The Devil's Hometown

The following are interviews conducted and recorded by journalist Ruby Fullbright as part of her investigation of Bushfield, Georgia. All interviews were conducted in the year 2000, fifteen years after the name “Devil’s Hometown” first appeared in print referring to Bushfield.

Isaiah Malcolm, 54, former federal agent:

           So, you wanna know why it’s called the Devil’s Hometown. Well, the fact that Bushfield is in Georgia certainly doesn’t help – the Devil went down to Georgia after all. Song wasn’t even a decade old before that Kennedy girl was murdered in Bushfield. Well, outside of Bushfield, but you know how things get muddied.

           I remember driving through town just like it was yesterday. See, I’m not from the South, so I was looking at all of those rusty red two-story buildings and people riding around in their Sunday best, chatting it up, like it was some other world to me. It was like everyone was doing their bravest to still seem like a church going town. But as soon as I drove by the little elementary school with broken windows, the mask crumbled. I was told that people kept throwing rocks at the building, not even a school anymore after the stories came to light.

           It was like throwing a rock at that school became a bigger sign of being God-loving and Devil-fearing than going to church did. And looking back at how out of hand it all got, I do wish I could’ve solved that murder in time before the people decided that throwing rocks wasn’t enough anymore.

Harietta Gracie, 60, former resident of Bushfield, wife of Bobby Gracie, still incarcerated:

           Why are you talking to me? No, ma’am, I understand why you think I’m relevant to Bushfield, but I moved out of there over a decade ago. No, what I wanna know is what good you think will come from talking to me? What about baby Rosetta’s mom? What about Rosetta’s filthy friends? What about that damned “Branded” woman? Why do you want me to answer for what my husband did instead of Mrs. Brand answering for what her husband did instead?

           You want some sorta resolution here? Some apology? A headline? Here’s your damn headline: Wife of Lynch Mob Leader Tells Reporter to Go Piss Off!

           And make damn well sure you add “alleged” in front of “Lynch Mob Leader” you nosy Nancy!

Joel Kennedy, 53, father of Rosetta Kennedy:

           Mrs. Gracie told you to go speak to “baby Rosetta’s mom”? Well, I would’ve guessed she knew that Loretta died just a few years after Rosetta did. Mother couldn’t live without her daughter. Bless her heart. But surely Loretta died before Bobby Gracie’s trial was over? I guess Harietta didn’t care to notice.

           And “baby” Rosetta? Sure, she was my baby, but that girl was a good sixteen years old when…

           I don’t want to speak ill of the Gracie couple. I’m sure in their own way they thought they were serving justice for Rosetta’s murder. But the fires from that night… Bushfield was really lit up like Hell on Earth.

           And… I don’t feel at peace with what Bobby did to Louie Brand. All he did was teach Rosetta third grade reading and math. That’s not a crime. But, well, that school became the scapegoat for everything wrong with the town. And after Rosetta’s friends were all proven innocent of her murder, the townsfolk just picked the next person down the line to blame.

           The man who allegedly taught about Satan in school.

Sallie Quinn, 31, Rosetta Kennedy’s best friend at the time of her murder:

           I moved to Bushfield at the start of high school, so Louie Brand never taught me. I'm sorry if you came to me for a juicy story about drawing pentagrams in chalk at recess.

           I’m… sorry. I don’t mean to be tense. You’re just, you know, digging up some painful memories here. It’s not everyday someone gets accused of murdering their best friend for no reason. Well, I don’t consider playing Dungeons and Dragons a valid reason anyway.

           Okay, I'm sorry, let me gather my thoughts and start from the beginning…

           So, I did move to Bushfield when I was fourteen. Hard to make friends in a town where everyone knew each other since kindergarten. But Rosetta invited me into her friend group right away. There weren’t many of us. Just me, her, and two of the shy nerdy boys, Charlie and Donald. Rosetta loved writing and fantasy novels, and so it was easy for her to get hooked on dragons and princesses and make believe and all that. So, we met up and played Dungeons, trying to keep to ourselves. And I was more than happy to be included somewhere.

