When Good Men Do Nothing

On June 18, 1954, former state senator Albert Patterson, the Democratic Party's nominee for state attorney general, was shot to death as he left his law office in Phenix City, Alabama, infamous for its prostitution, gambling, bootlegging, and political corruption. Patterson had made the cleanup of Phenix City his primary campaign promise. With millions of dollars in illegal income and hundreds of political and professional careers at stake, the question surrounding Patterson's murder was not ""why,"" but ""who"" pulled the trigger. Although the subject matter of this book is lurid, the scholarship is flawless. Alan Grady has mined the state's original murder case files; the private papers of John Patterson, Albert's son; previously unreleased material from the Office of Alabama Attorney General (who directed the subsequent murder investigation); the case files of the Alabama Department of Toxicology and Criminal Investigation; official National Guard reports; and more than 30 original interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses to the events described. Grady's account takes a story of complicated dimensions - a spider's web of alliances and allegiances, a large cast of judicial, criminal, and political players, and a knotted sequence of investigative revelations and deadends - and transforms it into a highly readable and incisive analysis of the powers and loyalties that governed, and corrupted to the core, the body politic of the state. Historians, political scientists, and criminal justice experts; fans of police stories, courtroom dramas, and murder mysteries; military personnel; or movie screenwriters - all will be enthralled and educated by this authoritative account of the most compelling crime drama in Alabama during the 20th century.