Name: Mrs. Amelia Hawkins, “The Liquor Queen”

Age: 47

Occupation/ Cover: Liquor store proprietor

Racket: Mrs. Hawkins runs a serious bootlegging operation out of her chain of three liquor stores, Hawkins Spirits. While much of her stock is bought legally, a large portion is stolen from trucks and warehouses all over the South and sold at cut rate prices- without buying the stock or paying Mississippi’s heavy taxes on the product there’s massive profit. She also does a thriving backdoor trade on contraband alcohol. She has moonshiners working stills for her in the swamps and backwoods. Thieves operating in Texas and Oklahoma steal cases of Coors beer for her, a popular product that is not sold in this part of the country and can easily be sold for three times the price it gets out West. Her most sought-after and profitable product, though, is Cuban rum smuggled to her by boat captains working the Gulf Coast.

Public Goals: To the public, Mrs. Hawkins presents the air of a successful and philanthropic businesswoman. She appears frequently at community meetings to suggest new business-friendly policies and try to attract employers to the county. Additionally, she participates in several charity events. While many residents are aware of her activities on some level, she is generally respected as a community pillar.

Private Goals: Due to her upbringing, Mrs. Hawkins is determined to cling to the respect and wealth that she feels is her due. She is aggressively protective of what she has built and will defend it with violence if necessary.

Supporting Cast: Harold Cokeley- Cokeley drifted into O’Connor County after two combat tours with Army Air Cav in Vietnam. Mrs. Hawkins offered the young man a job managing her flagship store, earning his loyalty. He handles the physical end of her business, including the rough stuff.

Personal History: The Burke family might be described as hillbillies. They’d probably call themselves that, given the chance. They had a reputation all throughout their isolated region of Arkansas as mean-spirited and dangerous, just as likely to take potshots at you over some imagined slight as they were to steal your livestock at night.

Amelia Burke was born in 1925, the sixth child in the family, and grew up knowing a life of poverty and petty crime. She still remembers the lessons in how to shoot and fish and steal, but not much from school, which she left in third grade despite her grades being high. To the Burkes, it was simply a way of life, eking out a meager backwoods living on hunting and farming, that was occasionally supplemented by theft. Amelia, however, had read enough books to know there was a larger world out there. She was determined to have fine clothes, a nice house, everything that had been denied her. Options were slim for a young woman in that time period, however, so she felt her best option was to marry a rich man.

At 17, she ran away from home. Her parents never bothered to look for her, most likely grateful to have one less mouth to feed. The ongoing war made it an excellent time, with plenty of well-paying jobs suddenly open to young women. She found work in various factories, carefully saving her pay and taking as much overtime as she could. She found herself enjoying the freedom and independence.

After the war, she found herself working as a shopgirl in Oxford, Mississippi, home of the famous Ole Miss university. Amelia calculated that a college town was a good place to find a nice man, and she was proven correct when she met Carter Hawkins, scion of an O’Connor County family. After a whirlwind romance they were married in 1945. Seeing the fancy beach house and the new Studebaker, the new Mrs. Amelia Hawkins felt her future was assured.

That is, until 1950. Seized by a burst of patriotic fervor, Carter volunteered to serve in Korea and was almost immediately killed in action. Widowed by a Chinese bullet at the young age of 25, Mrs. Hawkins soon found that the inheritance was not quite as large as she hoped, as Carter (ever the goody-two-shoes) had left significant portions of his assets to various charities. Sympathetic in-laws and friends helped set her up with a candy shop, a respectable business for a young Southern widow. While she discovered a natural talent for business, the income wasn’t quite in keeping with her vision for herself. And so, with almost no reluctance, the widow Hawkins turned to crime.

Her backwoods upbringing gave her a good working knowledge of moonshine. She knew what was good and what was bad, what it would sell for, what could be produced in quantity. And Mississippi was thirsty- the state government had voted to keep Prohibition in place. She made a few discreet inquiries, found out who in the county had the highest quality stills, and worked out partnerships with them. Word spread around the O’Connor County underworld- the best shine could be purchased out of the candy shop. The money was good, and she began slowly making connections and expanding. She allied with other area racketeers out of common interest.

Mississippi finally allowed the sale of alcohol in 1966, which hardly slowed her down. She legitimized, selling the candy store and opening three branches of Hawkins Spirits- one in the county seat, one in a smaller town in swamp country, and one on the beaches hoping to cater to the tourists. Out of town thieves were recruited to hijack liquor trucks and burgle wholesaler warehouses. A few consultations with a slick Memphis lawyer resulted in introductions being made to Italians in Chicago, who in turn put her in touch with even more thieves and a smuggler who procured her rum from Cuba- her riskiest but highest margin item.

