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Grifter
Eddie Mars is the primary example of a “racketeer” in The Big Sleep. Described as “manicured” and “well-dressed,” Mars runs a casino—his highly profitable “racket.” Racketeers are a rung, or many, above lowly grifters in the social ladder of L.A.’s criminal underworld—yet they must protect their business from these aspirational grifters. Grifter Joe Brody successfully steals Geiger’s racket, an illegal pornography outlet, from him, with help from inside woman Agnes Lozelle. However, Brody ends up dead due to the many moving parts of Geiger’s world—Geiger is himself murdered by Owen Taylor, and Geiger’s lover Carol Lundgren mistakenly blames Brody, killing him in revenge. Brody’s brief hold on his racket (not to mention Geiger’s loss of his racket and his murder) show those at the top require sufficient wealth and protection to stay at the top.
Racket/Racketeer Quotes in The Big Sleep
The The Big Sleep quotes below are all either spoken by Racket/Racketeer or refer to Racket/Racketeer. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 13
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His eyes went narrow. The veneer had flaked off him, leaving a well-dressed hard boy with a Luger.
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I know you, Mr. Mars. The Cypress Club at Las Olindas. Flash gambling for flash people. The local law in your pocket and a wellgreased line into L.A. In other words, protection.
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Chapter 14
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“What?” the blonde yelped. “You sit there and try to tell us Mr. Geiger ran that kind of business right down on the main drag? You’re nuts!” I leered at her politely. “Sure I do. Everybody knows the racket exists. Hollywood's made to order for it. If a thing like that has to exist, then right out on the street is where all practical coppers want it to exist. For the same reason they favor red light districts. They know where to flush the game when they want to.”
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Chapter 21
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Eddie Mars would have been very unlikely to involve himself in a double murder just because another man had gone to town with the blonde he was not even living with … If there had been a lot of money involved, that would be different. But fifteen grand wouldn't be a lot of money to Eddie Mars. He was no two-bit chiseler like Brody.
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Chapter 25
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She’s a grifter, shamus. I’m a grifter. We’re all grifters. So we sell each other out for a nickel.
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Chapter 28
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Once outside the law you’re all the way outside. You think he’s just a gambler. I think he’s a pornographer, a blackmailer, a hot car broker, a killer by remote control, and a suborner of crooked cops. He’s whatever looks good to him, whatever has the cabbage pinned to it. Don’t try to sell me on any high-souled racketeers. They don’t come in that pattern.
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Chapter 30
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Being a copper I like to see the law win. I'd like to see the flashy well-dressed mugs like Eddie Mars spoiling their manicures in the rock quarry at Folsom, alongside of the poor little slum-bred hard guys that got knocked over on their first caper and never had a break since. That’s what I’d like. You and me both lived too long to think I’m likely to see it happen. Not in this town, not in any town half this size, in any part of this wide, green and beautiful U.S.A. We just don’t run our country that way.
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Racket/Racketeer Term Timeline in The Big Sleep
The timeline below shows where the term Racket/Racketeer appears in The Big Sleep. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 13
...and oversees Geiger. Mars says he thinks someone has gone for Geiger and his pornography racket. Marlowe agrees, especially as the books from Geiger’s store have been moved.
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Chapter 14
...explains the list of clients in the notebook is coded; with hundreds of names, the racket must be profitable—enough to kill Geiger over. Agnes is “outraged,” or at least pretends to...
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Chapter 16
...admits he had recently been tailing Geiger to see who else was in on his racket. Brody was parked at the back of Geiger’s house that night, and saw a Buick...
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Chapter 18
...later tailed the books to Joe Brody, and assumed Brody killed Geiger to get his racket.
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Chapter 19
...picks the phone up and Eddie Mars asks the detective if he has kept the racketeer’s name out of his report to the police, who are now at Geiger’s house. Marlowe...
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Chapter 21
...the detective that Mrs. Regan is in the casino right then, winning on roulette. The racketeer offers Marlowe money for keeping his name out of his statement to the police, which...
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Chapter 28
...Eddie killed Rusty. She asserts that Eddie isn’t like that. Marlowe accuses her of liking racketeers. She tries to defend Eddie, but Marlowe says that Eddie’s “all the way outside” the...
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Chapter 30
...he hadn’t realized that Canino was a killer, and claimed he hadn’t heard about Geiger’s racket.
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