Murder for Breakfast: The True Story of Alma Petty Gatlin and the Preacher Who Betrayed Her

by Phil Link

Flamboyant evangelist Thunderbolt Tom Pardue couldn't believe his ears. He had struggled long and hard with his conscience before going to the police in the small town of Reidsville, N.C., home of Lucky Strike cigarettes, but he thought he had no choice. He had come to report that one of his flock, Alma Petty, confessed to him that she murdered her father with an ax at the breakfast table. But the police didn't believe him. They dismissed him as a crackpot. Pardue was not to be deterred, however. He found somebody who did believe the youthful Rockingham County solicitor, Allen H. Gwyn. Alma, who was twenty, pretty and popular, denied everything. But she couldn't account for her father, Smith Petty, a cotton mill overseer, who drank heavily. He had disappeared. Gwyn was convinced that Smith Petty was dead, and he was determined to find his body. But suspicious mounds of fresh earth that sheriff's deputies investigated all turned out to be graves of animals. Soon after reading an English mystery novel about a body found in a basement, Gwyn sent Sheriff Chunk Smith to dig beneath the coal pile under the the Petty home on Lindsey Street. Phil Link, a neighbor of the Pettys, was twelve at the time. He watched through a basement window as the badly decomposed body of Smith Petty was dug up. He never forgot that incident, or the excitement and national attention that Alma's murder trial brought to his hometown in 1928. He spent years researching this thrilling story of murder and betrayal, and he comes to a conclusion strikingly different from the jury's verdict that shocked the town and the nation.

170 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Cindy]

This is a story of murder in the town in which I grew up, but years before I came along. Jerry Bledsoe of Bitter Blood fame writes the forward for author Phil Link, whose family ran a drug store in my small town. Mr. Link was a boy when the authorities found the victim, buried in the dirt floor basement of the crime location, which happened to be just down the street from my elementary school.

Link researched painstakingly, speaking to those who were still around, collecting photos of the various attorneys involved in prosecuting or defending the defendant-- a young, popular & bright young lady who happened to be the eldest daughter of the man murdered.

Though I've always enjoyed crime writing, the kick for me in this book is that so much of it (landmarks as well as the people) was familiar to me. My father's office was in the ground floor of the Belvedere Hotel, which housed many of the out of town folks who came in for the trial. One of the prosecutors was the grandfather of my kindergarten teacher. Still, it is a well-written story of domestic violence & murder in the late 1920's.

[Linda]

I grew up in Reidsville and attended Franklin Street Elementary School. Lots of the names and places are familiar but I never remember hearing of Alma Petty Gatlin. Mr.Link does a good job of sharing his research and photographs related to the case and people involved, but I’m not convinced Miss Alma is innocent.

[Richard Gibbs]

This happened in my hometown. I never knew about it, I just happened to stumble across it accidentally. Great book. Highly recommended!