Group Read - Furious Hours ...Harper Lee Part 1 The Reverend ch 1-6 Spoilers Welcome

[Ann]

Discussion for Part 1 The Reverend -- for the Prologue and chapters 1-6 of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee.
Spoilers welcome on this topic.
If the first to post, please briefly summarize to guide the discussion.

[OMalleycat]

Chapter Summaries Prologue-Chapter 6

Prologue
In 1977 in Alexander City, Alabama, a trial is about to commence. A man is charged with a murder he committed at a funeral in sight of hundreds of people. He shot Reverend Willie Maxwell. Hundreds of spectators have gathered, not to learn why the defendant did it, but to "understand the disturbing series of deaths that had come before the one they'd witnessed." Six people close to Reverend Maxwell had died in the previous seven years. The accused is represented by attorney Tom Radney who was also Maxwell's lawyer. Reporters are there, including some from national news sources. Harper Lee is there as a reporter. She lives in Manhattan but her hometown is in Alabama. She spends a year investigating this case and further years writing about it. The mystery is what became of Lee's book.

Chapter 1
History of this area of eastern Alabama focusing on the building of a dam for hydroelectric power. At the end of the 19th century the economy of the state is still in doldrums following emancipation of the slaves who supported the prewar economy. Having been deprived of subjugated humans, wealthy whites turn to subjugating nature. In 1896 a plan is formed to dam the Tallapoosa River. A series of natural and political disasters delay the plans until 1923. Land is seized if not sold, families are relocated, the land is clearcut and slowly fills with water. Willie Maxwell is born in 1925 to a sharecropping family of nine children. He joined the army when he was 18 and returned to Alabama after service. He married a woman named Mary Lou and settled near his hometown.

Chapter 2
In 1970 Willie Maxwell is an ordained preacher but that doesn't earn him a living. He also works in a mill, works as a blaster in quarries, and cuts wood for pulping. Despite his dirty jobs, Willie is notably well dressed. He's also well-spoken and charming. He's a womanizer and has an infant daughter by another woman. He is deeply in debt.

One day Mary Lou is worried because Willie was fired from his mill job. He's preaching at a revival and is late returning home. Mary Lou speaks to a neighbor, Dorcas Anderson, and settles in for the night. Willie later says he returned home and Mary Lou wasn't there. He fell asleep and when he awoke she still wasn't home. He calls her sisters and Dorcas then the police. Dorcas tells the police that Mary Lou had come to her after 10:00, said she'd gotten a call that Willie had been in an accident, and was on her way to get him. Police find Mary Lou's body in her car on the highway. The car is barely damaged but Mary Lou is bludgeoned. The police find evidence that Mary Lou was tied up and killed by strangulation outside her car.

Willie tries to collect on a life insurance policy he holds on Mary Lou despite having been indicted for her murder.

Chapter 3
History of the development of life insurance from the 17th century onwards to the 20th century. The upshot is that the industry was in chaos at the time of Mary Lou's murder, with lots of fraud. It was easy for people to insure others' lives without the insured knowing about it and without proper documentation from a doctor. Maxwell held multiple policies on Mary Lou as well as on many other family members, ranging from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. Maxwell pursues cashing out the policies after Mary Lou's death and runs into problems. The same lawyer, Tom Radney, representing him in the murder indictment also pursues the insurance claims.

The local judiciary is also in chaos at this time and charges against Willie are dropped for lack of evidence. He and his lawyer expect charges will be brought again and pursue insurance claims feverishly before that happens. When Willie is charged again another woman, Ophelia Burns, is also indicted for abetting Mary Lou’s murder but np charges are brought against her. Dorcas Anderson changes her testimony and says she doesn't remember Mary Lou rushing out to get Willie on the night of her murder. Without any physical evidence, Willie is found not guilty.