Times are good right now, she has everything she ever dreamed of- money, influence, respect. And Mrs. Amelia Hawkins, the Liquor Queen, intends to keep it that way.

Notes: While she deliberately keeps away from the violent side of her business, Mrs. Hawkins almost always goes armed, usually with a nickel-plated Smith and Wesson Model 36.

Name: John Rawlins, “Black Jack”

Age: 55

Occupation/ Cover: Appliance store owner and repairman.

Racket: Rawlins has a successful racket as a fence for illegal merchandise, stolen guns. Run out of the back of Black Jack's, everything from jewels to car parts are bought and sold by Rawlins. In addition, Rawlins oversees a hijacking crew that operates on the highways and waterways of the Gulf Coast. He does so under the protection of Étouffée Jones, the black godfather of New Orleans.

Public Goals: Black Jack is a community leader of Buck Nelly, O'Connor County's black community. He's known to give money to those in need and help out where he can. He privately works in more progressive areas. It's been eighteen years since Brown v. Board of Education, and eight years since the Civil Rights Act, but still O'Connor County remains segregated. Black Jack is a silent member of a small activist group that seeks to integrate O'Connor County.

Private Goals: A rough childhood in the Jim Crow south has led Rawlins to crave respect more than anything else. He has more money than he or his family will ever be able to spend and is treated with deference by the black people of his county, he's still a second class citizen to the white people of O'Connor County.

Supporting Cast:

John "Jimmy" Rawlins -- Black Jack's oldest son and right hand man. Ambitious and looking to expand the family business.
Joseph "Joe" Rawlins -- Black Jack's youngest son. Currently enrolled at Alcorn State.
Amanda Rawlins -- Black Jack's wife and seasoned money launderer.
"Little" Walter Wade -- Bank robber and member of Black Jack's crew.
Cecil "Coochie Bug" Waters -- Member of Black Jack's crew. The best safecracker in the southeast.

Personal History:

Jack Rawlins was born in 1917, the fifth child of nine. His father and mother were sharecroppers, and his grandparents had been slaves. As soon as he was tall enough he was sent out in the field to pick cotton with his parents and brothers and sisters. What little schooling he received came from a rundown old school house a few miles from the family farm. Jack was nine when he stopped attending school and focused on helping the family year round.

A lifetime of hard work and never getting ahead had hollowed Jack's parents from the inside out. His mother withered away and died of a heart attack by the time she was forty-five while his father developed a drinking problem and physically abused his children. One night, Jack's father got his hands on some moonshine that had been cut with turpentine. He got blind drunk and then went blind. Jack's oldest brother took over control of the family farm while the younger children still helped out. Jack saw his opportunity to get out during WW2. He volunteered for the Army and went overseas to join the grand adventure.

But Jack's war was a dull one. Like almost all the black soldiers during the war, he was relegated to menial jobs well behind the front line. Jack was stationed in Europe in the motor pool division. Despite not seeing any action Jack received the education of a lifetime. A fellow motor pool solider from New York nicknamed Slim started a contraband business on the side and cut Jack in on the scheme. Despite not having a formal education, Jack found he had a strong grasp of basic supply side economics and how to get things done in the Army. Under Slim's tutelage Jack thrived as a black marketeer. If it could be gotten, the two men could supply it. Everything from canned peaches to girlie mags to morphine could be procured by them at a price. After the war Jack was discharged with a nice nest egg of a five thousand dollars.

He returned back home to O'Connor County excited for the future. The war had been fought in the name of freedom and democracy. Countless black soldiers had fought and died for those ideals. It was time for his country to live up to those ideals. Unfortunately, O'Connor County remained as segregated as ever. Jobs were to be had for veterans returning home, as long as those veterans were white. Jack and his new wife, Amanda, had enough money to get by for a little while, but after the birth of their son they were on the verge of destitution.

Jack looked up his old war buddy Slim and found out his post-war years were those of plenty. He was now a bigshot in New York's underworld. Slim made some introductions to a man in New Orleans who could help. Étouffée Jones liked what he saw of Jack. He took the younger man under his wing and taught him the art of armed robbery. Between 1947 and 1950, Jack robbed sixteen banks through the Southeast as a member of Jones' crew. Black Jack was by Jones' side as he made his play on the black underworld of New Orleans and emerged as the top dog. The money Jack earned became the seed money for his new business. Under Étouffée's protection, Black Jack's Appliance & Repair became known through the Gulf as the place to go if you needed to move something hot or find something hot. And Black Jack earned a reputation as a man who could steal anything he wanted.

Name:
Mr. James Rookwood

Age:
70

Occupation/ Cover:
Fisherman / Rum Smuggler
Owner/Captain of the fishing boat Chloe.

Racket:
Rookwood runs rum, plain and simple, under the guise of running a legitimate fishing operation which he actually enjoys most days. Largely regarded as the best rum smuggler on the US south coast, he supplies folks from Mexico to Florida with the finest Caribbean Rum that can be found. His connections in various Caribbean countries are all largely through retired military contacts. Recently he has begun to receive pressure from Cartels looking to use him as a mule for cocaine smuggling.

Public Goals:
To the public Rookwood is a retired and decorated war veteran, having begun a successful Naval career in the waning days of World War I. Widely known as a friendly fisherman who delivers fresh product to seafront restaurants and markets, he is a welcome face in any pub. Even the Coast Guard, who is likely aware of his activities, has a wave for him when he passes. It is no secret he hopes to live out his days at sea.

Private Goals:
Rookwood is a widower whose two estranged children have long since moved away with their families. His only true goals at the moment are to enjoy what remains of his life in relative comfort and to tame the ghosts and demons that plague him.

Supporting Cast:
Mrs. Hawkins- The most prominent purchaser of the rum he brings across from Cuba. He is vaguely aware of her business interests, legitimate or otherwise, and general enjoys her company.

Thomas Blackthorne- Thomas has been at sea, working the boat with James, for the past ten years - ever since his wife died - as the ships engineer. The two men, only a year apart in age, share their space and speak little.

Personal History:
James Rookwood was born in 1902, the eldest son of a frail shrimp boat captain and his bulldog wife on the Mississippi coast. Six more children followed, all of whom would work their fathers shrimp boat as youngsters. It wasn't much of a living, but it was something, and they never went hungry, but any sort of formal education was off the table.

When the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, fifteen year old James slipped away from the family home in the wee hours of the morning. Tall and strong, he passed himself off as eighteen and joined the United States Navy and was assigned to a destroyer on the Atlantic Coast. His sixteenth birthday came and went on the high seas during convoy escort duty.

James never saw action in the First World War, a ignominious start to his military career. When the peace was signed he was among those lucky enough to keep a berth aboard an active duty ship as others were paid off, the hulls mothballed, and crews sent home.

He quietly began to attend night classes to obtain his high school education and graduated without ceremony at the age of twenty in 1922. He applied at once for the Naval Officers training program and was turned down due to lack of funding and available positions. Undeterred, he continued to serve with pride, was promoted twice and transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1939.

December 7, 1941, found Rookwood stationed in Pearl Harbour at the Fleet School, instructing small arms to new recruits. Within forty eight hours his constant applications to enter the officer training program had been approved and he was catapulted into the Second World War. Six months later he was assigned to a patrol boat searching the waters around Hawaii for any further attempts by the Japanese to finish off the Pacific Fleet. Then, in March of 1943, the young Lieutenant Rookwood was assigned to the USS Johnston and began his date with destiny.

During the Marshall Islands campaign, the USS Johnston bombarded the beaches at Kwajalein. Rookwood, as the gunnery officer, was praised for his skill and calm while providing direct support to invasion troops there, destroying several pillboxes and taking revetments along the beach under fire. While en-route to patrol duty in the Solomons on 15 May, the USS Johnston sank the Japanese submarine I-176 using depth charges. He again showed his skill on 21 July when the Johnston teamed up with the USS Pennsylvania to bombard Guam. Devastatingly accurate gunfire directed by Rookwood shattered the enemy's naval installations, numerous pillboxes and buildings.

Then, on the morning of 23 October 1944, the USS Johnston and its newly promoted First Lieutenant, James Rookwood, made their mark on American history. US submarines detected and attacked units of the Japanese fleet coming in from the South China Sea toward the precarious Leyte beachhead - also known as Taffy 3 - defended only by the USS Johnston and her small escort carrier task unit.

By the time the smoke cleared, the USS Johnston had been sunk, but not until the far larger enemy force had been forced to retreat with considerable losses and "Taffy 3", along with all its invaluable supplies and reinforcements had been saved from destruction. From Johnston's complement of 327 officers and men, only 141 were saved. The sole surviving officer was a badly wounded Lieutenant Rookwood who was fished unconscious from the sea.

Amazingly, by April 1, 1945, Rookwood was back in action in time to take part in the Invasion of Okinawa, this time as Commander of the USS Hamilton. The Hamilton would suffer no less than three kamikaze strikes and numerous near misses from bombs and torpedos, managing to stay float only through the heroic efforts of her captain and crew.

The proudest moment of Rookwoods life came on September 2, 1945, when the USS Hamilton was chosen to escort the USS Missouri into Tokyo Bay for the unconditional surrender of the Empire of Japan. Rookwood would go on to serve a further ten years in the United States Navy before retiring with full honours and a modest government pension at the age of 53.

