Customer Reviews

Almost Midnight: An American Story of Murder and Redemption

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Roughly the first half of the book concerns the life and crimes of Darrell Mease, hard-partying hillbilly 'Nam vet and would be meth cooker. The detail in which Mease's life is recounted makes it hard not to sympathize with him and to understand his crimes, a feeling which the author appears to share.

The second half of the story explores Darrell's trial, imprisonment, conversion story and ultimate pardon from execution. In that part, Darrell is portrayed less sympathetically, and there is even a suggestion that he is undeserving of his eventual pardon from death row.
This apparent shift in viewpoint is appropriate to this complex tale, though, where Darrell comes to represent something different to everyone who comes into contact with him: death penalty opponents, Ozark locals, the victims' family, law enforcement, even Pope John Paul II!

It's a fine book, ultimately, and explores a lot of the issues (religion and government, death penalty, small town policing, veterans' problems, rural poverty, drugs) raised by this unusual case. Well written, compelling and highly recommended.

After reading this book I was surprised that the author is an academic. This is not quite Truman Capote, but I think it is just as good as John Krakauer's book about the fundamentalist Mormons. He writes with great accessibility and insight about Mease and the world he comes from. I can't say I found Mease more sympathetic after all was said and done but I did gain a much better understanding of him and his actions.

I was reading a lot of books with the word MIDNIGHT in the title when I stumbled across this one. This is by no means the worst one of the bunch. In its own unique way, it's a fine study of redemption, breeding, and forgiveness.

And marketing too, for it seems almost as though the late Pope John Paul II was the victim of a marketing scam when he decided to pardon Darrell Mease, the killer at the heart of this wonderful biography. He was coming to St. Louis on a once in a lifetime trip, and a local cleric decided that he would gain some press by picking out a convicted killer and seeing what JPII could do for him.

It helped that the circumstances of the crime indicated that Darrell was himself well loved in his community (in the fields of rural Missouri) and that the man he killed, Lloyd Lawrence, was hated and feared. On the other hand, Lawrence's wife was killed too, as well as a poor paraplegic boy who hardly ever did anything hurtful to anyone.

Methamphetamine, the scourge of the Ozarks, was behind the killings. Darrell, who served time in Vietnam, was one of those who couldn't get it together after his tour of duty. He had a surface charm and affability, but inside, he was troubled. We get all of this through multiple narrators, people in the community who tell us his whole story from birth to the present. Like CITIZEN KANE, ALMOST MIDNIGHT gives us a constantly shifting perspective on a hidden corner of America. The popular TV sitcom MY NAME IS EARL will come to mind when you read this book, for the multiple murders that claimed the lives of the Lawrence family are just one more twist removed from the wacky trailer-motel life of the MY NAME IS EARL characters. Or, Johnny Depp in CRY BABY.

This December, ten years ago, while a hostage to a group of terrorists
in Lima Peru, my name was called for me to come down from the second
floor of the Japanese Ambassador's residence. I was to be released.
It happened at 11 am on a Sunday morning at the same time a special
prayer service was going on at my church in Lima. My pastor was asking
for the safe release of all the hostages. He asked that the Lord to
intervene and gain the release of me and other church members held
hostage. It was already happening as they prayed.

All of us have our own stories, we know there's power in prayer.

I thought of all that when I read "Almost Midnight" by Michael Cuneo.
The book is about Darrell Mease, a criminal in Missouri who brutally
killed three people in a drug deal (crystal meth). Mease was convicted
and sentenced to death. He had received the Lord at an early age and
his mother was still active in the Assembly of God church. She led
prayers for her son. Mease turned to the Lord again and made what many
considered to be a sincere conversion. A blue grass musician received
a word from the Lord that he was to speak to Mease and tell him that
the Lord was his lawyer and that he was not to worry he would not be
put to death. After the musician visited him in jail, Darrell Mease
had a revelation that he was to be spared the death penalty. Time went
by and his execution date was scheduled for late January 1999. He
never lost faith that he would be spared.

With only two weeks to go before his execution, the date was suddenly
changed. It seems that Pope John Paul II was scheduled to visit
Missouri on the same day as the original execution date and Governor
Mel Carnahan had it changed to early February to avoid embrassing the
Pope who was a strong opponent of the death penalty. The Papal staff
were aware of the change in the execution date for Mease. The Pope's
visit was a one day stopover in St. Louis. During the visit, the Pope
presided over a special prayer service attended by Governor Carnahan.
As the service concluded, the Pope slowly made his way to the Governor,
took his hand and whispered in his ear, "Please have mercy on Mr.
Mease."

Amazingly, Governor Carnahan commuted Darrell Mease's death sentence
based on this personal plea from the Pope.

One of the pastors who had attended the interfaith prayer service at
which the Pope had descended from the altar and talked to the governor
had also ministered to Darrell Mease on death row and had urged him to
make peace with God as his execution date approached. Darrell had told
him that God had been clear that he would not allow his execution. The
pastor said, "I was blown away -- Darrell had never asked the pope to
say a word on his behalf. He'd simply continued to pray. Absolutely
remarkable. And I thought there was a lesson here for all of us. The
Scriptures are radical, and God's mercy is boundless. But most
Christians don't truly appreciate this. We're too timid in the our
faith. We needed someone like Darrell Mease to drive it home."

The story went on with other strange twists. A few months after he
commuted the death sentence, Governor Carnahan was killed in a plane
crash as he campaigned against John Ashcroft for the US Senate seat
from Missouri. Carnahan, although dead, received more votes than
Ashcroft on election day a few weeks later. The new governor of
Missouri named Carnahan's widow to fill her late husband's Senate seat.
Ashcroft went on to be named Attorney General of the United States.

God answers prayer -- "Almost Midnight" made me remember that again.

Michael Maxey

"What on earth is a Canadian of northern Italy Jewish descent teaching at New York's Fordham University researching a meth-related multiple murder in the Ozarks?" I asked Mike Cuneo as he sat across from me in Branson's Bob Evans Restaurant. He was in the tourist town researching the Darrell Meese case for a book. Meese was sentenced to die by lethal injection in 1990 after the brutal shotgun murder of three people, Lloyd Lawrence (a man many locals admitted "needed killing") his wife, and their paraplegic grandson. A drug kingpin might deserve it, but two innocents?
Governor Mel Carnahan had just recently made news for his commuting Meese's death sentence, after having met with Pope John Paul II in St. Louis during the Pope's visit. Cuneo,
"I don't know why Carnahan would do that. He's killed himself politically, I would think," I told Cuneo. Little did I know that the governor who saved Meese's life would lose his own in a tragic plane crash during a race for senator-and still beat opponent John Ashcroft.
Like the Meese case, Almost Midnight, Cuneo's "American story of murder and redemption" is filled with sudden turns, surprises, and ironic twists. It's interesting and riveting investigative journalism. For Ozarkers, it shows a subculture that exists in the land of Bible belt religion, country music, and family-friendly tourists, a subculture unknown to many residents unless they are involved in law enforcement or social services. Cuneo covers the events that lead up to the murders, Meese's hair-raising road trip to the Southwest that only leads him closer to justice back home and death row, and the trial itself. He also looks closely at Mease's time in prison, where the convicted murderer rediscovers religion. It is there that he professes "God is my lawyer" and is miraculously delivered from lethal injection-just as he predicted he would be.
It sometimes takes an outsider, or a novelist, to show us the family skeleton we deny exists. Cuneo takes us on the real wild ride in actuality that Dan Woodrell does in fiction in Tomato Red. For those who are Ozarkers, the book is interesting to read just to see "if Cuneo misses the mark" in capturing a portrait of an area and a culture. For non-Ozarkers, it's an interesting portrait of the Ozarks and its denizens that, unfortunately, can add to the stereotype that exists. Cuneo's Almost Midnight, with its detailed descriptions of the virtues-loyalty, self-reliance, family, and faith-and the negatives-violence, chemical dependency, and lawlessness-of our Ozarks' culture presents a remarkable portrait of Meese and ourselves.
The tourist area that prides itself on family values and a friendly atmosphere while hosting almost 8 million visitors annually has a below-the-surface reality that's hard to confront. All it takes is a Meese incident, or an incident like the triple murder of the Husman children and mother at Kissee Mills, Mo., this last March, to let us know now shallow is the soil that covers what's beneath. Michael Cuneo probably has material for another riveting book.-Fred R. Pfister: Editor, The Ozarks Mountaineer

I remember this story being covered on a TV program. Of course TV never covers everything and leaves unanswered questions. I stumbled upon this book and low and behold the answers to my questions have now been answered. I do feel some sympathy towards Darrel Mease because he was as much of a victim in this story as he was the criminal. Read for yourself and see.

Michael Cuneo captures both the events and the inner lives of the participants in the crime drama he recounts. This book is hard to put down.

This is an extremely provocative book that takes the reader on a fascinating trip into the lifestyle and culture of the Ozarks. It opened up my mind in so many ways and allowed me to see that there is a whole other world and way of living right here in the United States that I had never thought about before. The way that Cuneo was able to get up close and personal with Mease, outlaws, investigators, and many others who were involved in the case allows for a read like no other. The story of Darrell Mease's life and surroundings takes the reader on an extremely personal ride describing his SPIRITUALITY, love, dissapointments, the murderous day, and the incredible tale of what happens after the murder. As interesting as this story is in and of itself, the way Cuneo tells it makes it all the better. This is a story that will remain imprinted on my mind forever.

This book is an excellent reflection of the Ozark region and it's natives. An exciting story of true crime that will hold you spellbound and peak your interest in the culture of the area.

Cuneo is very accurate with his facts (I should know, I was there), and he also has an excellent writing style.