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Goat Castle
Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South | Karen L. Cox
5 posts | 5 read | 21 to read
In 1932, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, reckoned with an unexpected influx of journalists and tourists as the lurid story of a local murder was splashed across headlines nationwide. Two eccentrics, Richard Dana and Octavia Dockery--known in the press as the "Wild Man" and the "Goat Woman"--enlisted an African American man named George Pearls to rob their reclusive neighbor, Jennie Merrill, at her estate. During the attempted robbery, Merrill was shot and killed. The crime drew national coverage when it came to light that Dana and Dockery, the alleged murderers, shared their huge, decaying antebellum mansion with their goats and other livestock, which prompted journalists to call the estate "Goat Castle." Pearls was killed by an Arkansas policeman in an unrelated incident before he could face trial. However, as was all too typical in the Jim Crow South, the white community demanded "justice," and an innocent black woman named Emily Burns was ultimately sent to prison for the murder of Merrill. Dana and Dockery not only avoided punishment but also lived to profit from the notoriety of the murder. In telling this strange, fascinating story, Karen Cox highlights the larger ideas that made the tale so irresistible to the popular press and provides a unique lens through which to view the transformation of the plantation South into the fallen, gothic South.
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WordRaider81
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Time for a Deep South adventure. Mississippi where you are surrounded by chivalry, gothic plantations, southern belles and a murder most foul. #morethanwords #songofthesouth

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Hornsby78
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Bailedbailed

Unfortunately this one wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I was on the 6th track of the audio book when I bailed. It's a perfectly well written book but it was giving me "glorification of the Old South" vibes and I could not handle it any more. I was expecting more of a blistering exposé on the conviction of another innocent person of color in the Jim Crow era. It didn't deliver that.

7 likes1 stack add
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Mdargusch
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This true crime murder mystery revolves around an aging socialite living in her antebellum mansion located next to crazy, eccentric neighbors in their crumbling mansion. The neighbors‘ #funhouse is teeming with goats and other livestock and this causes someone to get murdered. Unfortunately in the Jim Crow south, someone may have been unjustly accused. #getmovin

IamIamIam 😶😶😶 I think I need to read this immediately!!!!! 😂 6y
Cinfhen Sounds like an @Reggie read😂😂 6y
Mdargusch It‘s a good one! @IamIamIam 6y
emilyhaldi I‘m with @IamIamIam !!! Sounds creepy 👌🏻 6y
Reviewsbylola Sounds like a different type of true crime setting than usual! 6y
96 likes11 stack adds5 comments