           But a few months before the murder, two things happened.

           First, that kid, Austin Beck, went and ran his mouth, claiming that Louie Brand was a Devil worshipper. He really got everyone to believe that his third-grade teacher led kids into a candlelit basement to pray to Satan. And now, Austin and Rosetta were in the same third grade class. It was just a class of twelve after all, small town. Didn’t take long for reporters to start hounding down all twelve of them, including Rosetta.

           Second, I think all that stress got to her. She hated being in the spotlight. And once rumors started flying about us playing a game with dragons and fire and the like, well… Charlie and Donald threw us under the bus. They claimed that me and Rosetta were witches and had seduced them to worship the Devil. They had to protect their straight A image after all. Rosetta’s mom, Loretta, forbid her from seeing me. I heard she burned all of Rosetta’s books and journals in their backyard.

           And I… I’m sorry, I'm so sorry. I told Rosetta to “get the hell away from me” because I was mad at her. I know it wasn’t her fault, but at the time, it felt like my little island in a sea of loneliness crumbled away. Now people were yelling at me in the halls at school, thinking I was a witch, and boys kept trying to corner me, either to hurt me or try to be seduced on purpose…

           I think… I’m the reason Rosetta tried to r-run away. That night in ’85. She- she hated that town. In a matter of moments, she went from being a victim to being a witch, a seducer of men when she was only still a girl. I don’t know what she was thinking, or what happened, but I think she must’ve tried hitchhiking her way out of town.

           And- and- that’s how… I’m sorry…

           That’s how she got murdered in the woods outside of Bushfield by a stranger. That’s why we became the Devil’s Hometown.

Silas Walker, 72, former Chief of Police in Bushfield in 1985:

           Now why’d you go and talk to Sallie Quinn, young lady? She’s still playing innocent all these years later, and you believed that hogwash?

           It’s the biggest regret in my life that I couldn’t bring the hammer down on Sallie, Charlie, and Donald. Them and their little Devil book club. Did you see the crime scene pictures of how Rosetta was gutted? Do you want to? I still have a copy somewhere… But that girl was sacrificed. Found on a rock, guts spilling out. It was a group of Satan loving miscreants, right from our hometown that did it.

           What, their alibis? Too convenient. Sallie at home with her parents? Charlie and Donald both away on college tours? Yeah, right, they were busy sticking their hands into Rosetta’s corpse and drinking her blood after they each had their way with her, I bet.

           I was damn mad after they all didn’t get convicted. It’s all because of Louie Brand too. He taught them all God-knows-what as kids and permanently fiddled with their minds. Corrupted the youth.

           When we got the phone call that Bobby Gracie was causing a disturbance right outside of Louie and Valerie Brand’s house, yeah, maybe I took my time putting on my belt and turning the patrol car engine on. By the time I got there anyway, they needed a firetruck. What was I gonna do but just watch at that point?

           You know that famous picture? The one in the papers of their house going up in flames? That’s why we’re the Devil’s Hometown. Hold on, stay right there. I’ve got a copy somewhere. If you squint, you can see me leaning against my car at the edge of the shot…

Valerie Brand, 63, widow of Louie Brand, Rosetta’s elementary school teacher.

           Ms. Fullbright… there are a million things my heart wants to say. Scream at the top of my lungs actually. But I said most of those same things over a decade ago. And no one believed me then. And I know time has passed but look around. Do you see the buildings wearing away? The parks full of trash and needles? The empty lot where my house used to be? Another pile of dirt and ash where the elementary school was?

           This place is still the Devil’s Hometown. Everyone gave up on trying to find any sense of happiness here. After the fire, anyone with money and common sense moved away from here. Crime after crime was linked to the Devil in some convoluted way. That name spread like wildfire. We used to be a church going town, and now, almost no one is there with me in front of the altar each Sunday. It helps though having a private place to cry as I ask my God for mercy.

