Malcolm Gilliam

Malcolm Gilliam is identified through two sharply different views: Marilyn Warluski’s childhood memory of a handsome, older grandfather figure, and Dillon Savich’s confrontation with Gilliam under the name Moses Grace. The contrast links an intimate family recollection to the man at the center of the FBI pursuit, whose final encounter ends with him disarmed and unable to speak.

Identity and Family Memory

Marilyn recalls that her mother and Aunt Cordie called Gilliam Papa. She had heard him tell Tammy Tuttle to call him Malcolm, leading her to identify him as Malcolm Gilliam. In her recollection, he was good-looking but old. The memory places him within the family’s language of kinship without clarifying the precise nature or history of his relationship to each person who called him grandfather.

Marilyn also remembers a postcard that Tammy displayed about six months later. Tammy said it was from her granddaddy and that it had been sent from Montreal. When Marilyn said that he was her granddaddy too, Tammy responded that Marilyn did not know him as she did. The exchange suggests differing degrees of familiarity with the same family figure, but the recollection does not explain how Gilliam knew where they were or what he intended by the postcard.

Malcolm Gilliam and Moses Grace

During the pursuit, Dillon Savich tells the man using the name Moses Grace that he is not really Moses Grace: Moses was his father’s name and Grace his mother’s. Savich frames the name as one taken from his parents and points to the contradiction between that inheritance and the killings being committed under it. The man’s response confirms that Savich’s identification has struck a nerve, but does not supply further details about the origins of the alias.

Together, the recollection of Malcolm and Savich’s accusation connect Gilliam’s family identity with the name he uses during the crimes. The book presents the connection through other characters’ recognition and confrontation rather than through an account from Gilliam himself.

Final Confrontation

As the pursuit reaches its close, Dillon Savich finds Gilliam after a shot has been fired. Gilliam is bent over, unable to keep hold of his assault rifle, and Savich takes the weapon from him. Savich declares that it is over and calls out that the area is clear; Gilliam then falls and is unable to speak when Savich kneels beside him.

The scene leaves Gilliam surrounded by twenty FBI agents, with his attempt to spit at Savich failing. His final appearance thus reverses the concealment and evasion that marked the pursuit: the man who had challenged the agents is exposed and disarmed before them. The account ends with his collapse and silence, while the earlier family recollection preserves a separate, more intimate trace of the identity behind the name Moses Grace.