Boss Brooks

A True Story of Fraud, Family, and Forgiveness from Tennessee to Texas

  • Author(s): Turner, Kathy Bingham and Leon Alligood
  • Series:
  • Imprint: University of Tennessee Press
  • Publication Date: 2025-11-25
  • Status: Not Yet Published - Will Back Order
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“Boss Brooks is a stunning story, beautifully told, of a family’s search for the truth in a web of crimes from nearly a century ago. It is one of the finest true crime stories I have ever read and shows the courage it takes to seek redemption for the acts of our ancestors. This story will haunt you. And it will give you hope.”

—Philip Lee Williams, author of 21 books and member of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame

True crime meets family memoir in this gripping story of faked death

In 1931, Boss Bingham, the head cashier of Hardin County Bank in Saltillo, Tennessee, faked his death from a fiery auto accident and fled west to escape allegations of fraud and embezzlement. While his three children believed he was dead, Bingham reinvented himself as Marvin Lester Brooks, a rancher in Sherwood, Texas, where he married and raised a second family. Upon his death four decades later, he became a man with two tombstones.

In Boss Brooks: A True Story of Fraud, Family, and Forgiveness from Tennessee to Texas, Bingham’s granddaughter Kathy Bingham Turner and journalist Leon Alligood uncover the truth about Boss’s deception and explore the impacts on both his families. Through meticulous research and personal reflections, the authors delve into the history of rural Tennessee and Texas, revealing the complex legacy of a man whose final confession came only after suffering a stroke in 1972.

A gripping memoir of family secrets revealed, Boss Brooks offers a compelling blend of historical context and personal discovery. Turner and Alligood have produced a captivating saga that helps us understand the multifaceted nature of family legacies.

Kathy Bingham Turner is a former corporate director of human resources for newspapers in ten states. Uncovering the complicated truth about her grandfather became a passion after retirement. She resides in Franklin, Tennessee, and is pleased to share the Boss Brooks story with readers everywhere.

Leon Alligood, an emeritus professor of journalism at Middle Tennessee State University, was previously a reporter covering rural Middle Tennessee in a career spanning two decades and garnering numerous awards. He holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College and was chosen for the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame. He lives near Lebanon, Tennessee.