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Georgia Focus - Bryant Pine Mtn · Georgia Focus

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: News Network. On a cold February morning in 1990, a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: commuter driving Georgia Highway 90 near Pine Mountain made a
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: discovery that would haunt Harris and Mayweather counties for years.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: It's now part of a book called The Murder on
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Pine Mountain, Investigating a Cold Case by Clay Bryant. Clay
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Bryant is my guest today. Well, Clay, here we are again.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: You had the most amazing books.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Well, we've been lucky, you know, and God's blessed me
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: with the ability to do something that I truly enjoy
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: and love and feel like you can accomplish something. Yeah.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: It's just been a blessing to me. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Now you're at the Troop County Sheriff's Office, and you're
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  Speaker 1: working on these cases like this is your job now, basically.
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  Speaker 2: It is. After I retired, that lasted for about two
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: or three weeks. Yeah. I was miserable, and I wanted
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: to go back to work. Sheriff Woodruff was kind enough
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: to grant me the opportunity to do that and let
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: me come back and work only on cold case homicides.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: There were a few around and had some age on them,
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  Speaker 2: and we made some inroads on them, and I'm just
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  Speaker 2: thankful to him and this organization for letting me be here.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the book is just out, Murder on Pine Mountain.
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  Speaker 1: It's just amazing how these murders don't get solved until
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: years later. Tell us about the murder on Pine Mountain.
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  Speaker 2: You know, a lot of things change over time. People's
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  Speaker 2: values change. Their associations change. And there was a tremendous
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  Speaker 2: amount of work put in this case early on. I mean,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: a tremendous work by some really good investigators. But the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: folks who were involved, you know, when you think about
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: organized crime, you think about the five families in New York,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: you know, or in Chicago. But even in a small town...
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: There are people that run criminal enterprises, and some of
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: them are rather brutal than these were. And there are
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: people that would have come forward, but they had a
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: legitimate fear that the same thing would happen to you
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  Speaker 2: that happened to young Paul McCain. Yeah. And it very
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: well could have.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, he was left on the side of the road,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and he later died in a Columbus hospital.
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  Speaker 2: That's right.
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  Speaker 1: And then how did it go cold? Did the case
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  Speaker 1: go cold?
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  Speaker 2: The perpetrators in the case They ran a little cocaine,
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  Speaker 2: Charles Alden Bullock ran a little cocaine distribution business out
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: of a place called Pine Mountain Pub in Delhi. And
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: he had some guys working for him, and they were,
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  Speaker 2: they could be brutal. And they were on several different occasions,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: this being the worst of the worst. The people that
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: knew everything about this case were scared to death. Or
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: they were involved in at least the the fringes of
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: their business. They worked in the deli, or they did
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: this or that, or they bought cocaine from them. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, they're not going out themselves. And so nobody
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: would talk about anything, you know. And we were very
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: lucky to be able to go back. And, again, the
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  Speaker 2: guys that worked on this case initially are GBI agents,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Gary Fuller and Walter Davison. They worked themselves to death
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: on the case. But it was pretty much to a
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: dead end to the fact that they knew who did it,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: but they couldn't get enough public support or evidentiary support
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: to do what they needed to do. And as a
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  Speaker 2: matter of fact, they're the people that came to me
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  Speaker 2: and said, look, please, you know, this is unfinished business,
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  Speaker 2: and we'd love to see something happen about it.
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  Speaker 1: When did it come to you? What year did it
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  Speaker 1: come to you?
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  Speaker 2: It came to me in 2000, and I want to
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: say four. Okay. And the conviction, I think, was in six. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: But I had some support. Sheriff Mike Jolly down there,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: he were not the sheriff when this incident happened. Right.
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  Speaker 2: But he had a huge interest in trying to get
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  Speaker 2: something done on the case. They gave us all the
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  Speaker 2: support that we needed and that we could, and Of course,
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  Speaker 2: I was working for Pecan Lacus at the time.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: The body's found in Meriwether County, Georgia. Okay. Okay. And
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  Speaker 2: so that's how it fell in the Coweta Circuit. So
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  Speaker 2: we started an investigation from that aspect. Well, as the
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: investigation proceeded, we believe that from witness testimony that the
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  Speaker 2: murder actually happened in Harris County, which is in the
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  Speaker 2: Chattahoochee Circuit. But to their credit, our district attorneys, Pete,
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  Speaker 2: Our district attorney, Pete Scandalakis, and the district attorney from
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  Speaker 2: the Chattahoochee Circuit got together and conjunctively let us run
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  Speaker 2: the search of justice for justice. They let us run
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  Speaker 2: the investigation and do the prosecution with folks out of
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  Speaker 2: the Cow Eater Circuit as invitees into Cow Eater Circuit. Right.
