Name: Waylon L. Myers
“The Bishop”
Age: 52
Occupation/ Cover: Church Sexton at
Calvary Hill Baptist ChurchRacket: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.
