Violation: Justice, Race and Serial Murder in the Deep South

by David Rose

Columbus, Georgia, has been run by the same tiny clique for over 100 years – the members of the all-white Big Eddy Club. This is the story of a fascinating and rotten community whose victims pay the ultimate price.Over eight terrifying months in the 1970s, seven elderly women were raped and murdered in Columbus, Georgia, a city of 200,000 people whose history and conservative values are typical of America's Deep South. The victims, who were strangled in their beds with their own stockings, were affluent and white, while the police believed from an early stage that the killer was black. In 1986, eight years after the last murder, an African-American, Carlton Gary, was convicted and sentenced to death. Though many in Columbus doubt his guilt, he is still on death row.Award-winning reporter David Rose has followed this case for almost a decade, while Gary and his lawyers have fought his legal appeals. He has uncovered important fresh evidence that was hidden from Gary's trial and that suggests that he is innocent, including a cast of the killer's teeth, made from a savage bite wound in the last victim's breast. However, as Rose's investigation proceeded, he came to realise that the dark saga of the Columbus stocking stranglings only makes sense against the background of the city's bloodstained history of racism, lynching and unsolved, politically motivated murder.‘Violation’ is a tense and gripping drama, its pages filled with evocatively drawn characters, insidious institutions and the extraordinary connections that bind the past and present. A unique mélange of investigative journalism, true crime mystery, personal travelogue and historical scoop, the book is also a compelling, accessible and timely exploration of America's approach to race and criminal justice, addressing the corruption of legal due process as a tool of racial oppression.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

350 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2007

About the author

David Rose is a writer and investigative journalist. His awards include the David Watt Memorial Prize and the One World award for human rights journalism. His work appears in The Observer and Vanity Fair. Among his books are In the Name of the Law, a widely-praised examination of the British criminal justice system; and A Climate of Fear, an investigation of the Broadwater Farm case and the conviction of Winston Silcott. He has also written books on mountaineering, including Regions of the Heart, a biography of Alison Hargreaves, the British climber who died in her attempt to conquer K2, and he is working on a book about the US death penalty centred on a miscarriage of justice in the town of Columbus, Georgia. David Rose lives in Oxford with his family.

Reviews

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devoured this book in one day. Could not put it down. Rose takes on the task of telling the tale of how Carlton Gary became to be accused of being the stocking strangler in Columbus, Georgia in the 1980s. It also traces the history of Columbus and its deeply racially divided past, some awful accounts of injustice against African-Americans and a number of death penalty cases. As someone who wants to be a criminal barrister and is familiar with the issues with death penalty cases in the Deep South this book really brought it all to life in such a vivid way. It reminds one why it is so important that everyone receives a fair trial. A shocking, eye-opening, disturbing and all-round fascinating book. Read it.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's a big problem with this book that is missed by some other reviewers of this UK edition (this is the same book as https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... under its UK title): Carlton Gary was unquestionably a murderer, having been linked, while on Death Row, by cast-iron DNA evidence to the rape and murder of Marion Fisher in 1975.

In that context, it becomes much harder to believe in the entire "miscarriage of justice" narrative presented by Rose here, and it's probably why I found this book in the bargain bin back in the day.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting theories on where racism stems from and how it can ruin (what I believe to be) an innocent man's life because of the colour of his skin.

Thought provoking and heartbreaking.

Written by an investigative journalist, it is slightly bogged down with case numbers and dates........Yawn.

A stark reminder of how our minds have been "conditioned".

Not a bedtime read, not by a long shot.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed account of racism in the city of Columbus, Georgia, USA. Racism that resulted in an innocent man being falsely accused of terrible crimes, and then due to an extremely biased court case, sentenced to death. A very well-researched book, but I did find my interest waning once I was thoroughly convinced of the criminal behaviour of the (white) police and men of "justice".

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The heart of the book is good, however, at the first stage of the book I did feel as if it jumps about thereby becoming harder for an interest to be maintained. The latter stages of the book where the trial commences and so forth is where it gets really good.