           I remember that night. How I held onto Louie as we watched the crowd grow larger in front of our house. My voice trembled on the phone as I called for help. And- and- my Louie… he held me tight as said, “Val, I’m gonna shield you from them, but we gotta make a run for it.” And before I could even say a word… the fire began. Someone threw something into our house and the curtains caught fire. And it kept happening again and again. And I screamed but… Louie grabbed me. He ran with me out the front door and straight into Bobby Gracie holding a shotgun to our faces.

           And- and- the look in his eyes. I pray to God to help me forget the look Bobby gave us. And before I could even scream, Louie whipped us around, back into the burning house, making sure I stayed hidden behind him the whole time. So… so when we were… oh God… so when we ran away from Bobby, Louie had made sure only he’d be hit and not me…

           I wailed and begged for mercy as my house burned around me and Louie- as he- as he… died on top of me.

           Ms. Fullbright… Ruby… what a beautiful name. Louie and I would’ve been blessed to have a daughter like you. And you have the same look in your eyes that Louie used to have when he cried too. Some days, even when he didn’t cry any tears, you could tell his heart was broken by the look on his face. The way all his years of loving his students had disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

           I really hope you got the answers you were looking for Ruby.

Beverley Lane, 66, principal of Bushfield Elementary at the time of Louie Brand’s employment:

           It… probably wasn’t easy being a black teacher in Georgia in the seventies and eighties. The fact that Louie taught elementary school instead of high school didn’t help either. Whispers of him being some sort of closeted queer man or pervert constantly blew over the town. But he never let it bother him. He laughed and said to me, “Bev, I had a horrible childhood. It would mean the world to me if I could give a better one to these kids.”

           I understand I should’ve fought harder to defend him when Austin Beck made the Devil worshipping allegations. But me and the other teachers also came under fire. I had journalists demanding to see the school’s basement daily. Classrooms were torn apart looking for secret passages. And one day, library books were found with hidden sigils in them, like pentagrams. My life became hell trying to explain that it was simply vandalism.

           They closed down the school and fired all of us. And they blamed me the most after Louie. So I was an outcast from my former teacher friends. And… you’d think that would make me relate to Louie better but… I’m sorry, I couldn’t afford to be seen with him.

           As a former principal of a small-town elementary school, it feels like I failed to teach the whole town to act better than they did. And now, when you look around at the state of this town… it feels like every ounce of our combined intellect wasn’t enough to save us from damnation.

           Actually… have you talked to Austin yet? I think I still have his contact information somewhere…

Austin Beck, 31, former student of Louie Brand and classmate of Rosetta Kennedy:

           Wow lady, you came all the way out here to the worst town in America to talk to me? I’m flattered you know? So, what did you want again?

           Oh yeah, Rosie! God, she was so annoying in elementary school, but she got hot in high school. Said she wanted to be a writer one day, going on about her little fantasy worlds even in elementary school. I asked her out when we were fifteen, but she said she’d rather waste her time playing make-believe, you know?

           But that got me thinking, the funniest thing happened in 3^rd grade. It was in Mr. Brand’s class – God, I hated that guy. Stupid ass- um… jerk. But anyway, one day, we were all outside doing this stupid little game. There was a big rainbow tarp that we ran around in a circle with. And we’d sing “Ring Around the Rosie” – you know that song? When we get to the part, “ashes, ashes, we all fall down,” we were supposed to quickly sit underneath the tarp and let it bubble into a dome above our heads. And Rosetta loved that game, but it annoyed the hell outta me.

           So one day, when we were both still eight, I tell her, “You know, the song is about killing you?” Get it, “ring around the rosie” and the ashes and falling down? And damn, that set her off crying like a fire truck. Mr. Brand yelled at me, saying he’d never sing about his students dying.

           And that memory stuck with me. So, in high school, if Rosie decided she preferred to make things up than go out on a date with me, well… I could out do her, you know? Really wasn’t hard either – “ring around the rosie” was already close enough to being about death, so I just made it about the Devil, you know?

           Why are you looking at me like that? Wait, are you recording this?