Where the Reverend is Buried

Not far from Alexander City, Alabama, just off the highway, is a little cemetery across the road from a church.  Walking down a minor slope, it doesn’t take long to find a flat stone engraved with the name Willie Maxwell.  Born on May 31, 1925, he was shot to death fifty two years later on June 18, 1977 in the House of Hutchinson funeral home and presented to this piece of ground as a reward for misdeeds that could never be proved in a court of law. 

One plot over and on the next row up sit two more stones memorializing Maxwell’s relations who died under mysterious circumstances.

 

John C. Maxwell, brother of Reverend Willie, lived from 7/11/19 until 2/6/72.  The headstone says nothing of the method of his demise, but back in ’72 his death was ruled an overdose of alcohol.  Speculation later suggested that his blood alcohol level was so high that the liquor must have been forced down his throat.

Then there is, or was, Dorcas A. Maxwell, second wife of the Reverend, found dead in her car on September 20, 1972 after suffering a sudden and symptomless bronchial infection somehow triggered by a superficial glance to the head.

Closer to the highway, buried with the Edwards clan, is Mary Lou Maxwell.  She lived from 7/17/27 until she was found dead in her car on 8/4/1970.  Perhaps she had bronchitis as well.

In the same section is found the Reverend’s nephew, James Edwards Hicks, who lived from 3/29/53 until 2/16/76, when he too was discovered in his car by the side of the road.

Members of the same family are often buried close to one another, but isn't it ironic that a group who died around the same time and under similar and enigmatic circumstances should find themselves buried in a place called Peace and Goodwill?

See also: The Compelling Story Harper Lee Never Wrote; Writing in the Shadow of Harper Lee; Why I Wrote "The Reverend".    

The Compelling Story Harper Lee Never Published

Since the publication of Go Set a Watchman, there has been an increase in speculation about Harper Lee’s other unpublished novels, including an abandoned true crime project called The Reverend.  Here now is a brief “just the facts” summary of the actual story.

Back in the 1970s, in Alexander City, Alabama, Reverend Willie J. Maxwell, aka the pulpwood preacher, aka the voodoo preacher, allegedly killed five of his relatives for insurance money. 

His first wife was found dead in her car.  One newspaper article of the era indicated that she had been beaten and strangled.  The DA brought a case against the Reverend, but it fell apart after the Reverend married the state’s chief witness against him.

A year later, his second wife—the one who had just saved him from prison—was also found dead in her car.  The coroner ruled that she had died of complications due to bronchitis, although she had shown no symptoms prior to her death.  Like his first wife, the Reverend collected on an insurance policy taken out in her name.

The Reverend’s brother was found dead of an overdose of alcohol.  Speculation suggested that he was held down and forced to drink until his heart gave out.

The Reverend’s nephew, who worked for him, was found dead in his car.  As in previous cases, the lack of physical evidence made it difficult to bring a case against the Reverend.  In many instances the actual cause of death was difficult or impossible to determine.

For years, rumors about the Reverend’s connection to voodoo swirled around town.  People spoke of blood on doorways, headless chickens hanging from trees, and an unidentifiable powder found in one of the automobiles beside the victim.  The fact that the Reverend was never successfully prosecuted helped fuel the rumors.

In 1977, the Reverend’s stepdaughter, Shirley Ellington, was found dead underneath the Reverend’s car.  The tire had been removed and the rotor had fallen across her neck.  In a newspaper article at the time, the Reverend suggested that she had been changing a tire and a nut or bolt had rolled under the car.  When she went under the car to retrieve it, the car fell on her.  

Few believed this story.

At Miss Ellington’s funeral, a female relative stood and shouted at the Reverend, “You killed my sister and now you’re gonna pay for it.”

Immediately following this chilling proclamation, another relative of the deceased, Robert Burns, stood and fired three bullets from a .25 pistol into the Reverend’s face, killing him instantly.  Burns later remarked, “I’m glad I did it, and I’d do it again.”

Considering the fact that Burns had killed the Reverend in front of 300 witnesses, the district attorney, Tom Young, felt he had a strong case against Mr. Burns.

After consulting the Alabama state bar association, the Reverend’s attorney, Tom Radney, represented Mr. Burns at trial.

Prior to his defense of Mr. Burns, Mr. Radney made a small fortune representing the Reverend.  His office building was known around Alexander City as the Maxwell House.

At one point during the trial, after a series of successful objections on the part of the defense attorney, the prosecutor told Mr. Radney to go to hell in open court.

In the end, an all-white jury in Alabama proclaimed that a black man who shot a preacher in front of 300 witnesses was not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.

In the 1980s, Harper Lee visited Alexander City to research a book on the subject.

According to Radney, she worked on the book on and off for years, but no book has yet been published.

In 2007, I began researching a book about the Reverend. In 2012, I published The Reverend, a novel marrying true aspects of the story with a fictional narrative.