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  Speaker 2: Chattahoochee Circuit. And it was just, it was a process,
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  Speaker 2: but it was a good process and we found some
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  Speaker 2: justice for these folks. This young man's killed over $ 100,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: $ 200 drug debt. And it was nothing but to show
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: folks that, you know, this is what happens in the
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: words of one of the defendants. We'll show folks what
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: happens when you don't pay the bull, man.
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  Speaker 1: Right, right.
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  Speaker 2: I can take no greater pride than Showing the bull man.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. What did the bull man do when you arrested him?
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  Speaker 2: What you would expect. Yeah, really? He stood there quietly and,
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  Speaker 2: you know, he'd gotten away with this for so long,
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  Speaker 2: they were absolutely positive that through a conjunctive defense of silence,
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  Speaker 2: there would not be enough evidence to convict him. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: They were wrong. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Take us through it, though, as much as you can,
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  Speaker 1: because I know you want to sell the book. But
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  Speaker 1: take us through some of the highlights of it. You
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  Speaker 1: did a lot of work on this.
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  Speaker 2: You did a lot of work on this. And a
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  Speaker 2: lot of it was following up on work that had
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  Speaker 2: already been done. As I said before, people's values change,
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  Speaker 2: and their fears sometimes are removed from them. And then
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  Speaker 2: you can get information that you need. And that was
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  Speaker 2: the case in this. This young man told his brother.
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  Speaker 2: early on, a few days before he was killed, that
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  Speaker 2: if anything happens to me, Charles Alden Bullock, remember that name.
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  Speaker 2: And on Friday night, prior to the Tuesday that this
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: event happened, one of the guys that were working in
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  Speaker 2: the Pine Mountain Club in Daly, they get Paul McKean
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: to come to the house of the woman that owned it.
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  Speaker 2: They have a pool table there, the place is closed.
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  Speaker 2: When he goes in, he runs into Bullock. This was
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  Speaker 2: a staged thing. evidence that was presented showed bullet pistol
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  Speaker 2: whipped and told the son if you ain't got my
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  Speaker 2: money next time i see you i'm gonna kill you
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  Speaker 2: man it was very prophetic yeah you know uh but
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  Speaker 2: then we he's found on the mountain the next morning
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  Speaker 2: and uh actually i don't.
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  Speaker 1: Want to give too much away right right yeah it's amazing.
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  Speaker 2: But uh We were able to go back and interview
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  Speaker 2: witnesses and so forth and put together a case that, again,
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  Speaker 2: the consensus was between the defendant and the attorneys that
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  Speaker 2: if they all presented a unified case of there's nothing here,
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  Speaker 2: which didn't work for them. The evidence and the testimony
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: overwhelmed me. And another thing, this wasn't their first brush
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  Speaker 2: with the law. And they looked at the totality of
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: the circumstance and built a case that convicted them. And
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  Speaker 2: that was one of my proudest moments.
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  Speaker 1: And he had some co-defendants with him, too. They kind
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: of scattered around everywhere. He went through, got all of them.
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  Speaker 2: The person that we alleged that struck the blow that
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  Speaker 2: killed him was a guy named Johnny Phillips. Okay. And
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  Speaker 2: Johnny Phillips lived, all these guys from over in Manchester.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And Johnny Phillips' father was on the county commission, and that,
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  Speaker 2: to me, explained why he was dumped just over in
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  Speaker 2: the image of Merriweather County, to acquire a little home
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: field advantage. And to a degree, it worked.
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  Speaker 1: To a degree, it worked.
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  Speaker 2: The GBI was immediately called on the case, but they
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  Speaker 2: hit an absolute stone wall of nobody's willing to talk
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  Speaker 2: about anything. Same thing happens today. and these gangland killings
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  Speaker 2: that we see every day. People are scared to death,
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  Speaker 2: and rightfully so.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Paul McKean, he's dead now. Are his parents still living?
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  Speaker 2: They are. Paul Sr. Okay, good. And his wife, Shirley.
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  Speaker 2: His brothers are alive, Brian and Todd. And they're just good,
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  Speaker 2: salt of the earth folks. You know, hardworking people. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: They deserved an answer. And the bad thing is, you know,
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  Speaker 2: anytime something like this happens, you know, everybody's got opinions.
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  Speaker 2: And most of the opinions were right in this case.
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  Speaker 2: And it's hard to imagine that, you know, you'd be
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  Speaker 2: in the McKean's shoes with a fairly correct, knowledge of
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  Speaker 2: what had happened and see nothing done.
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  Speaker 1: And see just.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing done.
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  Speaker 1: And it's a small town, too, so you're out... You
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  Speaker 1: may ride up against these people one day. Send somebody
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  Speaker 1: in the store or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: Paul McKean made it his business to do that. Okay.
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  Speaker 2: But he... I admire the man for his restraint. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: You know, he's, uh, like I say, he was a decent,
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  Speaker 2: hardworking guy. Uh, and, you know, you, you, you see
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  Speaker 2: somebody like young Paul and he, of course, he's a
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  Speaker 2: young man, makes some bad decisions. Right. But, you know,
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  Speaker 2: he was never allowed to have the ability to correct that.
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  Speaker 2: You know, and I think simply because of where he
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  Speaker 2: was and where he came from, that, that probably would
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  Speaker 2: have happened. Yeah. But, uh, These guys denied him that ability.
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  Speaker 1: Is it their only murder? Had they murdered others or anything?
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  Speaker 2: They've never been convicted of another. Okay. But there are
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  Speaker 2: a couple of deaths that surround some of these defendants
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  Speaker 2: that are very questionable. I would say that there's a
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  Speaker 2: high possibility that there were some other folks that are
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  Speaker 2: no longer with us at their hand.
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  Speaker 1: At the Pine Mountain area? Pine Mountain, Brother County.
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  Speaker 2: Pine Mountain, Panama City, Florida.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. They were bad men.
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  Speaker 1: And you said the GBI agent, he's passed away now, right?
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  Speaker 1: Gary Fuller has passed away. Walter Davis is still alive.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. Gary passed away, I guess, about a year ago now.
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  Speaker 2: And never been a harder working, more decent guy than him.
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  Speaker 2: Walter either one. And they are... They just ran into
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  Speaker 2: a stone wall as far as protection or fear. Whatever
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  Speaker 2: the motivation was, it is what it is.
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  Speaker 1: In these cases, and you've done several others, this is
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  Speaker 1: your fourth or fifth book?
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  Speaker 2: This is the fourth book, and I'm working on the fifth,
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  Speaker 2: and I've got a couple other cases in the works
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  Speaker 2: that I think we're going to find some resolution in.
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  Speaker 2: Like I said, it's been very fortunate.
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  Speaker 1: It's interesting how you've become the, the go-to guy on
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  Speaker 1: these cases, you know, cases that nobody else could solve.
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  Speaker 2: You solved them. Well, I don't know if I was
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  Speaker 2: a go-to guy, or I was the guy that got to.
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  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I guess it helps by being old.
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  Speaker 1: That's true.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I'm able to. In this area, in four
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  Speaker 2: or five counties around, I remember just about every murder
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  Speaker 2: there was, and the ones I didn't have any answers to. And, again,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, and I
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: would hope to think that There's a certain amount of
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: skill in it, but I've been lucky to, you know. And,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: you know, this is something that I haven't addressed with
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people. There's some things you just can't explain. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The good Lord wants some things to happen.
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  Speaker 1: That's right.
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  Speaker 2: There was one of the cases that I've worked, I've
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: written about, the Fovecite case.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: I was looking for a similar circumstance witness in that case,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: and it had to do with it. sexual assault. And
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: I looked in Chambers County, Alabama, where it was supposed
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: to have happened. I got this information from an ex-wife
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: who was no longer scared to talk. And she told
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: me that my suspect had committed an assault in the
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: late 60s in Chambers County. Well, subsequent to that, he'd
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: also committed sexual assaults at gunpoint. He's a serial sex offender.
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  Speaker 2: But I couldn't find Anything about it, it was like
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: it hadn't existed. I thought, well, maybe she just is
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: mistaken or she's wrong or maybe it was somewhere else.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: I looked in Randolph, Lee, Chambers, Harris County, Georgia Troop,
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: heard nothing. And one evening my wife called me and said, hey,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: she was a clerk in the criminal court in Troop County.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: And she called me and said, hey, we're going out
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: to have a little supper after lunch. uh, where would
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: you like to come out to with us? And I did.
