In eastern Tennessee's McMinn County, on the western roll of the Blue Ridge Mountains, politics is played for keeps, right up to the gunstock. For almost 30 years, McMinn's shootingest politician has been a stocky, grim-faced Democrat named Thomas Burkett Ivins, 63. As a "revenooer," a deputy marshal and McMinn County's sheriff, Burkett Ivins had never been slow on the draw. He had killed seven men—all, it was decided, justifiably. Old Burkett was proud of his pistol prowess; no one in sight of his one good eye was going to outshoot him.
After the bloody election-day revolution of G.I. veterans had...
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