. After showing Charlie a part of the legislation that seemed to prevent indefinite detentions, Scriabin convinced him to write an article supporting the legislation. Charlie agreed, and the bill passed the Senate and was signed into law by Steele the following week.

Despite the concerns of Mike Sullivan and people like him, Steele won re-election in a landside in 1936. After Captain Roland Laurence South attempted to shoot Steele in March, 1937, Steele created the Government Bureau of Investigation with J. Edgar Hoover as its head. The GBI was charged with investigating the U.S. Army. In a radio speech announcing the creation of the GBI under director J. Edgar Hoover, Steele also declared that there were wreckers in all levels of society, including in the press.

Arrest and Conviction
In the summer of 1937, J. Edgar Hoover announced the arrest of several officers in the Army and Navy, including generals and admirals for conspiring with "foreign powers" in Roland South's efforts to assassinate Steele. As with the Supreme Court Four, the arrested officers faced military tribunals and were executed. This purge gave Steele the opportunity to cultivate officers loyal to him. The arrests were by no means restricted to the military; civilians were also swept up as "wreckers" and taken before an administrative judge, who rubber stamped their sentence to a labor camp.

Mike Sullivan reached his breaking point. After seeing newsreel footage of arrests, Sullivan went home and began writing a piece entitled "Where is Our Freedom Going". Despite Stella's concerns, Mike took the piece to Stan Feldman. While Feldman warned Sullivan he could also be taken away for wrecking, Feldman agreed to take it to the Post's owner, J. David Stern. After an agonizing morning, Feldman told Sullivan that Stern had agreed to run the piece. Moreover, Stern was proud that Sullivan was willing to keep hitting Steele, and even gave Sullivan $10-per-week raise.

"Where is Our Freedom Going?" was the last straw for the Steele Administration. GBI agents collected Sullivan a little after midnight the day after the piece ran. Sullivan came quietly to prevent harm to Stella. He was blackjacked, processed, assigned the number NY24601, and found guilty by an administrative law judge. He was sentenced to a minimum five years and maximum ten years in a camp in Montana.

Prisoner
Mike was sent to a camp somewhere west of Livingston. He survived the train trip to Montana, and then the truck-ride to the camp. At the camp, he was processed, had his head shaved, issued a camp uniform, and assigned a barrack. He quickly became friendly with another prisoner, John Dennison, a carpenter from Wyoming, who showed Mike the ropes. With Dennison's help, Mike adjusted to being a "scalp".