The Case That Shocked the Country

Samuel Michael Lemon Ed D

ISBN 10: 1544709013 / ISBN 13: 9781544709017

Published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017

Seller Inventory # LU-9781544709017

Synopsis:

The Case that Shocked the Country: The Unquiet deaths of Vida Robare, and Alexander McClay Williams -- the youngest person to die in the electric chair in Pennsylvania -- for a crime he did not commit, recounts an actual 1930 murder case in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. This stunning story sent shockwaves across the country as it flashed across newspaper headlines as far away as Texas, California, and Canada. It is a compelling combination of legal history, a real life murder mystery, and a 30 year quest for justice for a long forgotten 16 year old African American youth buried in an unmarked grave, who remains the youngest known person, to date, to die in Pennsylvania's electric chair. On Friday afternoon, October 3, 1930, the lifeless body of a popular white school matron was discovered in her bedroom covered in blood. The victim had sustained a brutal beating and was stabbed 47 times with an ice pick. There were no witnesses to the crime and scant evidence, except for the victim’s missing key ring and the bloody handprint of an adult male left on the wallpaper by the door of her room, as her killer made his escape. Four days later, at what was then a tough reform school originally founded in Philadelphia, 16 year old Alexander McClay Williams – the eldest in an impoverished family of 13 children – "confessed" to the crime after repeated interrogations under undocumented circumstances, conducted without his parents or an attorney present in the room. Nearly three weeks after the learning disabled teenager signed not one, but three, confessions, the court appointed the county’s only African America attorney – William Henry Ridley, Esq. (1867 – 1945) – to represent the youth. But his fate seemed already set. At the zenith of a remarkable 54-year career as a practicing attorney, Ridley would face insurmountable challenges with just two months to prepare a defense in his young client’s capital murder case. How could Ridley overcome the stark realities of three dubious confessions, tampered evidence, a biased legal system, and an all-white jury that was understandably aghast at perhaps the most horrendous crime in county memory? Decades after his client was buried in an unmarked grave in a now abandoned cemetery, something curious happened. While living in the Ridley family’s home when he was just a boy, the author first learned of this tragic story from his grandmother – the only child of William H. Ridley. Hearing the story left an indelible impression, which he could never forget. And the grisly tale continued to haunt him for decades as he grew into adulthood. As time wore on, the author began to look deeper into the case, digging down to uncover long lost evidence hidden beneath many layers of conflicting details and discrepancies. After gathering a volume of information and examining court documents and countless news articles, what he found shocked him, as it had shocked the country in 1930. He discovered that the frightened teenager who died in the electric chair did not commit the crime, and the real murderer escaped without facing punishment. The case of Alexander McClay Williams is a cautionary tale of what can result when systemic racism taints the criminal justice system, as the dynamics of this case are as crucial and applicable today as they were when these events unfolded 87 years ago. This book is a must read for those interested in the law, capital punishment, juvenile justice, African American history, and how the descendants of three seemingly unrelated families intertwined to try to overturn a monumental injustice for the last surviving sibling of Alexander McClay Williams.

About the Author: Dr. Samuel Michael Lemon grew up in Media, Pennsylvania, where his maternal great-great grandparents arrived as runaway slaves during the Civil War. Given refuge and support by local Quakers, his ancestors prospered and became prominent members of the community. Their descendants have lived on Olive Street in Media since 1872. He currently resides in the home purchased by his great-grandfather, William H. Ridley, Esq., in 1920. When Sam was a young boy he lived with his grandmother Maud in this same home, where he first learned of the tragic story of Alexander McClay Williams. That experience would later lead to a 30 year quest to solve the murder case that had long troubled his great-grandfather. And Sam finds it fitting that while living in his great-grandfather’s house, he has completed the work that William Ridley began long ago in 1930. Dr. Lemon earned an A.B. in English Literature at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia; a Master of Science in Instructional Media at West Chester University, and a Doctorate in Education, Culture, and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. His published doctoral dissertation is entitled, The Construction of Ethnoracial Identity within Situational Contexts © 2007. He is a Quaker, as well as a member of the Brandywine Valley Writers Group, the Caribbean Genealogy Library, and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. He is also an assistant professor and director of a graduate program at a local university. Dr. Lemon is currently at work on the sequel to Go Stand Upon the Rock (2012) – part two of a planned fact-based trilogy of novels about his remarkable family’s history, in the tradition of Alex Haley’s family saga, Roots (1976) – part of which occurs in the Danish West Indies. He writes on a range of topics including history, culture, religion, current events, ethnography, and animal intelligence.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Case That Shocked the Country
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication Date: 2017
Binding: Paperback
Condition: New
Edition: 1st.