Chapter 4
Willie is dismissed from the churches where he'd been pastoring but another church further from his town invites him. He marries Dorcas who was married at the time of Mary Lou's murder, but her husband died while Willie was on trial. People are suspicious about the speed and timeliness of the husband's death. Willie is suspected of practicing voodoo which, though secretive, is widespread in Alabama.

Chapter 5
Willie begins taking out insurance policies on Dorcas for tens of thousands of dollars. He adopts her two sons and the newlyweds have a baby together. Willie has to bail his brother out of jail after a DUI. The brother is found dead in a car along the side of a road. There are no visible injuries. Blood toxicology is run but nothing is found. By this time Willie has collected almost $100 thousand in insurance. Insurance companies are investigating him and some are cancelling policies. Within a year Dorcas is found dead in a car alongside a road. She has a few minor injuries. Despite everyone’s, including the county coroner’s, belief that Dorcas was murdered an autopsy can find no cause of her death except respiratory failure. The insurance companies hire lawyers to combat Willie’s insurance claims. Tom Radney brings in another lawyer, Fred Gray, to help with the cases. Gray is a civil rights lawyer who regards Willie’s cases as a foothold in an issue he’s interested in pursuing: predatory insurance discrimination against African-Americans. Willie wins his insurance claims and collects almost $80,000.

Chapter 6
Willie marries for a third time to Ophelia Burns, the woman accused of helping him in Mary Lou’s murder. Ophelia is fostering a teenager, Shirley Ellington. Rumors still swirl about Willie and many are afraid of him. James Hicks, Willie’s nephew, is found dead in his car on a highway. The autopsy reveals no cause of death. Willie has an insurance policy on James and has been persistent in getting information from him to complete the application. FBI agents find two men who were approached by Willie to help him kill two of his nephews. Willie discussed detailed plans with the men. No charges were filed and insurance claims were paid because the coroner had found no evidence of murder.

Shell, the teenage girl Ophelia was raising, disappears one night and is found dead alongside a highway. While she was changing a flat tire the jack slipped and the car had fallen on Shell. Only the tire wasn’t flat, her hands were clean, and the lug nuts were under her body. At Shell’s funeral, one of her sisters shouts that Willie will get what's coming to him. A man pulls out a gun and Willie is shot while sitting in a pew comforting Ophelia.

[OMalleycat]

I don't know where the story is going from here but when I read the litany of crimes all with the same m.o. yet the most probable suspect isn't convicted nor usually even charged, it's just unbelievable. The investigations don't seem flawed by human error either. They were all doing the best they could, they just didn't have enough tools to be able to find out how Willie was doing it. Unreal. Maybe it really was voodoo.

I wonder if he'd survived would he have found a fourth woman who would marry him? The man must have had some serious charm to interest his second and third wives.

Amy Lilley already commented in the General No Spoiler thread that she likes all of the history. I do mostly--the beginning with the Tallapoosa River dam, and the call-outs to contemporaneous events like the Son of Sam killings are good for placing the time period and zeitgeist. But the delineation of centuries of life insurance history was too much for me, especially since the only really relevant part was the last few pages where it's shown how absurdly easy it was to commit insurance fraud at the time of the story.

Also, when an author is going into the history so much I wish she'd leave some very definite and explicit date markers. Cep does sometimes mention specific dates but just as often says "the next year" or "three years later" and I have to search back or just feel unsettled in my time orientation. In the prologue, where you'd think it natural and necessary to establish the time-frame the only reference to date is that the trial of Willie's shooter is happening 17 years after the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm pretty sure not all or even many readers know off the top of their heads it was published in 1960.

I liked that the book begins with a hat-tip to Alabama rivers and the dam because it was an echo of To Kill a Mockingbird's beginning with some Finch family history involving settling next to a river. I remembered it as pages of history going back to primordial Finches but when I checked yesterday it was just a few pages starting with Atticus' father. I think Cep created a deliberate homage and I liked it.

The next section is "The Lawyer." I'm hoping Fred Gray, the civil rights lawyer briefly introduced in Chapter 5, will return. I'm interested to see how he expected to advance his concern with insurance civil rights abuses by taking on a client who was clearly committing insurance abuses.

