The good news that truecrime podcast hero Sarah Koenig has started a podcast production company called Serial Productions and is teaming with all of the This American Life greats to launch a brand-new podcast mini-series called S-Town. The bad news is that S-Town doesn’t drop until sometime in March, leaving us with a cold, dark, true–crime-less February spread out before us like a barren wasteland.
We don’t know much about S-Town at this point, but what we do know is pretty stellar: it all starts when journalist Brian Reed goes to a small town in Alabama to investigate a possible unsolved murder. From there the story develops into, according to the press release that we have read over and over again, “a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure and the mysteries of one man’s life.”
What are we going to do until we can get lost in the world of S-Town? How about diving into some other immersive truecrime that takes place in the Deep South? Below, we’ve picked out seven page-turners from below the Mason-Dixon line that will keep your warm and riveted until spring.
‘Just Mercy’ by Bryan Stevenson
Written by a celebrated social justice attorney, this award-winning best-seller takes us deep into Alabama, where author Bryan Stevenson is desperately trying to save an innocent man from the electric chair. The book centers upon the story of Walter McMillian, a black man accused of killing a white woman, but also follows the shocking history of racism in the judicial system that reaches back to the time of slavery. This is a page-turner that will also educate you about the history of the death penalty and the highly problematic practice of charging and sentencing minors as adults. It’s a must read.
‘Truevine’ by Beth Macy
‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ by John Berendt
This modern truecrime classic that takes place in Savannah, Georgia, is now over 20 years old, but it still holds its own as one of the great Southern truecrime masterpieces ever written. The story, which reads like a rich novel, follows the death of Danny Hansford at the hands wealthy antique dealer and socialite Jim Williams, while intertwined with first-person narration by the author. It’s got Southern belles. It’s got voodoo priestesses. It’s got débutante balls. What else could you possibly want?
Texas Monthly On… Texas True Crime
Published in 2007, this is an oddball collection of feature stories from Texas Monthly magazine that center on crime. Buckle in for decades of coverage that spans each corner of the state as well as everything from the career of a notorious jewel thief, to the spree of a pair of teenage lesbians inspired by Thelma and Louise, to the legend of possible serial killer Joe Ball, a saloon owner who might have fed his pet alligators his victims. The writing comes from some of the most celebrated journalists in the Lone Star state and won’t leave you disappointed.
‘Anatomy of Injustice’ by Raymond Bonner
Next we are going to Greenwood, South Carolina, where a hard-nosed law student named Diana Holt takes it into her own hands to save an innocent mentally disabled black man from the death penalty. In a story that contains everything from planted evidence to perjury to plain old racism, follow the Holt as she uncovers facts, goes up against the courts, and ultimately saves Edward Lee Elmore from injustice (after far, far too long on death row) after he is convicted of the mysterious, gruesome murder of a white woman.
‘Devil’s Knot’ by Mara Leveritt
In West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993, three eight-year-old boys were found murdered in a ditch near a truck stop. The terribly botched police investigation that followed landed three teenagers in jail for life, despite the complete lack of forensic evidence. Where “The Memphis Three” members of a Satanic cult and guilty of the murders, or where they just three teens who liked to listen to Metallica? This page-turner will show you just how wrong the justice system can get it.
‘Dead Man Walking’ by Helen Prejean
This is a first-hand account of the Sister Helen Prejean’s relationship with convicted killer Matthew Poncelet as he grapples with his crimes before being executed at Louisiana’s notorious Angola State Prison. Poncelet, who allegedly murdered a teenage couple with the help of a friend, develops a relationship with the nun in the years leading up to his death by electric chair. This reflective and moving piece of truecrimeliterature (which was made into the 1995 film of the same name starring Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins) will make you think about the morality of capital punishment, whether the prisoner is innocent or guilty.
‘Murder in the Bayou’ by Ethan Brown
After the bodies of eight women were found in the murky waters of Jefferson Davis Parish in Louisiana, local authorities scrabbled to determine if there was a serial killer in their midst. In this fast-paced truecrime thriller, Ethan Brown reviews thousands of pages of evidence in a push to find justice for the “Jeff Davis 8.” His investigation reveals the dark secrets of the town, which include drug and sex trafficking.
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