Rookwood married late, shortly after the end of the Second World War, and had two children. Suffering from serious PTSD and night terrors, Rookwood often found himself lashing out at his wife and children, abusing them verbally for no reason. His actions would eventually lead to his wife committing suicide and his children cursing his name before they moved away to live with their mothers family in New York.

Nearing sixty years old, Rookwood, without family, slumped deep into depression and moved back to Mississippi to live with his youngest sister who had always been a favourite of his. With her support he purchased a small fishing boat and began to ply the waters of the Caribbean. It did not take long for an old sailor to sniff his way to a ready supply of rum, so cheap to obtain on the Caribbean islands, fetched a hefty price in the United States. He quickly turned to smuggling.

An old Naval friend, Thomas Blackthorne, arrived a couple of years later and the two old cronies bought a shared house near the waterfront and turned their hand to smuggling with enthusiasm. In a way, dodging the coast guard was reminiscent of dodging Japanese warships and brought some semblance of peace to their minds.

Recently, however, certain cartels have begun to sniff around in an effort to employee the two as cocaine smugglers. Much money has been offered and both had turned it down so far.

Notes: Both men may be old, but they're no fools. Each still carries their service pistol from the war, as well as a pair of rifles - reportedly for "shark deterrence"- well oiled and ready for use.

Name: Able "Bud" Dawkins

Appearance:

Age: 42

Occupation/ Cover: Sheriff

Public Goals: Bud has kept the peace in O'Connor county for the last eight years. There have been no major crimes since his landslide victory in eight years ago. There's the occasional drunk in public dust-up and domestic violence call from time to time. Bud though as shown that he is more than capable of handling the situation. The number of times he has actually had to pull his gun and fire in the line of duty can be counted on two hands, and not use all ten fingers. His deputies are VERY loyal to him and he is loyal to them as well. Bud is in church every Sunday morning, helps coach the High School football teams, willing to help out in the community wherever he can, and is the first one in the office and last one to leave.

Private Goals: Underneath the easy going "Sheriff Andy Taylor" persona Bud is as corrupt as they come. He makes sure that everything goes smoothly for anyone doing anything illegal (for a price). Whether it is making sure the paths are clear for any runs to be made, that they know when a raid is coming, or they need a piece of evidence to disappear Bud handles it got them.

Supporting Cast:
Beth-Ellen/ "El": Bud's loving and loyal wife for the past 17 years. She is a History teacher at the Junior High School. Bud and "El" have two kids a 17 year old son (Eddie) who is the starting QB for the High School team, and a 12 year old daughter (Ruth-Ann).

Howard and Lois: Bud's parents. They own a farm just on the outskirts of town. The farm has been in the family for over 100 years. Howard is beginning to show signs of slowing down from running the farm, and taking care of Lois who suffered a stroke five years ago. Bud is coming to terms that by the middle of the decade his parents will be dead, and this is weighing heavily on him.

Amelia Hawkins: Though Bud will do anything for any of the mobsters in the county his loyalty is primarily to her.

Personal History: Bud was born and raised in O'Connor county. In High School Bud was the "B-M-O-C" he was the starting QB on the team that won the State Title four years in a row. He was dating the most beautiful girl on campus in Beth-Ellen Davis, and he had four year scholarship to Ole Miss. Bud graduated college and joined the Army just as the Korean War was going on. While in Korea he became an M-P and proved to be very good at police work. Not only in terms of procedures but as an investigator as well. Bud was shot in his right leg when questioning a call-girl and now has a slight limp, but it was enough to get him sent home.

He came back to a Hero's welcome and Sheriff Jack Tyler offered him a deputy's position. Bud accepted and with his future pretty well locked in he married Beth-Ellen. However Bud realized being in Law Enforcement wasn't exactly making him wealthy. He wanted to provide not only the best for Beth-Ellen but Ed Holmes at the First Street Bank was drooling over the prospect of foreclosing on his parents' farm. The land was in a great location and bordering on a couple of areas with very rich mineral rights that were ripe for the picking. Bud vowed Ed would never get his parents' farm. Bud saw how the mobsters were making money hand over fist, and he knew what he had to do. Bud would start to look the other way when it came to some of the booze runs for the local families, and began doing them favors very discreetly over a period of time.

This caught the attention of Amelia Hawkins. She was impressed with how he handled himself and how what he was doing was for his family and not for himself at the time. Amelia made sure Bud was well compensated. Before he knew it the word was out among the Underworld that if you took care of Dawkins he would take care of you. They all knew though that Sheriff Tyler would catch on to him, so with the backing of the mob a political juggernaut was created. Bud won the election easily, and ensured the mob would be able to operate without too much restraint. Any "gifts" given to Bud is primarily used to keep the bank from foreclosing on his parents' farm or to take care of his family.

