Chapter 13

In the late afternoon, Leon flew Will, Brooke, the children and the Johnsons back to Summerdale. I flew Pris and her parents to Oxford, then flew back to Tuscaloosa. Pris and her parents stayed overnight at the lake house in Oxford. They wanted time with Pris before she went to New York. The McIvers were very concerned about Pris being in New York. The City had become more dangerous and city corruption was totally out of control under Mayor Lindsay.

Systems people called it exponential decay where a condition like overfishing lessened the fish population until a threshold was reached, then the fish population decline was swift and dramatic. The crime rate made citizen safety an example of exponential decay. Subways had become very dangerous and people were afraid to ride; the transit police were a total joke; they did nothing. Gangs had taken over much of the City. Lindsay couldn't get anything done with the City's council. He capitulated on everything to the council, the unions, and to police corruption. If I hadn't promised security for Pris, the McIvers would not have consented to her coming to the City.

I called Pris as soon as I got in. Pris said that her parents loved the lake house, which Pris neglected to tell them I had deeded to her, and they decided to keep the house open for use as a summer get-away. The house was a little over a hundred miles from Jackson, Tennessee, not as close as Kentucky Lake, but the house was much nicer than anything they could rent at Kentucky Lake, and they could leave personal items there. They also kept the sailboat and planned to bring a powerboat to keep in the new boat house.

Pris moved her things from the Kappa house to the lake house to store until she returned. She decided to live in the Kappa house her senior year. She didn't want to stay alone or share the lake house with someone other than Rob. She had a lot to do to get ready to stay the summer in New York.

I took the week between graduation and Memorial Day to close up the house in Tuscaloosa and have the housing readied for us in New York. I had a four bedroom unit in the Dakota and furnished it with Grandfather's furnishing that were in storage. Two security men from Summerdale moved to a furnished brownstone near Columbia. They picked up CDL and weapons permits. They purchased a limo to go with the one kept at the Dakota.

The brownstone had a study area on the first floor for Beau and me to use between review sessions and provided a respite area from our bar review course which was taught nearby at Columbia. The plan was that most mornings, Beau and I would take the subway from the Dakota to Columbia. Our security personnel would drive a limo from the brownstone and take Carolyn, Libby and Pris to the bank. One would remain at the bank ready to go with them if Pris decided to go out of the building, and the other, the driver, took the car to the Dakota. Libby planned to work at the bank during the day. Pris understood she was not to leave the building unaccompanied. If they were going any distance, the driver was available to come and take them, otherwise she and the security man took a taxi. Security wasn't as tight for Carolyn, as she had street smarts, but she had the driver available also. If needed, a second car and security from the Dakota could be used.

Since we didn't plan to have a cook, Carolyn introduced me to the grocers who delivered to the Dakota. Every day, deliveries were made by a produce man, a meat cutter, a baker, a milkman and a florist. Carolyn arranged for a delivery of the staples and canned goods I needed. Normally, orders were left with the Dakota desk manager in the evening and called in early in the morning. The doorman supervised the deliveries to the unit when a tenant wasn't home. A Dakota housekeeper made sure the unit I had was ready. It was a bit nostalgic the first time I entered the unit, since I recognized the furniture and things that had been Grandfather's.

Beau, Libby and Pris came in Beau's plane the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. I missed Pris, and we got reacquainted in bed as soon as she got to the unit. She seemed to have missed me, too. We had take out Chinese with Beau and Libby and turned in early.

Monday, Beau and I exercised and ran in Central Park. Part of Central Park near the Dakota was one of the few well patrolled areas and was a relatively safe place to walk. Tuesday, Pris, Libby, and Carolyn were driven to the Jenkins bank and law firm building. Beau and I took the subway to Columbia for our class.

The review was well taught and more interesting than I expected. We studied the multi-state portion of the exam before New York State law. I had signed up to take the Tennessee Bar in Nashville, which was given the day after the New York Bar concluded. Tennessee accepted the common multi-state exam results from New York, and I only had to take the one day portion on Tennessee law. My priority was to pass the New York Bar, but I thought it foolish not to try the Tennessee Bar at the same time. I had audio cassettes that reviewed the state portion of the Tennessee Bar. Pris planned to fly down with me to Nashville. I had Dorothy and Fritz engage a real estate firm to find the 'perfect' horse ranch near Nashville. I wasn't in a hurry. I could build on the right piece of property if nothing we loved came on the market.

