Bearfish: An Almost-History of Southern Livestock by John O'Brien

Author:John O'Brien [O'Brien, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sea Lion Press
Published: 2017-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

MAY: Crump is furious. So furious that Overton declared a cull on his behalf. There was a brief attempt to ban the serving of bearfish in restaurants for reasons of hygiene. Well, Ammon Coffee prints up a few more cartoons that are meant to incite racial tensions. Either way the city is holding a contest to see who can kill the most bearfish. Well, the person in pole position by June 1938 is Wanda Clarke, an unmarried black lady from Boxtown. She took a shotgun and a boat and camped out on Presidents Island, this was before they attached it to the mainland, and just waited for the thing to lumber on by. Every morning she killed a few beasts and every afternoon she brought their heads to City Hall. There's still a stack of ribs out there called the Wanda Pile, kind of like an unofficial memorial. It's tall. So Coffee sees his chance and he makes another cartoon.

YOUNG: Unofficial memori... oh no.

MAY: Yeah he liked to stir up trouble. So Wanda Clarke is set to win this thing and Ammon Coffee makes a cartoon of her building a bridge from Presidents Island to City Hall, but all the planks are white men instead of wood. Well that gets him fired from the Press-Scimitar. But he don't care, he's still passing out little handbills and is living pretty good for someone who just kicks pots. Unfortunately, by this time he's built up a readership, or at least a lookership, I'm not sure if all the fools who followed the man could read. This one just riled them up and some men went out there and they killed Wanda Clarke. Tortured her and hung her body from a tree. They took her daily haul of heads in and claimed her prize money. Luckily someone managed to put the facts together and all three of them went to jail. But see, Crump wanted vengeance.

YOUNG: Or he just saw his chance.

MAY: Crump wanted vengeance. They issue a warrant for Coffee's arrest for inciting the murder. They've got it all planned out. He'll stand trial, it'll help heal the city, because by this time folks in South Memphis were not having it. Someone tried to burn down the Press-Scimitar headquarters. Things were really heating up in the summer of '38. Well, Ammon Coffee never stood trial.

YOUNG: He escaped?

MAY: Oh heavens no, they found his body swinging from a tree on the Fourth of July.

*

YOUNG: This is Alice Young. It is October 12, 1962, and we are at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama. Speaking with us today is

KUZNETSOV: Do you smoke girl?

YOUNG: No. Not often. Umm, we're not done with the introduction.

KUZNETSOV: Well, I'm about to smoke and I thought I'd offer.

YOUNG: We're at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama. Today we're speaking with Rebecca Kuznetsov, a prisoner at the facility.

KUZNETSOV: Becky.

YOUNG: You prefer Becky?

KUZNETSOV: Of course. Rebecca just sounds old, like I wear a hat to church.

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