On the other hand Cep introduced some investigators and the toxicology center at Auburn at some length and then those people played little part in the story. I was expecting some major revelations from these scientific sources but there were none to be had. I wonder if they'll reappear.

[Geri]

Non fiction isn’t my usual genre. But the subject seemed very interesting.

I agree, Jan, the things the reverend gets away with is incredible! And yeah, he must have been a real charmer to marry all these women with scandal following him like that.

Some of the history sections feel dry to me, like I’m reading a textbook. But that is probably more about me and not used to reading non fiction.

I didn’t even realize Cep started the book similar to To Kill a Mockingbird. Thanks for mentioning that!

I think the section I am most looking forward to are the Harper Lee chapters.

[Sandi]

Thanks for the summaries Jan and mentioning how the start was similar to To Kill a Mockingbird.

I am listening to the audio and have enjoyed the historical bits for the most part but am having a bit of a hard time keeping the investigators and lab guys straight though maybe they won't have much of an ongoing impact.

[OMalleycat]

Geri wrote: "I agree, Jan, the things the reverend gets away with is incredible! And yeah, he must have been a real charmer to marry all these women with scandal following him like that."

Geri, I'm nearly through with the book now and this is the part that still boggles my mind. What can those women have been thinking? Dorcas might be excused because Willie hadn't created such a long stream of crimes when she married him but she's the one whom Mary Lou told she was going to pick up Willie after an accident and who saw his undamaged car the morning after. !!! What the heck?

Geri also wrote: "Some of the history sections feel dry to me, like I’m reading a textbook. But that is probably more about me and not used to reading non fiction."

I like history and read a good bit of nonfiction but as I get toward the end of the book I'm a little weary of it. Cep introduces each character with a fairly detailed history whether or not they're going to play a big role in the book. Any time any new topic arises she explores its history. At times it seems to me like filler for what is really a pretty short book. Or like a new author who's done a lot of research and doesn't want to waste any of it.

Geri also predicted: "I think the section I am most looking forward to are the Harper Lee chapters."

Not too much of a spoiler, I think, to say the last section is the best!

[OMalleycat]

Sandi wrote: "I am listening to the audio and have enjoyed the historical bits for the most part but am having a bit of a hard time keeping the investigators and lab guys straight though maybe they won't have much of an ongoing impact.."

Sandi, I can easily imagine it would be hard to keep these guys distinguished in an audio as I had a hard time doing so reading print. It's odd that although Cep (in my opinion) over-introduces each character they still aren't distinct for me. And some characters have intrigued me in their introductions, only to be barely heard from again. As I said to Geri, I'm attributing some of this to an abundance of research that Cep felt needed to be included somewhere. It wasn't too much of a problem once I realized that any particular character was unlikely to return after his bit, so I could relax and let some of it roll over me.

I enjoy the history too and am finding a little bit of sympathy for Go Set a Watchman which I abhorred because it cut out the heart of my beloved Atticus. Furious Hours reminds me that Southerners--or perhaps everyone--at this time in history could have a progressive or even liberal public face yet still harbor internal racist beliefs and practices. The endemic and horrific racism of the early 20th century Deep South was still so close to this generation, and the Wallace segregationists were so extreme, one could be a liberal supporting school or lunch counter integration, yet oppose employment equality or the NAACP. It was a fast-moving world and people's feelings might not keep up with their intellect.

[Sandi]

OMalleycat wrote: "At times it seems to me like filler for what is really a pretty short book. Or like a new author who's done a lot of research and doesn't want to waste any of it..."

I agree that much of the history seems like filler. It seems like publishers just are not interested in shorter books. At least it is interesting filler so far.

I am also on the what were those women thinking bench.

[Ann]

Thanks for the great summaries Jan!
I finished part one just now and was shocked that anyone would marry this guy after Mary Lou's murder. Run away people. I wonder what he could have told Dorcas to stop her testimony and convince her to marry him.

