“The Reverend”: Burns remembers Maxwell, murders

Harper Lee, Will Maxwell and Tom Radney were central figures in a potential book on a series of killings in our area in the 1970s, that was never published. In today’s Outlook, writer David Granger tells that story, including the memories of the man who brought Maxwell’s life to an end.

Editor’s note: News earlier this year that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee would publish her second novel, “Go Set a Watchman,” in June has brought renewed attention to Alexander City and the book Lee researched in the area. This is the story behind “The Reverend” and Robert Burns the man who shot the man knows as the “Voodoo Preacher” to death in a local funeral home.

The small article at the bottom of the front page of the Aug. 6, 1970 issue of the Alexander City Outlook was tragic, but innocent enough.