The Whole Truth?: A Case of Murder on the Appalachian Trail

by H.L. Pohlman

On May 13, 1988, Stephen Roy Carr, a so-called mountain man living in Michaux State Forest in south central Pennsylvania, shot two female hikers while they were making love at a campsite near the Appalachian Trail. Rebecca Wight died at the scene. Claudia Brenner, despite five bullet wounds, survived to testify against her attacker.
In this book, H. L. Pohlman reconstructs the dramatic story of this murder case and traces its disposition through the criminal justice system. Drawing on interviews with participants as well as court records, he closely examines competing interpretations of the evidence. Was the attack a hate crime? A sex crime? A class crime? At the same time, he shows how a broad range of substantive and procedural issues―from the rights of the accused to evaluation of potential mitigating circumstances―can influence the assessment of culpability in homicide cases.

Genres: Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

Reviews

[Misse]

This book was terribly edited. It is a lesbian basher. Demeaning, a lot of unnecessary bit's of people's opinions. I hope no family members ever read this book. Shame on the law enforcement in this case!!!! You could call that a spoiler or not.

[Sydney Smith]

Good and interesting read, good for any true crime fan. Not a fault of the book at all, but I wanted to throw it out the window because of how shitty the defense attorneys are. Ugh.

[Ian]

Here is a quote from the book that pretty wells sums it up:

In such an adversarial context, the search for truth can quickly degenerate into a matter of strategy, tactics, spins, and bluffs. Ultimately it becomes something of a game, each side intent on victory rather than finding out what really happened and why. Perhaps such a system can uncover some of the truth, but rarely will it uncover the "whole truth." As each side highlights only "facts" that support the result it seeks, all too often elements of the truth fall through the cracks.

This is our judicial system and if you want to read about the reality of one case then I would recommend this book to you.

[Christina]

If you're into shows like Forensic Files and American Justice, you'll love this. The book is about two women who were shot while hiking on the Appalachian Trail just outside of Gettysburg PA in the early 80s.