Billy Ray Cobb was the younger

and smaller of the two rednecks.

At twenty-three he was already a

three-year veteran of the state penitentiary at

Parchman. Possession, with intent to sell. He

was a lean, tough little punk who had sur-

vived prison by somehow maintaining a ready

supply of drugs that he sold and sometimes

gave to the blacks and the guards for protec-

tion. In the year since his release he had con-

tinued to prosper, and his small-time narcot-

ics business had elevated him to the position

of one of the more affluent rednecks in Ford

County. He was a businessman, with employ-

ees, obligations, deals, everything but taxes.

Down at the Ford place in Clanton he was

known as the last man in recent history to

pay cash for a new pickup truck. Sixteen

thousand cash, for a custom-built, four-wheel

drive, canary yellow, luxury Ford pickup. The

fancy chrome wheels and mudgrip racing