His family said they feared him so much they hid his guns and had him hospitalized. A local TV host frequently invited him as a guest, knowing he’d be a lightning rod who could light up the phone lines with rants against abortion and working women. In one prominent fight with local officials, he unfurled a banner outside his bar in the state of Georgia picturing a swastika. …

In 1989, court records say, he was accused of hiring someone to burn down a lawyer’s office. A woman and her father say he virtually destroyed a foreclosed home he was being evicted from in 2014 after they bought it. His wife and other relatives filed papers accusing him of domestic violence in 2008.