He was able to connect directly with McCade.
He was investigating the death of McCade’s six-year-old brother.
[Nods again]
McCade, without Mancosa’s assistance, but in part with the aid of DuShawn Williams and Williams’s family in Louisiana, had successfully buried this information as the band gained status and fame.
At the same time, McCade had plans to take a different tack.
Somehow this journalist got through the net and McCade was working to stall him from publishing, something this journalist was unhappy about, and thus was putting a significant amount of pressure on McCade to accommodate, or he’d publish without McCade’s involvement.
At the same time, McCade was cooperating with the Lafayette Police Department in Louisiana, as for some time after he’d attained substantial celebrity, McCade had been in contact with them, using that celebrity to urge them to direct resources to the cold case of his missing brother. A case that they’d never actually investigated, because the child was reported missing in Florida.
[Nods again]
Yes.
Baptiste McCade’s remains were found buried under the coffin of McCade’s maternal grandmother.
Yes.
An autopsy concluded he was beaten to death. However, his remains shared his abuse was ongoing, likely from the time he was an infant.
Yes.
Loretta and Oscar Williams refused to be interviewed for the article, though both testified at trial, but other neighbors and acquaintances shared with this journalist information corroborating their testimony.
This being that it was known Preacher McCade was the victim of regular and prolonged abuse at the hands of both of his parents.
Yes.
“Give Then Take” refers to the giving of life, then taking of it, and is the story of an adult male’s anger at his parents for taking the life of his little brother. The lyrics are enraged, but vague. However, given this information going public, the meaning of this song, debated for a long time, and never fully explained by McCade or any member of the Roadmasters, became understood as McCade’s story.
Yes.
Neighbors and acquaintances also shared with the journalist and during trial, McCade was particularly close to Baptiste, and many suggested, due to his protective nature when the boys were seen together, that McCade, with greater and greater frequency, missed school or was visibly bruised, battered or otherwise injured, and this was not solely about the abuse he had been enduring, but that he put himself in the path of the abuse his brother would receive.
Yes.
McCade would testify at both his parents’ trials that he was bound in the basement, after having been beaten, but he heard the murder taking place upstairs.
Yes.
McCade’s parents then reported Baptiste missing from their hotel in Pensacola during a vacation six weeks after the child was actually killed. As it was summer, the absence of the child until then had gone unnoted.
Yes.
At that time, McCade reported to a detective that his parents were providing erroneous information, but as this information was received from a child, it was disregarded.
Yes.
As per your account, McCade kept all that was happening during that tour not only from Lyla, but also Mancosa and the entirety of the band.
Yes.
He was surrounded by his family, but he went through this alone.
[Closes eyes slowly]
Yes.
Jesse:
[Returns to room with two drinks, one mixed with ice—a rum and coke—which he hands off, one a healthy two-finger dose of amber liquid, which he takes back to his seat]
[Off tape]
Thank you.
[Muttering before taking a swallow] Don’t mention it.
I’m sorry, but considering the most recent bent of your story, I feel the need to ask. You drink?
[Lifts drink and grins wanly]
Not really.
A beer now and again.
My baby likes wine, so I take her to Sonoma. Napa. France, ’cause that’s where the really good shit is.
I’ll have a glass with her.
Most of the time, I avoid it.
But after all of that…
[Trails off]
I understand.
I’m a fuckin’ millionaire.
[Suddenly smiles with genuine humor]
And when I drink the serious shit, I drink Wild Turkey.
[Lifts glass in a salute]
You can take the boy outta Indiana, but you can’t take Indiana out of the boy.
You remember when I told you about Tommy and Preach sitting at the table in that camper, planning world domination?
[Off tape]
Yes.
Well, there’s a lot of stories about a lot of bands. From the almost pathological dysfunction of Fleetwood Mac to ZZ Top’s “same three guys, same three chords.”
Preacher and Tommy were determined that we were not gonna be Fleetwood Mac.
[Shakes head]
Don’t get me wrong, every move was not calculated.
Lyla for one.
But it is very rare a member of a band goes into that band with a mind to keeping that band together at all costs. With a plan on how to do that. Understanding the pitfalls and planning to avoid them.
They wanna write music.
They wanna play music.
They want people to want to listen to their music.
They wanna bag chicks.
They want success.
They want adulation.
And the last thing on their mind is: this band has talent, it’s going places, so no matter what, this cannot go wrong.
When he opened that back-camper door and saw Tommy Mancosa, like he’d sussed out me and Tim, Nicky and Ricky, he sussed out Tom.
And Tommy was an answer to Preacher’s prayers.
It wasn’t about making the band the greatest band in the world.
It was about keeping us together and guiding us to a career, not a one-hit wonder, not a footnote, not a cautionary tale.
A career.
I thought it was Tommy, but they had it all strategized.
The both of them.
Tom took care of the journey.
Preacher took care of the band.
[Shifts forward in his chair]
You see, and now this is the important shit, so listen up.
From nine years old, Preacher McCade lived for one thing.
To acquire the clout where someone would listen to him.
He told that detective his brother had been murdered. He took a major risk doing that. Literally a mortal risk. His parents beat the absolute snot out of him when that cop asked some throwaway questions to his folks and they figured out Preach did that.
But the man didn’t listen to Preacher.
And at the time, this risk he takes is about ending his own misery.
But it’s also about finding his brother.
Like men who beat women, parents who beat their children are master manipulators.
They told that detective that Preacher was prone to telling tales before their son went missing, and since the brothers were close, Preacher was not himself, worried about his little brother and that was how he was coping.
These people are white trash, poor as dirt, but they’re goddamn masterminds.
Dia-goddamned-bolical.
He was Larry Bird.
[Nods]
Now, makin’ it clear, Larry doesn’t have murderous parents.
But yeah.
Preacher had a dream and he had talent.