David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "rape"
Beneath a Ruthless Sun
There are a couple of important story threads in BENEATH A RUTHLESS SUN.
However let's start at the beginning. Blanche Knowles, citrus baron Joe Knowles's wife, is raped in 1957, a Jim Crow year. She says it was a bushy-haired black man
Willis McCall, the virulent racist sheriff of Lake County, Floridas rounds up every black man he can find. The two main suspects are Sam Wiley Odom, whose main crime seems to be his uppity attitude and Bubba Hawkins who happens to be related to Virgil W. Hawkins who had the audacity to apply to law school at the University of Florida.
Then matters change. A white, mentally retarded man, Jesse Daniels, is arrested and promptly confesses, although he insists to his mother, his lawyers and everyone else he knows, he didn't do it. Now, why would a racist sheriff, who has gone so far as to murder black suspects, charge a white man with a crime the woman says a black man committed? She later changes her story, insisting it was so dark in the room she couldn't be sure who did it, but she identifies Jesse's voice. Remember the old saying, “Nothing is as it seems.”
Jesse avoids a trial by being found mentally incompetent to stand trial, and he is sent to Chattahoochee, the Florida insane asylum where he spends fourteen years, lumped in with violent criminals since he was charged with rape. Jesse's mother and just about everybody else he knows insists he wouldn't even know how to commit rape, nor would he hurt a fly.
Pearl Daniels finds a confidant in Newspaperwoman, Mabel Norris Reese who spends the next fourteen years trying to get Jesse out of Chattahoochee. She has evidence he didn't do it, but McCall and his henchman, county attorney, Gordon G. Odom Jr. won't even let Blanche see her son.
So . . . will Jesse ever get out? Will Willis McCall ever pay for his murderous behavior. I have to say I wanted to see him skinned alive, boiled in oil, and drawn and quartered. This is not a novel; this stuff actually happened. Willis McCall made Bull Conner look like Mary Poppins.
Oh, yeah, there's one more ingredient in this mud hole. Joe Knowles was a known ladies man. How does that enter into the picture and why did Blanche insist a white man raped her when she knew that wasn't true? These questions will keep you turning pages.
However let's start at the beginning. Blanche Knowles, citrus baron Joe Knowles's wife, is raped in 1957, a Jim Crow year. She says it was a bushy-haired black man
Willis McCall, the virulent racist sheriff of Lake County, Floridas rounds up every black man he can find. The two main suspects are Sam Wiley Odom, whose main crime seems to be his uppity attitude and Bubba Hawkins who happens to be related to Virgil W. Hawkins who had the audacity to apply to law school at the University of Florida.
Then matters change. A white, mentally retarded man, Jesse Daniels, is arrested and promptly confesses, although he insists to his mother, his lawyers and everyone else he knows, he didn't do it. Now, why would a racist sheriff, who has gone so far as to murder black suspects, charge a white man with a crime the woman says a black man committed? She later changes her story, insisting it was so dark in the room she couldn't be sure who did it, but she identifies Jesse's voice. Remember the old saying, “Nothing is as it seems.”
Jesse avoids a trial by being found mentally incompetent to stand trial, and he is sent to Chattahoochee, the Florida insane asylum where he spends fourteen years, lumped in with violent criminals since he was charged with rape. Jesse's mother and just about everybody else he knows insists he wouldn't even know how to commit rape, nor would he hurt a fly.
Pearl Daniels finds a confidant in Newspaperwoman, Mabel Norris Reese who spends the next fourteen years trying to get Jesse out of Chattahoochee. She has evidence he didn't do it, but McCall and his henchman, county attorney, Gordon G. Odom Jr. won't even let Blanche see her son.
So . . . will Jesse ever get out? Will Willis McCall ever pay for his murderous behavior. I have to say I wanted to see him skinned alive, boiled in oil, and drawn and quartered. This is not a novel; this stuff actually happened. Willis McCall made Bull Conner look like Mary Poppins.
Oh, yeah, there's one more ingredient in this mud hole. Joe Knowles was a known ladies man. How does that enter into the picture and why did Blanche insist a white man raped her when she knew that wasn't true? These questions will keep you turning pages.
Valentine
It's hard to know if author Elizabeth Wetmore has a problem with men in general, marriage or whether it's the oil boom in Odessa, Texas that attracts the “scum of the earth” that bothers her.
Three of the women characters want out of their marriage or their pregnancy. Gigi leaves her nine-year-old daughter. The narrator explains that Gigi was one of the women who “made it out alive”. Mary Rose is married with a child. She aborts the second child without telling her husband and gets pregnant again four months later. Karla gets pregnant by an unknown man; she can't handle the obligation, but also can't find a doctor or a clinic to handle the abortion until it's too late. She loves Diane more than she thought was possible. She turns out to be the toughest of them all.
The story starts when fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramirez is raped by one of the oil field roughnecks. She's pretty beat up but she makes it to a nearby house where Mary Rose happens to live. She has her daughter call the cops while she faces down the rapist with a shotgun.
Gloria's mother is an illegal Mexican, although Gloria was born in America. When it comes to a trial she gets little sympathy. Mary Rose receives threatening phone calls. Mary Rose's husband doesn't want her to testify. She has little choice. The girl is only fourteen years old!
A subplot involves Gigi's daughter, Debra Ann, who's a real sweetheart. She notices this little guy who's living in a sewer pipe. She leaves him a note, asking if he needs anything. They become bosom buddies and she helps him get his truck back which has been repossessed by a friend. Debra Ann is the type of girl who has imaginary friends. Corrine, an older lady whose husband has died, is aggravated when Debra Ann tries to talk to her. Her husband, Potter, always talked to Debra Ann as if she was an adult and got quite a kick out of her imaginary friends.
All of these characters eventually relate, mostly because of the rape. Corrine is suicidal because of her husband's death, but in a weird way the rape and the trial save her life. And she tells Debra Ann she can ring her bell anytime, and she'll always answer.
Three of the women characters want out of their marriage or their pregnancy. Gigi leaves her nine-year-old daughter. The narrator explains that Gigi was one of the women who “made it out alive”. Mary Rose is married with a child. She aborts the second child without telling her husband and gets pregnant again four months later. Karla gets pregnant by an unknown man; she can't handle the obligation, but also can't find a doctor or a clinic to handle the abortion until it's too late. She loves Diane more than she thought was possible. She turns out to be the toughest of them all.
The story starts when fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramirez is raped by one of the oil field roughnecks. She's pretty beat up but she makes it to a nearby house where Mary Rose happens to live. She has her daughter call the cops while she faces down the rapist with a shotgun.
Gloria's mother is an illegal Mexican, although Gloria was born in America. When it comes to a trial she gets little sympathy. Mary Rose receives threatening phone calls. Mary Rose's husband doesn't want her to testify. She has little choice. The girl is only fourteen years old!
A subplot involves Gigi's daughter, Debra Ann, who's a real sweetheart. She notices this little guy who's living in a sewer pipe. She leaves him a note, asking if he needs anything. They become bosom buddies and she helps him get his truck back which has been repossessed by a friend. Debra Ann is the type of girl who has imaginary friends. Corrine, an older lady whose husband has died, is aggravated when Debra Ann tries to talk to her. Her husband, Potter, always talked to Debra Ann as if she was an adult and got quite a kick out of her imaginary friends.
All of these characters eventually relate, mostly because of the rape. Corrine is suicidal because of her husband's death, but in a weird way the rape and the trial save her life. And she tells Debra Ann she can ring her bell anytime, and she'll always answer.