Notes:

--Bud hates the way he has betrayed his office. He tells himself that the ends justify the means, but the guilt is painful for him to bear.

--He already has a deal in place with Burt Nelson at the First County Bank. Once his parents die he will sell the farm to him and Bud will leave a large part of the money to Beth-Ellen. Then Bud plans on faking his death and quietly leaving town with what's left of the money and starting all over again.

--When it comes to helping out the underworld Bud has three rules.
1) You want his protection you must "appease" him and that ain't cheap!
2) He has to know the names of all the players in your organization so there are no surprises.
3) No harm comes to ANY child! That rule is sacred to Bud. If you do something and it hurts a child; the Wrath of God will feel almost pleasant compared to what Bud will do to you.

--Those in the Underworld look to Bud to "keep the peace." In keeping the peace everyone flies under the radar, no attention from the Feds, and it enables everyone to make a little something for themselves. Bud is universally liked by those he deals with because he keeps his word and he is usually able to help everyone find common ground.

Name:
Waylon L. Myers
“The Bishop”

Age:
52

Occupation/ Cover:
Church Sexton at Calvary Hill Baptist Church

Racket:
Myers operates his racket out of a 19th century baptist church, holding the position of Church Sexton (groundskeeper, gravedigger, handyman etc.). As well as his legitimate duties looking after the church, he uses his position of considerable trust within the parish to undertake in some less than honest business practices. People come from all over O’Connor as well as the surrounding counties to seek his assistance, whether it be smuggling goods in caskets, disposing of bodies in unmarked graves or secreting stolen weapons or narcotics under the ground -- all for a price of course -- you name it, Myers can probably do it for you. The Pastor gets his cut as well of course, for every man, even one of the cloth, has his price. It is an effective cover too: no one would suspect the Church of something so sinister, especially not in the Hospitality State.

Public Goals:
Waylon is a well-respected member of the parish and is thought of by most honest people as a simple, well-meaning gentleman, who tends to keep to himself. He busies himself with work on the Church grounds, and wants to grow old in peace and quiet.

Private Goals:
What drives any career criminal? The lust for power, wealth, respect? All these things are true in the case of Waylon Myers, but his real motivation is his two sons, Waylon Jr. and Clarence, both called up in the draft lottery of ‘69. Both are still away in Vietnam, fighting in the waning days of an unwinnable war, and Waylon is seeking to build a comfortable life for them when they return. He has seen enough troubled young men returning to The Land of Opportunity with nothing to their names, and let down by the Nixon economy. Hell, some of them had even started careers in organised crime, as he had done when he returned from the Pacific. He didn’t want to see that happen to his boys, especially now that their mother was gone.

Supporting Cast:
Father Eugene MacMillan - The Pastor of Calvary Hill Baptist Church - originally from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Father MacMillan was moved to O’Connor County due to his questionable practices in the summer of 1967 and immediately became involved with Mr. Myers’ business. He keeps his past very private.
Deacon Francis Hammond - Church Deacon at Calvary Hill Baptist Church - A young clergyman from Pontotoc County and Father MacMillan’s second when it comes to church matters. Disapproves of Mr. Myers’ business ventures but approached them with an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality.
Bill & Glenn Calaway - undertaker and associate - Brothers; the owners and proprietors of Calaway’s Funeral Directors. While being a legitimate business, Bill and Glenn supplement their income by transporting caskets full of illegal goods and dirty money to Mr. Myers for storage and/or distribution.
Addie Hicks - Waylon’s aunt and his bookkeeper, as she was for Uncle Elmer. The closest thing Waylon has to a mother, and his one true confidant.

Personal History:
Born in February 1920 to Winston Myers Jr. and Celia Myers (née Maddox) in Marshall County, Mississippi. Life was hard for the young family; the US was still reeling from the War in Europe and the Spanish Flu that decimated the population. Winston was a farm hand for a rich dairy farmer named Orville Reddick, and income was slow, until 1921: Winston moved the family across state lines to Memphis, Tennessee, where he took up work in the cotton industry, or so he told folk. In truth, he had fallen in with various associates of E.H. “Boss” Crump, and while this brought in a lot more money for the Myers family, it brought with it its own dangers.

