In researching historical fiction, I’ve spent some time studying how they danced to reels. This is Conlon’s Reel (an Irish jig) performed by my good friend and amazing violinist, Jamie Bartschi. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
The direct link for the Conlon’s Reel video is here.
I’ll be speaking about the history and mystery behind “An Uncertain Justice” at the Catoosa County Historical Society on Monday, April 12, 2010 at 7pm. The meeting is at the Old Stone Church Museum on Old Hwy 2 US 41 in Ringgold, Georgia.
Press Release:
Ringgold, GA – In March 1922, Deputy Sheriff Joseph Morton was gunned down atop Lookout Mountain at the Durham Depot. The culprits — two young brothers, Ralph and George Baker — were swiftly apprehended. By April they were brought to trial and within a mere three hours a jury was selected, the brothers tried, and sentenced to death by hanging. Yet, one year later, only one brother would hang from the gallows in the Walker County Jail, taking an agonizing eleven minutes to die. It is little wonder that within less than a year, Georgia changed its official form of capital punishment to electrocution. In investigating trial transcripts, written accounts, and old newspapers, local author Marnie Pehrson has deduced Georgia may have hanged the wrong brother.
“There were so many conflicting accounts of this crime that I began asking myself, ‘What if they are all telling the truth from their perspective?’ This question led me on a quest for answers and toward solving an 88-year-old mystery that people of the time weren’t concerned about solving. Deputy Morton was the third lawman to be killed in an 18-month period in Walker County. The Governor of Georgia needed to make a statement and stop the madness. In their rush to make sure someone paid for the crime, they overlooked a key witness and didn’t think through all the evidence,” asserts Pehrson, the second great granddaughter of Joseph Morton.
Pehrson’s novel, An Uncertain Justice, brings together all the evidence and accounts she could find. She crafts a cohesive version of events that explains all the evidence, including the telegraph and telephone wires that mysteriously stopped working on the clear afternoon of the murder. Pehrson even uncovered an eye-witness account the defense did not use because the witness was a Mason.
In February 2010, Pehrson discussed her findings at the Walker County Historical Society at the LaFayette Library. Dr. David Boyle, President of the Society commented on the likelihood of a Mason’s testimony being ignored, “In 1922, the War Between the States was still within the memory of a lot of people. Walker County was very heavily split between the Union and Confederacy. Poor working farm people in the hills didn’t have much respect or care for the people down in the valley, who were more Southern and a number of them were slave holders and Masons. So you’ve stumbled into some Walker County History. Walker County has five distinct communities, and it never has been easy to govern. What one section wants, the other one doesn’t. When they were picking a jury, and they had to get a jury from the general population, it could be very political, cultural and post-Civil War.”
Pehrson contends that what many in 1922 asserted was a premeditated murder, may have been a heat-of-the-moment act by two drunken boys who’d just flubbed a train robbery. While the brother hanged for the crime was present and party to the murder, An Uncertain Justice portrays a convincing argument that he never fired a shot.
In these videos, Southern author Jennifer Youngblood and I discuss the inspiration for our characters and how we develop them.
Part 1: Character Development
Part 2: Character Development
I’m always on the lookout for my next hero or heroine or plot-line for a next novel. My mom recently dug out an old recording of my grandmother playing the piano. She played in a silent movie house in the 1920′s. The more I’m thinking about her, the more I’m wondering if she might make a fun heroine.
The video below is my “Granny” playing some of her favorites from the silent movie era:
A friend asked me how I pull together information for historical fiction novels. I get this question a lot, so after emailing her my reply, I realized this would make a good blog post.
It can be tough fictionalizing history because when you’re writing a true story about real people, you have to balance the facts you have with your imagination. I do my best to stay true to the facts. Occasionally, I’ve had to take a little creative license to make a story work, but I do that as little as possible so that the facts will remain intact. When writing about my relatives, I also wage an inner war over making my characters human while not disparaging them. It took me a long time to realize that you can’t just show people’s positive sides and expect a story to work. In the process I’ve made peace with the fact that my ancestors are okay with that. 
An Uncertain Justice was the hardest book I’ve ever written yet because it was such a tragic story and the murder happens early. It was tricky to keep the suspense going so the reader would want to keep on reading. Besides that, it was like solving an 88-year-old mystery because it wasn’t as cut-and-dried as one might think. There’s some question as to whether the man they hanged should really have been hanged for the crime.
I love researching history … especially family history so that was fun. Here are a few places I used for research:
One interesting breakthrough was when I came into possession of an autobiography written by a coal miner who worked in the same mine as my GG-grandfather in the 1920’s. My grandfather gave the book to my mom in the 1970’s. She never read it, but kept it. When I started writing the story, she handed it to me. She wasn’t even sure if it covered the murder. I read the whole thing and it was great for setting research and for understanding how coal miners lived/worked. The man lived in another state during the murder though. I was bummed about that, but kept reading. When I got to the last few pages, as an afterthought the author basically wrote, “oh, and by the way, when I was home visiting I witnessed this murder…” His story was strikingly different than the newspaper accounts. He felt they did not use his testimony because he was a Mason, and they didn’t trust Masons.
I think the hardest part of it all was coming to grips with the fact that my grandfather had to be the central character. You’d think that would be easy, but when my grandfather died in the 90’s I cried more than I’ve cried when anyone died. Not because I was so heartbroken to lose him, but because I realized I didn’t know him. He was a quiet man, didn’t say much. I don’t remember having any lengthy conversations with him – even though he was around a lot. He came to our house frequently, and he and my father were close. But I didn’t really KNOW him. Some people you just don’t get close to, and I felt like I’d missed this window of opportunity that had been there all along. He was a goldmine of family history information, but I’d been too young and stupid to take advantage of it. Fortunately, my mother did listen to him and was able to convey some things, but nothing about this murder. He never spoke of it.
Knowing that this novel had to center on him was tough because the “Papaw” I knew was quiet, hard-working . . . honestly he seemed like such a bland character that I thought the story would bore people to tears. But as I wrote and researched, I came to see my grandfather in a new light. I came to love him and respect him for the path he’d chosen. I started to see his quiet strength was something to admire… and, I began to see how in some ways I am like him.
The best thing that comes from writing an ancestor’s story is that there’s a bond that forms that cannot be broken. I can’t even begin to put it into words. I’ve felt my family near me when I write their stories, and I love them all the more – even the ones I never knew personally. For me, it is truly a spiritual experience.
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