This is the way I heard it.

Leslie King was a punk and a coward.

He was also a drunken allire, but like some of the other world-class douchebags, Leslie

King was handsome and quite capable of concealing his true nature when it suited him.

In this way, Leslie King persuaded Dorothy Gardner to say, I do before revealing his true

self.

On their honeymoon, Leslie drank like the drunk he really was and slapped his new bride

like the bully he'd always been.

Why?

For smiling at another man.

Just days into the marriage, Dorothy knew she'd back the wrong horse, but the year was 1912

and divorce was simply not an option, especially in Nebraska.

So Dorothy tried to stick it out, even when her husband's drinking got worse, even when

his violent outbursts grew more unpredictable, even when she became pregnant.

Leslie King's parents knew their son was trouble, so they did what they could to help.

They set up their son in a career.

They took the young couple into their home, and when the baby came into the world strong

and healthy, they encouraged Dorothy to name the boy after her husband.

If the marriage couldn't turn Leslie around, maybe fatherhood would.

Maybe he'd see the world anew through the eyes of Leslie King, Jr.

Then again, maybe not.

One night the new father stumbled home, stinking of booze and sweat.

...