In 1929, Celia gave birth to Waylon’s sister, Agnes, and died in childbirth. Unable to keep up with the demands of his work and looking after the children, Winston sent Waylon and Agnes back to Marshall County to live with his grandparents, Winston Sr. and Minnie Myers. Winston Sr. had served at Wounded Knee, and recounted the stories of his wartime exploits to his young grandson. As Waylon grew, and the Great Depression struck, Winston Sr. and Minnie couldn’t handle the care of both children, and sent Waylon to live with his Aunt Addie and Uncle Elmer Hicks a few counties over in O’Connor County.

Uncle Elmer ran a small speak-easy, importing a few hundred bottles of whiskey every week, and was able to keep the family afloat, even with another mouth to feed. Things got better for Elmer in 1933 when Prohibition was repealed almost everywhere except Mississippi, and procurement and shipment became even easier. When Waylon was 14, Elmer gave him $2 a day to tend the bar, and many times he noticed Uncle Elmer give a deputy a smile and handful of bills and send them on their way.
In December 1941, Waylon was drafted. He was taken to South Carolina and assigned to the 306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Company. His first taste of live combat was the Liberation of Guam 1944. He then moved on to Leyte and finally Okinawa. He didn’t enjoy war. It hadn’t been what he was expecting from his Grandpa’s stories. There was so much death; but then, what had he been expecting? For the Japanese Army to give back the Pacific with a smile and a wave?

When he returned to America, he made straight for Memphis, only to find out his father had been arrested for corruption and child trafficking, and would likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. His grandparents had both died in the influenza epidemic in 1944, and his sister Agnes was nowhere to be found. He heard rumour that she had been sent to a convent in Jonestown. Alone, and with no money to his name, he returned to O’Connor County to find Uncle Elmer, who was still plying his trade as normal, and so took up work again. Uncle Elmer seemed to be the only one in the family who hadn’t been affected by the War. In fact, he and Aunt Addie now lived in a much more lavish home. As well as the speakeasy, Elmer was now running a protection racket, and signed Waylon up as an enforcer.

It was while working for Uncle Elmer that Waylon met Florence Whitaker, a young lady whom he became very fond of. Flo -- as she was called -- had been left fatherless by the War, and she took to Waylon very quickly too. The couple were married in February 1946 and had their first child, Waylon Jr. in December of that year, and another son, Clarence, six years later in 1952. Things moved along nicely for the family; the sheriff’s department was lax about prohibition, and a lot of the deputies were customers of Elmer’s. That all changed in 1955: Elmer made an enemy of the wrong man. When deputies arrived demanding their own protection money, Elmer answered with his Peacemaker. Elmer was dragged away the same day, and Waylon was forced to take up charge of the speakeasy, as well as the protection racket. He never heard from his Uncle Elmer again. With the right friends, and the right money in the right hands, Waylon was able to keep the business afloat.

In 1966, prohibition was finally repealed in Mississippi, and business dried up in the last dry state. Waylon tried to go straight, and took up a job as a sexton at the local baptist church, but people in the area still knew his business, and came to him in need of his services. It wasn’t long before he was running his racket out of the church. The pastor, Father Douglas grew suspicious of his actions and confronted Waylon, but he died of lead poisoning just before Christmas. Waylon sought the aid of the Calaway brothers, to assist in the “funeral preparations”.
In 1967, Father MacMillan took up the cloth at Calvary Hill. He had been sent down from Pine Bluff, Arkansas due to “personal differences” with the bishop there. Needless to say, he was much more lenient with Mr. Myers’ business practices.

In June 1967, Flo died, and Waylon’s world came crashing down. When his grandparents died, she had kept him standing. When Elmer had been carted away, she had kept him standing. Now she was gone, he was alone on his knees. His sons were men grown, and they helped where they could, but it was at least a year before he started up again. Just as he was back on his feet, both his boys were selected in the draft lottery of ‘69, and flew off to Vietnam without much warning.

Without the boys to keep him grounded, he started to take business from all sorts. His business grew ever taller and wider. People from all over O’Connor and all the surrounding counties travelled miles to seek the services of “The Bishop of Calvary Hill”.

Notes:
-- On the surface, Mr Myers is a kind, helpful man. A “pillar of the community”, a “true Christian”, but beneath that is a ruthless, dangerous man; the type that only the truly brave or foolhardy would trifle with.
-- Myers has loyalty to two things: family and money. Keep the money coming, and give his family (or what’s left) a wide berth, and Myers will give you no trouble, unless you ask for it.

NAME:
Special Agent John Tuttle
Aka: Mr Brian Johnson
Aka: Mr Thomas Burke
Aka: Mr Henry Travis
Aka: JT

AGE:
40

OCCUPATION
Special Agent - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
- Undercover Investigator

ROLE:
Tuttle is considered one of the finest under cover investigators on the Southern seaboard. His current role is to quietly enter an area and build a lifestyle profile on the region and its major players. This is not an enforcement role at the moment, there are no search warrants or doors kicks here. His current assignment is to begin quietly identifying cartel links and agents in Mississippi. His position is a lonely and dangerous one as he operates solo with very little oversight.

