What do you think?
Rate this book
Murder by the River: A True Story of Homicide, Infidelity, Power and Revenge in a small Southern City.
A True Story of Homicide, Infidelity, Power and Revenge in a small Southern City.
112 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 6, 2022
26 people are currently reading
159 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 8, 2023
Short but very good read
A good , but short book. Having grown up in Chattanooga, I am quite familiar with the adventures of Billy Hull and Paul Grey. The trail was "good gossip" with everyone having an opinion. The prevailing story around here was "Billy finally got caught!" While it was very detailed, I felt it could have been longer. Mr. Burden did touch on one very colorful character, Bookie Turner. The corruption surrounding him goes way deep and would make a real good sequel!
A good , but short book. Having grown up in Chattanooga, I am quite familiar with the adventures of Billy Hull and Paul Grey. The trail was "good gossip" with everyone having an opinion. The prevailing story around here was "Billy finally got caught!" While it was very detailed, I felt it could have been longer. Mr. Burden did touch on one very colorful character, Bookie Turner. The corruption surrounding him goes way deep and would make a real good sequel!
May 3, 2023
My family moved to Chattanooga at the end of 1985, I spent a week or so in the school and said "oh hell no", moved back in with a friend to finish high school in Connecticut, and then... was gonna take a "gap year" in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and ended up staying 'til mid 1995.
But in the time there, it was a place of legend. Some long-standing settlement, perhaps it was out near Suck Creek, had just gotten electricity. The Signal Mountain murders were on everybody's mind. The Lookout Mountain Adult Motel was swinging along. The Treat Mountain DC-4 had been landed a decade earlier, but tales of smuggling aircraft landed on back roads, or dumping loads at prearranged points, were widespread.
There was all sorts of gossip about money flowing back and forth between good ol' boys, a car dealership the owner whose name I forget who skipped out on his debt and later turned up in Florida under an assumed name, a South Pittsburgh fireworks stand that exploded in the middle of the night (with the subsequent discovery of a burnt-out truck in the wreckage), and, of course, all of the TVA eminent domain corruption (Bet you thought the Snail Darter was about endangered species, which it was, but it was also about people trying to hold on to their land...).
I started river guiding on the Ocoee in, I think, ྕ, shortly after the era David Brown recounts in The Whitewater Wars: The Rafters and the River Trip that Saved the Ocoee & The Gauley River Battle, which was in the area of the Benton fireworks disaster (I think that's where the Sunburst outpost was). The local general store near the outpost had a bulletin board that offered moonshine for sale or trade, and local "law" enforcement was legendarily corrupt.
(And this was decades before the Hamilton County sheriff's department had a "hard drive failure" that destroyed evidence in the case of an employee facing 44 criminal charges and 10 lawsuits.)
Anyway, the book took me right back to that, seeing the end of the bootlegging fortunes play out, the trendy nightclubs along Brainerd Road, the separations between the Chattanooga neighborhoods.
If you were in that area at that time, it's a fun quick read.
But in the time there, it was a place of legend. Some long-standing settlement, perhaps it was out near Suck Creek, had just gotten electricity. The Signal Mountain murders were on everybody's mind. The Lookout Mountain Adult Motel was swinging along. The Treat Mountain DC-4 had been landed a decade earlier, but tales of smuggling aircraft landed on back roads, or dumping loads at prearranged points, were widespread.
There was all sorts of gossip about money flowing back and forth between good ol' boys, a car dealership the owner whose name I forget who skipped out on his debt and later turned up in Florida under an assumed name, a South Pittsburgh fireworks stand that exploded in the middle of the night (with the subsequent discovery of a burnt-out truck in the wreckage), and, of course, all of the TVA eminent domain corruption (Bet you thought the Snail Darter was about endangered species, which it was, but it was also about people trying to hold on to their land...).
I started river guiding on the Ocoee in, I think, ྕ, shortly after the era David Brown recounts in The Whitewater Wars: The Rafters and the River Trip that Saved the Ocoee & The Gauley River Battle, which was in the area of the Benton fireworks disaster (I think that's where the Sunburst outpost was). The local general store near the outpost had a bulletin board that offered moonshine for sale or trade, and local "law" enforcement was legendarily corrupt.
(And this was decades before the Hamilton County sheriff's department had a "hard drive failure" that destroyed evidence in the case of an employee facing 44 criminal charges and 10 lawsuits.)
Anyway, the book took me right back to that, seeing the end of the bootlegging fortunes play out, the trendy nightclubs along Brainerd Road, the separations between the Chattanooga neighborhoods.
If you were in that area at that time, it's a fun quick read.
September 12, 2022
“Murder by the River” is based on true events about a murder that took place in Chattanooga, Tennessee in April 1973. Like the author, Jerry Burden, I too grew up in Chattanooga during the 1950s and 60s, and having continued to live there throughout the 1970s, the book is especially interesting as it brings back memories of events and places that I had all but forgotten.
What makes this book special is that Burden reports the facts without speculating or fictionalizing to enhance the story. The book should be interesting, not just to those who like to read about true-life crimes, but especially to those who have lived in Chattanooga and may have had a direct or indirect connection with the people, places, and events. For this reason, instead of too much repetition of some of the events, more biographical information on the key players would have been helpful.
With a little over a hundred pages, this book can be read in one sitting. Although it is an easy read, it is a hard write-up and those of us who have researched murders that took place a half-century ago or longer can appreciate the amount of work and persistence required.
What makes this book special is that Burden reports the facts without speculating or fictionalizing to enhance the story. The book should be interesting, not just to those who like to read about true-life crimes, but especially to those who have lived in Chattanooga and may have had a direct or indirect connection with the people, places, and events. For this reason, instead of too much repetition of some of the events, more biographical information on the key players would have been helpful.
With a little over a hundred pages, this book can be read in one sitting. Although it is an easy read, it is a hard write-up and those of us who have researched murders that took place a half-century ago or longer can appreciate the amount of work and persistence required.
January 2, 2024
I gave this book two stars because Jerry Burden clearly put a lot of time and effort into digging up many of the facts surrounding the crimes in this book. Having known multiple people involved personally, I was troubled by numerous factual errors in the book that might have been corrected by a good editor. These errors made wonder about the quality of the research as a whole.
July 6, 2023
Rather amazing story for a smallish town. The historical basis was fascinating. It's an eye opening story for anyone growing up in the Chattanooga area. The unpolished writing style was sometimes distracting.
January 23, 2024
Easy, quick read. Full of grammatical errors, which I found distracting. I was hoping this book would be more about the murder, but turned out to be about the social and political climate surrounding the murder and the subsequent trial.
August 14, 2024
Registered on Bookcrossing - https://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/...
My Review: Really interesting book about criminals who were infamous in Chattanooga. I grew up there so knew a lot of the locations and some of the places mentioned.
My Review: Really interesting book about criminals who were infamous in Chattanooga. I grew up there so knew a lot of the locations and some of the places mentioned.
August 22, 2023
grandma said to read this. interesting series of events, but someone needs a new editor.
September 9, 2023
This books had a lot of interesting information.
April 2, 2024
Loved reading this true story from my home town of Chattanooga. Interesting.
May 10, 2024
Fascinating Chattanooga History if the 70s!!!
May 19, 2023
AWESOME!
This book is an awesome book and you can't put it down once you get started! I highly recommend this book
This book is an awesome book and you can't put it down once you get started! I highly recommend this book
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews