Midnight Cry: A Shooting on Sand Mountain

Close to midnight on May 17, 1951, four north Alabama lawmen drove to a bootlegger’s home to serve an arrest warrant. Before the clock struck twelve, the bootlegger lay dead in front of the house he shared with his wife and eight children, and three of the four officers were also dead. Afterward, a sixteen—year—old boy would face a series of trials that would divide a county and thrust the state of Alabama into the national spotlight.

In this good, old—fashioned, true—crime story, Lesa Carn...