![]() And it was both horrifying and exciting in the way that those things can be, I think particularly to girls of that age,” Lowry tells The Daily Beast. “We all knew that it was the biggest thing that had ever happened. She was 10 years old when the murder happened and she remembers following every beat of the investigation and trial in the local newspaper. This is the “story that had been waiting for me to write all these years,” Lowery, 84, says. ![]() Instead, they tried and convicted Ruth, a mother, socialite, and respected member of society, for killing her own mother. ![]() But seven years before that horrifying murder took place and only an hour away, the very white and very segregated powers that be in Leland, Mississippi, investigated the death of a prominent planter family matriarch and came to a single conclusion: Idella’s daughter Ruth Thompson Dickins, the only eyewitness, may have pointed her finger at a Black man, but that accusation was clearly false. Grand Jury Declines to Indict Emmett Till’s Accuser Carolyn Bryant DonhamĮarlier this week, a grand jury in Mississippi decided not to indict the white woman responsible for the accusation that led to the lynching of Emmett Till. But perhaps even more surprising than the murder is what the town did about it. When Beverly Lowry began to report on the murder that colored her childhood in Greenville, Mississippi, for her latest book Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta, she found a town still hesitant to speak of what happened even though over 70 years had passed. What happened next shook the community, and has echoed through the generations. It was the obvious weapon responsible for over 150 small, bloody cuts that covered Idella’s body. Next to her lay a pair of pruning shears, the kind home gardeners everywhere use to cut roses and manicure their flower beds. Idella was lying dead in her bathroom, which was “as bloody as could be,” Leland police chief Frank P. The house was quiet, but as they made their way further inside, they discovered a grim scene. ![]() 17, 1948, police were called to the home of society matron Idella Thompson on tony Deer Creek Drive in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty/Public Domain ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |