abstract
| - James "Jimmy" Dolan is the main and titular antagonist in Stephen King's short story Dolan's Cadillac. He is known for being one of the most powerful crime-bosses in Las Vegas, and after Elizabeth Robinson, the wife of Tom Robinson (the story's antihero) discovers Dolan's crimes, Dolan murders her, in order to prevent her from testifying against him. Discoverying that Dolan regularly takes the same route when travelling to Los Angeles in his Cadillac, Robinson decides to trick Dolan into taking a fake detour, on which the Cadlillac will crash into a ditch and be buried alive. He takes on a summer job with a road paving crew so that he can learn to operate the heavy equipment needed to excavate an oblong ditch just long and deep enough to contain the car, but not so wide as to allow escape through its doors. The trap works, and Dolan is stuck in his Cadillac as it crashes into the pit. One of the bodyguards dies during the crash, the other, crushed by the engine block, screams out of pain and panic, prompting Dolan to kill him. Robinson greets Dolan and announces his attempt to bury him alive. Dolan addresses Robinson by name, prompting him to lean over the roof of the car as Dolan fires some bullets skyward. He misses Robinson, who proceeds with the burial. Dolan, increasingly desperate, pleads with Robinson for his freedom, offering him a large sum of cash. Robinson tells him he will be released if he screams, gleefuly listening to Dolan's cries as he completes the burial and paves over the car. With what must be the last gasp of air left to him, Dolan screams "For the love of God, Robinson!" (An allusion to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado") as the later drops the last pice of paving into place. Dolan is reported by the press to be missing, and every year Robinson goes to his grave to urinate on it. Sometimes Robinson thinks that he can hear Dolan laughing (Dolan began laughing insanely as he realized he was about to die), and it makes Robinson smile. In the 2009 film adaptation of the short story, Dolan is played by Christian Slater.
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