| South Carolina Killers: Crimes of Passion (sample) Table of Contents Introduction: As Long As We Are Able Chapter One: Murder in Broad Daylight (1903) Chapter Two Last Man Hanged: The Murder of Daniel Duncan (1911) Chapter Three: Perfect Murder of an SOB (1933) Chapter Four: Hip Pocket Justice & the Execution of Sue Logue (1941) Chapter Five: Too Young to Die - The Execution of George Stinney, Jr. (1944) Chapter Six: Perry Deveaux (1974) Chapter Seven: A Deadly New Year's Resolution (1992) Chapter Eight: The Murder of Rosemary (1994) Chapter Nine: A Tragedy in Union - The Sad Saga of Susan Smith (1994) Chapter Ten: Obsession: The Death of Mary Lynn Witherspoon (2003) Appendix A: Tom Findlay’s “Dear John” letter to Susan Smith & Susan Smith’s confession. Bibliography About The Author Introduction: As Long As We Are Able “We owe respect to the living; to the dead we owe only the truth.” - Voltaire What you hold in your hand is a collection of murder stories in South Carolina that spans 100 years - 1903 to 2003. So, let’s talk about murder. I remember an old joke I learned in Sunday school. It went like this: How long did Cain hate his brother? Answer: As long as he was able. Ever since Cain killed Abel in the Garden of Eden, humans have been horrified and fascinated with murder. And the first murder was a good one. The two brothers fought over God's rejection of Cain's sacrifice to the Lord, and His acceptance of Abel's. As they struggled, Abel, the stronger, physically defeated Cain, and then mercifully spared his life. As soon as Abel turned his back however, Cain attacked with a stone, killing his brother in cold blood. That pretty sums up the history of humanity and homicide. Humans have always killed one another and other humans will always be curious to know about it. Look at all the books written about murder - from the Agatha Christie-styled genteel murders, to the gritty, hard-core, matter-of-fact killings in Andrew Vachss' gritty noir novels, to the gruesome icy detachment of Bret Eaton Ellis's American Psycho, to the thousands of true-crime non-fiction books, like In Cold Blood. And then you get into television and motion pictures. It seems more than half the TV programs have always been crime oriented. Think of all the cop shows from the methodical Dragnet, to the more realistic Hill Street Blues and C.S.I. Then there are the courtroom heroics of Perry Mason and Matlock, and the world- weary private detective - take your pick from about 20,000 of them: Magnum P.I., The Rockford Files, Mike Hammer, etc . . . The point is - homicide is hot. It always has been and always will be. The two most famous murder cases in American history happened 102 years apart - the 1892 murder of Andrew and Abby Borden, and the 1994 murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. In both cases, the accused was related to the victims - Lizzie the daughter, and O.J., the ex-husband. The two cases have so transcended American culture that the accused murderers have entered that pantheon of celebrities known only by one name, probably because of their acquittal and the public perception that both Lizzie and O.J. got away with it. One of the most interesting times in southern history was the period after the War Between the States, called Reconstruction. Even if the original concept of Reconstruction was good, in application it was corrupt, violent and heavy-handed. Reconstruction laid the groundwork for the Jim Crow era in the South and created a legacy of bitterness that still manifests itself in many ways – low quality public education and several generations of government-dependent citizens. It has also perpetuated a valley of racial division on both sides that is responsible for the caustic attitude “if you disagree with me, you must be evil or racist.” Not just a different opinion, but evil! Unfortunately, too many of these stories have a racist element at their core. In 1993, the murder rate in the United States was 9.5 per 100,000. In Louisiana it was 20.3. By contrast, in 1900, Edgefield County, South Carolina had a murder rate of 30.5 per 100,000, a higher rate of carnage than medieval England. Two of the stories in this volume have their roots in Edgefield County. There were some stories I obviously had to include, like the Susan Smith case that became a national tragedy, and the sad story of George Stinney, age fourteen when he was executed by South Carolina. Other stories I chose for the most obvious reason - they are interesting and serve as cautionary tales. Some of the names of victims and family members have been changed for privacy purposes. Until next time . . . Mark R. Jones Charleston, SC. June 2007 mark@blackcattours.com www.markrjones.net |