Description

The stunning true story of a murder that rocked the Mississippi Delta and forever shaped one authors life and perception of home

In 1948 in the most stubbornly Dixiefied corner of the Jim Crow south society matron Idella Thompson was viciously murdered in her own home stabbed at least 150 times and left facedown in one of the bathrooms Her daughter Ruth Dickins was the only other person in the house She told authorities a Black man she didnt recognize had fled the scene but no evidence of the mans presence was uncovered When Dickins herself was convicted and sentenced to life in prison the community exploded Petitions pleading for her release were drafted signed and circulated and after only six years the governor of Mississippi granted Ruth Dickins an indefinite suspension of her sentence and she was set free

In Deer Creek Drive Beverly Lowrywho was ten at the time of the murder and lived mere miles from the Thompsons hometells a story of white privilege that still has ramifications today and reflects on the brutal crime its aftermath and the ways it clarified her own upbringing in Mississippi

Cover images pruning shears TragedyoftheMonth 1949 Triangle Publications Inc background Special Collections University of Mississippi Libraries