Confession (10 page)

Jimmy and Max escorted Howard who still dragged his feet in the dirt.

“Please let me go!” cried out Howard while they walked him over to that tree branch.

The Klansmen ignored Howard while Jimmy and Max escorted Howard to his fate.

Howard started to squirm when Jimmy and Max got within two feet of the wooden stool.

Howard used all his might and squirmed free from Jimmy and Max’s grip.  He ran.

“Get him!” yelled out Sheriff Damon.

John and Carl ran after Howard.

John lunged and tackled Howard to the ground.

Jimmy ran over.

John and Carl brought Howard to his feet.

Jimmy punched Howard hard in his stomach.  He buckled over in pain and gasped for air.

“Let’s get this over with,” yelled out Sheriff Damon.

John and Carl brought Howard with his feet dragging in the dirt back over to the noose.

John and Carl with the help of Jimmy and Max placed Howard on the stool right under the dangling noose.

Jimmy got on the other stool and placed the noose around Howard’s neck.

“Please!  I swear.  I didn’t rape that girl.  I swear to God!” cried out Howard and his eyes welled up.

“We hope God forgive you,” yelled out Melvin.

“It’s time,” called out Sheriff Damon.

Jimmy tightened the noose around Howard’s neck.

Jimmy got off his stool and immediately kicked out the stool from under Howard’s feet.

Howard dropped and everybody heard his neck snap.

They all watched Howard’s lifeless body swing from the noose.

“I need a beer,” said Max.

“Me too,” added Carl.

The Klansmen removed their hoods and headed back to the cars.

While Jimmy got back in the Chevrolet, he glanced back at Howard’s lifeless body dangling from that tree branch.  Although he enjoyed tonight, he wanted something else.  Hanging colored men was not making him satisfied.

Everybody got in the Dodge and Chevrolet and drove away.

Back at the Melvin home, Ricky lay in bed with a huge smile on his face.  He was elated that Howard Williams got hung for the crime that Ricky actually committed.  He turned his thoughts to Emily.  He really liked her and couldn’t stop his urges to have sex with her.  It was something about forcing himself on her that turned him on. 

The weeks rolled around and it was the end of July.  

Jimmy went into the Woolworth on Thursday night for some supper during his night shift.   He decided on Woolworth for some reason and broke his normal routine.

He walked over to the counter and sat down at a stool.

He looked at the other end of the counter and saw someone he never seen before.  “We have a new waitress,” Jimmy said quietly while he looked at the new female.   She was nineteen years old, black hair, thin shapely figure with a small chest.  Jimmy liked what he saw so far.

The new waitress walked over to Jimmy once she noticed he was there.

“Welcome.  How may I help you, deputy?” asked Betty Harris.

“First of all, you can tell me your name.”

“Betty,” she said while she pointed at her name tag on her uniform.  “Betty Harris.”

“Well, Betty Harris.  I’m Deputy Jimmy Nalla.  I don’t recognize you as being from Boldger.”

“I moved her last week.  I’m from Jackson, Mississippi.  Moved here to live with my Aunt and Uncle.  Bob and Cindy Harris.”

Jimmy thought for a few seconds.  “Ah, yes I know them.  Good folk,” he said while he checked her out.  “Why leave Jackson for our little sleepy town?”

“Abusive boyfriend wouldn’t stop beating me.”

“Well, fear not my darling.  If he sets foot in Boldger and lays a hand on you, I’ll be there to save you.”

Betty smiled and liked Jimmy’s charm.  “Well, thank you and I’ll keep that in mind,” she said and gave him a warm smile.  “Now, how may I help you tonight?”

“Oh, how about the country fried steak dinner.”

“Coming right up,” she said walked away.

Jimmy’s eyes were on Betty’s backside while she walked back over to the window to give the Cook Jimmy’s order.

Jimmy had a keen interest in Betty and after his dinner arrived, he couldn’t take his eyes off her while he ate.

For the next week, Jimmy continued to eat his supper at Woolworth.   He normally ate dinner at Wally’s Country Diner located on the south side of town.  But he wanted to eat all his dinners at Woolworth to see more of Betty.

Then one night Jimmy finally got up the nerve to ask Betty out for a date.  She gladly accepted, as it was Jimmy’s charm that was so refreshing, as compared to her abusive boyfriend Willard.

It was the first Saturday of October and there was another wedding in Boldger.   Today numerous town folk packed the First Baptist Church of Boldger to watch the holy matrimony of Jimmy Nalla and Betty Harris.  Ricky was Jimmy’s best man.

For their honeymoon, Sheriff Damon gave Jimmy a week off with pay.   Melvin was also generous and gave the young couple a used Buckskin Tan and Snow Show White 1955 four door Ford.

The young honeymooners drove their new car down to Winter Haven to visit Cypress Gardens.  This was a place that Betty had dreams of visiting when she was a little girl.  She had always wanted to see the water ski shows, the beautiful gardens and the Southern Belles.

Jimmy wasn’t that impressed with the activities Cypress Gardens had to offer, it was the sex with Betty that he wanted every night.

So since Jimmy was a married man, he decided to stop seeing Lizzy for his nighttime pleasures.

The months rolled around and it was March 1958.

Sad news occurred for the white folk of Boldger.  Sixty-five Sheriff Damon had a heart attack in the middle of night while he slept in bed.

But the colored folk of Boldger were not heart broken over the loss of Sheriff Boldger.  He was the leader behind so many lynching by rope for the colored folk since he became Sheriff in 1926.  But they realized that the replacement Sheriff probably would be just as evil as Nate Damon.  They were right.  With Melvin’s influence Jimmy became the Sheriff of Boldger.  The voting was rigged. 

