Authors
Mara Leveritt and Brooks Blevins will talk at the Garland County Library’s
Great Arkansas Read summer reading program when its focus turns to two
notorious Arkansas
crimes the weekend of June 23rd and 24th. The reading program, sponsored by the Friends
of the Garland County Library, encourages readers to review books either about
or written by Arkansans in order to have their names placed in a drawing pool
for prizes, to be drawn July 27th, including an i-Pad and Amazon
Kindle e-readers.
“Two
of the most fascinating crime cases we’ve ever had in Arkansas are the West Memphis Three murders
and the Connie Franklin case,” Karen Covey, Circulation Supervisor at the
library, said. “We had Mara Leveritt
here about a year ago to talk about her book, ‘Devil’s Knot,’ and she gave a
really great talk, not just as an author, but also as an advocate for the
convicted men. So much has happened
since she was here, including the release of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and
Jessie Miskelly, that I can’t wait to hear what she has to say about all the
developments in the case.”
Leveritt
will talk at 2 pm Saturday, June 23rd. Her presentation will be preceded by a
screening of “Paradise
Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills,” the 1996 documentary directed
by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, at 11 am.
“We
wanted to show the most recent installment in the documentary series,
“Purgatory,” but the DVD doesn’t come out until August,” Covey said. “I haven’t seen it yet, but I don’t know how it could top the power of
‘Paradise Lost.”
Mara
Leveritt is a veteran Arkansas
reporter, editor at Arkansas Times, and author of two nonfiction books about
crime and public corruption. She has focused her writing for the past 30 years
on police, courts and prisons. Leveritt has served as a state leader of Amnesty
International and president of the Arkansas ACLU. In her capacities as a
journalist and activist, she has been named Arkansas Journalist of the Year for
her investigative reporting and Arkansas Abolitionist of the Year for her work
to end the death penalty.
Brooks
Blevins will talk about “Ghost of the Ozarks: Murder and Memory in the Upland
South” at 2 pm on Sunday, June 24th.
“Ghost” takes the reader back to
1929, to a remote county of the Arkansas Ozarks, where the gruesome murder of harmonica-playing
drifter Connie Franklin and the brutal rape of his teenaged fiancée captured
the attention of a nation on the cusp of the Great Depression.
National
press from coast to coast ran stories of the sensational exploits of
night-riding moonshiners, powerful "Barons of the Hills," and a world
of feudal oppression in the isolation of the rugged Ozarks. The ensuing arrest
of five local men for both crimes and the confusion and superstition
surrounding the trial and conviction gave Stone County
a dubious and short-lived notoriety.
“
‘Ghost of the Ozarks’ is one of the best books I’ve read this year,” Covey
said. “In fact, some of our staff at the library have argued over certain
points of the case, which indicates how intriguing a crime that took place
almost a century ago can continue to be.
We can’t wait to hear what Brooks has to say about writing his book.”
A
native of the Arkansas Ozarks, Brooks Blevins is the Noel Boyd Professor of
Ozarks Studies at Missouri
State University .
His other books include Arkansas/Arkansaw: How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies,
and Good Ol' Boys Defined a State and Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and
Their Image.
A
limited number of “Ghost of the Ozarks” will be available to buy at the event
for Blevins to inscribe. For more
information about The Great Arkansas Read, call the library at 623-4161 or
922-4483. Visit the library’s website at
gclibrary.com.