Bloody Savannah: The City's Most Violent Era as Seen by a Crime Reporter

by Derek Smith

Overview

Savannah is one of America's most beautiful and historic cities. Yet underneath the mint juleps, oaks bearded with Spanish moss and the splendor of colonial architecture, there lurks a deadly undercurrent. This is a first-person account of an award-winning newspaper crime reporter's career, covering scores of murders in the Savannah area, including one of the bloodiest eras in the city's history: in 1985, metro Savannah earned notoriety with the nation's highest homicide rate. The author describes a wide range of crimes, including murders over a 14-year-old lover, $4 for hamburgers or a baby carriage; the grisly murder of a voodoo priest; bound corpses in the waterways and interstate body dumping grounds; the Scarecrow and "Say Cheese" Killers, serial killer Wade Sheffield; and many more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476691831
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	04/24/2023
Pages:	249
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Derek Smith was a crime reporter in Savannah, Georgia, for almost ten years and has written extensively on the Civil War. He lives in Bishopville, South Carolina.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction
Prelude: Beginnings
Chapter 1. Front-Page Murders: Some of the Most Sensational
Chapter 2. Other Murders Most Foul
Chapter 3. The All but Forgotten: A Few of Savannah’s Cold Cases
Chapter 4. The Year of Dying Dangerously
Chapter 5. Homicide in the Hinterland
Chapter 6. Blood on the Badge
Chapter 7. Missing Persons Files
Chapter 8. Water, Water Everywhere: Hurricanes, Rescues and Corpses
Chapter 9. People Do the Strangest Things: The Sad, Tragic, Vicious and Just Weird
Chapter 10. Difference Makers, Heroes and Characters
Chapter 11. Savannah Vice and St. Patrick’s Days
Epilogue
Chapter Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

Informatively enhanced…exceptionally well written, organized and presented…an extraordinary history of an extraordinary American city and highly recommended for personnel, community, and academic library True Crime collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists”—Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher