Struggle to Zero

This book is not only about my career as a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service, but about all the facts regarding how someone born into the lowest financial class in our country could navigate around and through the great white sharks in life without remaining in the lowest class as a human being on this earth. My personal faith and sheer fear of failure kept me going.

* Born in Parnell, KY the most backward community in Kentucky at that time

* My patched up log/plank house had no indoor or outdoor bathroom facilities for our ten family members

* I went barefooted from June - September. We were always aware of the Copperhead and Rattlesnakes and were prepared to run like hell if we encountered one

* My oldest brother Eldon would walk to school every now and then with his feet wrapped in rags during the winter months while my parents could obtain enough money to buy him shoes

* I began working at nine years of age and at twelve I chopped weeds out of corn and cotton fields for the local farmers for $2 or $4 per 12 hour days. I picked cotton during picking season in order to earn money to buy my school clothes

* Two weeks after high school graduation I began my clerical job at FBI Headquarters at the age of 18

* At age 20, I was chosen out of many applicants for the position of an FBI Tour Leader. I was taught for three classroom weeks the detailed history of the FBI and Director J. Edgar Hoover's life. This was a great break for me. I would take friends of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy on the FBI tour and return them to his office. He would be at his desk with his shirt sleeves rolled up working as usual

* At age 21 I coached the FBI Headquarters women's basketball team. We won our conference, and the main trophy was placed in FBI Director Hoover's outer office

* While employed in the Memphis FBI Field Office prior to becoming a Secret Service Agent, I was the last person to handle and prepare Dr. Martin Luther King's bloody clothes after his assassination for their airplane trip to the FBI Lab in Washington, D. C. for various tests/exams

* I was the first law enforcement official to be honored with a luncheon in the FBI Director's private dining room located in the new FBI Headquarters building

* I was featured on the CBS 60 Minutes TV program that involved one of my investigations as a Secret Service Agent

* I was the first Secret Service Agent to set foot in Communist Bulgaria with our advance team regarding a visit by former President Nixon

* A Chief Federal Judge appointed me to be on a panel that chose a U. S. Magistrate Judge

* I was the Secret Service Headquarters liaison representative with the FBI Headquarters, U. S. Department of Justice, U. S. Department of State, and U. S. Congress

* I hope this book will give hope and encouragement to all those young individuals that all things are possible if you stay focused and keep your hand on the throttle and your eye on the rail