Excerpts From THe book

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Select excerpts that give you a taste of this suspenseful story. You will want to read the entire book to discover the events that lead to a truly shocking ending.

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Some background: In February 1965, Haynie Gourley turned 69. He had started Capitol Chevrolet in 1932 and worked hard to build it into one of the South’s most successful dealerships. At this juncture, he wanted to find a capable general manager to help him run the day-to-day operations so he could have more time off for golf and to travel with his wife Josephine. In the spring of 1965, he thought he had found just the right person. He proudly hired 37-year-old William E. (Bill) Powell, a former Vanderbilt University football star who had worked in the automobile business for 15 years, as general manager of Capitol Chevrolet. This move would have far-reaching consequences neither Haynie nor his family could have ever foreseen.

That summer, a big change was made at Capitol Chevrolet.

Bill Powell had been at the dealership for a year, and in the late spring of 1966, Haynie asked Billy, now a junior at Vanderbilt, to sit down and talk.  

“Bill Powell wants to buy into the business,” Haynie told his son. “I’m thinking about doing this.” 

Haynie explained that Powell would purchase 25% of the stock and have the title of executive vice-president and general manager.  

“Our family would still own the majority, seventy-five percent of the business.”

Haynie continued. “Before I do this, though, I want your approval. You’ll be coming into the business after you graduate. The main reason I’m doing it this way is so that I can count on him to teach you how to run Capitol Chevrolet. I’m going to ask him to set up a program to train you to take my place as soon as you’re ready.”

Billy was finishing his junior year at Vanderbilt, and the future seemed far away, but he was quick to give his approval. 

“Seems like the pie is plenty big enough to give up twenty-five percent,” he told Haynie. “You’ve worked hard all your life. You deserve some time off. I think it’s a great idea.”

In June 1966, Haynie asked his long-time friend John Glenn, a certified public accountant with Peat, Marwick and Mitchell and the secretary-treasurer of Capitol Chevrolet, to draw up the paperwork for Bill Powell to become a stockholder in the company. It was written into the contract and understood by both the Gourley family and by Bill Powell that a key part of the deal would be to put Powell in charge of developing a program to train Billy Gourley to become the dealer and eventual owner of Capitol Chevrolet. Powell readily agreed to this requirement. 

On July 20, 1966, Powell borrowed $200,000 from Sam Fleming at Third National Bank and became a shareholder in Capitol Chevrolet. His title was changed to executive vice-president and general manager, with Haynie remaining as president. Powell began to spread the news that he was a part owner of Capitol Chevrolet and set about making his mark on the business.

Pleased with Powell’s performance and happy with the warm relationship they had forged, Haynie eagerly signed the agreement, confident that his son would have a trusted mentor to guide him into the family business.

But Haynie overlooked a basic provision in the contract that seemed unimportant at the time. Paragraph Three named Powell as a co-franchisee, meaning that in the event of either man’s death, the other would become the sole owner of the franchise, with the exclusive right to sell new Chevrolet automobiles. The contract made it clear that Bill Powell, owning one-fourth of the company and having years of experience in the industry, met the requirements to become the dealer in the event of Haynie Gourley’s death. Billy was only twenty-one and still a college student. He would not be eligible to enroll in the highly regarded Dealers’ Sons school in Detroit for three more years. To become a General Motors franchisee, Billy would need both experience and the satisfactory completion of the training course in Detroit. For the time being, then, Bill Powell was written into the contract as Haynie’s successor.

Haynie never gave a thought to the possibility that his signature on a document drawn up by his own accountant could spell the end of his hard-fought dream and the beginning of a lasting nightmare for his family.

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In the late spring of 1966, Andy Rittenberry, a recent Vanderbilt graduate from Cowan, Tennessee, asked his friend Billy Gourley, about to finish his junior year at Vanderbilt, if Billy’s father might consider hiring him for the summer while he waited to enter medical school in the fall. Andy’s mother had been a classmate of Josephine Gourley’s in college. Billy set up a meeting with Haynie, who gave Andy a job in the service department.

Andy’s main duty was to drive cars dropped off at the service check-in over to the building where the actual work was done. An unofficial job Andy held was to drive to Belle Meade in a new 1966 four-door Impala and bring Josephine Gourley to downtown stores to shop, then deliver her back home with her packages.

But during that summer Andy began to sense that there was some sort of friction at the dealership. Although Andy found himself at the absolute bottom of the rung at Capitol, he soon learned about an undercurrent of competitiveness among the employees. Bill Powell had only been at Capitol for a year, but one of the service department workers explained to Andy that in this organization, you were either a Gourley man or a Powell man. In other words, each worker was assumed to be loyal either to Haynie Gourley or Bill Powell. 

Andy had never spoken to or been introduced to Bill Powell, whom he described as “a big, strong man, physically imposing and very fit-looking.” Andy saw Powell only in passing, but by the end of the summer he had developed a negative feeling about him. He found Powell to be somewhat imperious compared to Haynie Gourley, who was friendly and always giving Andy a pat on the back. Andy also perceived that there was a current of discontent among the Capitol employees.

However, if there was any sort of discord between Haynie and Bill Powell, Haynie seemed not to be aware of it. In fact, Haynie continued to refer to his partnership with Powell as a father-son relationship. The business was growing rapidly under Powell’s supervision, and Haynie never missed an opportunity to let everyone know how pleased he was with his executive vice-president and general manager. 

Andy Rittenberry did not tell Billy about the loyalty divide or the uneasy feeling he had about the highly charged atmosphere at Capitol Chevrolet. He knew that everyone considered Billy Gourley as the “crown prince” who would someday inherit Capitol Chevrolet. It was hard for Andy to picture Bill Powell letting this happen. To Andy, it seemed that Powell was already acting like he owned the place. 

Only later would Andy realize there might have been something to the troubling perceptions he formed that summer.