Professed prophet walks streets of tiny Georgia town

WOODBURY - Beyond the beer cans that litter the lawn, beside stale stacks of empty juice cartons, beneath spray-painted pocketbooks strung from a rotten ceiling, sits an old man who believes he is a prophet. <br> <br> In the musty wood-frame house where he was born 65 years ago, Jessie Marshall takes phone calls from people who want winning lottery numbers, their cancer cured or simple direction in a wayward life. <br> <br> Gray-bearded and frail, Marshall claims he has talked to God for years, mostly on behalf of people who have heard his legend and sought his help. <br> <br> Rambling but clear, Marshall says, ``I been hooked up since I was a kid. He told me everything about everything. My eyes is like a camera. It&#39;s like making a movie. I see everything. I see it all.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> And people in the tiny town of Woodbury -- the ones who aren&#39;t afraid of him, at least -- believe it. <br> <br> Every morning, Marshall emerges from his ramshackle home and walks. The west Georgia town of Woodbury, population one-thousand-148, knows him for that -- ambling around, talking to anyone who will listen. <br> <br> He walks to the post office, where he purchases exactly one first-class stamp, although the clerk does not know why, nor care to talk about it. And he walks to the little bank, sometimes taking out money, sometimes depositing a check or two. <br> <br> And then he walks home to Rose Avenue, to the unmistakable house he calls the Palatial Palace of Prayer. <br> <br> His work is serious business in Woodbury. Legend has it the Department of Transportation once came to get Marshall to clean up the leg of his property that borders State Route 85. Then townsfolk told the state workers his story. <br> <br> A neighbor, Gene Oxford, says, ``After a while, they just let him keep it there. They were afraid to move it.&#39;&#39;

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