Customer Reviews

Lay Down with Dogs: Hugh Otis Bynum and the Scottsboro First Monday Bombing

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

 

 

Someone please make this into a screenplay! The story is of course, true, and far more gripping than any of the nonfiction crime stories out there. The characters of Bynum, McCrary, and Baxley are larger than life, and the peripheral players (other witnesses and attorneys) are memorable as well. Author Woodfin did his homework and tells the story in an entertaining, yet unbiased manner. At just over 200 pages, this book is a great way to spend a quiet weekend, or a flight. It will transport you to 1970's Alabama...a fascinating place to be.

Byron's account of the attemped killing of Loy Campbell is very accurate. There are many other stories about Hugh Otis, enough to write other books. Like the time that Hugh Otis Bynum cornered a man on dead end road in the Langston, Alabama community. This coward of a man Hugh Otis Bynum, held a pistol on a man and with his other hand took a pocket knife and cut the man up. Hugh Otis was feared in the community by man people...In the end Hugh Otis got what he deserved.....buried in Alabama Department of Correction clothing!

This is an authentic crime story at it's very best. As an attorney who has practiced regularly in the Jackson County Circuit court and is/was personally acquainted with many of the people involved in this bizarre tale I found it particularly fascinating. The author who was a reporter at the local newspaper at the time is to be commended for accurately presenting the facts in a John Grisham manner before Grisham the lawyer became Grisham the writer. Great book.

The author did a fantastic job of writing this book. Some authors add interesting tid-bits to spice up the story, but this was the actual eventsthat happened during the trial. Once you start reading it, you can't put it down until your finished.

The author offers insight into what life was like in Alabama during the 1970s. The vestiges of overt racism are exposed in this true story about a descendant of a founding family of the small, Southern town of Scottsboro who believes he is entitled to be a bully. He almost gets away with it, big time with dynamite, but for the liberal state attorney general who later ran for governor and lost to the first Republican elected since reconstruction. I found this story of what was happening behind the gentile facade of a small southern town to be engrossing and interesting. I would recommend it to anyone interested in 20th century history.

I can't vouch for the authenticity of the facts of this story, which some here are disputing, but I did find this book a fascinating read. I was one of the students at Caldwell Elementary when the bomb went off, and I will never forget that day. My family left the south a few years later, and I never knew what the bombing was all about, although I knew Ramona Campbell slightly (we had the same piano teacher), and Hugh Otis lived next to a family friend. This book answered all my questions and was real page-turner as well.

Let's get into the doghouse, your story may come from trial transripts but where's the rest of the story......you see, I'm the sister of a character in your book. Where are the other fleas bags you forget to mention?

as the only grandson (and namesake as well) of a very good friend of hugh otis bynum, i found the book amusing at best and i note that the tome is economical with the truth.

my grandfather visited hugh otis in prison on a regular basis after his sentence was passed down. in fact, i still have several pairs of hugh otis bynum's shoes; they were given to my grandfather by hugh otis since he would not be able to wear civilian garb for the remainder of his days...they wore the same size shoes.

my grandfather was an electrician by trade; he was very capable at utilizing wires. i am aware of this since he lived with my family on a farm when i was a child and many days were spent listening to his tales of the jackson county area...the unvarnished truth. i visit scottsboro regulary.

how unfortunate that i share anything in common with the author, much less a name. even less fortunate is the fact that the truth has yet to be told.

when i visited scottsboro last week to visit my family gravesite (i shall be buried in cedar hill cemetery next to my grandfather), i was aware that there will never be another "first monday". i'm certain that the author is cognizant of this as well.

if the author wishes to contact me, he may feel free. as an aside, you may view more about me on my aol homepage; my aol screen name is "Drone Note".

i bet that hugh otis and "papa" are laughing their respective asses off even as i write this. i know that i am. imagine the realization of the author when he finds that he doesn't even really know what happened or even why it took place.

all in all, the book is a primer of some interesting people in some interesting times in a very interesting place. other than that, the book serves quite nicely for the reader who wishes for a spartan attempt to describe a Spartan of a man.