by Casey Cep
“The Reverend has been”: Undated testimony by Dorcas Anderson, responding to questions from Charles Adair and Tom Radney, 5.
“I went back”: Ibid., 4.
“He was one of the most outstanding”: Vern Smith, Telefax reporting notes, “RE: THE REV. WILLIE MAXWELL,” June 23, 1977, Newsweek Clipping Archive, 1933–1996, Subject File CDL 1232, Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
“When we cleaned”: Ibid.
“I’d see after it all”: Frank Colquitt, interview by author.
“minister of the gospel”: Appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama (301 So.2d 85), 13.
“He could pray a prayer”: Vern Smith, Telefax reporting notes.
“She would often talk to me”: Undated testimony by Dorcas Anderson, 5.
“recognize the said child”: Declaration of Legitimation, 49:312, Probate Court of Tallapoosa County, Alabama.
“When she married, she married”: Lena Martin, interview by Nelle Harper Lee, Jan. 16, 1978, from Lee’s unpublished reporting notes.
“It is not our purpose to prove guilt”: Paul Till, “These Crime Fighters Rarely See the Scene,” Advertiser-Journal Alabama Sunday Magazine, July 2, 1972, 5.
“lady friends”: Undated intake notes from Tom Radney’s law firm.
“Dear Sir”: W. M. Maxwell to Old American Insurance Company, Aug. 19, 1970, Defense Exhibit 3 from Maxwell Deposition on May 11, 1973.
| 3 | DEATH BENEFITS
For the history of life insurance, insurance fraud, and racial bias in the insurance industry, I relied on Sharon Ann Murphy, Investing in Life; Balleisen, Fraud; McGlamery, “Race Based Underwriting and the Death of Burial Insurance”; and Heen, “Ending Jim Crow Life Insurance Rates.” For the details of Willie “Poison” Maxwell and Fred Hutchinson, I relied on newspaper coverage, police records, and the assistance of Colleen Hanko and the Clearwater Police Department. To reconstruct the Reverend Willie Maxwell’s interactions with the insurance industry, I used newspaper coverage, court records, police records, state investigative files, trial transcripts, and the assistance of Sheree Chapman York, Stanley Lee Chapman, Ray Jenkins, David Story, John Denson, Jimmy Bailey, Ed Raymon, R. Stan Morris, Richard F. Allen, Dennis M. Wright, David Miller, Ashton Holmes Ott, Karen Strickland, and Terri Svetich, along with Willie Robinson and the Alexander City Police Department.
“told an altogether different story”: Ray Jenkins, “Minister Slain After Giving Stepdaughter’s Eulogy; He Is Called a Suspect in Her Death and Four Others,” New York Times, June 21, 1977, 16.
“I have just about worn out”: Radney to Robert Richard, Oct. 28, 1971.
| 4 | SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON
For the history of voodoo, I relied on Puckett, Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro; Hurston’s “Hoodoo in America,” Mules and Men, and Tell My Horse; Hyatt, Hoodoo—Conjuration—Witchcraft—Rootwork; Carmer, Stars Fell on Alabama; Raboteau, Slave Religion; Haskins, Voodoo & Hoodoo; Gates and Tatar, Annotated African American Folktales; Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow; Chesnutt, Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line; Asbury, French Quarter; Roberts, Voodoo and Power; Davis, American Voudou; Pinn, Varieties of African American Religious Experience; and Tallant, Voodoo in New Orleans. I am grateful for the archival assistance of Jen Peters and Joe Festa with the Carl Carmer Collection at the Research Library of the Fennimore Art Museum and Patricia Tomczak with the Hyatt Folklore Collection at Quincy University. For the specific account of the Reverend Willie Maxwell, I relied on death certificates, trial transcripts, court records, local and regional newspaper coverage, the memoirs of Alvin Benn and E. Paul Jones, and interviews with Robert Burns, Vern Smith, Alvin Benn, and Jim Earnhardt.
“are too much given”: Raboteau, Slave Religion, 76.
“the map of Dixie”: Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road, 104.
“Nobody knows for sure”: Hurston, Mules and Men, 185.
“I got troubles”: Carmer, Stars Fell on Alabama, 216.
“I went to New Orleans”: J. T. “Funny Papa” Smith, “Seven Sister Blues” (1931).
| 5 | JUST PLAIN SCARED
In addition to those sources already acknowledged, I am grateful for the assistance of Fred Gray, Nancy Powers, Norwood Kerr, and Scotty Kirkland at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, and Chad Carr of the Alabama Court of Appeals. I am indebted to the Radney family for allowing me to make use of Tom Radney’s legal archive, and to the literary estate of Nelle Harper Lee for making available her reporting materials from the Maxwell case.
“He was a nice guy”: Lou Elliott, “Five Tragic Deaths Preceded Minister’s Shooting,” Montgomery Advertiser, June 19, 1977, 7A.
“They said someone had”: Ibid.
“neither he nor any members”: Undated “Release Agreement” with Central Security Life Insurance Company, signed by Willie J. Maxwell, witnessed by Otis Armour of Armour Funeral Home.
“I’m going to get some fish”: Independent Life and Accident Insurance Company v. Willie J. Maxwell (301 So.2d 85), 36.
“People really began to fear him”: Vern Smith, Telefax reporting notes.
“They just didn’t know”: Phyllis Wesley, “Minister’s Body Attracts Curious,” Montgomery Advertiser, June 23, 1977, 2A.
“Most people were just plain scared”: Vern Smith, Telefax reporting notes.
“the eerie evenings”: Roth, Patrimony, 109.
“That insurance man came”: Independent Life and Accident Insurance Company v. Willie J. Maxwell (301 So.2d 85), 158.
| 6 | NO EXCEPTION TO THE RULE
For the account of the murder of Shirley Ann Ellington and the murder of the Reverend Willie Maxwell, I relied on local, regional, and national newspaper coverage, police reports, autopsy records, trial transcripts, and interviews with Jim Earnhardt, Vern Smith, Robert Burns, Alvin Benn, James Abbett, David Story, Evelyn Gilley, and Dr. Richard Roper. I am also grateful for the assistance of Ray Jenkins, Elizabeth F. Shores, Kathryn Kaufman, Amanda McDonald, Dave Friedman, David M. Alpern, T. Michael Keza, Phyllis Alesia Perry, Paul Pruitt Jr., Alice Halsey at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, and the Alexander City Police Department.
“I have prayed and thought”: Elliott, “Five Tragic Deaths.”
“He could not help it”: Ibid.
“tell ’em a short version”: Colquitt, interview by author.
“which would adequately account”: Vann V. Pruitt Jr., “Memorandum to File” for the Department of Toxicology and Criminal Investigation, May 20, 1976.
“There will be no evidence”: Lynda Robinson, email to author, Feb. 2, 2018.
“They must have wanted”: Mary Dean Riley Hicks statement from the investigative files as quoted in Jones, To Kill a Preacher, Kindle loc. 789.
“asked me how dirty”: Aaron Burton statement from the investigative files as quoted in Jones, To Kill a Preacher, Kindle loc. 721.
“Reverend Maxwell came to my house”: Calvin Edwards statement from the investigative files as quoted in Jones, To Kill a Preacher, Kindle loc. 756.
“wasn’t Shirley”: Alvin Benn and Jim Earnhardt, “Death Probe Pushed,” Alexander City Outlook, June 15, 1977, 4.
“They wouldn’t let me”: Ibid.
“All of us must go”: Jim Earnhardt, “Maxwell Gunned Down at Funeral,” Alexander City Outlook, July 20, 1977, 1.
“She didn’t look the same”: Vern Smith, Telefax reporting notes.
“You killed my sister”: Earnhardt, “Maxwell Gunned Down,” 1.
“They tore my chapel up”: Ibid., 4.
“There’s been a shooting”: James Earnhardt, “The Scene / A Death Mourned…a Life Taken,” Alexander City Outlook, June 20, 1977, 1.
“I thought someone was”: Earnhardt, “Maxwell Gunn
ed Down,” 4.
“I was so scared”: Ibid.
| 7 | WHO’S IN THE STEW?
“segregation now, segregation tomorrow”: Frady, Wallace, 144.
“You know why I lost”: This conversation was first recorded in ibid., but recounted in these exact words by Wallace’s aide Seymore Trammell in McCabe and Stekler, George Wallace.
“low-down, carpet-baggin’ ”: Frady, Wallace, 133.
“tie the Negro vote”: Bentley, “Election of Tom Radney and the Transition Era of Southern Politics,” 6.
“Negro support went”: Tuskegee News, May 5, 1966, 1.
