John C Williams

The Death of Russell City: Corruption in Alameda County John C Williams

In 1963, John C Cole, landed a position as a Sanitation Organizer II at the Russell City Dumps located in an unincorporated part of Alameda County next to the city of Hayward. Beyond the dumps lay the small town of Russell City. John worked the night shift from Thursday to Monday. On Friday nights he would watch as a constant stream of cars rolled past. He could hear the great rhythm and blues artists of the day jamming, but couldn?t see them as the mysterious Russell City was down the railroad tracks just beyond the bend. One night a beautiful woman came to John and asked him to leave his post and take a man who had been shot to the hospital. John refuses, so out of desperation she offers him two hundred dollars. John reluctantly agrees and, for the first time, drives through Russell City. And that began a journey into corruption and greed which found John wrongly accused of murder. The Death of Russell City is a 90,000-word novel about the actual event when, by use of Eminent Domain, arson, and murder, Russell City was turned from a Mecca of rhythm and blues to an industrial park.