Driving Mr. Charlie

About the Book

There were protests around Parker Center, the headquarters of the LAPD. The officer was not charged with a crime. He did, however, face a board of review. About one year later, he was fired by Chief Daryl Gates. It was revealed that the black officer was once a policeman in Chicago, Illinois. While with that department, he shot and wounded a woman who, like Eula Love, was black. In recent years, there have been many controversial shootings between police officers and black citizens, many who were unarmed. My book, which is mostly fiction, may raise the question of whether the 1979 shooting was nearly as bad as the ones since. Kelley Jefferson is a fictionalized version of the black officer. I don’t even remember the name of the actual officer. His redemption and reinstatement are pure fiction. It is, however, possible that, by today’s standards and with a good lawyer, that policeman could have kept his job. Be mindful, however, that the author is not taking a side but is making a prediction based on some recent events. Other true events helped to inspire this story. In 1953, a home invasion robbery resulted in the death of a sixty-four-year-old widow named Mabel Monahan. One of the killers was a thirty-year-old woman named Barbara Graham. In 1955 she was executed in the gas chamber. Another subplot centers around the US Supreme Court ruling against state-supported school segregation in 1954 as well as the death of John Kennedy and the resulting presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson and Johnson’s support of the Vietnam War. The story talks about his decision not to seek reelection in 1968. The movie studio system in Hollywood was also an inspiration for other subplots.

About the Author

Driving Mr. Charlie was written by Victor Clay Johnson. Mr. Johnson is a native of Los Angeles, California, and born on January 3, 1949. His parents were Joseph P. Johnson, born in Los Angeles on February 5, 1922, and Ann Anderson Johnson, born on November 11, 1922, also in Los Angeles. Victor is the second of four children. Brother Joseph Anthony “Tony” Johnson was born on September 9, 1946, and passed away on August 25, 1977. Sisters Vivian Johnson was born on May 8, 1958, and Anne-Marie Johnson was born on July 18, 1960. Joseph P. Johnson served with the Tuskegee Airmen from 1942–1945. He served with the Los Angeles Police Department from 1946–1968, and the Union Oil Company of California until his death in 1987. Mrs. Johnson was a schoolteacher from 1944–1960. She died in 2005 at the age eighty-two. Mr. Johnson has been married to his wife, Cheryl, since September 24, 1945. They have a daughter named Maya, born January 1, 2002. Mr. Johnson has dozens of nieces, nephews, and cousins, including Miranda Miller, Vivian’s daughter. Prior to writing Driving Mr. Charlie, Mr. Johnson spent twenty-eight years with the Internal Revenue Service until April of 2013. Mr. Johnson has been in the retail clothing business as well as having a brief stint selling life insurance. While writing, he does occasional background acting.