The restless crowd in the public square, the campaign posters on the courthouse maples and the granite-faced strangers swaggering in the streets of Athens, Tenn. (pop. 11,000) were all familiar portents. Election day was upon the "Friendly City."
A sharp sun drove a few voters to the shady courthouse lawn and its weathered wooden bench inscribed "Compliments of Paul Cantrell." But Sheriff Pat Mansfield, with a gold-plated badge glittering on his sports shirt, looked coolly confident in a knot of armed deputies. This was the day that Sheriff Mansfield and State Senator Cantrell,...
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