ThisWeek Community Newspapers

In Roadkill, his novel featuring Willie Nelson, former country singer-turned mystery novelist Richard "Kinky" Friedman quotes Carl Jung: "We meet ourselves time and time again in a thousand disguises on the path of life."

In 1986, Kinky Friedman published Greenwich Killing Time, introducing singer/detective "Kinky Friedman."

Friedman's doppelganger lived in a loft on Vandam Street in Greenwich Village. A cigar-smoking, latter-day Sherlock Holmes, he surrounded himself with cronies and minions dubbed the Village Irregulars.

The curtain comes down on that Kinky Friedman in Ten Little New Yorkers (Simon & Schuster, 288 pages, $24; reviewed on March 3 by ThisWeek). The novel opens with a preface by Larry "Ratso" Sloman, Kinky's Watson. Ratso lays it out up front: Kinky has perished.

After 16 previous adventures, the Texas author recently told ThisWeek, it just seemed time to shut down the series.

"I think the characters have pretty well run their course," Friedman said. "They were starting to irritate the Kinkster. You know, the mystery field is as narrow as it is deep. When you write mysteries, the mystery element is what keeps the whole genre trite and limited sometimes. As I've said, cheap, dog-eared death is not as interesting as the question of is there life before death. It's a blessing. It's a blessing that Kinky was killed. If I hear the literary community clamoring for his return, we'll see what we can do, but he is going to be pretty hard to resurrect."

The title of Ten Little New Yorkers may evoke Agatha Christie, but this is really Kinky Friedman's spin on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Final Problem." In that short story, Doyle sent Holmes over the side of a waterfall in the clutches of his arch foe, Professor James Moriarty.

Friedman has left himself a bit more wiggle room if he ever chooses to revisit character Kinky.

"If he ever does come back, I promise it will not be a dream sequence," vows the author. "Or a twin Kinkster. But it's all right. It's time to move on. Seventeen of these books is a lot to write."

Before he was an author, Friedman was a country singer/songwriter, following in the quirky bootprints of Shel Silverstein and Roger Miller. He wrote and recorded a few albums' worth of sly, twisted, proudly politically incorrect country songs.

Then came the mystery books.

Friedman is plotting a third act for himself now: He's running as an Independent candidate for the post of governor of his native Texas.

Though many thought his campaign was a publicity stunt or a joke, Friedman is serious about the 2006 campaign. He says media members and voters are just beginning to grasp the gravity of his intent to mount a real campaign.

"I think we're almost over the joke hurdle -- the Pat Paulsen hurdle -- here," Friedman said. "We'll see. You wouldn't believe the sincerity of the volunteers. And the zealousness. I don't want to let them down. That's why I'm running in the spirit of Seabiscuit: I want to be every man's horse in this race. And I don't want to show or place. I intend to win.

"It would send a shiver up the spine of every career politician," he continued. "It would be so much more significant than a Democrat beating a Republican or a Republican beating a Democrat."

Apart from that "Pat Paulsen hurdle," other obstacles lie in the way. One is cash.

"I think the money is starting to roll in," Friedman said. "Of course, it won't be anything like what the others have. They spent a hundred million dollars last time out for governor of Texas ... a hundred million for a job that only pays a hundred thousand. I mean, that's why the campaign is all about the coin of the spirit.

"We're getting contributions coming in from everywhere," he said. "Because anyone who hates politics as usual is drawn to us. My goal is to knock down that windmill of politics-as-usual. Get rid of these insider games. Make that Lone Star shine again. Being first in executions and 49th in funding public education ... well, we're in a race with Mississippi to the bottom. And we're winning. As Dr. Phil would say, 'how's that workin' for you?'"

Texas election law almost seems bent against Independent campaigns. Those rules may explain why the last Independent candidate to win the governor's seat in the Great State of Texas was Sam Houston in 1859.

It's no coincidence that Friedman chose the Alamo as the venue in which to toss his hat in the ring.

"It is so perverse," Friedman said. "The ribbon-cutters have devised a way where nobody that votes in the primaries can sign the petition. They're not only not sending the elevator back down to us, but they've cut the cable. We've got to go out to a universe of people who don't vote in the primaries. But we'll get 'em, and we'll get a lot more than 50,000 because right now, we've got thousands of volunteers already pouring in.

"Make no mistake," he said, "just because humor is the weapon that I use to joust at the windmill, that doesn't mean I'm not going to knock it down. Will Rogers and Mark Twain were very important cultural leaders in this country, even though they weren't in politics. So humor is just a device for sailing as close to the truth as you can without sinking the ship."

One of his goals is to raise the standards applied in administering Texas' death penalty.

In Ten Little New Yorkers, Friedman creeps in several references to the plight of Texas death row inmate Max Soffar.

"I'm not anti-death penalty, but I'm damn sure anti-the-wrong-guy-getting-executed and Max is the wrong guy," Friedman said. "They got the wrong guy. The system took 24 years and still they haven't admitted that they've made a mistake.

"But Max does have a new trial and he's got a real shot at it this time," he said. "Because, man, if anyone was innocent of this crime, it's Max. As I pointed out, we executed an innocent man named Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago and my question is, 'What have we learned since then?'"

As governor, Friedman would be required to serve as final arbiter regarding the fates of men and women sentenced to die in the state of Texas. Asked if he's prepared to carry that weight, Friedman said, "I'm totally prepared to deal with that. I mean, I'd like somebody to deal with it for a change. I don't think the governor or the Harris County D.A. -- that's where all the executions have taken place -- I don't think either one of those guys is a real crime-fighter. I don't think they're truth-seekers."

Apart from country singers, Friedman also describes himself as a friend to presidents. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are both Friedman fans. Kinky attended the dedication of Clinton's library in Arkansas last year. He also, famously, is to date the only personality to appear on the overnight lists of both the Clinton and Bush White Houses.

Laura Bush also participated in a fund-raiser for Friedman's Utopia Rescue Ranch for animals. Friedman wrote about his friendship with the Bushes in his 2004 book, 'Scuse Me While I Whip This Out.

Asked if the Bush family has weighed in on his announced candidacy, Kinky Friedman said: "A very close friend of the Bushes told me I have a better friend in the president than I know. I don't know what George can really do except humorously straddle the fence. If he does, that will elect me. I think he'll be funny about it. He is very witty. A lot of people don't know that but he's very funny. Laura might help. That would be great."

<b>cmcdonald@thisweeknews.com