Selected excerpts from the book:
(Note: the passages below are from the draft manuscript and after final editing may appear slightly different in the published book)THE MURDERS
“It was incomprehensible for the good folks of Jackson, Tennessee to believe someone would take the life of an immensely popular young priest in the sanctity of his own rectory. Maybe in New York, Chicago, even Atlanta. But not in this bible-belt town halfway between Memphis and Nashville where the phone book information page boasted of the more than eighty churches serving a population of just under fifty-thousand. Yet, on the night of May 14, 1981, in a violent and senseless attack, the promising life of the well-loved priest was snuffed out by an unknown assailant, killed by two gunshots in the back in his living quarters in the rectory of Saint Mary’s Catholic Church.The terrible murder of the beloved cleric is only part of the story to be told. His killer had taken lives before, including that of well-respected Memphis police Lieutenant Clarence Cox only a couple of days prior to the rectory murder. Lt. Cox was a 22-year veteran of the department, an esteemed family man whose selfless devotion to duty during his law enforcement career had inspired both his son and son-in-law to follow in his footsteps to become Memphis police officers.”
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“As the co-pilot of huge four-engine transport jets, Jay was assigned to ferry ammunition and other implements of war to a landing strip on the outskirts of Saigon directly from the air force base in Dover, Delaware. On the return flights westward, he found himself flying the big planes now loaded with wounded soldiers and worse, body bags filled with American fighting men and women killed in the jungles of South Vietnam. The long flights and especially the cargo he was transporting wore on Jay’s emotions and he began to think a lot during those trips about the role he was playing and more universally, the role of the United States in the war itself. The experience had a profound impact on the young pilot.”
Copyright © 2019. Robert Dailey III. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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