Even with my knowing he was never proved to be a murderer; each time the forensics teams were called, I thought surely there would be evidence found. Natural causes, accidents, crazy coincidences of location and relative relationships aside, surely all those life insurance policies would be motive to intensify investigations.

With the details of the tire-changing "accident" revealed - indicating Shirley was not actually changing the tire, which wasn't even flat; I wondered as I read if this might be the time the Reverend would be caught.
It seems I will have to read on to see if that line of inquiry is explored in a later part.

[Ann]

Re the history details - I was quite interested in the history of damming the Tallapoosa river for Lake Martin in chapter one. The subjugation of nature for electric power gives an understanding of the setting and the people who live in this isolated area, split apart, relocated, land and landmarks lost, homesteads and history submerged.
The life insurance level of detail could have been condensed in my opinion without losing impact. Quibbling, but a litany of the various insurance companies had less impact than a simple "five policies with a value of $$" would have done. Footnote the research details.

I was expecting forensic or law enforcement points of view, the tidbits on the inception of the institutions for forensics started around the same time might indicate it was too early to expect much here?

Sandi wrote: "I agree that much of the history seems like filler. It seems like publishers just are not interested in shorter books. At least it is interesting filler so far."

OMalleycat wrote: "At times it seems to me like filler for what is really a pretty short book. Or like a new author who's done a lot of research and doesn't want to waste any of it."

[Ann]

Jan O'Cat: yes, yes, yes! We start out in the early twentieth century history and get lost on the way to the time of the events.
Perhaps the trial details will bring in forensics?
OMalleycat wrote: "Also, when an author is going into the history so much I wish she'd leave some very definite and explicit date markers. Cep does sometimes mention specific dates but just as often says "the next year" or "three years later" and I have to search back or just feel unsettled in my time orientation. I

On the other hand Cep introduced some investigators and the toxicology center at Auburn at some length and then those people played little part in the story. I was expecting some major revelations from these scientific sources but there were none to be had. I wonder if they'll reappear.
"

[Ann]

Jan O'TKAMfanCat: i love that you caught this homage to To Kill a Mockingbird!
OMalleycat wrote: "I liked that the book begins with a hat-tip to Alabama rivers and the dam because it was an echo of To Kill a Mockingbird's beginning with some Finch family history involving settling next to a river. I remembered it as pages of history going back to primordial Finches but when I checked yesterday it was just a few pages starting with Atticus' father. I think Cep created a deliberate homage and I liked it."

[Geri]

OMalleycat wrote: "Furious Hours reminds me that Southerners--or perhaps everyone--at this time in history could have a progressive or even liberal public face yet still harbor internal racist beliefs and practices. The endemic and horrific racism of the early 20th century Deep South was still so close to this generation, and the Wallace segregationists were so extreme, one could be a liberal supporting school or lunch counter integration, yet oppose employment equality or the NAACP. It was a fast-moving world and people's feelings might not keep up with their intellect. "

Well said about the South and the sometimes contradictory feelings and actions during this time period. I found this interesting as well.

[OMalleycat]

Sandi wrote: "I am also on the what were those women thinking bench."

Lately it’s occurred to me that Maxwell’s second and third wives were tied to him not merely by attraction but by crime. Dorcas helps save Maxwell from conviction by perjuring herself. Her husband died in mysterious circumstances. Ophelia was indicted for abetting Maxwell in Mary Lou’s murder. So there’s loyalty based on fear of prosecution as well as attraction.

[OMalleycat]

Ann wrote: ".With the details of the tire-changing "accident" revealed - indicating Shirley was not actually changing the tire, which wasn't even flat; I wondered as I read if this might be the time the Reverend would be caught..."

I have to think that if Maxwell hadn’t been murdered law enforcement would have gotten a little more traction on him with Shirley’s murder. He was getting so much more careless staging a murder that must have seemed to him to be less similar than all his other murders. And openly soliciting help for this one.

