Jim said that Danny came by Mercer House around 5:30 or 6 p.m., around the time the workshop staff left for the weekend.
One of Danny's complaints was that he didn't have any prospects for a real job. His intelligence or talents had been dulled by heavy use of alcohol and drugs. When he was given the opportunity to learn aircraft mechanics in the Air Force Reserves and antique restoration at the hands of the excellent craftsmen Jim had in his workshop, Danny couldn't stick with it. He became very frustrated and blamed everyone but himself.
Still, Jim was patient with him and offered to pay for training that could translate into a decent career. Jim had paid for several of his restorers to take specialized classes in skills that made them more valuable. Because Danny loved Atari computer games, Jim suggested that he ought to look into computer vocational school.
Danny seemed interested, so Jim called his friend Bruce Muncher, a computer programmer in Hinesville, Georgia, a little after 9:30 p.m. Bruce gave Jim information about cost and housing at a vocational tech school in northern Georgia.
Danny wanted to see a movie that night, so they went to the Weis drive-in around 10:30. Jim indulged Danny and sat through one the three zombie movies showing that night: "Dawn of the Dead," "Walk of the Dead," and "Curse of the Living Dead."
Jim said that he believed that Danny had smoked eight or nine joints, consumed a half-pint of Wild Turkey bourbon, and had started on a second half-pint, but he was not drunk. They returned to Jim's house around 12:30 a.m.
They played backgammon and Atari in the living room for what Jim called "a real long time." Danny began to complain about his personal life, particularly three people-his mother, George Hill, and Debbie. The theme of the complaints was the one Danny most often voiced: "Everybody always throws me away." His mother hated him and had him put into institutions. George Hill wanted his '67 Camaro because Danny couldn't afford to maintain it on his part-time pay. Debbie got his "golden" necklace and then she humiliated him in a bar on River Street, and "made a fool out of him."
Jim claimed that Danny talked about these three people rapidly, in "a very high tone of voice. All of a sudden his personality snapped. It snapped just exactly like a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde situation. He turned into a raging madman, and he stood up and said, 'Those games. Those games have caused this whole thing.' Then he stomped right through the Atari set and the thing flew to pieces. Next, he took what was left of that half-pint of bourbon out of his back pocket and smashed it on the floor."
Jim said he told Danny to get out of his house immediately. Danny was still raging. Jim claimed that he had seen Danny like that before, but he'd always thought he could handle him. This time he couldn't. He left the living room to go to his study to call the police.
Danny had never physically threatened Jim before, but, Jim said, Danny grabbed him and shouted, "You are sick! Why don't you do everybody a favor and go out in the woods and die?" Then he threw Jim against an interior door with such force that he bounced back.
Jim said, "I kept talking to Danny but Danny wasn't talking in the same conversation with him. He was talking about a different world. It was as though I wasn't there. I just happened to be in his way." Then, Jim said he rushed into his study and picked up the phone just as Danny came in and screamed, "Who are you calling?"
Jim said that he had to think quickly. He was too afraid to try to call the police. Jim told him that he was calling Joe Goodman to tell him the trip to Europe was off. Earlier, Danny had complained that Jim had given Danny's trip away.
Jim said Danny sat down across the desk from him while he dialed Joe's number and told him the trip was off. Joe said that was all right with him. Then Danny snatched the phone out of Jim's hand and told Jim, "Don't lay that on me." Danny said, "Joe, I hope there's no hard feelings." Joe said later that he told Danny not to worry about it. Joe's girlfriend, Nancy Rushing, wondered at the time if Jim had been under duress when he made the call.
Jim said that Danny then picked up a silver tankard and said, "This silver tankard has just about made its mind up to go through that painting over there," meaning a large 18th-century painting.
Jim said he told Danny, "You're not going to tear my house up anymore. Now you get out!"
Danny answered, "Well, I'm leaving this town. Savannah's never been any good for me. I'm leaving this town tomorrow."
Jim tried to reason with him. "Danny, whatever you want to do. I thought you were going to go to school."
Danny repeated that he was leaving Savannah tomorrow and left the room. Jim said that he heard loud sounds coming from the hall. Danny returned to the study with a loaded German Luger in his hand and said, "I'm leaving this town tomorrow, but you're leaving tonight."
Jim said, "The minute I saw that loaded Luger, I reached in my drawer there, pulled it (the Luger in Jim's desk drawer) out, had the gun in my hand coming out. I was coming up from my seated position when a bullet was fired at me. I felt the breeze by my right arm. I'd never been as scared in my life, and I stood up and as fast as I could pull the trigger, I shot. That's exactly what happened." Jim said he fired more than once in rapid succession.
Jim said, "With the gun still in my hand, worn out in every capacity. I couldn't believe the whole thing. I walked over there and I just looked at the body and I thought, 'What on earth has happened? What caused this to happen?'
"I looked at him and I just-emotionally, it was hideous. I've just never done anything in my whole life before this and this just came on me all at once and it just came down like a storm, like a bolt of lightning striking, and suddenly I saw he was just-he was dead, very dead as far as I could see.
"I did not touch him. I don't think I touched him at all and I went to the telephone." He called his good friend Joe and said, "Goodman, I just had to shoot Danny. Come down here as fast as you can." Jim didn't say that Danny was dead. Joe initially told Nancy that he was going alone, but Nancy was afraid of Danny and insisted that she go with him.
Next, Jim called his attorney, Robert Duffy, and then he called the police.
Joe and his girlfriend arrived at Mercer House at approximately 3 a.m., the same time as the police. Jim met Cpl. Anderson and several other officers at the door and told them that he shot his houseguest because the man had tried to kill him. Jim showed the police and Joe where Danny's body was lying in the study. An officer had Joe and his girlfriend stay in one of the other downstairs room. They told Jim to stay in the library in the back of the house while the police photographer and others examined the scene.
Initially Jim appeared calm and in control, but not long after the police arrived, the night's events caught up with him. He felt sick and slouched down in his chair. Nancy and one of the policemen helped lay him out on the sofa in the library. He passed out and one of the officers called for an ambulance. The paramedics gave Jim some oxygen and an EKG. Afterwards, he awakened.
Later that morning, police arrested Jim and took him to the Chatham County Jail. Jim called Joe once again and told him to bring $25,000 in cash from Mercer House to bail him out.
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