As soon as he took over the department, he hired Alvin Cooper as his new Deputy.  He figured that he owed Alvin since he didn’t tell anybody that he left Lizzy alone with Jimmy that night down at the lake in 1956.

Jimmy felt so powerful now that he was the official law of Boldger. 

The year of 1959 arrived and Jimmy started to abuse his powers with being Sheriff.   He would not think twice of beating up a uppity colored man when he talked back to any of the white folk.   But he stayed away from screwing Lizzy since he was married.  He loved being married to Betty and they tried every chance they could get to have a child.  Jimmy yearned for having a son he could call Jimmy Junior.  Betty yearned for a daughter. 

The year of 1960 arrived and Jimmy’s life started to change.  It wasn’t so grand as it was last year.  For starters Betty still wasn’t pregnant and it looked hopeless.  But they still tried. 

On the night of June twenty-first, Jimmy returned to his old ways.  He spotted Lizzy, now nineteen years old, walking down the street late at night. 

At first Lizzy didn’t want to have sex with Jimmy anymore.  But Jimmy reminded him that he was the Sheriff and had the power to have her daddy see the end of a rope. 

Even though Lizzy wasn’t fond of her father, she didn’t want him killed because of something she did.

So Lizzy got in Jimmy’s car and he drove her out to the clearing by the lake.

Jimmy had Lizzy in the backseat and she straddled over his crotch.  He missed the feeling of being inside her.

Then to Jimmy’s surprise, Lizzy suddenly left town for good five months later.  What Jimmy didn’t know was that he got Lizzy pregnant that night down at the lake.  Her father was furious when she confessed that Sheriff Nalla got her knocked up.  Feeling scared that he would hang from the end of a rope, he send Lizzy of to live with his sister down in Mobile. 

Another happy event happened in late June.  Nineteen-year-old Ricky married nineteen year old Emily Mochrie.  She never even suspected that it was Ricky that raped her that night.  Never.  She fully believed that Howard Williams raped her and justice was served.  She was satisfied and put that memory behind her.

Ricky was on his best behavior during their honeymoon down at Biloxi, Mississippi.  He had urges to be rough with her in bed during their honeymoon but fought them off.

The rest of 1960 was still the same for Jimmy.  He still had the urge to rape the young colored girls of the town.

One recent conquest was with fourteen Nelly Winston.

He drove her off to the lake late one night and had her naked against the hood of her car.

After he was done he threatened Nelly that if she told anybody he would make sure her father would see the end of a rope.

Nelly kept her mouth shut.

This year also brought on moments where he would yell at Betty and gave her an occasional slap across her face.  Betty didn’t believe in divorce or leaving her husband so she put up with it.  After all, her father would often slap her mother from time to time.

But 1960 was an eventful year for FBI Agent Robert Fillert.  He made five more arrests and with is record, his head started to swell and he had a hint of a strut in his walk.  Some of the other Agents started to notice and talked about Robert behind his back.  It was not favorable talk.

The year of 1961 rolled around and things started to pickup for Jimmy.  But his relationship with Betty started to get rocky.  His desires to have sex with her started to become less and less frequent.   He had other desires he wanted to fulfill and couldn’t fight them off.

It was a
steamy month of June and Jimmy had the urge to abuse his power again.

It was one that afternoon on a Wednesday in the middle of June.  Jimmy patrolled the streets with his 1960 Ford Galaxy white and black squad car.  He still wore the standard Khaki shirt and pants as his uniform for the Sheriff of Boldger. 

On the passenger seat of his car was his new
Tower 32A 35mm
camera that he bought four months ago
from the Sears store in a nearby town
.  He used his camera to take some very special photographs of the young colored girls around down.  He first used it on Nelly Winston right after he bought the camera.

He drove out to the woods, snapped some naked pictures of the young girl then forced himself on her.

He again threatened that if she told anybody her father would see the end of a rope.

She kept her mouth shut.

He had one more to take and then he could try his skill with developing them.

He drove near the outskirt of the colored section of town on Addison Avenue.

He spotted someone walking alone.  “Perfect,” he said when he saw fifteen year old colored girl Melissa Washington walking alone in a faded white dress and bare feet. 

He pulled over into the left lane of the street and stopped by Melissa. 

She stopped and looked nervous Jimmy pulled up by her side.

“Melissa.  What are you doing walking all alone in this heat?”

“I was bored Sheriff Jimmy.”

Jimmy looked at her.  “You know, you’re growing up into a nice woman,” he said.

Melissa smiled.  “Thank you Sheriff Jimmy,” she said thinking a nice comment from him would mean he wasn’t going to arrest her on some trumped up charges.

Jimmy looked around and didn’t see anybody within eyesight.   He glanced at his camera on his car seat.  He looked back at Melissa and leaned out his door window.  “I tell you what.  If you want to earn some money, I bought this new camera.  I would love to take some pictures of you.”

“Money?” Melissa said and her eyes widened a little thinking getting some money would be nice since her parents are dirt poor.

“Yeah, I’ll pay you ten dollars if you let me take some pictures of you.”

The sound of ten dollars easy cash overrode Melissa’s better judgement.  “Yes Sheriff Jimmy.”

“Get in,” he said and motioned for her to ride in the front seat with him.

Melissa rushed around the front of his car and got in the front passenger seat.

Jimmy drove away down the street and headed out of town with Melissa.

Ten minutes had passed and Jimmy drove his squad car to a secluded area of the woods that was accessible by a dirt road.  The local hunters often used this area of the woods for their hunt for the sport of killing animals.

Jimmy parked his car.  He reached behind his back and removed his wallet out of his back pocket.  He opened it up and removed a ten-dollar bill.  He set the bill on the seat.  “You can have this when we’re done,” he while he looked at Melissa.