Jacky Wax

Jacky Wax is a Boston, Massachusetts underworld figure and the manager of the Purple Banana. His significance in the investigation lies in a belated disclosure: a woman who later appeared to have been killed had come to him seeking protection, but he treated her danger as no longer his concern.

Identity and Reputation

Spenser identifies Jacky as a dope dealer, pornographer, killer, and extortionist. The account also raises John Weatherwax as a name he might use, though Spenser wonders whether he still goes by Jacky Wax rather than establishing when or why the alternate name is used. His reputation places him within the criminal world that the investigation must navigate, while the details of the scene make that menace coexist with a carefully presented public appearance.

The Purple Banana

Jacky manages the Purple Banana, a strip club in Boston, Massachusetts’s South End, not far from Tufts medical school. Its neon banana sign marks the entrance as Spenser and Zebulon Sixkill arrive. During a performance, Jacky approaches their table and sits down. Tall and narrow-shouldered, he wears a tailored gray suit with a lavender shirt and pink tie, fastened with a ruby stickpin, along with pointed black ankle boots. His crooked yellow teeth show when he smiles. When Spenser needles him about the suit, Jacky insists that it is Gucci and emphasizes the tailor’s skill. His precise defense of the outfit gives the meeting a note of vanity and theatrical self-presentation amid the club’s working surroundings.

The Woman Who Asked for Protection

In conversation with Spenser, Jacky says that a woman came to him a second time, frightened, and told him someone was trying to kill her. Spenser replies that her attackers may have succeeded. Jacky answers that the matter is no longer his problem. The exchange establishes that the woman had sought help from a man with a reputation for violence, but it does not show whether Jacky offered protection, what he knew about the threat, or what action he took. His blunt dismissal leaves the plea unresolved and makes his role in the investigation both useful and morally compromised: he can supply a fragment of the woman’s history without presenting himself as responsible for what followed.