The second week Beau and I were accosted in the afternoon on the subway. I was glad I had the training at Summerdale. The man sensed we weren't easy marks and moved on from us quickly. After that incident I carried a weapon and my Marshall credential. A man attempted to rob and probably would have sexually assaulted Pris when she went into a gallery. Fortunately, her driver had waited for her to enter the gallery before he left and interceded before any physical damage to Pris was done. The mugger got away as the driver was trained not to leave the client. A policeman didn't help with the altercation, but gave the driver a citation for leaving the car unattended.

The two incidents really upset me. I had Leon send more men to provide additional security. He sent two more immediately and two more a day later. I had Harold Star look for a newspaper and TV station where I could vent my anger in a way that might make a difference. Gangs of young blacks terrorized the city and public transportation. I remembered how quickly out of control black soldiers made some units in Viet Nam intolerable.

Lindsay wasn't any better at handling rogue blacks than the Army. During the year I was in county I saw the rapid deterioration of several units around us. I reacted so strongly to Mayor Lindsay's inaction because it was the same as I had seen in the Army's inability to face the problems of the black and rogue drug dealing Vietnamese officers that cost my unit WIA and KIA. I was fortunate that I didn't lose my leg. But mostly, I promised I would never forget what happened to Dallas.

Leon's two additional men arrived from Summerdale the day after the attack on Pris. Two armed men were assigned to be near her when she wasn't at the Dakota. Two more came two days later. Of the six, two were white and four were black. Three had been retired senior NCOs. The two most senior men, both black, and I had gone through training together with the initial group at Summerdale. Both were excellent in combat, and I felt fortunate to have them. A driver and car were kept near the office while Pris was there. With the additional security, Pris and I felt it was safe for her to move about parts of the City. Libby never went anywhere alone, either.

Harold was able to purchase the very liberal New York Post, and I changed its editorial focus to be a tabloid featuring investigative reporting of the mismanagement of the city by Mayor Lindsay and the corruption in city government. The paper established tip lines to report corruption and inefficiencies. The circulation skyrocketed as the exposés became more detailed and sexually charged. Lindsay had been a liberal media darling, but he had little substance and wasn't much of a manager. The ordinary citizens reacted to the Lindsay related headlines and pressured Lindsay and the city council.

The first featured story was a detailed account of the incident with Pris, although she wasn't named. Traffic court rarely saw high priced attorneys, like the one I had engaged to defend the driver, who were well prepared with private investigator reports and affidavits. After the policeman testified, our attorney went after the policeman in a vicious cross examination. The attorney had statements from the gallery owner that the on-duty policeman was paid extra to control traffic. Witnesses established that the mugging was disregarded by the policeman and no attempt was made to detain the mugger even though he ran right by the policeman. The precinct captain was made to look very foolish and to be an inept supervisor. A memo from the Mayor's Office was introduced and linguistic and criminology expert witnesses testified that the memo had a chilling effect when the police were directed to be very cautious with black gangs. The borough attorney ending up stipulating to most of the items presented by our counsel to lessen the disclosures and to avoid having to defend them. The strategy wasn't effective since two Post reporters were present and a private court stenographer made a detailed transcript of the public portions of the trial. Of course the reporters received copies of the trial documents our attorneys presented.

The driver was found guilty, but it was a small price to pay for the exposure. The Mayor and City looked bad, and the captain was embarrassed. The public was outraged. Even Newsday and its very liberal editor Bill Moyers criticized the Mayor. The captain sought a hearing for dereliction of duty and improper compensation against the policeman.

Near the end of the summer, The Post did a Pulitzer award winning series on the life of people on one floor of a housing project. The pieces detailed how a gang controlled the project and life on the floor. The gang took social security, welfare and food money from the elderly on the floor, and most of the ADC money and welfare money for the other women. They made middle aged and younger women virtual sex slaves. The public really responded to the reporting that the gang pimped a woman and her thirteen year old daughter. Gang members stayed wherever they wanted, frequently displacing elderly residents out of their beds and spending the night with the younger women. The project's manager was documented receiving sexual favors from the gang's women.

The paper reported that no one spoken out against the Adam Clayton Powell-Charles Rangel excesses and the taxpayers subsidizing the maggots that lived off the welfare class. New York had become what white crackers in Alabama claimed would happen. The illegitimate birth rate was over seventy percent, with illegitimate children supported almost entirely by taxpayer funds. The welfare parasites, especially the black clergy, supported a system not in the best interest of the welfare blacks, but that kept parasites in profitable positions of power, like the link of Adam Clayton Powell and the Abyssinian Baptist Church and Community Action Agencies. The Community Action Agencies were shown to be the corrupt shame they were. Most of the people who benefited from welfare were not the people who needed the welfare. Crime, though mostly black against black, high taxes and the exposure of the ineptitude of government, drove business and tourists from the city. Significant numbers of corporations moved their headquarters out of the City. Lindsay's inability to address race related issues, organized crime, and union threats were exposed. His political career was effectively over, partially because of the Post exposés.

