Son finds closure in cold-case resolution
You could almost see Leon Hicks’ reflection in his son’s eyes as 55-year-old Michael J. Hicks spoke Thursday of his father’s 1972 slaying.
Leon J. Hicks was a 59-yearold single father who wanted the most for his young son, wanted him safe, and worked hard to provide him a future during the dozen years they had together, his son said.
Hicks, the owner of a wellknown restaurant on 23rd Street, was shot to death March 11, 1972, at his South Holly Street home.
Then 12, Michael Hicks revered his father, sought his approval and loved him deeply.
“My father was kind of my mother, my father and my friend,” an emotional Michael Hicks said Thursday during a news conference at District Attorney Neal Pinkston’s office. His daughter, Melissa Jacobs, sat by his side.
“It was very hard for me to process his murder when it happened in ’72 just because I felt like I switched from being a kid to becoming an adult. I thought I had lost all direction in life because he was my direction,” Hicks said.
Leon Hicks’ cold-case killing was closed this week after the district attorney’s new cold case unit revived the case and pinned the killing on Harry Brooks Daniels. A career criminal who lived in Atlanta, frequented Chattanooga and had robbed several Chattanooga restaurants and taverns prior
to the Hicks murder, Daniels died without ever being charged.
Daniels had bragged about the killing and was indicted on unrelated robbery charges as the slaying case went cold. It’s unclear why investigators didn’t continue to pursue the case. When the case file was opened this year, cold case unit officials discovered evidence that would have led to Daniels’ prosecution, officials said.
According to newspaper archives, investigators believed the slaying happened during a robbery attempt, though the thieves left $ 500 behind in Hicks’ wallet and another $ 3,000 in his home, about two blocks from the restaurant. The restaurant is the C&W Cafe now.
Michael had stayed overnight at a friend’s house. Neighbor Raymond Gorrell heard three gunshots around 2: 30 a. m. that day and found Hicks lying at the foot of his steps, according to archives.
A black hat, thought to be the killer’s, was found at the scene, investigators told the Free Press.
Michael Hicks’ life changed forever that Saturday morning.
“I guess when I saw my uncle, and my aunt and my dad’s girlfriend at the time pull up and approach the front door of the house, I knew something was wrong,” he said. “I kind of lost it.”
His father had made sure Michael attended private school and had made provision for him to continue at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School and graduate from Notre Dame High School in 1978.
At 18, Hicks tracked down his father’s friend and fishing buddy, Raymond Gorrell, who’d heard the shots that night and found his friend dead.
Talking with Gorrell made Hicks feel a little closer to his father and understand some things about himself, he said. Over the years, Hicks said, he tried to accept that he would never solve the mystery of his father’s death.
“I hate that his life was taken at the time it was taken; for one, I didn’t get to experience him as an adult growing up. I probably might even be in the restaurant business,” he said. “I hate that my children never got to meet him.”
But as it was, Hicks found himself living with family and working at his first job at 15. And he never forgot how hard his father worked to provide for him, even in death, something that he has tried to do for his daughters, he said.
“I miss him till this day, even though it’s 43 years and I was 12 years old. I really thought [ then], ‘ What direction is my life going to take now that my hero, my father, mother, my friend, my everything at 12 years of age was taken from me,’” he said.
“I woke up this morning a new person. I’m sure my dad is overlooking above and glad that I finally have gotten that closure.”
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-7576569.