“They’ve got no business telling me what to do! In fact, the
editorial staff down there [at the Flyer] can go to hell! Yeah,
put that in big, bold headlines: ‘Go to Hell!’ It’s nobody’s business
how I make my money or who I appoint to do things for Memphis! I
appoint the best people I know. I always have, and I always will.”
The man issuing the directive is Mayor Willie Herenton, quoted in
Jackson Baker’s “Public Reckoning for a Private Mayor,” from the May
29th, 1997, issue. The mayor was unhappy about the Flyer‘s
reporting on his business relationship with Sungold Gaming
International, a Canadian casino company.
“Sheriff [A.C.] Gilless, who was walking alongside, seemed to take
the outburst as a continuation of the mayor’s earlier jesting during
his remarks at the press conference.
“‘That’s it, mayor, tell ’em!’ said the smiling Gilless, who has had
his own occasional problems with the media.
“But Herenton seemed not to notice the sheriff’s supportive remark.
He proceeded straight ahead, flanked by an equally somber bodyguard,
lost in his thoughts — looking, an onlooker realized, like the
same bunkered-down and beleaguered being he had been once before,
almost a decade ago, when, at the conclusion of what had theretofore
been a sunny reign as superintendent of city schools, Herenton suddenly
faced nonstop charges of personal and administrative
irregularities.
“Had that point of the cycle,” Baker wrote, “been reached
again?”
Gilless passed away in 2004. Herenton’s business dealings continue
to draw media scrutiny, most recently his involvement with the downtown
Greyhound bus depot.