PUBLIC GOALS:
It is well known that Tuttle has little interest in "driving a desk". He has found a niche as an expert investigator and surveillance operator; a role he has embraced, relishing the skillset he has learned.

PRIVATE GOALS:
Tuttle intends to work until he is forced to retire. The pursuit of the evil and illegal in the world was something he had badly needed following the death of his family. In the words of Edmund Burke - “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

SUPPORTING CAST:
N/A

PERSONAL HISTORY:
John Tuttle was born in Boston, attended high school, played sports, and generally had the ideal upbringing of any white middle class kid. He might never have left the city if his late teens hadn't been interrupted by the Korean War. Always one with a strong sense of right and wrong, he joined the US Military and ended up posted to a MASH unit where he served as an ambulance driver and medic.

Following the end of the war he returned home and married Maria Gomez, a local latin beauty, and they had a little girl, Isabella, who became everything to the couple. Maria worked three jobs to make ends meet while he attended law school, making it to the bar in 1959.

In 1960 he was drafted and offered a position in a JAG unit. He turned it down in favour of joining the engineering core. In 1962 when he was approached by his Colonel who had noted Tuttles smaller physic and tenacious attitude. The Colonel did not want Tuttle to serve as an engineer, but rather to join the infamous Tunnel Rats; infantrymen from Australia and the United States who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes.

Two years of fighting and killing in the dark - literal life and death struggles thirty feet beneath the surface of the earth - brought Tuttle home a quieter and more thoughtful man. He had hoped the worst of his troubles where behind him until he found out his daughter was dating a real handsome young latino fella, Jose Ramos, that gave Tuttle the creeps. He tried to get his daughter away from Ramos only to have her rebel against his harsh rules and run away.

Six months later, Tuttle stood over the battered and bruised body of his only child in the morgue of the New Orleans Police Department. It was clear she'd been raped with some sort of object before her throat was cut and body dumped in the swamp. Tuttle approached the detective who handling the case and quietly asked who had done it. The detective had regretfully told the father in front of him that he was not allowed to give that information. Tuttle had reached into his pocket and placed two bronze stars and the silver star on the startled law mans desk; he said he had earned the right to know. The detective was able to give him one name, Ramos.

Tuttle made careful enquires about the Ramos family and learned that they operated a prostitution ring in the south, primarily with girls brought in from Panama. He took his time, made his plans, and when the timing was right, he flew to Panama and executed Jose Ramos, his two brothers, and three bodyguards outside of a downtown nightclub.

He returned to the states to discover that Maria, distraught over Isabellas death, had taken her own life. Tuttle himself was sitting his dining room table staring at a loaded pistol and a glass of whiskey when a knock sounded at the door. He had opened the screen to find two men in suits who identified themselves as agents of the FBI.

They started by telling Tuttle they knew about his daughter, then began to lay before him a curious story that the three Ramos brothers had been slaughtered quite recently in Panama by persons "unknown". The conversation continued late into the night and by the next morning, Tuttle was en-route to the headquarters of the FBI to sign on as their newest special agent.

Tuttle is driven by the words of Edmund Burke, proving proved to be highly skilled operative, building a reputation for hard work, adaptability, and reliability. He was assigned to the New Orleans Office in 1970 to assist in building a portfolio on those involved in trying to move cocaine into the United States, primarily by boat or air.

Notes:
Tuttle speaks English, Spanish, and some Vietnamese.

Name: Alphonse “Boo Banjo” Harlow.
Other Aliases: Country, Brother Al, Country Al.

Appearance:

Age: 51.

Occupation/ Cover: Alphonse follows in the footsteps of the Freedom’s Journal, the Colored American, the North Star, and many others as head of O’Connor County’s resident Black newspaper: the Crucible.

Racket: Boo Banjo and his salacious band have, through connections with black mobsters on the east coast--namely Harlem and Philadelphia--used laundered money to unite the city’s black poor working class populace under a single united front. While it has been near impossible to forge an official union, Banjo has amassed considerable power through this vast and still growing labor class communion. What little production takes place in the county can be halted with one word from the Dixie Mob’s resident country bumpkin.

He sends a little money back East and funnels the rest through gambling and numbers to sustain and employ the many black workers who rely on him.

Public Goals: Where Black Jack Rawlins seeks to integrate O’Connor County, Alphonse is a segregationist. He mimics Malcolm: the black dollar is power and Harlow believes that dollar and the power that comes with it must remain in their respective communities. He is remiss to dabble in anything that brings too much attention: drugs, moonshine, wet work.

