Here's a little background on Benny Pristine from the novella...

"In the early sixties a very young Benny went to Vegas and created a lounge act...stand-up and some singing, met Sinatra and the Rat Pack and started running “errands” and doing a bit of extracurricular snooping for the boys and, at times, their shady friends. Things got too hot for Benny in Vegas and in the mid-sixties he decided to get away to someplace “quiet”...San Francisco.



"He quit show business and opened a detective agency first in Sausalito then North Beach. Although Benny made a lot of money and became famous, his family thought he was a sell-out and a failure. Never able to stay off the stage completely, one of Benny's favorite places to relax was his best friend, Bob “The Voice” Ono’s Karaoke lounge and “hostess” bar in Japantown where insiders could catch him doing his old Vegas act for a few friends on off nights.
At some point in this section of the show we will be taken on a small walking tour of Benny's old haunts...the vacant lot where his Victorian office building used to be, a boarded-up North Beach bar that he and Bob “The Voice” once owned, Enrico's sidewalk café, etc.

The last line of this section, spoken emphatically by one of the people being interviewed, is, “On New Year’s Eve of 1979 Benny Pristine just vanished...gone! Benny Houdini we used to call him...sure do wonder where he is now..."

"Benny turned up of course…several years later. What happened during those years I guess nobody will ever know. Events involving Benny that occurred during the weeks after he re-emerged wound up being tabloid fodder too, but that's another story. He did reconnect with Crysta Bella, a flamboyant psychic and interior designer, after standing her up at the Hooker's ball."