“You can easily see”: H. H. O’Daniel, political advertisement, 1966.
“WHO’S IN THE STEW”: H. H. O’Daniel’s political advertisement.
“hard work, clean representation”: Tom Radney, “An Open Letter to the Voters of Elmore, Macon, and Tallapoosa Counties,” Alexander City Outlook, May 2, 1966.
| 8 | ROSES ARE RED
In addition to those newspapers already mentioned, for the context of Tom Radney’s early political career, I relied on the archives of The Southern Courier. It is thanks to the Vanderbilt Television News Archive that I was able to review Radney’s interview with Dan Rather, and thanks to Laurie Austin of the John F. Kennedy Library that I could read his correspondence with the Kennedy family. I am grateful to the Radney family for letting me review all of Tom’s press clippings, his speeches, and the correspondence that he received in the weeks after the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Madolyn Radney, especially, was candid and generous with memories of her husband’s political career.
“had to spend more time”: Mary Ellen Gale, “ ‘State’s Pretty Jumbled Up,’ Radney Tells Auburn People,” Southern Courier, Nov. 11–12, 1967, 2.
“It’s sort of a silly way”: Sean Reilly, “JFK Refocused Lives in the Public Service,” Anniston Star, Nov. 21, 1993, 12A.
“Edward Kennedy has shown”: Senator Tom Radney, interview by Dan Rather, CBS News Special: “Democratic Convention,” Aug. 26, 1968.
“Roses are red”: Don F. Wasson, “Threats Move Radney to Give Up Politics,” Montgomery Advertiser, Sept. 1, 1968, 1.
“I’d pick up the phone at 3 a.m.”: Carolyn Lewis, “A Threatened Alabaman Bows Out: Supporter of Sen. Ted Kennedy Says He’s Harassed,” Washington Post, Sept. 28, 1968, E1.
“however, I do not believe”: Wasson, “Threats Move Radney to Give Up Politics,” 1.
“George Wallace has planted”: Lewis, “Threatened Alabaman Bows Out,” E2.
“At night”: Ibid., E1.
“My wife and I have prayerfully decided”: Wasson, “Threats Move Radney to Give Up Politics,” 1.
“I only wish I could”: Ibid.
“never again to be a candidate”: “Radney Re-emphasizes Decision ‘Never Again to Be Candidate,’ ” Alexander City Outlook, Sept. 5, 1968, 1.
“openly expressed position”: “Freedom from Abuse,” Birmingham News, Sept. 3, 1968.
“decision to leave politics”: “Sen. Radney’s Decision,” Alabama Journal, Sept. 2, 1968, 4.
“Radney can hardly be faulted”: “The Price of Politics,” Hammond Daily Star, Sept. 18, 1968, 1A.
“I was proud of you”: Esther Lustig to Radney, Sept. 4, 1968.
“your views are not mine”: Margaret J. Vann to Radney, Oct. 6, 1968.
“There are a lot of people”: Kenneth Noel to Radney, n.d.
“We so hope that these evil days”: Jay Murphy to Radney, Oct. 5, 1968.
“I am a Negro”: Edward L. Sample to Radney, Oct. 4, 1968.
“So bad were the telephone calls”: E. B. Henderson to Radney, Oct. 2, 1968.
“pick up where”: “The Southern Committee on Political Ethics,” Del Shields’s Night Call, Sept. 30, 1968.
“Well, we wanted”: “Threats Against Radney Taper Off,” Birmingham Post-Herald, Sept. 12, 1968.
| 9 | THE FIGHT FOR GOOD
“There the common sense”: Tennyson, “Locksley Hall,” in Selected Poems, 59.
“I did not make it”: Steve Taylor, “Radney’s Retirement Is a Short-Lived One,” Anniston Star, Sept. 28, 1969, 5.
“I am not defensive”: Don F. Wasson, “Radney to Seek State’s 2nd Spot,” Montgomery Advertiser, Sept. 21, 1969, 1A–2A.
“This time I am in the fight”: Taylor, “Radney’s Retirement,” 5.
“blood, sweat, and tears”: David Marshall, “Our Problem Is Economic, Radney Says,” Birmingham News, March 1970, 1.
“I yield to no man”: Anne Plott, “Sen. Radney Says ‘You Have to Pay Bill’ for Education,” Anniston Star, March 17, 1970, 3.
