|
|
Hard Cover,
284 Pages,
48 Photos |
Money and Blood
is true. Taken from police files,
newspaper
morgues and Mississippi history, the story is
about the flow of dollars and death along old US
Highway 80; the highway that has come to be
known as the highway of broken dreams.
When Interstate 20 was completed along side US
Highway 80 in Mississippi, it took all of the
interstate traffic from the old route and left
economic chaos.
To survive, most of
the business places along Highway 80 turned into
dangerous gambling joints and honky tonks, where
those who survived learned to sit with their
backs to the wall.
The story begins along a
maze of tiny little dirt roads, some barely
wagon trains, that would within a few short
years become US Highway 80. The year was
1915 when a Gypsy caravan entered Meridian to
bury their queen who died in childbirth in
Alabama. Many years later a killer stopped
young women on the highway with flashing lights
near the mysterious Irvin Motel.
Ten miles west of Meridian at Meehan Junction,
two promising young men were murdered and placed
on the railroad tracks where a train ran over
them. The authorities closed the cases as
accidental deaths, but were they...
really?
A few miles farther west we enter the town of
Hickory with a population of 499 people, we we
encounter the entrepreneurs. Georgia Tann
got rich sending babies to the rich and famous.
In Hollywood and New York , a black man born in
Hickory named Robert Johnson sold BET TV and put
a billion dollars in his pocket.
All along the way recent events are tempered,
explained and measured against similar events of
the distant past. Count on Hewitt Clark to
get the whole story for you.
|
More about Money and Blood:
U.S. Highway 80
travels nearly 2,500 miles on the
journey from Savannah to San Diego.
One hundred
sixty four of those miles are in
Mississippi.
This segment
is the focus of Hewitt Clarke’s newest
book, “Money and Blood:
Along the
Highway of Broken Dreams.”
In Part One:
The Dagger,
Clarke covers the story of the 1983
Highway 80 stalker, Larry Fisher.
Beginning
with his first victim, Patsy Jo Rivers,
in February of 1983, Clarke follows the
Larry Fisher Case to its conclusion at
Parchman farm where Fisher still wears
number 41417 and continues paying his
life-long debt to society.
Along the
way we learn about the tricks of the
trade and dedication of the officers of
the Lauderdale County Sheriff Department
who pull out all the stops to trap this
dangerous predator.
In another
historical vignette, we consider the
Irvin Motel, a Lauderdale County
landmark for many years.
Before
having been demolished, it loomed over
U.S. 80 like a medieval castle in
Scotland.
It was
unique has a fascinating history.
For
years it was one of the finest, if not
the
finest motel along Highway 80 anywhere
in the South.
In the
early days, movie stars and famous
celebrities stayed at the motel.
There were
stories about Mafia chiefs from the
north hanging out there when things got
too hot at home.
Money and Blood:
Along the
Highway of Broken Dreams, Part Two:
Mayhem at
Meehan explores a number of unusual
historical and recent cases including
the unsolved Reynolds/Mabry Case, while
Part Three:
The
Entrepreneurs of Hickory, discusses the
so-called “baby seller,” Georgia Tann
and takes a look at the self-made
multi-millionaire and owner of Black
Entertainment Television (BET), Robert
Johnson.
|
|