A little after the Post acquisition, Harold Star arranged for the acquisition of station WXTV, the sister station to WPAT in Paterson, New Jersey. Carolyn was WXTV's license holder. The stations shared transmission facilities atop the Empire State Building. WXTV piled on the Lindsay attack and further exposed the problems in the city. Federal and state investigations were started after embarrassed state and federal officials were shown to have been initially unresponsive and uncaring about the waste of taxpayer dollars. Officials had responded that it was 'only federal' money.

Beau and Pris told me to back off. They said that I looked as if I were on a crusade against black people. I then got the Post editors to use the conservative and liberal reporters to work together on balanced examinations of welfare and reforms that could end up benefiting the poor and stop the fraud and waste of taxpayer money.

I pulled back and let the investigative reporters focus on the mess the city had become, and I concentrated on the bar review. One night a week, usually Tuesday night, we went to a play, concert, or gallery. On Fridays after the class, we flew to Martha's Vineyard or the beach house in Southampton. Libby worked at the bank, and Pris worked with Carolyn enough to understand what Carolyn did, but often Pris went to museums, galleries, and workshops that Carolyn and her artists' agent friend recommended. Pris and Libby shopped a lot also. Pris kept the security people busy.

Beau and I completed the month and a half review class and an intensive weekend review before the exam. The New York Bar Exam was given the Tuesday and Wednesday of the third week in July. We rested Monday, the day before the exam. Beau and I felt ready for the exam.

On Wednesday after I finished the exam, a driver drove me to the airport, where Pris waited with the Aero Commander. She flew us to Nashville. I reviewed my notes on the Tennessee law on the way. We stayed at a hotel within walking distance to the exam site.

I thought I did well enough to pass the Tennessee portion, which fortunately had a high proportion of questions related to how Tennessee handled probate and estate questions. After the exam, Pris and I looked at property around Franklin, then flew to Jackson and had a late supper with her parents at the Jackson Country Club.

Friday afternoon, we flew to New York to celebrate the end of the bar review. Saturday, Pris, her parents and I toured the City and looked at the offices of the law firm and bank and some of the family's properties. Saturday night we went to a Broadway show. The McIvers, not only got to see some of my real estate holdings, they got to meet the security personnel we had in place to keep Pris safe.

Leon, Will, Brooke, Nicole, Will Jr., Jane and the Johnsons flew into Islip on a commercial airliner. They were met by a limo that took them to look at Roselawns and then to Southampton. Hub, Thornton and I flew our planes into the Suffolk County Airport. The group was the same as had been at the hooding. Mostly the men and Pris played golf. Security accompanied the women on their one-day venture into the City to shop. Fred, Hub, Pris and I played golf together. Will, Thornton, Beau, and Pris' father played together as they were much better golfers than we were. Dr. McIver asked Dr. Johnson and Leon a lot of questions about the health care project. Dr. McIver specialized in Mohs surgery for skin cancers.

Lib's biggest treat was going to the beach with Freddy, Howard, Nicole, Will Jr. and Frank Canter. Lib really enjoyed them. Sally had come and helped with the children, but had no other duties. One of the senior security people took Sally out for a little night life. Leon volunteered and watched the children also. The first night Beau and I read Dorothy's dissertation draft. Beau had some very helpful formatting and writing suggestions. Dorothy seemed very appreciative. She worked on the draft at night.

We had very serious business strategy meetings also. We had the annual meetings of all the Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana entities. Leon reported on the medical projects. Hub briefed us on St. Joe plans. Dorothy talked about her real estate strategy. Thornton caught us up on the Saints and the radio/TV stations in Louisiana. Eunice briefed us on the new stations in Alabama. Jane caught us up on First National. We took care of everything but the Tennessee and New York entities during the first week.

The second week, the Lauders, the McIvers, and Jane went with Pris, Libby, Beau and me to Martha's Vineyard, and the others flew home. It was parents and in-laws time. The second week we focused our discussion on Jenkins Law firm and Jenkins Bank. I wanted a personal exit strategy from having to be in New York.

Pris and I walked along the Vineyard's water's edge and talked. She said, "Do you want me to stay this fall?"

"I'd love for you to stay. We need to decide where we are going with this relationship. I love you and would love to get married."

Pris drew back. "I had hoped you would ask, but am still surprised. I would love to marry you."