Ann also said: “Natural cause, accidents, crazy details of location and relative relationships aside aside, surely all those life insurance policies would be motive to intensify investigations.”

Geri brought up on the next thread the issue of black-on-black crime. In our time it doesn’t always get the same level of interest as other crime scenarios. 45 years ago in the racist South it certainly seems to have dampened any aggressive pursuit of Maxwell’s crime. Yes, these murders presented all kinds of forensic problems, but it does seem that there must have been some way to link Maxwell to at least one crime. What makes me mad is the stupid rigamarole (lame duck judge or prosecutor? I can’t remember) that prevented timely prosecution of Mary Lou’s murder even after Maxwell had been indicted. That reeked of an almost deliberately un-vigorous pursuit of justice.

[OMalleycat]

Ann wrote: "Iwas expecting forensic or law enforcement points of view, the tidbits on the inception of the institutions for forensics started around the same time might indicate it was too early to expect much here?."

Ann, I kept waiting for that too, especially with the attention given to the establishment of some forensic resources at the time. I keep trying to think of how murders were solved in those days (which, after all weren’t just in my lifetime but in my adulthood. How quickly the world has changed!). Was it only through fingerprints and questioning witnesses? Blood analysis was only typing blood and I believe the police did that on the blood found in the church parking lot after Mary Lou’s murder.

I was reading something recently, I can’t remember where, that serial killers have always been among us. They just weren’t as recognized until the last 50 or so years when crime scene and m.o. analysis became much more sophisticated and similar murders could be linked.

Maxwell took advantage of that. I do wonder if he used poison, although poisons were identifiable even in Agatha Christie’s books. Perhaps it wasn’t voodoo poison but some unusual folkloric toxin he’d learned and used.

[Ann]

Jan O'Cat I also suspected an obscure poison (more on voodoo later) and recall a tidbit mentioned in this segment - revealing that years later someone on the law enforcement side easily listed multiple poisons that were not tested for at the time of the deaths. I took that to indicate others suspected poison and were bothered long after by the inability to prove causes of death.
Voodoo, the idea of it stretches my credulity, but I do get that people believed it was voodoo. Poison seems to support the label of voodoo.

OMalleycat wrote: "I do wonder if he used poison, although poisons were identifiable even in Agatha Christie’s books. Perhaps it wasn’t voodoo poison but some unusual folkloric toxin he’d learned and used. "

[Ann]

Jan O'Cat - good point, the timeframe is in my adulthood too. The solving of murders in those days from my memory is mostly from books and confessions elicited in the courtroom with great dramatic flair by Perry Mason. Lol
OMalleycat wrote: ". I keep trying to think of how murders were solved in those days (which, after all weren’t just in my lifetime but in my adulthood. How quickly the world has changed!). Was it only through fingerprints and questioning witnesses? Blood analysis was only typing blood and I believe the police did that on the blood found in the church parking lot after Mary Lou’s murder."

[OMalleycat]

Ann wrote: ". . .and confessions elicited in the courtroom with great dramatic flair by Perry Mason...."

Hah, Ann, I was thinking of Perry Mason too. He didn’t need forensics. He had Della and if she didn’t get it, he had confessions!..."

[Barbara K]

I will confess that while watching old TV crime shows or reading old mysteries I often find myself pondering all the changes in forensics, to the point where it can interfere with the entertainment value of what I’m watching/reading! DNA evidence and the like certainly constrain today’s crime solvers much more than in the past.

[Ann]

Barbara: the lack of cell phones at hand during investigations or during pursuits is one of the most jarring aspects in reading older mysteries, but knowing evidence such as blood, fibers, fingerprints, hair or DNA are unknown or used improperly can be maddening. ;)
.
Barbara wrote: "I will confess that while watching old TV crime shows or reading old mysteries I often find myself pondering all the changes in forensics, to the point where it can interfere with the entertainment..."

[Barbara K]

Yes! Cell phones!