Death Over a Diamond Stud: The Assassination of the Orleans Parish District Attorney

A true crime history of wrongful arrest, obsessive revenge, and an infamous murder in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century.

In July of 1903, the newly elected District Attorney J. Ward Gurley was shot to death in his office by a former client. After killing Gurley, Lewis Lyons turned his gun on himself. When his suicide attempt failed, Lyons became the subject of an explosive murder trial and sentenced to death. Once a hardworking family man, Lyons' downward spiral began years before...