186

that Franco be given a job on the picture. The young
man couldn’t have been more pleased or excited.
‘Oh, I have a wonderful patron,’ he exclaimed, as he
held J.B. in his arms night after night. !

The affair did not go unnoticed. One day a pro-
duction assistant asked to see J.B. privately. “It is
none of my business, sir,” he began, “but I have to
speak out. s

He told ].B. the truth about Franco, that he was
one of the most notorious male prostitutes in Rome,
that he had spoken English since he was a child and
begged food from the American soldiers. Sexually
precocious he was then seducing soldiers—rather
than the reverse.

He fed on making love to Americans. Not one but |
several had been the victim of his wiles. He had
taken them for money. He had badgered them into
buying jewelry for him, gold that he could place in

the pawn shop during the winter months when there | -

were no tourists. _
].B. became furious—not because his friend’s repu-
tation was being scandalized but because he knew

this was the truth. He had not taken long to suspect §&8

it. Franco’s tricks followed a pattern. He had gotten §&
1.B. to buy him clothes and gold. He had asked for
large sums of money to pay this old bill, to help his §