Magee was the leading ace under the Black Sheep’s flamboyant leader, Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington. A free-spirited intellectual with the heart of a warrior and the soul of a poet, Magee grew up on Chicago’s rambunctious South Side dreaming of the day when he could fly fighter planes into combat. His dream came true when, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he transferred from the Royal Canadian Air Force to the U.S. Marine Corps and received training as a fighter pilot. He was sent to the South Pacific where his bravery and piloting skills earned him the Navy Cross and the title of “Ace.”
When the war ended, Magee refused to pursue a conventional lifestyle or take advantage of the fame that awaited him back home, choosing instead to seek new adventures. During the next twelve years he walked the razor’s edge: black marketeer, bootlegger, volunteer fighter pilot for the fledgling nation of Israel, courier for a covert group of U.S. “businessmen” involved in Latin American politics, and, eventually, bank robber.
Then, one day, Magee found an envelope slipped under his front door with a note inside that ultimately changed his life, causing him to revisit parts of his past he thought were forever forgotten.
