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emergency rooms, until he died in 1984 , a few weeks short of his sixtieth birthday. His last words were for his mother, Lillie Mae, who had committed suicide years before.
    Nelle, along with Al and Marie Dewey, attended Truman’s memorial service in Los Angeles, where the first chapter of In Cold Blood was read aloud as a tribute. Afterward, they went to the home of one of Truman’s friends from happier times, novelist Donald Windham. When Windham asked Nelle during dinner when the last time was she’d spoken to Truman, she had to say she hadn’t heard from him in a very long while.
    *   *   *
    Truman’s death ended a long chapter in Nelle’s life. But it also spun her thoughts back 25 years to those Kansas days when she’d been most creative. In 1960 , she had been his “assistant researchist,” contributing to one of the most sensational and highly regarded books in American literature, while her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was just months away from publication. That brief period had been the highest point of her writing life thus far.
    And so, in the mid- 1980 s, retracing her steps over familiar ground, Nelle embarked on a book project that resembled In Cold Blood. It would be a “nonfiction novel” based on a serial murder case in Alabama she’d read about involving a man accused of killing relatives for their insurance money. And this time, unlike In Cold Blood, the book and the credit would belong wholly to her. The working title she chose was The Reverend. 7
    The story revolves around W. M. “Willie Jo” Maxwell, a veteran of World War II, born and raised in east Alabama. During the mid- 1970 s, in addition to working in the wood pulp business, he did some preaching on the side in black churches in Alexander City and became known as the Reverend Maxwell. One night, Tom Radney, Sr., an attorney and former state senator, received a call from Maxwell. “You’ve got to come out here to my home,” Maxwell pleaded, “the police are saying I killed my wife.” Mrs. Maxwell had been found tied to a tree about a mile outside of town and murdered.
    Radney agreed to take the case. Fortunately for the reverend, the woman next door provided him with an alibi and he was found not guilty. From a portion of his late wife’s insurance policy, Maxwell paid Radney’s fees. Later, he married the woman next door.
    â€œA year or so passed,” said Radney, “and then the new wife showed up dead.”
    Again Maxwell asked Radney to defend him. During the trial, the jury was persuaded that there was no evidence linking Maxwell to the murder. He was acquitted, and he paid Radney from his second wife’s insurance policy.
    The third time Maxwell was charged with murder was in connection with his brother, who was found dead by the side of a road. The district attorney argued that Reverend Maxwell, either by himself or with someone’s help, had poured liquor down his brother’s throat until he died of alcohol poisoning. But the jury wasn’t convinced and returned another verdict of not guilty. Maxwell was his brother’s beneficiary and had another lump sum due him. The Alexander City Police Department began referring to Radney’s law offices as the “Maxwell Building.”
    The fourth death involved Maxwell’s nephew, discovered dead behind the wheel of his car. Apparently, he had run into a tree. The following day, Radney, retained again as Maxwell’s attorney, inspected the crash site. “Not even the largest trees were more than two inches around,” he said. “It was obvious that hitting those little trees didn’t kill the reverend’s nephew. However, the state could not prove the cause of death. I remember having a pathologist on the witness stand. I asked him, ‘C’mon, what did he die of?’ And the reply was, ‘Judge, I hate to tell you, but we