Private Goals: His public goals and his private goals intermix. He wants black independence: black business, black universities, black public schools, higher wages for his people, better working conditions. Despite his public abhorrence of drugs and other violent aspects of the business, he is just as ruthless as the next gangster and has aligned himself with some of the biggest black drug dealers in the nation in service of his aims.

Supporting Cast

Minnie Harlow, 47: His “high yella” baby. Girlfriend, wife, mother to his two younger children. The one woman he’s loved since he was fifteen. His confidant, his everything. She is shrewd, speaks her mind when and wherever she wishes. Very close with many of the women throughout O’Connor county, especially those in Buck Nelly.

Walter “Shoeshine” Simmons, 43: Alphonse’s oldest friend and the closest thing he has to a right-hand man. Country Al might be the boss, but Simmons is the brains. A smooth talker, a sly diplomat, a former jazz musician from the Bronzeville area of Chicago who fell on hard times.

Terrence “Blood” Brown (age 39) and the Dogs of Redline County: Though Alphonse’s operation isn’t one that worries much about territory, he knows that he needs someone to protect what he’s built. Someone bold enough to tell the white folks hell no, and braver still to tell them to go back to wherever they came from. Blood is a former heavyweight boxer whose greatest achievement was being knocked out by George Foreman in 1967. Volatile, and his loyalty questionable, Harlow and Simmons work overtime to keep Brown’s leash tight and short.

Mama Fats, 64: A husky WWII era jazz debutante who fell out of favor, like so many others, with the rise of Doo Wop and Motown in the fifties and sixties. Boo, a long time fan of hers, supported her when she was penniless and she now heads Harlow’s gambling operation in return.

Personal History

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Some aspire to be war heroes, doctors, lawyers, politicians. Alphonse Harlow believed the way out was through money, through education. He spent the first ten years of his life on the east coast where his mother and father eked livings for themselves. Illiterate and otherwise barred from meaningful institutional work because of discriminatory housing practices, his father found work in sanitation and his mother became a maid for several affluent white families in Harlem. After a fight with a white boy that saw Alphonse break the boy’s nose, his parents sent him to live with his grandparents in Mississippi some time in 1931.

The Jim Crow south made many bitter, angry, or subservient to the quo. Alphonse’s arrogance made him reject his station. Saddled with aging grandparents who, though they tried, were ineffectual with the rod in their advanced age, Alphonse left home and roamed the streets. Always possessing a penchant for numbers, Alphonse landed a job as a runner for a group of black gangsters connected to Madame St. Clair and Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson up north in his hometown.

He learns the intricacies of number running and soon makes enough money to fulfill a dream of his: to learn to read. He teaches himself basic words and sounds first. With time and a steady rise through the numbers and later policy rackets, Alphonse completed his first book by age 28: W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk. This seminal work changed Alphonse’s perspective: Jim Crow be damned, there was a way to feed all these starving, poor black mouths. And it would take a certain kind of man to do it; the kind of man Alphonse had known for much of his life: the hoodlum.

By 1956, Alphonse had taken over the remnants of the fledgling black organized crime syndicates on the south side of O’Connor County. By 1967 he had consolidated his power and used the knowledge he’d gained from DuBois’ teachings to organize much--though not all--of the county’s black workforce under his control. He attempts to make contact with Black Jack Rawlins and establish an alliance sometime later.

In 1969 he used the money from his gambling operations to put into press the Crucible, newspaper which elevates black socialist voices and thinkers from around the nation. In 1971 he established contacts out east through an old mentor from his number running days and became tied in with the Philadelphia Black Mafia and one Leroy “Nicky” Barnes in Harlem.

Name: Negan Grange. Most just call him Grange or Old Man Grange; to some white folks in Louisiana he's called the Butcher, black folks there call him Nero (hero in Creole)

Appearance:

Speech color: Blue

Age: 46

Occupation/ Cover: Brewer (Rum)

Racket: protection, smuggling, assassinations, intimidation, etc. If there's something you need done, you don't really care how, and can pay the right price, Negan will get it done. Man, woman, elderly, single, married, black, white...he doesn't discriminate. He only has one rule: no kids. Asking him to hurt a kid is liable to get you killed yourself.

Public Goals: Wants to enjoy retirement with his wife and do right by his kids. His family is his life.

Private Goals: Negan will never actually retire. He enjoys...no thrives on being in the life. The harder the challenge the more he enjoys it. A year that goes by where he hasn't killed anyone or been in some sort of close call with the police he considers a boring one. He does still care about his family though, and he wont let anything happen to them. Everything he earns or steals goes to giving them a better life.