A sumptuously illustrated history of photography as practiced in the state from 1839 to 1941 offering a unique account of the birth and development of a significant documentary and artistic medium

One August night in 1931, on a secluded mountain ridge overlooking Birmingham, Alabama, three young white women were brutally attacked. The sole survivor, Nell Williams, age eighteen, said a black man had held the women captive for four hours before shooting them and disappearing into the woods. That same night, a reign of terror was unleashed on Birmingham's black community: black businesses were set ablaze, posses of armed white men roamed the streets, and dozens of black men were arrested in the largest manhunt in Jefferson County history. Weeks later, Nell identified Willie Peterson as the attacker who killed her sister Augusta and their friend Jennie Wood. With the exception of being black, Peterson bore little resemblance to the description Nell gave the police. An all-white jury convicted Peterson of murder and sentenced him to death. In Murder on Shades Mountain Melanie S. Morrison tells the gripping and tragic story of the attack and its aftermath—events that shook Birmingham to its core. Having first heard the story from her father—who dated Nell's youngest sister when he was a teenager—Morrison scoured the historical archives and documented the black-led campaigns that sought to overturn Peterson's unjust conviction, spearheaded by the NAACP and the Communist Party. The travesty of justice suffered by Peterson reveals how the judicial system could function as a lynch mob in the Jim Crow South. Murder on Shades Mountain also sheds new light on the struggle for justice in Depression-era Birmingham. This riveting narrative is a testament to the courageous predecessors of present-day movements that demand an end to racial profiling, police brutality, and the criminalization of black men.

"John N. Turner aime l'Amérique et les peurs qui la rongent. Un polar très psy dans lequel il dissèque les égarements sanglants d'une mère de famille frustrée qui transforme un campus en véritable ball-trap. Troublant et efficace." Karen Lajon, Le Journal du Dimanche ; "Un roman intelligent, palpitant, alternant les allers et retours dans le passé, subtil et troublant tant il vous plonge dans l'histoire, l'intimité et l'esprit torturé de cette femme qui se mure dans le déni, s'estimant victime d'une regrettable erreur judiciaire malgré les évidences." Emmanuel Romer, La Croix ; "Avec ce terrifiant roman noir, inspiré dans ses moindres détails d'une histoire vraie, John N. Turner fouille méthodiquement dans le, passé d'une femme perturbée, ausculte son histoire familiale complexe, et dissèque les éléments qui, petit àpetit,l'ont menée à ce carnage. Un livre édifiant." Philippe Blanchet, Le Figaroscope.

The bestselling author of The Hot House once again combines the facts, the real people, and the location itself into this true story, a wide-ranging portrait of the interplay of race, sex, and justice in the American South, made all the more real because it takes place in the same small Alabama town that was the fictional "Maycomb" in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Optioned for film by MGM. Photos.

While men commit most of Alabama's crimes, women have written some of the darkest chapters in state history. Poisoners who murdered dozens. A mob icon who captivated millions. An anti-government cop killer. A madam whose courage lifted her from shame to legend. A mummified woman shrouded in mystery. Whether they enjoyed the spotlight or weaponized their status as unlikely suspects, these women left scandal and misery in their wake. Journalist Jeremy W. Gray digs into the sordid mess left behind by some of the most notorious women in Alabama history.

“I sure never planned it this way. I was a pretty normal kid, I guess. Then again, when you've spent half of your life chasing ghosts, you tend to lose track of time in the sense that most of us experience it {Pause} they say life's a bitch and then you die; there is no God or guardian angels or divine intervention. You were born alone and you die alone. Life was a bitch and then you died. Game over.” so quoted killer Michael Kenneth McClendon. On March 10, 2009, Michael Kenneth McLendon, 28, shot and killed ten people in a shooting spree in three communities in two southern Alabama counties: Kinston in Coffee County, and Samson and Geneva in Geneva County. Five of the victims were family members and two were children. After engaging in an exchange of fire with police, he committed suicide, bringing the total of dead to eleven. Officials at the time said this was the worst shooting event in Alabama history. The aftermath of his crime left one burning question above all others; WHY? No one knows for sure what sent McClendon into the deadly rampage that killed eleven people, including himself, and wounded others. Those who might have known the reasons, his own relatives, were the apparent targets of his rage. Victims ranged in age from 18 months to 74-years-old. In RAMPAGE: THE GENEVA COUNTY MASSACRE, author Brian Lee Tucker, using eye witness testimony, documented interviews, newspaper coverage, and magazine articles, has created an in depth look into the mind of a seemingly normal young man who, unknown to all around him, harbored inner demons that could not be tamed without the urge to kill.