Page "The Last Words of Dutch Schultz" Paragraph 3

The screenplay is made up of a series of loosely connected vignettes in roughly chronological order.

It begins from the point of view of a dying Dutch Schultz, looking up at two police detectives.

He has a brief flashback to his own shooting ; from there, the movie makes a transition to Schultz's memories of childhood, with the remainder of the movie a series of loosely interconnected vignettes in chronological order depicting Schultz's childhood and rise to power.

Occasionally, there are brief, surrealist digressions depicting real events which occurred during Schultz's life ( such as the Stock Market Crash ), interspersed with equally surreal yet seemingly unrelated digressions involving Burroughs ' own fictional characters.

A lengthy segment is dedicated to Schultz hiring a carnival sideshow freak who can hypnotize people by speaking phrases which plant subliminal messages ; Burroughs inserts this fictional character into Schultz's legal team during his income tax trials, and credits him with helping Schultz avoid prison time.

Large segments are dedicated to Burroughs ' own creation, " Albert Stern ," a morphine addict who randomly appears at intervals throughout Schultz's life and who ultimately attempts to take credit for his murder.

Despite no records existing of a contemporary of Schultz named " Albert Stern ," a period mugshot appears in the book depicting " Stern ;" the mugshot has since been incorrectly identified as Otto Berman.

As of 2007, the identity of the boy in the mugshot has not been discerned, although Burroughs ' insertion of a photo of himself into the book — ostensibly depicting the police stenographer who transcribed Schultz's last word — indicates that the mugshot might be a prank on Burroughs ' part, as it is the only photo in the book not to depict a readily identifiable individual.