True Crime -- 4 1/2 stars
In 1957, the wife of a wealthy citrus farmer was raped. She described her assailant as a "husky Negro." Within days, the sheriff arrested Jesse Daniels, a skinny, white, mentally impaired 19 year old. The sheriff and a corrupt Florida political system worked the system to lock the gentle young man in a state hospital for the criminally insane without a trial. Keeping the pressure up to expose the truth is local newspaper owner Mabel Norris Reese who loses everything--except the fight to free Jesse Daniels. Once exposed, the reason Jesse was incarcerated represents racism at its worst. ----- While this is definitely a work of true crime, it is written like a work of literature. Well paced, intelligent, frustrating, and sad. The truth is ugly.
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