“Here,” she said, tossing a bulky envelope on the coffee table. Then she left him alone.

The envelope contained a letter to Gary Schweickart from the Office of the Medical Examiner in Dade County, Florida, along with several documents: four separate pages of instruction addressed to four different people, an eight-page letter to

Mr. Herb Rau, reporter for the Miami News, and a two-page note, found tom but subsequently pieced together by the police. This appeared to be part of a second note to Rau, which had never been completed.

The instructions concerned payment of outstanding debts and loans, the smallest of which was twenty-seven dollars and the largest one hundred eighty dollars. A note to “Louise” ended with “one last joke. Little Boy: Mama whats a werewolf? Mother: Shut up and comb your face.”

The note to “Miss Dorothy Vincent” began with instructions for payment of debts to be made from his insurance, and ended: “My final request is to be cremated—I couldn’t stand your dancing over my grave.”

The photocopy of the letter to Mr. Herb Rau of the Miami News was unreadable in spots, indicated here by asterisks:

Mr. Herb Rau Miami News

Dear Sir:

Writing this is not an easy task. It might seem the cowardly way out, but as my entire world has collapsed about me there is nothing left. The only hope for temporary security for my 3 children, James, William and Kathy Jo can be derived from what little insurance I have. If it is possible, can you see that their mother, Dorothy Vincent, does not get her hands on it! She is mixed up with a crowd that hangs around where she works, Place Pigalle on Miami Beach, that will gladly share it with her! Procurers, Shylocks, etc. These are the people she has broken up the home for, and believe me I did all in my power to hold it together.

The story is sordid enough— The children I love with all my heart, & the fact that they are bom without the benefit of marriage, is something she wants to use as a “gimmick” to get some publicity she thinks will further her career! As follows— Since before our first child was bom, I tried several times to get her to marry me, (this is after she accused me of making her pregnant when we 1st met,) but she always found one excuse after another to avoid it. (all this and the following can be proven by a deposition given my lawyer M.H. Rosenhaus of Miami) I introduced her to my family as my wife and so that when the baby arrived I had planned to go to some small town, marry her and legitimatize the baby. By this time I was so much in love with the little boy.

Again she found one excuse after another— “Somebody might read the marriage column that knows us” etc— Well eventually the second boy arrived & for the 1st 2 weeks it was touch & go whether he lived or not, but God was with us & he is now fine & healthy— As if that were a warning I suggested marriage again. By this time she had other excuses, and was getting entirely out of line— Drinking continually, disappearing from the club, & when she was in these conditions the children weren’t safe with her. More than once when she hit the children it was with her arm instead of the flat of her hand— I had to threaten her with a beating to get her to stop. Believe me my life was a living hell. It began to show up in my work— I was slipping fast— I knew if this kept up I would eventually kill her— I wanted but she begged me to have patience. We put the children in a wonderful nursery in Tampa, Fla. went on the road and agein with me she was able to work decent Night Clubs & Theaters. Then the little girl was on the way.

We came back to Miami, and after the 3rd baby was bom she hired a woman to take care of the children and on her oath she wouldn’t mix with the customers. I let her go back to the Place Pigalle to sing— It was no time at all before she was back in the same groove drinking and fighting continually ill until she collapsed and was sent to the hospital with the first stages of Hepatitis. She almost didn’t make it— she was under constant care of the doctor for several weeks after leaving the hospital when she came back and said the doctor (Saphire of N.M.B.) told her it would be good for her to get back to work to ease her mind as the expenses were mounting up & also a cocktail now and then wouldn’t hurt her! I was against the idea so without telling me, she signed a contract, back at the Pigalle. Well, work had slacked off at the hotels so we talked it over & I decided to go up to the Mountains (N.Y.) for a few weeks to work! We had never been separated before and of course at the time I didn’t know the type of people she had been cultivating—the pimps, Lesbians, shylocks, etc.— These to her had become a symbol of “sharp” living. When I came home & saw the type clothing she was buying—Mannish looking shirts—the severe suits—certain type toreador pants that seems to be a signal between these type women—Well I blew my top. From then on it was a living hell—

Her continued drinking put her back into the hospital for a hemroid operation & in view of the fact that her liver that by this time was beyond repair they couldn’t operate—she was there for weeks— I traveled 150 miles a night so I could be with her during day visiting hours, painting the home etc— she was planning even then to break up our home so she could be with her new type of life. The day of her operation when she started to come out of it, still under the anesthetic, she thought I was somebody else. Her admissions were sickening, it was like a degeneration of an unknown class— I tried to stop her by telling her it was me (she was in a ward) but again it didn’t quite penetrate, and she started boasting how she played me for a “sucker” all these years— I never mentioned this to her because of the children, and I begged the ***

Well, when she started to get better, I mentioned the marriage again and she said she had talked to a priest and she claimed he said “you don’t have to worry about that.” They are “Children of God”— this to me does not sound plausible, but as I have aforementioned she wants to build this into a “gimmick.” She went so far as to sue me for divorce so it would hit the papers & without warning had a “peace bond” which she tried to have served on Xmas day so I could not be with the children—and on New Year’s Eve my little girl was celebrating her second birthday she refused to let me see her & then called me on the phone to tell me what a wonderful time they were having at her party—

Mr. Rau, You can inquire of the show people in M B. as to my sincerity & loyalty to this woman, but it is more than I can shoulder— You know the Nite Club business down here is a woman’s world & she has been instrumental in causing me to lose 2 jobs— You can guess how, she has continually bragged if I fight for the children she can have me run out of Miami— She has disappeared from 1 to 3 days at a time— and I am at the point where I can’t face life & see what these children will face— I tried this once before & failed, but this time I hope it will be a success. In order to protect the children I would have to put up with her and I would rather pay for my sin with the Almighty than go through that. As a last request, please have this looked into by the various agencys that can protect my children.

And may God Have Mercy on my Soul

Johnny Morrison