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  Speaker 2: And it was a girl there that was five or
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: six of the ladies from the clerk's office. And one
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: of them brought her sister-in-law with her. I never met
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: this woman in my life. Uh, didn't know her name.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: They introduced me to her. One of the girls that
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: I was doing some research on ex-wives and girlfriends, you know,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: if you want the dirt, that's where you go. And, uh,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: the lady was the, the, Melanie Bowles, the lady that
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: was a clerk in the civil court, she said, Clay,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I got the information you wanted on Charles Manley. And
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: it was some divorce information. And I said, well, thank you.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: And she said, just stop by the office. I got
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: it printed for you. I got up and went away
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: from the table. And as I came back, the lady,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: the sister-in-law of the girl, met me and said, Mr. Bryan.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: And I could tell she was a little bit rattled.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: She said, why did Charles mention that man's name? I said,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Charles Manley? She said, Yes. I said, I think he
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: committed a very serious crime because I was looking at
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: a murder, you know, a sexual assault murder. And she
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: looked me straight in the face and said, he assaulted
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: me in 1968. It was the victim of the crime
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: that I couldn't find. And this lady testifies for us
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: in similar circumstances. There's no explaining that. I've never seen
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: this one before in my life. I've been looking for
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: it for three or four months.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: The woman you've been looking for.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: The woman you've been looking for. Yeah.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: That's amazing. One way to explain that. Yeah. Yeah. God
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: intended for that to be solved and for that to
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: be a strong case. And to my belief, he made
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: it that way.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: You know, we came into contact with a woman in
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the well. I read that book and I was just like, oh,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: my gosh, this is amazing. And that was that. And
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: then you had the Van Gogh case. And you had
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: another one, a lady.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Fred Wilkinson. Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: And I guess she's in jail now.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: She is.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: She is.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: All the principals in every case except Fovoside. Fovoside, the
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: only reason he's not in jail for the rest of
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: his life is because his life ended. He died of
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: cancer after 14 years of imprisonment.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Man, well.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: And excuse the expression, may he rest in hell with
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: his back broke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I shouldn't feel that way,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: but look at the negative impact. And the back story
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: in that Fovoside case is insane. I mean, my books
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: aren't long. They are historical recollections of the events that happened.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: It's not like I write novels. Right. Lord knows I
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: wouldn't even know how to start a storyline or develop characters. But,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: you know, history developed these. And I try to give
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: a good accounting for them and make sense of them.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: And it's a read that you can appreciate.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: And, you know, four or eight hours you can read
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: that book.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: You can read the whole thing. Yeah.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: And you don't. I've had a lot of folks say
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: they don't like to put them down. I'm one of them.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you that. This one was great.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Murren Palm Pine Mountain was great. I couldn't quit reading it.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I read it in two days, I think.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate that. You know, these folks can't speak
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: for themselves. Yeah. And it's just like today is 9-11.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: There's so many things that are forgotten.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: You ask anybody in Pine Mountain, Georgia today, who Paul
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: McKean was, and if it wasn't somebody that was close
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: to this case, they have no idea. These folks can't
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: speak for themselves anymore.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Through my writing, I try to speak for them.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Is the pub still there? Did they wet?
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: No, it had been since torn down. Okay. But, you know,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: every little town has got little things, hopefully not quite
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: as brutal as these guys were. And they were. And
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: that was the code of silence was enforced by them.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: That was the thing that stopped.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I know you've got a case you're working on now.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: You may not be able to talk about it much,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: but can you talk some about that, the case in
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Fulton County that's going on now that you've solved?
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: We can talk about that a little bit. And I'm
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: working on that. That's book number five. And to me,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: it's going to be by far and away the longest
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: book that I'll have written because it just spans so
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: much time. In this case, this one. The body's found
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: here in Troup County. It's been dissected. It's in 13 pieces.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have any head, hands, or feet. It goes
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: unidentified from 2007 to 2023. And during that time, it
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: appeared that the young lady that was the victim in
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: the crime was still alive and conducting her business. And
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: there were some folks that were looking for her and
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: people that had interest in her life and She came
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: down here from New York. She was legally blind and
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: had dyslexia. And I got a look at the case
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: and I said, you know, this woman with these disabilities,
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: she's getting SSI. And sure enough, I went to the
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Social Security Administration and found out that she received benefits
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: from 2006 to 2016. Well, in the end, this young
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: woman was dead in 2007, and it appeared that somebody
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: else was living her life. Oh, man. And through some
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: really good help, I had a detective up in uh,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Sandy Springs named John Nanov, one of the most greatest
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: guys you'd ever worked with. Uh, he helped me and,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm an old school guy. Yeah. I'm a,
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: when it comes to computers and today's stuff, I struggle,
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: but John didn't. And, we were pretty much able to
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: follow every step that this woman has made from the
