Memphis 1971 – reflections on working in drug enforcement

In December 1971 an officer with the Elizabethton (TN) Police Department and I drove down to Memphis to attend drug enforcement school - drug enforcement, drug identification, undercover operations, all different phases of drug enforcement. Iit was recommended that we stay at the Elvis Presley Inn on Elvis Presley Boulevard. Well, that sounded like an excellent place to stay – Elvis Presley Inn on Elvis Presley Boulevard. When we got there, it was a real old motel. We checked in at Elvis Presley Inn, and that night prostitutes worked each room. They didn’t get any work from my room, but they came and solicited. 

And the walls, the heat was the old-fashioned type where it was hot water, and hot water radiators and the walls would knock all night long. So, the next day we all got together, there was about 10 or 15 of us that was going to this school, and moved from Elvis Presley Inn across town to a Thunderbird Motel, I believe it was, which even was closer to the school. 

In class,we would be assigned roles and go downtown Memphis and play out those roles. I got with a undercover agent at night, for further educational purposes. He spent the evenings going from bar to bar, and at each bar he’d have a beer. And the go-go girls would come up and sit on his lap and bite him on the ear. His purpose in going to those bars was to see if he could find any illegal drug activity, but by the time his shift was over he was high as a kite. 

I look at my association with drug enforcement with mixed emotions. I brought a lot of grief on my family by me being the only narc in town, at that time I was the only narc in town and believe you me, the druggies knew who the narc was and who his family was. I received all kinds of threats on my life and I had other people come tell me there was a price. I was on a hit list. 

I was careful, and at night I’d put a couple pebbles, a couple gravels on the hood of the Jeep, and check and see if they were still there the next morning before I started the engine.