his son Albert Gene McCartney lived in a rusted old school bus in Twiggs County near Jeffersonville, Georgia, after the wooden shack they had been living in burned. Also on the property were an outhouse and a concrete "tomb" that supposedly housed the bodies of his father and stepmother. There was no running water or electricity. McCartney became infatuated with the actress Morgan Fairchild and returned to the road in 1984 to hitchhike to California, ostensibly to woo her. He was mugged soon after arriving in Los Angeles, and that ended his road adventures. Cormac McCarthy's 1979 novel Suttree, set in Knoxville, Tennessee, features a character based on McCartney. Beginning in 1987 Ches McCartney lived out his late years in a nursing home in Macon, Georgia. In June 1998, he was given tragic news that his son (a character study in his own right) had been found shot to death on the Twiggs County property. McCartney requested that his son be buried in the tomb there, but it was found to be in disrepair. The city of Jeffersonville donated a cemetery plot to the McCartneys, and Albert Gene was buried there. The murder remains unsolved. Less than six months after his son's death, Ches McCartney died. He was believed to be in his late nineties, but he had claimed to be 106. References Patton, Darryl. America's Goat Man (Mr. Ches McCartney). Little River Press. 1994. 139 pp. External links archive of 'Best Gallery of the Goat Man' The Goat Man DLGB: Blog of the Digital Library of Georgia GoodbyeMag.com: Romance of the Goat Date of birth unknown 1998 deaths People from Iowa American loggers Farmers from Iowa American evangelists Year of birth uncertain 1901 births