Dead Weight - Softcover

Batt Humphreys

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0984107347 ISBN 13: 9780984107346

Publisher: Joggling Board Press, 2010

Synopsis

Dateline: Charleston County, 4 October 1910 Hal Hinson/New York Tribune In the Devil s Den, they performed their play. Torchlight in the deep woods was the footlight for evil. I was the fortunate Yankee to witness a backwoods gathering of the Ku Klux Klan, fortunate not from a particular desire to be there, but fortunate that the party didn t include me as the evening s entertainment, the main act, to be sacrificed to a twisted Southern code of honor... ... The Klan here was spoiling for a little night dance at the end of a rope. A trial that starts in a day s time is all that contains this town, these men, from a fury of murder. Someone will hang here and either way, he is likely to be innocent. In the torchlight, in their eyes, I could see the Evil and he is among us. Through the narration of Hal Hinson, we see the beauty of Charleston, the ugliness of the racial divide and a struggle, through the transcripts of actual court testimony, between two lawyers for the life of a man accused of murder. The reader also comes to know the real character of the accused. Daniel Cornelius Nealy Duncan was the last man hanged by the state of South Carolina. It did not go well. Nealy was on the eve of his wedding when he was arrested. A young black man of respectable employment, manners and temperament, his trial and execution presents the reality of a love story in a tragic frame. History wrote the story s ending an intersection of fate and faith that some to this day call divine retribution for the death of an innocent man. Dead Weight is to be read on Dick Estell's Radio Reader starting in May 2010. Dead Weight has been named as a finalist in three national competitions: Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine; best work of historic fiction by the Independent Book Publishers Association, IBPA (Benjamin Franklin Award); Best Novel of 2010 by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, SIBA. It is a winner in the category for True Crime in 2010 by Independent Publisher Book Awards, IPPY.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In one of America's most beautiful cities, an ugly crime has been committed. Based on events that took place in Charleston, South Carolina a hundred years ago; Dead Weight tells the story of the murder of a Jewish merchant, the black man accused of the murder and the white populace primed for a hanging. Into these real events, steps a fictional character. A reporter from New York is assigned to cover a story with would seem to be a fait accompli. The outsider's view of Charleston just after the turn of the century, still clinging to a cultural past and caught in the racial realities of the time, brings a Menckenesque perspective to a plot that is anything but a simple tale of racial wrongdoing.Through the narration of Hal Hinson, we see the beauty of Charleston, the ugliness of the racial divide and a struggle, through the transcripts of actual court testimony, between two lawyers for the life of a man accused of murder. The reader also comes to know the real character of the accused - Daniel Cornelius "Nealy" Duncan who was the last man hanged by the state of South Carolina.

About the Author:

Batt Humphreys, a Georgia native, began a career in television news in Charleston in the early 80s. His career took him to CBS News in New York where he spent 15 years, most as a senior producer, before leaving to return to his beloved South. He managed the coverage of many of the events that have shaped our lives over the past quarter century, including the first hours of the morning of September 11, 2001, several wars, elections and as a reporter covering hurricanes, executions and more murders than he cares to remember. Humphreys and his wife Laura currently live on a farm outside Charleston, along with horses, dogs and cats of varying populations. Dead Weight, his first novel, is based on a true story.

About this edition

• Publisher: Joggling Board Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0984107347
• ISBN 13: 9780984107346
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 224