Frank Mallard was born to a Mike family in a working class neighborhood of
Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father worked at the paper mill, as did his mother.
Frank's father was a rabid sportsman, spending most of his spare time in the
surrounding woods hunting and fishing. But Frank's mother was over-protective
keeping Frank from his father's hunting lifestyle, and when Frank was 13 and
already over 6 feet tall, his father was killed in a suspicious hunting accident.
Frank had to join his mother at the mill where his size and strength were put to
good use, leaving education forever behind him.
The public schools of the Chattanooga left a lot to be desired and Frank dropped
out when his father died. This left him unprepared to do anything other than the
manual labor demanded by the mill. It was at the mill that Frank picked up the name
Duckie - a name given him by the line working friends of his mother. Duckie had no
luck with girls and was socially outcast from the meager alcohol-based circles of
the working community. Duckie did not drink thinking it the reason that his father
was killed. He had learned from coworkers at the mill that his father was the local
moonshiner. It was probably defending his still that killed Duckie's father.
Shortly after Duckie turned 18, his mother committed suicide after fatally shooting
a mill assistant manager who was staying the night. This left Duckie at a turning
point: continue at the mill or find something else to do. Fed up with being an
outcast Duckie enlisted in the US Army. It was the only way out of his little
life and Duckie yearned for adventure.
Quickly recognizing Duckie's skills for what they were, the Army made him into
a truck driver for the Transportation Corp. After Basic Training in North
Carolina, Duckie spent 6 months in Oklahoma learning to drive just about any
non-combat vehicle in the US Army inventory. Assigned to Fort Knox, Kentucky,
Duckie drove 18-wheel rigs from base to base, usually under guard and as part
of a convoy. Duckie Mallard served without incident for his hitch and left as
an E-3. His whole Army experience still left Duckie yearning for excitement
(and better pay).
Upon being discharged from the Army, Duckie tried to find a job doing what he
did best, hauling cargo. He immediately found himself up against the Teamsters
who wanted nothing to do with him. The Teamsters placed drivers and they had too
many drivers already. At this point Duckie had an inspiration that was more
characteristic of him than his educational experience would indicate. Duckie
Mallard took his last spare cash from the paper mill settlement and enrolled
in Tank O'Rourke's School of Trucking. Duckie had discovered that entry into
the Teamsters was automatic for graduates of Tank's school.
It seems that Duckie had found his calling at last. He excelled in Tank's
trucking school graduating at the top of the class. He was immediately hired
by the Pauling Transportation Company and started driving out of Memphis.
Duckie's stops included Kansas City, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Jacksonville,
and occasionally Miami. A couple of the routes crossed uncontrolled zones, and
Duckie felt familiar in the convoys that Pauling Transport formed, often seeming
more like caravans. Duckie took a trailer in a Mike complex in Memphis and felt
that his life was looking up. He was wrong however, as this was when his trouble
started. Duckie's grandmother in Chattanooga would tell reporters later "he was a
troubled child." No one knew just how bad.
It was about the same time that Duckie started his southern routes that a string
of murders took place along the southern interstates. The media, quick to seize
upon a bloody topic, immediately labeled the killer, the Truck-Stop Murderer. If
it bleeds it leads. It was at this point that Duckie's behavior changed.
Occasionally, while waiting for diesel and after getting something to eat,
Duckie would notice a passing stranger, who for some strange reason would
inspire an overwhelming compulsion to follow and watch her. Fascinated by
her every movement, Duckie would wake from his reverie and remember that he
was long overdue on the road. The periods of compulsive stalking kept getting
longer and longer.
One day, Duckie was home between loads, when the Memphis police showed up at
his trailer along with the FBI. They arrested Frank "Duckie" Mallard for the
murder of Wynona Duke at a truck stop in Cordele, Georgia. Several witnesses
placed him at the scene within the hour of her disappearance. Witnesses placed
him at the scene in similar circumstances of 6 of the other 10 truck-stop murders.
Agent Edward X. Pinkey of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the arresting officer,
was promoted to Special Agent a week after Mallard's high-profile arrest and was the
lead witness against Mallard. Duckie was assigned a public defender, as no notable
attorney would take his case. The public defender was a vile man that shunned the
media cameras and put up little real defense. Duckie Mallard was sentenced to
seven consecutive life sentences.
Duckie Mallard spent 8 years in prison at Reidsville, Georgia. However, an
Assistant District Attorney in Atlanta discovered irregularities and with the
assistance of an Atlanta celebrity, Gladys Sapp, she uncovered evidence clearing
Duckie of all the murders. In a hot car pursuit across dirt roads in southern
Georgia, the suspected perpetrator crashed in a fiery explosion. Although no
body was later found, several witnesses saw a body burn inside and no one escape.
The case was closed and Duckie was cleared and released.
Duckie, at this point morally and financially destitute, wandered the streets of
the US, moving randomly from town to town. Working for the occasional day job,
Duckie quickly became savvy of street life, and participated in minor skirmishes
with crime and the law. Fearing that his stalking and blackouts would return,
Duckie made a point not to stay long in one place. With his size and sad,
distant expression, he was a truly tragic figure.
He was begging with the other homeless when Father Robert Killian found him
and took him to Atlanta to join his team. Gladys Sapp of The Intrepid
Investigator, a local phenomenon TV show, was a part of the group and felt
that Mallard could contribute. Father Robert quickly found Duckie among the
homeless in the Atlanta underground and brought him out.
Duckie Mallard is moderately empathic but has no training. This makes him
very susceptible to the influence of Dark Minions. Duckie's compulsive stalking
of the Truck Stop Killer's victims was due to Minion empathic control. The actual
killer was a Dark Minion who used Duckie to "cover" his murders. Although this
was not a true exposure to the Dark, later adventures with Father Robert and
his team give Duckie more than enough to stay busy.
