800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Sonny Long covered the Butts murders since the day the bodies of Gerri Faye, Jessica and Mackenzie were discovered on a drizzly Monday morning in January, 1992. Even after the initial outcry died down and the suspect initially released from jail, Long continued to write about the case. He became an active participant in the annual memorials for the victims, personal friends with the family of the victims, a trusted ear to the mother of the suspect, and was a regular contributor to an Internet discussion forum on the case. Long has been a newspaper reporter for more than 20 years, dabbled in radio announcing (including an 18-inning high school baseball playoff game), and is the co-author of “Bad News for McEnroe” (St. Martin’s Press 2004), and two independently published books, “A Long Look” -- a collection of poetry and short stories and a collection of newspaper columns. In his career, Long covered the opening ceremonies of the 1980 Winter in Olympics in Lake Placid and has met eight Heisman Trophy winners.  While at Auburn University, where he graduated with a degree in journalism, Long worked in the school’s sports information office. He later worked in the Southeastern Conference Commissioners Office in the public information office.

Long has a masters degree from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduate school, he worked with Host Communications producing media guides and game programs for UT athletics.
Long later won an East Texas Press Association award for column writing while sports editor at the Atlanta Citizens-Journal. While in Atlanta, he operated the Pine Country Bulletin, a community newspaper in newsletter format from 1991-2005. Pine Country Media later included a four-color quarterly magazine and a regional news website, eTexasnews.com.