God'll Cut You Down
The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi
John Safran
- An
- unlikely
- journalist,
- a
- murder
- case
- in
- Mississippi,
- and
- a
- fascinating
- literary
- true
- crime
- story
- in
- the
- style
- of
- Jon
- Ronson,
- for
- fans
- of
- "Serial."A
- notorious
- white
- supremacist
- named
- Richard
- Barrett
- was
- brutally
- murdered
- in
- Mississippi
- in
- 2010
- by
- a
- young
- black
- man
- named
- Vincent
- McGee.
- At
- first
- the
- murder
- seemed
- a
- twist
- on
- old
- Deep
- South
- race
- crimes.
- But
- then
- new
- revelations
- and
- complications
- came
- to
- light.
- Maybe
- it
- was
- a
- dispute
- over
- money
- rather
- than
- race—or,
- maybe
- and
- intriguingly,
- over
- sex.John
- Safran,
- a
- young
- white
- Jewish
- Australian
- documentarian,
- had
- been
- in
- Mississippi
- and
- interviewed
- Barrett
- for
- a
- film
- on
- race.
- When
- he
- learned
- of
- Barrett’s
- murder,
- he
- returned
- to
- find
- out
- what
- happened
- and
- became
- caught
- up
- in
- the
- twists
- and
- turns
- of
- the
- case.
- During
- his
- time
- in
- Mississippi,
- Safran
- got
- deeper
- and
- deeper
- into
- this
- gothic
- southern
- world,
- becoming
- entwined
- in
- the
- lives
- of
- those
- connected
- with
- the
- murder*—white
- separatist
- frenemies,
- black
- lawyers,
- police
- investigators,
- oddball
- neighbors,
- the
- stunned
- families,
- even
- the
- killer
- himself.
- And
- the
- more
- he
- talked
- with
- them,
- the
- less
- simple
- the
- crime—and
- the
- people
- involved—seemed
- to
- be.
- In
- the
- end,
- he
- discovered
- how
- profoundly
- and
- indelibly
- complex
- the
- truth
- about
- someone’s
- life—and
- death—*can
- be.This
- is
- a
- brilliant,
- haunting,
- hilarious,
- unsettling
- story
- about
- race,
- money,
- sex,
- and
- power
- in
- the
- modern
- American
- South
- from
- an
- outsider’s
- point
- of view.
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