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Desire Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans
A searing anatomy of a New Orleans murder trial and a system of justice gone wrong.
In a New Orleans supermarket parking lot in the fall of 1984 ,two disparate lives become inextricably bound for the next fourteen years. The first, the life of Delores Dye, a white housewife and grandmother. The second, a young black man with a gun in hand. Moments following their maybe not so chance encounter, Mrs. Dye lay dead on the sunbaked macadam, and the killer had made off with her purse, her groceries, and her car. Four days later, following a tip, authorities arrested a known drug dealer and father of five named Curtis Kyles. Kyles would then be tried for Mrs. Dye's murder an unprecedented five times, though he maintained his innocence throughout each trial. Convicted and sentenced to death in his second trial, he would spend fourteen years on death row. After a fifth jury was unable to reach a verdict, New Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr., finally conceded defeat and dropped the murder charge.
But the case slowly yielded a deeper drama: The crime turned out to have been the side effect of an intricately plotted act of revenge. That police and prosecutors may have been complicit in the vengeance that framed Kyles cuts to the heart of a system of justice for Southern blacks in the era since lynch mobs were shamed into obsolescence. A compellingly written legal drama that has at its heart passionate intrigue and justice gone awry. Desire Street is a 2006 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Fact Crime.
In a New Orleans supermarket parking lot in the fall of 1984 ,two disparate lives become inextricably bound for the next fourteen years. The first, the life of Delores Dye, a white housewife and grandmother. The second, a young black man with a gun in hand. Moments following their maybe not so chance encounter, Mrs. Dye lay dead on the sunbaked macadam, and the killer had made off with her purse, her groceries, and her car. Four days later, following a tip, authorities arrested a known drug dealer and father of five named Curtis Kyles. Kyles would then be tried for Mrs. Dye's murder an unprecedented five times, though he maintained his innocence throughout each trial. Convicted and sentenced to death in his second trial, he would spend fourteen years on death row. After a fifth jury was unable to reach a verdict, New Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr., finally conceded defeat and dropped the murder charge.
But the case slowly yielded a deeper drama: The crime turned out to have been the side effect of an intricately plotted act of revenge. That police and prosecutors may have been complicit in the vengeance that framed Kyles cuts to the heart of a system of justice for Southern blacks in the era since lynch mobs were shamed into obsolescence. A compellingly written legal drama that has at its heart passionate intrigue and justice gone awry. Desire Street is a 2006 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Fact Crime.
- GenresNonfictionTrue Crime
352 pages, Hardcover
First published February 3, 2005
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About the author
Jed Horne
6 books5 followersJed Horne is the author of “Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City,” published by Random House. Born and educated in Massachusetts, Horne began with the Boston Phoenix, and worked in New York in the 1970’s and 1980’s as a writer and editor, primarily with Time Inc. publications.
He moved to New Orleans in the late 1980’s with his wife and two sons. Except for the early 1990’s when he was posted to Latin America as a foreign correspondent for the Times-Picayune, he worked for the paper as city editor, and more recently, metro editor. Horne’s first book, “Desire Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans,” was nominated for the 2006 Edgar for best non-fiction crime book of the year. It was also runner-up for the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award.
Horne’s work was included in submissions by the staff of the Times Picayune that were awarded two Pulitzer Prizes in 2006 for coverage during Hurricane Katrina. A 1970 graduate of Harvard University, Horne and his wife live in the French Quarter where they raised two sons, Jedidiah, and Eli.
He moved to New Orleans in the late 1980’s with his wife and two sons. Except for the early 1990’s when he was posted to Latin America as a foreign correspondent for the Times-Picayune, he worked for the paper as city editor, and more recently, metro editor. Horne’s first book, “Desire Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans,” was nominated for the 2006 Edgar for best non-fiction crime book of the year. It was also runner-up for the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award.
Horne’s work was included in submissions by the staff of the Times Picayune that were awarded two Pulitzer Prizes in 2006 for coverage during Hurricane Katrina. A 1970 graduate of Harvard University, Horne and his wife live in the French Quarter where they raised two sons, Jedidiah, and Eli.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 16, 2012
Rating: 4 riveted stars of five
There are all kinds of stories about the innocent railroaded into jails, or onto death row, by corrupt or indifferent or racist cops, judges, juries, prosecutors, public defenders...there are so many, who needs another? Especially one set in New Orleans, and twenty-six years after the crime at that?
Jed Horne tells us a story that will curdle your blood as much as Zeitoun did, and it's just as true. A purse-snatching gone bad, a dead white church lady, a young rakehell who's no angel...*wham* went the jail doors on young Mr. Kyles, *swish* went DA Harry Connick Senior's bid for re-election, and no one cared a whit.
Except Kyles's baby-mama Pinkey. She had five kids with him, she knew him (Biblically speaking as well as socially, obviously), and she had no time for hearing that he could kill someone.
It took over 10 years, but the Supreme Court voided Kyles's conviction on factual grounds. But now what? The whole CITY was convinced that he did it. How do you fight that?
Read Desire Street and find out. It's a scream-at-the-walls infuriating read, but in the end...well, in the end, I was hoarse but I was satisfied justice had been served. Recommended.
There are all kinds of stories about the innocent railroaded into jails, or onto death row, by corrupt or indifferent or racist cops, judges, juries, prosecutors, public defenders...there are so many, who needs another? Especially one set in New Orleans, and twenty-six years after the crime at that?
Jed Horne tells us a story that will curdle your blood as much as Zeitoun did, and it's just as true. A purse-snatching gone bad, a dead white church lady, a young rakehell who's no angel...*wham* went the jail doors on young Mr. Kyles, *swish* went DA Harry Connick Senior's bid for re-election, and no one cared a whit.
Except Kyles's baby-mama Pinkey. She had five kids with him, she knew him (Biblically speaking as well as socially, obviously), and she had no time for hearing that he could kill someone.
It took over 10 years, but the Supreme Court voided Kyles's conviction on factual grounds. But now what? The whole CITY was convinced that he did it. How do you fight that?
Read Desire Street and find out. It's a scream-at-the-walls infuriating read, but in the end...well, in the end, I was hoarse but I was satisfied justice had been served. Recommended.
July 12, 2012
An oustanding book I picked up entirely at random, this book tells the true story of Curtis Kyles, a New Orleans man who was sentenced to death for a murder he says he didn't commit. After spending 14 years on death row in the tough Angola penitentiary, on virtual lock-down the entire time, he emerged a not-quite-broken man after the Supreme Court overturned his sentence. But the story doesn't end there ... he was tried on three more occasions by the state. In total, Kyles went to trial 5 times, and it wasn't until 1998 that he wandered on back to the Desire district, his old neighbourhood, a free man.
Jed Horne is the city editor of one of the local newspapers in New Orleans, and he does a beautiful job of giving this story depth and suspense. Kyles is not a clean-cut hero: he's a hustler, and Horne goes so far as to call him an urban predator. Horne even says that he thinks Kyles is, in fact, guilty of the murder for which he was sentenced to death. But the Curtis Kyles that emerges here has depth, humour, guts, and dignity, and this story highlights that vexing question: guilty a human being might be, but who are we to take their life?
Jed Horne is the city editor of one of the local newspapers in New Orleans, and he does a beautiful job of giving this story depth and suspense. Kyles is not a clean-cut hero: he's a hustler, and Horne goes so far as to call him an urban predator. Horne even says that he thinks Kyles is, in fact, guilty of the murder for which he was sentenced to death. But the Curtis Kyles that emerges here has depth, humour, guts, and dignity, and this story highlights that vexing question: guilty a human being might be, but who are we to take their life?
July 20, 2018
Well written but (for the most part) depressing as hell.
November 24, 2025
Really good scene-setting, reporting, and interviews. Fantastic book.
November 18, 2012
Seeing as how I was a 24 and living in New Orleans at the time the author really captured how it was in that time period. It reads as it should be fiction but I guess that truth is stranger than. It kept me interested through out the book which as I am usually if fiction reader says a lot for his style. The best part is to the best of my recollection he was dead on the police corruption and the way that our DA ran his office. All in all a very interesting read.Desire Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans
January 4, 2009
Okay, so not all the books I read are about death. This one caught my attention because it is about a guy in New Orleans who was wrongfully accused. It is written well and gives a good history of the area back in the late 70's, early 80's. I'm finding it to be a good read.
May 2, 2008
True story of New Orleans, politics, race issues, dirty politics, the 9th ward, murder, prison and finally the truth and freedom..
April 16, 2012
Book not that bad; unfortunately, the author had no problem with slander and misrepresentation.
April 5, 2008
A well-written look inside the justice system in New Orleans.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews