May 16 2007
The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice
GUEST: David Rose, is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and has worked for the Guardian, The Observer, and the BBC. He has written several books including Guantanamo, and his latest, “The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice.”
In the mid 1970s, in Columbus, Georgia, seven elderly white women, several of whom were prominent members of the white community, were found brutally raped and murdered in their homes over a number of months. They were strangled to death, often with their own stockings or other types of underwear. The hysteria and fear that ruled Columbus over the “Stocking Strangler” led to an intense manhunt by local police who assumed the suspect was a black man. Eight years after the last rape and murder, Carlton Gary, a black man who had been convicted of various robberies, was convicted and sentenced to death for several of the rapes and murders. Carlton Gary remains on death row today, at a time when investigative reporter David Rose has written a shocking account of the case, revealing serious questions about the evidence presented against Gary. His book is called “The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice.” The Big Eddy Club is the name of an exclusive all-white, members-only club in Columbus, Georgia, to which many of the murder victims belonged. But, Columbus’ most prominent judges and lawyers, also belonged to the club. Intertwined throughout the book is the ugly racist history of Columbus, rife with lynchings and racist hysteria. Given what has been revealed in David Rose’s book, plus new evidence that has just emerged, there may be hope on the horizon for a new trial for Carlton Gary, who remains on death row.
For more information about David Rose’s book, visit www.thenewpress.com.
3 Responses to “The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice”
you seem to have a very negative site.
I just finished reading above,The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice. I am from Columbus, Ga. and I rented a house to Carlton Gary’s
Spiritual advisory. Didn’t know it until I saw him on the news. He skipped out without paying his rent, a stolen air conditioner and a nasty house. It was a very scary time in Columbus. I lived in the area of the murders. I have to disagree that the police were looking at only black men as suspect.
I have wondered if it was Carlton Gary, but the murders did stop. Now I have to buy the book!
I to have just finished your book. The book really gets to the root of the justice system in Columbus. Being from Columbus and having first hand knowledge of this crime, I feel that the right person was convicted, although I cannot agree with the trial criminal process. In the book, some of the old detectives was not questioned about the strangling and their input was not implemented in this book. The main course of information stems from Detectives, Sellers and Borun, who I might ad never visited a crime scene. Cutis McClung and Hermon Boone was the main figures in this case and I might ad that if Boone had not stood his ground in the Livas fiasco, the City would have been embarrased again due to the strangler hitting a week after Livas supposely confesed. Good Book but poor facts
Pure trash! This author had an agenda in mind and he ran with it. The name of the book in itself is misreprenting. Why drag The Big Eddy Club into this mess? It had nothing to do with the trial. So, some of the victims were members there, so what…they all probably shopped at the Piggly Wiggly too, so why not name the book Piggly Wiggly, the jig is UP! or something equally as stupid. Don’t read, in my opinion this man should be sued for slander.