Local author develops dark satire in ‘Pock’

After 30 years working as an FBI agent in the Birmingham area, Homewood resident and retired agent Jack Owens found a way to channel creativity from all the memories.

Owens is author of the fictional novel “Watchman: JFK’s Last Ride,” his memoir, “Don’t Shoot, We’re Republicans” and “Pock,” which is the first book of his fictional trilogy about a serial killer. He is getting ready to release the second book in the series, a novel set in the present-day.

“Birmingham is a good setting for satire and crime — we are blossoming,” Owens said. “I make the city look good and call attention to a lot of local places.”

Owens said the trilogy is a dark comedy and satire about a serial killer and the law force that attempts to catch him in Birmingham.

The main character of the book is Pock, who is pock-faced, looks like “he has been burned by French fry grease” and has a right leg that is shorter than his left. 

“He developed a nasty, mean personality,” Owens said. “He was mocked his whole life and called Pock. He didn’t like that; he goes through life angry.”

The character also loves flowers, plants and Jesus, Owens said, and is incredibly intelligent, like many serial killers. Owens opens the book with Pock getting out of jail after 13 years, plotting to avenge every person that helped put him behind bars. 

“His conversations with people in the book he kills are funny. When you see [the plot] of Pock on the written page, you’re like, ‘This can’t be funny,” but in fact, it is satire, it is a very dark comedy,” Owen said.

The book also continuously features two Birmingham Police Department officers who work together and are on Pock’s list to murder. 

“All these bodies are showing up around town, and they can’t figure out what they have in common, when really it is that they were all in the court room with Pock,” he said. 

Owens said the second book takes place in Tuscaloosa, where he graduated from law school before he accepted his job with the FBI. Eventually, Owens even introduces a supernatural element to the story. 

Owens, who loved his job at the FBI, fueled some of his interest in serial killers from his work with a notorious case where he was brought from Birmingham to Atlanta to help police search for the person behind the “Atlanta Child Murders.” 

On the night of May 22, 1981, Owens said he was one of the many agents who was stationed at a bridge to look for the suspect’s car or listen for any loud splashes that could indicate a person dumping a body in the river. 

He distinctly remembers the call from one of the agents from the nearby bridge that something big was thrown into Chattahoochee River. 

Wayne Williams, who is now in prison for life on the conviction of 23, and possibly many more, murders, was pulled over shortly after. Fibers from his car matched the two murdered men found later in the river.

“I was there the night we got him, just on the wrong bridge,” Owens said. 

Despite his experiences, Owens said, his trilogy on Pock is completely fictional.

Owens encourages people to keep a watch out for the second book, which he is in the process of editing and hopes to release early this year. He said it will be available both online and locally at The Little Professor.

Follow his blog at fearofroosters.wordpress.com or go to his website at jackowensbooks.com.