""One of the cardinal rules of newspaper work drilled into me as a 'cub' reporter was: 'Be sure you are right, then go ahead.' Since we all know it is most often difficult determining 'beyond a reasonable doubt' what is absolutely right, I have made my own maxim. It is, 'Be on the side of right, then go ahead.'"
-Mabel Norris Reese in a letter to Judge Truman G. Futch
A few years ago, I read The Devil in the Grove, Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by this author. I called it a real-life horror story! The research was very thorough and the writing so compelling, I gave it a 5. I thought it read like fiction. This one is no different! It gets a 5 also---another page-turner!
The villain is the same in both stories---Lake County Florida's Sheriff Willis McCall, a man so powerful, he seems to dictate all judicial matters in the county and even to the state level from 1944 to 1972, having been elected to 7 consecutive terms. He is still using his position to harass blacks but the main protagonist in this novel is Jesse Daniels, a white mentally challenged nineteen-year-old, falsely accused of the rape of a white woman, wife of a prominent landowner. With a conspiracy of deputies, states attorney Gordon Oldham, judges and even a governor, McCall sends Jesse to the dreaded Florida State (Mental) Hospital at Chattahoochee. There, despite the unrelenting efforts of Jesse's mother, Pearl, and journalist Mabel Norris Reese to prove his sanity and innocence, he is kept for over 14 years. Mabel is a heroic figure to me, absolutely driven to seek justice for Jesse, even though she is threatened in numerous ways. Eventually, a couple of lawyers---Richard Graham and Ted Husfeld---are convinced to get involved. More heroes!
I liked the Epilogue because it described what happened to the major players. Even the Acknowledgements and Notes at the end of the book are fascinating. King obviously did extensive research, even interviewing central figures still living at the time. Beneath a Ruthless Sun is both heartbreaking and infuriating in parts but I can only hope it uncovers prejudice, injustice, hatred and violence that we can vow to overcome.
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