One Marshal's Badge

While many people are familiar with the U.S. Marshals' reputation from their frontier days, the agency's modern exploits are less well known. "One Marshal's Badge" intertwines an exciting account of the present-day U.S. Marshals Service with the intriguing personal story of Louie McKinney, the agency's former director. A sharecropper's son, McKinney became the first career deputy to lead the Marshals Service. Prior to this unprecedented promotion, McKinney contributed to the agency in many groundbreaking ways, including helping to restore order to the skies after a rash of airline hijackings in the early 1970s; guarding prisoner John Hinckley, the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, as a yearlong assignment; transporting criminals to trial and to prison in his own car before the creation of Con Air; enforcing the integration of southern public schools as a black deputy marshal; and, heading an innovative sting operation that netted hundreds of fugitives by enticing them with free football tickets. McKinney's modern-day stories of fugitive hunting and his disclosure of the witness protection program's and SWAT team operations' inner workings will rivet those interested in police and intelligence work.