Customer Reviews

The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mr. Rose weaves a tale that exemplifies full blown prejudice against white southerners (as do some of the reviewers). The tale also lacks full, impartial coverage of the facts. For the record, in July 2007 Carlton Gary's DNA was matched to a 1975 rape/murder victim in Syracuse, NY. He will now be charged with that murder as NY officials plan to prosecute, regardless of his current death row status. Perhaps, irrefutable DNA evidence might sway some of previous true believers. To believe Mr. Rose's account, one would have to believe that judges, detectives, attorneys and the Supreme Court have participated in a conspiracy against Gary. Gary was convicted of only 3 of the 7 Columbus murders he allegedly committed and HIS fingerprints were found in the bedrooms of those three elderly women. His case has gone to the US Supreme Court where he was denied a second trial. One would assume that all of the Supreme Court justices are white southerners that are also conspiring against Gary. As far as the Big Eddy Club having influence in the case, that is bizarre. Yes, the Big Eddy Club was an elite group of wealthy Columbus families. But as one reviewer stated, that type of group can be found in cities across the nation. Rose's book is nothing but personal prejudices and reverse racism/bigotry. If the readers want to form an objective opinion on the case, do some research other than Rose's book. Racism, prejudice and bigotry can be found in the north, east, west and yes sometimes still in the south. But you should not condemn an entire region or group of people based on one person's view. This book is not a "true" account of the crime, the facts or the people involved in the case.

Agenda driven, over-the-top-journalism at its worst. The author, Mr. Rose, has taken what at first was an outstanding work, and ruined it with his agenda driven ideas of American justice and the death penalty.

His work and research into the murders, the arrest and early events of the story are good, oustanding perhaps, but then he unfortunately gets off track and becomes more interested in his agenda of degrading the justice system and of condemning the death penalty.

One may have his or her own opinion about the jusicial system and one may have his or her own opinion about the death penalty, but one should make those points known, then move on, not pound the reader over the head again, again, and again. Mr. Rose demonizes anyone who might have a thought different from his and tries to discredit any idea or perspective that is not in lock step with his own pre-conceived ideas and opinions. In the end, he discredits only himself and his work.

And that's a shame, because he had a good book going and the makings of a good, perhaps plausible argument on his positions on justice and capital punishment. In the end, by over-reaching and pounding the reader on the head too many times, he loses all credibility and what could have been a very good book goes down with him.

Take for instance the title of the book, "The Big Eddy Club." Mr. Rose would have us to beleive that everyone who belongs to that dining club has the same ideas, the same opinions, and is in lock step agreement on all issues of race, prejudice and fairness. That's like saying all Democrats think alike or that all Republicans think alike. It's just not so, and Mr. Rose knows better. Or ought to.

Rose is a talented writer, but I'm speaking of form. In this book, his substance is extremely slanted, off-base, and shows no objectivity. While he obviously did a lot of research, I believe he started into it with his conclusions already made. He then proceeded to pick examples, distort them, and use them to his own end as a paid employee for Carlton Gary. He embellished many things to the point of making them laughable, such as his constant references to supposed Wynnton locations, that are not really in the Wynnton area. Anything to make the story sound good, right? So many of his references to the Big Eddy Club were, also, completely out of context. Including the Big Eddy Club in the title of the book is an attempt to connect the two, which is absurd. Such clubs are characteristic of social classes everywhere, north and south. Have you read any of Harlan Coben's books, and how he describes country clubs in New Jersey? Am I a member of the Big Eddy Club? No, I don't have the money or the pedigree, but the Big Eddy Club has nothing to do with Carlton Gary's trial as portrayed by Mr. Rose except perhaps in Mr. Rose's mind. Rose cites things that are characteristic of older people and old traditions, but transforms them into support of his distorted positions that weave throughout this book. He came into Columbus, GA with a pre-determined prejudice against the southern United States. The Carlton Gary case made us convenient, and he proceeded to intentionally make cariacatures of this city and many of the people he wrote about and quoted. His descriptions of many of our local officials paint them as "good old boy" cariacatures that do not resemble the true individuals. Mr. Rose should also be careful about some of the people he claims to have befriended in Columbus, GA, and who he quotes in support of his theories... he might want to check their criminal backgrounds, as well, before using them as source material. Or, he should at least have included those backgrounds in his text so as to allow for a more balanced portrayal. This book offended me in the worst way; I felt compelled to read it, yet had to close it and put it down every few chapters because it made me so angry. I live in Columbus, GA today and have lived here almost all my life. I was a young adult here through the fear and outrage of the Stocking Strangler case. Racism in Columbus, GA in the 70's was unique neither to the south nor the north. I lived in New York state for a short time just before the stocking stranglings started, and racism was as bad there as it was here. We've come a very long way here since that time, but as in most places, we still have a journey ahead of us. I, and countless others, believe that Carlton Gary is guilty of the crimes for which he was tried and convicted.

