Murder in Mississippi / John Safran.
Publication details: Melbourne, Vic. : Penguin Group Australia, 2013.Description: 368 pages ; 23 cmISBN:- 9781926428468 (paperback) :
- Barrett, Richard, 1943-2010
- McGee, Vincent Justin
- Murder victims -- Mississippi -- Biography
- Murderers -- Mississippi -- Biography
- White supremacy movements -- Mississippi
- Whites -- Mississippi -- Biography
- African Americans -- Mississippi -- Biography
- Racism -- Mississippi
- Mississippi -- Race relations
- 364.152309762 23
- Winner 2014 Ned Kelly Award for True Crime.
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reserves | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Melbourne Athenaeum Library | Non-Fiction | 364.152 SAF | Available | 054789 |
When filming his TV series Race Relations, John Safran spent an uneasy couple of days with one of Mississippi's most notorious white supremacists. A year later, he heard that the man had been murdered – and what was more, the killer was black.
At first the murder seemed a twist on the old Deep South race crimes. But then more news rolled in. Maybe it was a dispute over money, or most intriguingly, over sex. Could the infamous racist actually have been secretly gay, with a thing for black men? Did Safran have the last footage of him alive? Could this be the story of a lifetime? Seizing his Truman Capote moment, he jumped on a plane to cover the trial.
Over six months, Safran got deeper and deeper into the South, becoming entwined in the lives of those connected with the murder – white separatists, black campaigners, lawyers, investigators, neighbours, even the killer himself. And the more he talked with them, the less simple the crime, and the world, seemed.
Murder in Mississippi is a brilliantly innovative true-crime story. Taking us places only he can, Safran paints an engrossing, revealing portrait of a dead man, his murderer, the place they lived and the process of trying to find out the truth about anything.
Winner 2014 Ned Kelly Award for True Crime.