The Rudy family celebrates the birth of Ainsley’s second child in January 1979. Meanwhile, the Malco family is immersed in Hugh’s appeals process. Lance visits Hugh on death row, known simply as “The Row” to inmates. Hugh tells Lance about the man in the cell next to his, Jimmy Lee Gray, who raped and killed a three-year-old girl. Hugh also tells Lance, “Death row is the safest place in prison. There’s no contact with other inmates” (405).

Hugh’s appeal is denied when the Mississippi Supreme Court upholds his conviction in 1980. Meanwhile, Keith gets a letter from Haley, who’s still in prison: Haley tells Keith that he has information about a drug trafficking operation that implicates Fats. Keith turns the information over to the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency, and Fats is arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Before he’s sent away, however, he dies by suicide.

Keith, having effectively completed Jesse’s mission to “clean up the Coast,” becomes bored with the DA job. Hugh, Lance, and Fats are all out of the picture. Keith announces that he’s running for the state’s Attorney General office. The Gulf Coast Register endorses his campaign, as do other southern newspapers.