In the coming weeks, each Sunday and Thursday, I will be launching a series of posts related to the story in the hopes of separating the facts from the fiction and laying the groundwork for another book on the subject.

UPDATE: Blood Cries a novel based on these true events is coming out in 2019.

Related posts: Harper Lee’s “The Reverend”; Writing in the Shadow of Harper Lee; Why I Wrote "The Reverend"  

You may also enjoy: Comparing the First Chapters of Go Set a Watchman and To Kill a Mockingbird

Sources: paragraph 1 numerous; paragraph 2 “Voodoo Minister Killed after Murder Accusation” the Miami News, June 22, 1977; paragraph 3 The Independent Life and Accident Insurance Company V. Willie J. Maxwell Cic. No. 341 Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama; paragraph 4 “’Voodoo Priest’ Buried, But Whispers Live On" by Jim Stewart, Atlanta Constitution June 24, 1977; paragraphs 5 and 6 2008 Interview with Tom Radney; paragraph 7 article in the Alexander City Outlook by Al Benn, June 15, 1977; paragraph 8 unsubstantiated; paragraph 9 “Maxwell Gunned Down at Funeral” by Jim Earnhardt, Alexander City Outlook June 20, 1977; paragraph 10 The Jury Trial of State of Alabama vs. Robert Louis Burns, September 26, 1977; paragraph 11 unsubstantiated; paragraph 12 interview with Radney; paragraph 13 interview with Al Benn and Jim Earnhardt; paragraphs 14 and 15 trial transcript State of Alabama vs Robert Burns; paragraph 16 numerous; paragraphs 17 and 18 come from the author.

Why I Wrote "The Reverend"

So, I still need to finish Dashboard Hula. Big shocker!  And I will definitely do that soon.  I’m really close this time.  Seriously.  In the meantime, I’m more interested in developing a series of blog posts 


describing some of my experiences writing The Reverend.  I plan to post once or twice a week starting… NOW! And continue until I get bored.

First off, this is embarrassing.  My wife JL assures me that I could not have been as stupid as my memory seems to indicate, but the way I remember it I was very stupid.  A professor at Spalding University, where I was working on my MFA, asked me a simple question, “Who is your favorite southern writer?” and my mind ceased to function, which led me to sputter out a string of nonsense that I’ll get to momentarily.

To be fair, I’ve never considered myself a southern writer.  I've lived my whole life in Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia, but I've always felt like a refugee from another planet.  I've never venerated the confederate flag and I was the only kid in my third grade class who supported Walter Mondale. And though I had sampled and enjoyed William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, All the King’s Men and “Why I live at the P.O.”, to name a few, my reading habits had long since migrated north. 

Also, my brain stops working in formal social situations, especially when it's unprepared.  So, when that professor asked me what must have seemed like the most natural question in the world when speaking to a creative writing student from Alabama, “Who is your favorite Southern writer?” my eyes crossed, my head tilted, and drool spilled from the corner of my gaping mouth. 

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that bad.

After a frantic mental search that took between a few seconds and a thousand years—my recollection suggests it was closer to the latter—I finally blurted out the only name my feeble mind could conjure.  I told him my favorite southern writer was Harper Lee.

The professor made a surprised sound and expression that I took to be my cue to continue, even though I had nothing else to say. 

“Now, I haven’t read ALL of her books,” is what I remember saying next.  My memory kind of trails off after that, but I’m sure it had something to do with To Kill a Mockingbird being one heck of a book.  The professor politely excused himself.

The conversation left a bitter aftertaste so, on the way back to my room, I stopped by a computer lab to do a little research on my favorite southern writer.

Naturally, one of the first things I learned was that Harper Lee only published one book.  This was 2002 or thereabouts, long before anyone suspected her lawyer would begin publishing her old manuscripts.  As the initial embarrassment began to wear off (as opposed to the more permanent variety that persists to this day), I discovered something interesting. 

According to a long forgotten website, Harper Lee had once spent time in Alexander City, Alabama researching an alleged serial killer, a Baptist preacher named Willie Maxwell.

This struck me for two reasons.  1) I was born in Alexander City.  I lived there from 1974-1982, including part of the time, Maxwell was active.  2) I remembered my family discussing the story at the dinner table: how he killed members of his family for the insurance money; how people crossed the street when they saw him walking their way; how he supposedly practiced voodoo; how he once married the prosecutor’s chief witness against him and then murdered her too; how he was murdered at the funeral of his final victim in front of 300 witnesses.

Okay, so I suppose I didn’t remember all of that.  We have established that memory is a tricky thing, but I did recall hearing a lot of these details years earlier.  A call to my mother in Alabama provided more information and triggered more memories. 

As it happened, I had just been given an assignment to write a nonfiction piece on the topic of my choice. 

Guess what topic I chose?

If Harper Lee wasn’t going to write the story, I decided, then I would.  I’ll tell you more about what happened when I did in my next post.

Next: A Summary of Facts about the Reverend

Related: Writing in the Shadow of Harper Lee; Comparing the Firct Chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman