A Death on W Street: The Murder of Seth Rich and the Age of Conspiracy

by Andy Kroll

Overview

Named one of Mother Jones' BOOKS WE NEEDED IN 2022
Named one of CrimeReads' BEST NEW TRUE CRIME BOOKS OUT NOW

 A true-crime story for the post-truth era
 
In the early hours of July 10, 2016, gunshots rang out and a young man lay fatally wounded on a quiet Washington, DC, street. But who killed Seth Rich? When he was buried in his hometown, his rabbi declared: “There are no answers for a young man gunned down in the prime of his life.” The rabbi was wrong. There were in fact many answers, way too many.

In the absence of an arrest, a howling mob filled the void. Wild speculation and fantastical theories surfaced on social media and gained traction thanks to a high-level cast of provocateurs. But it wasn’t until Fox News took the rumors from the fringes to the mainstream that Seth Rich’s life and death grew into something altogether unexpected—one of the foundational conspiracy theories of modern times.

A Death on W Street unravels this gripping saga of murder, madness, and political chicanery, one that would ensnare Hillary Clinton and Steve Bannon, a popular pizzeria in northwest DC and the most powerful voices in American media. It's the story of an idealistic twenty-seven-year-old political staffer who became a tragic victim of the culture wars, until his family decided that they had no choice but to defend his name and put an end to the cruel deceptions that surrounded his death. 
 
This is the definitive story of Seth Rich, of those who tried to weaponize his memory in a war of words unlike any other, and of one family’s crusade to protect the truth against all odds. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541751149
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	09/06/2022
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Andy Kroll is an investigative reporter for ProPublica, where he covers voting, politics, and threats to democracy. He is the former Washington bureau chief for Rolling Stone magazine, where he wrote extensively about the Seth Rich case. He has also written for Mother Jones, National Journal, and The California Sunday Magazine. He lives in Washington, DC. This is his first book.

Table of Contents

Prologue xi

Act I Viral

1 Striver 3

2 The Last Walk Home 13

3 A Hideous Parade 24

4 The United States of Sheeple 35

5 Our Sources Take Risks 49

6 The First Good Samaritan 59

7 Through the Looking Glass 64

8 The Lives of a Few for the Lives of Many 71

9 She Who Fights Monsters 86

10 Code Purple 94

Act II Megaphone

11 Creature of the Green Room 105

12 Ask Me Anything 112

13 A Nice but Somewhat Uncomfortable Message 117

14 War Room 125

15 Give Us a Wink 131

16 Rabbits Out of Hats 141

17 Panic at the Network 149

18 Never Say Sorry 156

19 The Widening Gyre 167

Act III The Dead Have No Defense

20 Q Clearance 187

21 Never Call Him Brother 198

22 The Worst Best Option 211

23 Rendezvous 225

24 Extreme and Outrageous 233

25 A Sign in the Crowd 241

26 Defendant 247

27 Birth of a Lie 259

28 The Blood of Tyrants 267

29 Closure 279

Epilogue 291

Acknowledgments 293

Source Notes 297

Index 337

Editorial Reviews

"What Kroll deftly does is not just trace the growth of this absurd allegation and of course debunk it, but he brings to life the idealistic and admirable Rich and the love he had for his family and friends."—Air Mail

“Thoroughgoing, riveting narrative…An exemplary investigation, exactly as the author describes it: ‘a true-crime story for the post-truth era.’”—Kirkus, starred review

"An incredibly well-told tale... very humane and empathetic and also very provocative."—Chris Hayes, MSNBC’s Why is This Happening podcast

“In Kroll’s new book, he chronicles Rich’s real life and death, as well as the dark forces that interrupted his family’s grief and made their tragedy into an online fascination and a hideous, dangerous distortion of reality.”—CrimeReads, Best New True Crime Books Out Now

“A Death on W Street is a brutal look at the damage a lie can do to people’s lives as well as to institutions that we, as Americans, revere—or at least should revere.”—New York Journal of Books

“The superbly talented Andy Kroll is right when he calls the Seth Rich case a ‘skeleton key’ to a darkening political landscape. Kroll’s vivid, gripping account of the manipulation of one man’s death by conspiracy-mongers, including people in Donald Trump’s inner circle, exposes a sinister undercurrent in American life that has now taken on frightening power.”—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost

“This is truly a sad story—because of the death of good, young person, but mostly because of the death of an idea of rational and civil discussion in our society, replaced by insane conspiracy-mongering and by constant provocation. You will understand more about how we got to this place when you finish this powerful volume.”—Bill McKibben, author of The Flag, The Cross, and the Station Wagon

“Kroll has long been a reporter to watch in Washington, but his book A Death on W Street, announces him as a masterful longform storyteller, too. He’s written a compulsive and cautionary horror story about America’s descent into conspiracies, lies, and indecency. Part murder mystery, part political thriller, Kroll exposes those behind the spread of viral falsehoods, including Fox News, and describes the awful damage these lies inflict on the individuals besmirched, as well on democracy itself.”—Jane Mayer, chief Washington correspondent, The New Yorker Magazine

“Seth Rich was murdered. Then his life was stolen, hijacked by online conspiracy-mongers, right-wing opportunists, and clownish connivers who disfigured his memory and tormented his loved ones. In the anguished tale of the Rich family, and their pursuit of justice for their son, Kroll deftly unspools the master narrative of our troubled and paranoid era, in which lies and disinformation have trumped the truth. Engrossing and eye-opening, A Death on W Street is tenaciously reported and deliciously crafted—an essential read for those seeking to understand how we got here and where we are headed.”—Daniel Schulman, author of the New York Times-bestseller Sons of Wichita

“Masterful reporting, inspired thinking and writing, a narrative that does not flinch from entering the disturbed soul of an America hijacked by conspiracy theory. I cannot think of a more vital book for our unsettled times.”—Mark Arax, bestselling author of The Dreamt Land and West of the West

From the Publisher

★ 2022-06-29
An unfortunate young man goes from murder victim to QAnon icon.

Seth Rich was a junior staffer with the Democratic National Committee’s “team of brainy lawyers and wonky data analysts devoted to protecting and expanding the right to vote.” In July 2016, someone shot him twice in the back, presumably in the course of a robbery. Within days, writes ProPublica investigative reporter, conspiracy theories began to pop up on the internet. At first, suspicions that Rich died for “knowing too much” came from Bernie Sanders supporters. When the WikiLeaks dump of stolen DNC documents revealed that the organization was working against Sanders, the theory took a sadly predictable turn: Hillary Clinton had ordered Rich’s killing. Soon the #IAmSethRich meme took a hard right turn. When Donald Trump entered the White House, he “represented a new style of conspiracy theorist. Unlike those of Alex Jones or the Birchers, his theories didn’t attempt to explain the world. They didn’t connect any dots or try to make sense of seemingly disparate events.” The buzz around Rich’s death intensified, soon to fall down the rabbit hole of the Trump internet cult, the Pizzagate set, and, far worse, Fox News, with Laura Ingraham decrying the “aggressive lack of curiosity” of the mainstream media in the case and Sean Hannity acting as a one-man amplifier of a matter that quickly became QAnon gospel. All ignored the plea of Rich’s parents: “Stop politicizing our son’s murder.” Kroll singles out Fox as the worst offender, but he doesn’t spare Julian Assange, either, for missing an “opportunity to issue a clarification that could provide a semblance of solace and resolution for a grieving family.” Lawsuits were filed, judgments rendered, apologies and retractions issued—but still, as the author writes in this thoroughgoing, riveting narrative, the lies continue to this day.

An exemplary investigation, exactly as the author describes it: “a true-crime story for the post-truth era.

Kirkus Reviews