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Milledgeville, Georgia, is known for many things, such as being the antebellum capital of Georgia and the home of one of the most influential writers of southern fiction, Flannery OConnor. What you may not know, however, is that it also serves as the actual setting for the murders immortalized in the novel Paris Trout, written by Pete Dexter, a former resident, and the subsequent film version of Dexters novel.
How I discovered my family connection to these events is a convoluted tale in itself, but it has become evident that a secondary character in the novel, Charlotte Hock, the sole employee of the murderer, is in fact based on Vera Puckett, my only paternal aunt. Little is known about her among the younger siblings, but my older sisters and cousins remember her very well, as she was truly a character, one who lived a life outside of what was commonly expected of women of her time and place.
My living sisters and cousins remember her as Pete. As children, it was apparent to them even then that Pete was different. In fact, they saw her as him. Vera dressed in mens clothes, wore her hair short, and was Pete. Some might find this unusual today, but in the 1950s and 60s of rural Georgia, it would have been considered by most good country people far past scandalous.
She also had a wooden leg. Her left leg below the knee had been injured...