On the evening of November 28, 1988, 22-year-old Tipton County Deputy Sheriff Richard L. Rose was shot inside the sheriff’s office in Covington, Tennessee. He was airlifted to a hospital and died of a gunshot wound to the head the next morning, November 29, 1988. The sheriff’s initial account described a horribly bizarre accident: Rose allegedly was cleaning a .380-caliber pistol belonging to partner Deputy Jimmy Hicks when the gun discharged while Hicks was in another room.

That version was contradicted by testimony from Rose’s girlfriend, who said she was on the phone with him and heard Rose tell someone You’d better put that gun down before I hurt you, then a clicking sound and silence. Hicks was charged with involuntary manslaughter; those charges were dismissed in March 1989 for insufficient proof of gross negligence, but he was later convicted of criminally negligent homicide. Both Hicks and the sheriff were under federal scrutiny over training practices when Rose was due to meet federal investigators the morning after the shooting. Did anyone know Deputy Rose’s plans or contacts the night before he was killed?