“I am proud of my Southern heritage”: Mel Newman, “Radney Hits Those Who Talk of Closing the Public Schools,” Florence Times—Tri Cities Daily, Dec. 5, 1969, 1.
“There’ll be busloads of black children”: Ellen Price, interview by author, Feb. 3, 2016.
“not defeated, only disappointed”: Tom Radney, “Concession Speech,” May 5, 1970.
| 10 | THE MAXWELL HOUSE
For the history of courts and courthouses in Alabama, I relied on Heritage of Tallapoosa County; Schafer, Lake Martin; Walls and Oliver, Alexander City; Rumore’s From Power to Service and Lawyers in a New South City; Feathers, “Catfights and Coffins”; and Dees, Season for Justice. I am grateful to all those former clients and colleagues of Tom Radney’s who shared their stories, most especially Morris Dees, who once prevailed against Radney in a memorable legal case; I’m only sorry I couldn’t tell the story of Berry v. Macon County Board of Education.
“the erection of a courthouse”: National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Alabama, Early Courthouses of Alabama, Prior to 1860 (Mobile, Ala., 1966), 52.
“with the memory like a Homeric bard’s”: Cash, Mind of the South, 28.
“jurymen seldom convict”: Darrow, quoted in Sutherland, Cressey, and Luckenbill, Principles of Criminology, 411.
| 11 | PEACE AND GOODWILL
For the history of the insanity plea and challenges to it, I relied on J. R. Rappeport, “The Insanity Plea: Getting Away with Murder?,” Maryland State Medical Journal 32, no. 3 (1983); James Gleick, “Getting Away with Murder,” New Times, Aug. 21, 1978, 22–28; Mac McClelland, “They’ll Be Here till They Die,” New York Times Magazine, Oct. 1, 2017; and Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American History. I appreciate the assistance of Lauren McGuinn at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Denita Pasley at the Central Alabama Community College.
“They might be coming”: Wesley, “Minister’s Body Attracts Curious,” 2A.
“Voodooist Is Slain”: Baltimore Sun, June 22, 1977, A3.
“Death of Voodoo Shaman”: Sumter Daily Item, June 22, 1977, 6B.
“scared to death of him”: “Slain Minister: As Mysterious in Death as He Was in Life,” Gadsden Times, June 24, 1977, 2.
“it was like a burden”: Vern Smith, Telefax reporting notes.
“There’s no reason”: Alvin Benn, “Will Maxwell,” Alexander City Outlook, June 22, 1977, 4.
“living in a nightmare”: Alvin Benn, “Mrs. Maxwell: ‘It’s Like I’m Living in a Nightmare,’ ” Alexander City Outlook, June 20, 1977, 1.
“I just hate all this publicity”: “Slain Minister: As Mysterious in Death as He Was in Life,” 2.
“Their trouble and sorrow”: Funeral Program of the Reverend Willie Maxwell.
“we have nothing to hide”: Jim Earnhardt, “Hundreds Attend Maxwell Funeral,” Alexander City Outlook, June 24, 1977, 1.
“a murderer and a fugitive”: Phillip Rawls, “…To Help Touch Somebody…,” Montgomery Advertiser, June 24, 1977, 1.
“The Devil couldn’t take Moses”: Ibid.
“I hope to hell
not”: Elizabeth F. Shores, “Minister Slain at Stepdaughter’s Funeral Buried,” Birmingham Post-Herald.
“Radney is silk”: Alvin Benn, “Radney vs. Young,” Alexander City Outlook, Sept. 28, 1977, 1.
“most trials resemble warmed-over grits”: Alvin Benn, “Sometimes Drama Blooms,” Montgomery Advertiser, May 10, 1981, 5A.
“You have mistreated my family”: State of Alabama v. Robert Lewis Burns, 109.
“I had to do it”: Ibid., 111.
“revolving door”: This phrase appears in much of the coverage of the case and was repeated by District Attorney Tom Young during the trial; see ibid., 12.
| 12 | TOM V. TOM
All quotations are from the trial transcript.
| 13 | THE MAN FROM ECLECTIC
All quotations are from the trial transcript.
| 14 | WHAT HOLMES WAS TALKING ABOUT
Unless otherwise noted, all quotations are from the trial transcript. I am grateful to Steve Davis and Dianne Durbin at the Alabama Department of Mental Health for their help researching Bryce Hospital.
