Photo Gallery
Haynie Gourley (in back seat wearing a bow tie) in a REO, one of the first cars in Cross Plains, Tennessee, 1925. Courtesy of Rita A. Read, Cross Plains Heritage Commission
Haynie Gourley, standing, at Capitol Chevrolet’s downtown offices at 510 Broadway in the 1940s. Seated is Charlie Rolfe, Haynie’s business partner from 1937 until Rolfe’s death in 1953. Capitol’s business skyrocketed as GIs returned home from WWII, creating a demand for cars. Courtesy of Billy Gourley
A long way from Cross Plains, Tennessee: The Gourley family in Paris, 1965, where they stayed at the Ritz on the Place Vendôme. L-R: Haynie, wife Josephine, son-in-law Bill Bainbridge III, JoAnn Gourley Bainbridge, and Billy Gourley. Haynie loved traveling and treated his family to the best hotels. Courtesy of Billy Gourley
The carefree days of college: Billy Gourley, left, with “Mr. Joe” Harper, caretaker of Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at Vanderbilt University, and fraternity brother Carroll Sterne. Photo taken at a formal dance 1967. Courtesy of Martha S. Tate
Good times: Nashville’s Pat Patrick (foreground), who became a popular society bandleader, for decades playing elite events all over the East Coast and Midwest, with Billy Gourley, both SAEs at Vanderbilt. Spring break, March 1967. The occasion was a Supremes concert at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach. Photo courtesy of Martha S. Tate
A proud moment: Haynie’s dream come true. The completed new headquarters of Capitol Chevrolet at 600 Murfreesboro Road. This photograph was taken the day before the Grand Opening on April 4, 1968. L-R, Capitol executives Jimmy Allen, Charlie McCaffrey, Haynie Gourley, and Bill Powell. Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, Banner Newspaper Collection
Newspaper rendering of map drawn by Bill Powell at Vanderbilt Hospital on the day of the murder. If this route had been taken, Powell would have returned four to five minutes after he left Capitol Chevrolet. Witnesses testified he was gone for 15 minutes. Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, Banner Newspaper Collection
Screen shot of first Extra edition of the Nashville Banner on the afternoon of May 24, 1968, the day of the slaying. The first Extra sold out, and a second Extra edition was printed. It also sold out. From the collection of Billy Gourley and used with special permission from the Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, Banner Collection
Photographers capturing Josephine Gourley and son Billy as they leave the courtroom after the verdict was handed down at 8:43 on August 2, 1969. Special Prosecutor John J. Hooker, Sr. is directly behind Billy Gourley. ©The Tennessean—USA TODAY NETWORK
The gun with the pearl handles was found three months after the murder on Elm Hill Pike in an area police had never searched. However, it was not turned in until a year later during the last week of the trial. The man who found it told police he never came forward because he “did not want to become involved.” The courtroom was shocked when a former employee of Capitol Chevrolet testified he gave t
Nashville native Jane Hindman Kyburz, VU ’68, and the author’s Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sister, put on her sleuth hat to locate and set up interviews with Sherman Nickens, head homicide detective on the famous case, and Larry Brinton, chief crime reporter for the Nashville Banner at the time. Both were crucial to the book’s research. Jane has acted as publicist, organizing and setting up large
Helen Burnett Sessions, Vanderbilt University ’70, Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sister of the author, is also serving as publicist for the book, contacting various media outlets and setting up the taping of the three-part series “The Last Ride,” produced by NashvilleBanner.com. An extensive interview with the author can also be seen online at Virtual Theta, on March 14, 2024, thanks to Helen.
Author Martha Tate at Jane Pauley’s book signing at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church (where the author belongs) on January 23, 2023. Martha’s daughter, Anne Tate Pearce, Deputy Director of Publicity at Simon & Schuster, served as Ms. Pauley’s publicist for her 2014 book Your Life Calling.
On March 23, 2023, Vanderbilt friends of the author hosted a book event at the Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta, Georgia. Over 250 enjoyed cocktails and hors-d’oeuvres and a power point overview of the book.
One of the hosts at the Driving Club event was Randy Coley, VU’69 (left), an SAE fraternity brother of Billy Gourley, Haynie Gourley’s son.
Dr. Don Leslie, VU ’68, an SAE brother and Medical Director Emeritus at Atlanta’s Shepherd Spinal Center, and Anne Cowart Kibler ’70, a Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sister of the author, at the Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta on March 23, 2023.
All grown up: Top, L-R, Billy Gourley, author Martha Smith Tate, Emily Benning Stallings, and Keith Caldwell, at the book event at the Piedmont Driving Club on March 23, 2023. Below, the foursome (seated) at the SAE Black & White formal dance, May 1965. The author claims the photographer from The Tennessean made her gaze up adoringly at Billy. Keith Caldwell presented Martha with the original phot
Vanderbilt Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sisters hosted a talk and signing for 50 local book club members at the Chattanooga home of Ann Eliot Hon on April 27, 2023. L-R, the author’s Vanderbilt roommate Betsy Chisolm Silberman; the author; Vanderbilt graduate Dr. Andy Rittenberry, featured on pages 84 and 85 in the book; Susan Butterfield Brooks, and Ann Eliot Hon, the latter two also Vanderbilt roo
Over 140 attended the book event and signing, May 24, 2023, at Vanderbilt Bookstore. L-R: Demetria Kalodimos, executive producer of Nashville Banner.com and moderator: Cheryl Dalton, General Books manager, Vanderbilt University Bookstore; Billy Gourley, son of Haynie Gourley; author Martha Smith Tate; Ralph Schuller, a Vanderbilt University Bookstore assistant manager.
Full house at the Vanderbilt Bookstore, May 24, 2023, the 55thanniversary of Haynie Gourley’s death.
Papyrus Book Club, Big Canoe, Georgia, August 22, 2023 (see Events)
On Nov 3, 2022, the Nashville Bar Association presented a four-hour-long retrospective of the murder & trial that rocked Nashville in the turbulent years of 1968/1969. Introducing the book for the first time are Vanderbilt classmates, L-R, Susan Spalding, Martha Ballard, Sissy Russell, Anne McLeod, and author Martha Smith Tate (not pictured: Jane Hindman, VU ’68, the photographer in this case).