Many years ago, before the age of frequent travel and reliance on digital dementia devices that relay all manner of social media and drama at the touch of a small screen, local newspapers would print events of peoples lives such as who visited who over a weekend or for several days and trips that one might take to a “far off” place like Atlanta, Jacksonville, or maybe even New York. In that historic light, on Thursday, the 15th, after a cool mid-December rain in middle Georgia seven old friends gathered at a local steak house in Macon as the sun came out at mid-day.
The seven were the few who could make the trip as others had to send their regrets because of ailments, travel conflicts, or family visits. They hailed from the north Georgia mountains, middle Georgia, and the southeast part of our state where all had at one time been assigned to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s (GBI) Statesboro Field Office and/or the former Savannah Regional Drug Enforcement Office as GBI agents.
As one might expect of colleagues who rarely get to see each other anymore except at the passing of another retired agent or by chance at a law enforcement conference, the stories of events that happened over half a century ago immediately began. Several recalled their winding path to GBI employment from local law enforcement agencies, radio disc jockeys, service in Viet-Nam, and college. Several began their careers as Narcotics Agents who had originally worked out of Atlanta. H.H. “Homer” Keadle, Special Agent in Charge (Retired) reminded everyone that before there was a SCAN (Special Coastal Area Narcotics) Office in Savannah, the predecessor of the Regional Drug Enforcement Office, GBI Statesboro worked all of the air and marine narcotic smuggling cases in southeast Georgia without the help of those “hot shot” Atlanta agents.
Charles Sikes, Special Agent in Charge (Retired), reminisced of cases involving the famed S & S Truck Stop in Mcintosh County when two “hunters” from Bulloch County had stopped by the truck stop for a “cup of coffee” and had their weapons stolen. Seemingly Charles stopped by the [Mcintosh County] Sheriff’s Office where Sheriff Tom Poppell of Praying for Sheetrock fame was able to recover the firearms with a single phone call, no questions asked, and no criminal charges brought.
Sikes also remembered a case involving a Camp Stewart employee whereby she was killed at the hands of American serial killer Ottis Toole during the period when Camp Stewart was transitioning to Fort Stewart and a permanent U.S. Army installation. Former Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney Dupont Cheney eventually indicted Toole for the killing which was never prosecuted due to Toole’s receiving the death penalty in Florida.
Another story that received clarification and / or embellishment with phrases such as, “the best I can remember” was Jim Burch’s account of an air smuggling case in Screven County which began when the GBI’s Statesboro Office received information about a group of outlaws, posing as law enforcement officers, “ripped off” another group of smugglers bringing a load of cocaine into the Screven County airport. The case took Burch and his partner, GBI Special Agent Lamon Gillis, to Kentucky and North Carolina to bring the investigation to a successful prosecution.
Burch was also required to retell the story of his hand being attacked by a cat while he sat in a vehicle late one night in Mcintosh County drumming his fingers on the top of the vehicle he and other agents were in; their noise discipline quickly dissipated.
“Buy / Bust” operations, surveillances, and the execution of search warrants in Bryan County and other jurisdictions in the Atlantic Judicial Circuit were recalled as were stories of former Sheriff’s and prosecutors. Former Long County Sheriff Cecil Nobles was affectionally remembered for routinely calling the GBI at 4:45 p.m. on Friday afternoons for assistance and Dupont Cheney for being probably the best criminal prosecutor the State of Georgia has ever had.
Mike Dull, Tom Davis, and I recalled undercover operations in and around Augusta and Aiken, S.C., much of which will never be reported outside of official GBI channels. Famous author and retired Special Agent in Charge John Edwards facilitated the groups discussions, told stories about his career in narcotics and generally presided over the venerated assembly as he always does with tact and efficiency.
At our seasoned ages, get togethers such as this are always bittersweet as we mostly see each other now at funerals or celebrations of life as some are called. During the return to Bryan Neck and what is quickly becoming the metropolis of Keller I remembered again the quote read by Civil War Historian Shelby Foote at the end of The Civil War series by Ken Burns. “In time, even death itself might be abolished; who knows but it may be given to us after this life to meet again in the old quarters, to play chess and draughts, to get up soon to answer the morning role call, to fall in at the tap of the drum for drill and dress parade, and again to hastily don our war gear while the monotonous patter of the long roll summons to battle.
Who knows but again the old flags, ragged and torn, snapping in the wind, may face each other and flutter, pursuing and pursued, while the cries of victory fill a summer day? And after the battle, then the slain and wounded will arise, and all will meet together under the two flags, all sound and well, and there will be talking and laughter and cheers, and all will say, Did it not seem real? Was it not as in the old days?”
— Private Barry Benson, Army of Northern Virginia, 1880
To listen to Classic Country music, one almost must subscribe to SiriusXM Radio and tune in the Willie’s Roadhouse station. As I approached the Keller mall the voices of Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, and Ray Price were being played singing Old Friends, I turned up the volume.
Fordham is a retired GBI agent. He lives in Keller.