Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South

I don't normally state what a book is about when I review it as the title and ocver of non-fiction books generally state what the book is about.. Here we go. Per Goodreads -In 1932, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, reckoned with an unexpected influx of journalists and tourists as the lurid story of a local murder was splashed across headlines nationwide. Two eccentrics, Richard Dana and Octavia Dockery--known in the press as the -Wild Man- and the -Goat Woman---enlisted an African American man named George Pearls to rob their reclusive neighbor, Jennie Merrill, at her estate. During the attempted robbery, Merrill was shot and killed. The crime drew national coverage when it came to light that Dana and Dockery, the alleged murderers, shared their huge, decaying antebellum mansion with their goats and other livestock, which prompted journalists to call the estate -Goat Castle.- Pearls was killed by an Arkansas policeman in an unrelated incident before he could face trial. However, as was all too typical in the Jim Crow South, the white community demanded -justice, - and an innocent black woman named Emily Burns was ultimately sent to prison for the murder of Merrill. Dana and Dockery not only avoided punishment but also lived to profit from the notoriety of the murder. Or as I paraphrase it ... A black woman went to jail instead of two white murderers because she was guilty of being a black woman in Mississippi. (Sounds like everyday news to me lately!) If we made this book into a movie no one would NOT believe the plot that in the year 2017 someone innocent spent years in a Mississippi Prison - a place not known for its luxuries or fair treatment of inmates. The author has wicked research skills as this book is so full of facts and provides such concrete evidence. The fact that fingerprint analysis was in its infancy and made a part of this case was a pleasant surprise to this True Crime junkie. Read. This. Book.