Now that DNA has proven conclusively that Mr. Gary is an horrific rapist/murderer of women -- black, white, whatever -- perhaps those here who maligned the people who bravely (in the face of hysterical accusations of racism) put him away will feel compelled to apologize, including those comfortable enough to make such serious accusations without using their real names. Remember, the people who were actually denied justice are the murdered women -- particularly the white ones persecuted by being turned into symbols of racism, in death, via the author's lynch-mob-style accusations, his raw prejudice against white female crime victims, his self-indulgent fantasies of rescuing a grotesque murderer, and his dishonest portrayal of the case that never did stand up to the facts. He, particularly, should apologize for what he has done.

This is far from your typical "they got the wrong guy" story about the death penalty. Because all the biological evidence in Carleton Gary's case was destroyed (it was inexplicably deemed a "biohazard"), there is no way to prove or disprove Gary's guilt using DNA. As a result, Gary's attorneys--and Rose, as both journalist and, ultimately, paralegal on behalf of the convicted killer--have had to hunt down other evidence, from long-lost bite casts to records of tests on seminal fluids. You can't read this book without concluding that Carleton Gary got railroaded and deserves another trial. Whether he's actually innocent is a trickier question. Read the book and decide for yourself!

Having lived through the period of the Stocking Stranglings, I found the book quite interesting. I agreed with the editorial review that Rose did not have enough basis in fact on his Southern Rape Theory. When I first read that notion, I burst out laughing. Also, he didn't do enough to tie in the significance of the Big Eddy Club membership to the movers and shakers of Columbus. People must remember that Columbus, Ga. is not unlike a lot of other southern cities. We have grapplied with the race issue for a long time and we still have a way to go, but progress is being made.

If the information in this book is accurate, than I am dismayed at the level of police mishandling of the case and I do hope that they have come a long way since then. Therefore, I think Mr. Gary deserves another day in court. (I wonder if the Columbus police have made any attempt to match the semen (DNA) found on Mrs. Thurmond to the dna's on file in the national database?)

Please keep in mind that Gary was a career criminal and not the sympathetic figure that Rose portrayed. Rose is against the death penalty and also has been hired to work on Gary's case.

From the AP on 8-24-07: DNA is break in '75 case

Columbus serial killer linked to New York slaying...

Poor widdu rapist/killer Carlton Gary be persecuted just

'cause he be black, by bad ol' Southern racists....pardon

me momentarily while I barf!

Anyone who knows about the rapes and murders of the seven, elderly white women in Columbus, Georgia, which have come to be known as `stocking stranglings', will also know, upon reading this terrific analysis of the case and the criminal justice response to the murders, that David Rose understands better than most `insiders' just what happened here in Georgia. Whilst his story focuses on the man who was convicted and sentenced to death for these crimes, Carlton Gary, his investigation goes beyond the facts of the case and even the farce that was the trial, to the racist history of the town of Columbus and the apparent impunity of those responsible for delivering justice. Like Rose's other books (for example `Guantanamo'), The Big Eddy Club takes the reader on a terrifying journey through the `Deep South' to witness abuse of people and criminal process. When I got to the end of this riveting book I was convinced that Gary is innocent. My sister, who read it before me, is not so sure. But we agreed that the point is that he deserves, at the very least, a retrial for he has not to date received justice from the state of Georgia. No man should be executed without due process and yet, despite Rose's remarkable discoveries of exculpatory evidence (look out for the section where Rose describes how he smuggled Gary's semen out of death row and had it tested to prove he was not responsible for the rapes; and his painstaking investigation into the missing bite cast) Carlton Gary may yet end his tragic life in the electric chair. We all need to read this book and just hope that those in the legal system who will make the crucial decisions about a retrial read it too.

The Big Eddy Club offers a gripping account of the systemic racism that continues to infect our criminal "justice" system. For anyone who thinks that lynching black men accused of raping white women is a thing of the past, Rose's book is a wake-up call. It demonstrates how lynching now simply takes a different form: a legal form in which black men are put on death row without a fair trial. Rose's claims are thoroughly detailed and convincingly argued, and the book is beautifully written. I recommend it unreservedly.

This latest contribution by David Rose presents a troubling assessment of the relationship between race and justice in the USA. Tightly argued and well-written, it provides a gripping analysis of capital punishment. His evidence of police mismanagement of evidence and the vagaries of the trial process are, at times, breathtaking. For anyone interested in law, justice or race, this is a must-read.