The Daisy Chain

How did the country allow $250 billion to be stolen, squandered & finally sucked down the drain in a scandal that Newsweek has called "the biggest financial mess in US history"? The definitive--& uproariously entertaining--answer lies in James O'Shea's prize-winning account of how the cleanest little savings & loan in Texas became the government's black hole--once Big Bad Don Dixon rode into town.
Set on the flat, red, dusty plains of north central Texas, Vernon (pop. 12,500) is a hardscrabble town full of hard-working folks who for decades placed their life earnings in the hands of one R.B. Tanner. With a Bible in one hand, a butcher knife in the other, Tanner ran the local thrift in a manner befitting the S&L's Golden 3-6-3 Rule: Pay depositors 3%, charge borrowers 6% & be out on the golf course by 3.
But the status quo was turned upside down in '81 when Dixon, a native son turned high-rolling Dallas real estate developer, sweet-talked old man Tanner into selling his beloved business. The Daisy Chain is the story of what happened in Vernon--& of its nationwide ramifications--as this local S&L became Don Dixon's personal piggybank.