A new book about Darryl by
Michael McKnight.
A Life Intercepted.
The shocking tale of one man's
rise to NFL stardom, followed
by his inexplicable descent into
federal prison. A Life
Intercepted documents one of
the most bizarre experiences in
our federal judicial system's
history, and shows how even
the mightiest men can fall.
stepped off a plane, and into Atlanta's Hartsfield airport. As she reached for her
suitcase at baggage claim, the attractive blond was approached by two DEA
officers who would later discover twelve kilos of cocaine in her luggage.
It was the beginning of the end for Darryl Henley.
Henley -- the Rams' starting right cornerback and Donaho's on-again-off-again
lover -- would walk through an odyssey over the next three years that included a
DEA investigation, a football season played under the watch of armed security
guards, a ten-week trial (at which Donaho was the star witness), and charges
that he'd tried to bribe a juror. In the summer of 1996, Henley organized a
seven-figure heroin deal from behind bars, a plan that also included the
contract murders of Donaho and a federal judge.
And he might have pulled it off. If his connection on the outside hadn't turned
out to be a federal agent.
It was the end for Darryl Henley.
Until now.
In A Life Intercepted, Henley comes clean for the first time, and challenges his
country's justice system to do the same. Former Fox Sports writer Michael
McKnight tells a story that begins not in the ghetto, but in the suburbs, where
Henley was raised by supportive, Christian parents who could never have
foreseen their middle son's tragic fall from grace. A product of painstaking
research, A Life Intercepted chronicles the investigation that changed Henley
from 'parochial school product with a spotless record' to 'cold-blooded criminal,'
and tracks the desperate quest for freedom that followed Henley's conviction --
a downward spiral whose lowest point had the former All American planning the
"Oklahoma-style" bombing of a judge's car.
Henley's is a complex story, with plots and subplots that spill into each other
like LA's serpentine freeways. Most important, however, it is a warning. About
the pitfalls of fame, the motives of "friends," and the entity Henley's father
called "all power outside of God" -- the US government. It's a warning issued by
an intelligent UCLA honors graduate who once held the world by the tail, then
had it ripped from him by his reckless sense of invincibility, and one of the
fiercest, most unpredictable battles in America's twenty-year Drug War.
Darryl Henley is not eligible for release until 2031.
