Deep In December
ISBN 978-1-329-00332-3
The title to the book was added more than a year after I finished the initial draft and is taken from the song in the musical The Fantasticks which I happen to enjoy although it has lost a lot of acceptance in recent years because of the action in the script which is referred to as the "rape scene." When I saw the play in 1972 at Fords Theatre in Washington, DC the political correction police had not yet mobilized so there was no apparent controversy that I observed.
But, I did not select the title to be either naive or provocative in my attempt to describe my life (which contains no rapes - real or simulated). I simply thought it was enjoyable to "try to remember a time in September"as the song says and "Deep in December it is nice to remember. indeed it is "nice to remember"
This is a book that has been in the making since 1968 when I was a young lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee. Two policemen, one white, one black, were shot on a cold night in January. The black officer died at the scene. The other died in the hospital a few weeks later as a result of the gunshot wounds. Five men, all black, were charged with the murder and I was hired to defend the one identified as the shooter. Without giving the story away, let's just say that the various trials and appeals continue to this day. Also my representation and friendship with the defendant has continued throughout that entire period.
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