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: time that, uh, of this killing than before. Yeah. When
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: she came down here as a fugitive from justice from
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: New York for identity theft. And she was prolific at it.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: She came down here and opened up another criminal enterprise.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: And she's currently charged because the body was found here.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: That's how we got our involvement. But through the investigation,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: I determined that she was most likely killed in an
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: apartment in Palmetto in Fulton County. We went there and
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: did some things and established the fact that beyond a
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: reasonable doubt to our satisfaction that that's what happened. And
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: so Fulton County graciously took up the case and has
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: devoted a tremendous amount of resources to it, which my
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: hat's off to them for it. And we'll go to trial,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: as the judge said, shortly after the first of the
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: year on that case. And the name of that book
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: will be The Epitome of Evil.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I look forward to having you back on that too.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to that book.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I got a couple more that I've worked, that
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: I'm working on since. And I hope, I hope to
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: write to the good Lord as a King. Yeah.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: What, what did the family say to you? There's so
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: many families of focus eyes and, and the, you know,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the people in the McKean's and everybody, what do they
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: say to you? They talk to you about this and think, Hey, thanks.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: At the time they do, but it's another thing. And
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: every time they think about it, it's another wound open.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah. You know, uh, Of course, they are, at
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: the time, super gracious, thankful to what you're doing. I've
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: told people this, and I think I may have said
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: this before when we talked. People talk about closure. When
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: you lose a child or a family member or even
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: a dear friend to something like this, there's no such
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: thing as closure. There might be some finality and really
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: not even good at that because at Thanksgiving, there's an
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: empty chair. Yeah. That's right. At Christmas. Ain't no care. Yeah.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Well, how many cases do you have now that you're
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: working on right now in Troop County? Or maybe not
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: in Troop County. Maybe there's somewhere else, too.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: No, I only do work with the sheriff's office here.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: There's a couple around that I do kind of consult
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: on and tell gators that are actively working those cases.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: You know, they won't ask my opinion and then, oh.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: which I feel honored to say would. I try to
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: help as much as I can. But here I have
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: two that are awaiting prosecution. I've got a couple that
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: I think we'll make an arrest on soon. So before
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: it's over with, I'll probably have eight cold case homicides.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: The thing that's unique about the books that I write
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: is most people that write true crime or cold cases
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: They tell the story that somebody else's story. I tell
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: that story that I lived through.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Do you write down these while you're going through the case?
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: You did some of them now.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: The first one I did. The first one I did
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: it as I just come home and couldn't sleep. And
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I'd sit down in front of a laptop and start pecking.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: And that book actually sat on a shelf for 15 years.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: And a friend of mine went out to a dove
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: shoot of all things. And we were talking, and he
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: was Dr. John Williams. He was the creative writing instructor
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: at LaGrange College. And he was talking about a book
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: that he had just had published. He did workshops and things,
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: book publication. And just a fine guy. He was talking
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: about a book that he just had published on the
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: jazz culture in Atlanta, Georgia. I didn't know there was one.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Either.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: But I was sitting there, and I just jokingly said, shoot, Doc,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: I wrote a book. And he said, what? I'd like
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: to read it. And I thought he was just, you know,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: being kind. He said, no, I really would. I'd like
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: to read it, Clay. And I took him the book.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: And it was this, it was in a loose leaf
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: binder that I developed. And like I said, it had
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: been on the shelf for 15 years. And Dr. Reeves
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: called me in a couple of weeks and said, Clay,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: he said, have you ever thought about getting this published?
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: I said, Doc, I don't know anything about that. And
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: he said, oh, I do. And he said, would you
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: mind if I submit it for me? And I said,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: And I thought he was talking about a vanity press,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: you know. And I said, what will it cost me, Doc?
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: And he said, I don't think it'll cost you anything.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: I think the story's good enough that, you know, they
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: might even pay you for it. So he submitted it
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: to Arcadia Publishing, and they have the History Press, which
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: is fairly large. It's a nationwide press. And within a
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: couple of weeks, a gentleman called me at History Press
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: and said, Mr. Bryant, we'd like to publish a book.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: And as of now, that's the fourth one they've published.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: That's the fourth book. I've just been very, very fortunate
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: to be an author by accident, I guess.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Well, this one is The Murder on Pine Mountain, and
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: it's a good one. And I encourage everybody to get
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: it and read it. So thank you, Clay. Thank you
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: for talking to me today. I appreciate this.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes, sir. I look forward to it every time
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: you talk to me, John.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: That's Clay Bryant, author of Murder on Pine Mountain, Investigating
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a Cold Case. You can find all of Clay's books
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: at the History Press, at your local bookseller, or on Amazon.com.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Murder on Pine Mountain by Clay Bryant. If you have
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: questions or comments regarding today's program, you can email me,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: johnclark at georgianewsnetwork.com. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: next week right here on your favorite local radio station
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: on Georgia Focus. you