Odyssey To Save Ulysses

Ulysses “Butch” Slaughter was 12 years old on June 25, 1978 when he heard his mother being shot to death by his father Ulysses Grant Slaughter, Sr. The boy emerged from his bedroom on the Southside of Chicago to find his mother, Clarice, bleeding to death from a gapping wound in her right temple. After years of witnessing his father’s aggressive violence against his mother, the ultimate assault was right before his eyes.

Ulysses Jr would become the state’s chief witness against his father who used the claim of self defense against his son’s testimony in court. The father served only 39 months in prison though his son was sentenced to life without his mother.

Approaching the birth of his six child and after nearly three decades of silence and passive aggressive behavior, Ulysses Jr. decided to directly confront his father through a series of phone calls. The son was met with elusive religious and philosophical banter by his father. He saw that his father would gaslight whenever possible.

Ulysses became enraged, soon stalking his father and even threatening his life.

Before he drowned himself in his plans to seek revenge, he penned the book “Dear Daddy, I hate you: letters to my mother’s killer.”

Instead of seeking physical revenge against his father, the son initiated an extraordinary process of forgiving and reconciliation that would not have been possible for him if he had not first hated his father with all of his might.