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On Line Reviews: |
- Murder is Coweta County was made into
- a CBS made for TV Television Movie starring Johnny Cash and Andy Griffith.
(Johnny Cash
& Margaret Anne Barnes, Courtsey of The Atlanta
Journal)
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This is a true story about a killing that was calculated to begin when the courthouse clock struck twelve. In Georgia’s Meriwether County in 1948 law enforcement was dominated by wealthy, influential land-baron John Wallace. If he figured a man needed killing that was reason enough. William Turner, his white sharecropper tenant had given him reason, he had stolen two of Wallace’s cows. Wallace chased Turner down and killed him in front of eight eyewitnesses, threw his body in a deserted well and figured that was the end of the Turner affair. Wallace’s fatal mistake: in chasing Turner down, he crossed the Meriwether County line into adjoining Coweta County, the domain of Sheriff Lamar Potts, a determined, dedicated law man who believed in even-handed justice. To prevent discovery, Wallace forced his two black field hands to help him burn Turner’s body and throw the ashes into a nearby stream thus destroying corpus delicti and thereby prosecution. Sheriff Potts continued his relentless pursuit of Wallace finding enough burned bone chips in the stream to establish corpus delicti and brought Wallace to justice in court. This landmark case in Georgia history is the first time that the testimony of two black field hands convicted a man of such prominence to death in the electric chair in November 1950. The Author |
Reviews:
"This is a great book about a great American hero. It was my privilege to portray Sheriff Lamar Potts in the movie Murder In Coweta County."--Johnny Cash
"One of the best crime-trial recreations ever written." --Chicago Sun-Times
"More fascinating than Capote's In Cold Blood ---Dorothy McCardle, The Washington Post
"Will rich, influential John Wallace get away with the (murder). Finding out is a good trip."---The Saturday Review
"This not-to-be missed story, vividly and compellingly (brings) the small town South to life aas dramatically as some of the pages of Faulkner and Welty." Boston Hearld Advertiser
‘Fascinating . . .top-notch crime reporting." - Pia Lindstrom, NBC News
"Although we know Wallace was convicted and finally electrocuted, suspense persists, because Wallace never for a moment believed that he could not bulldoze his way out in the end." - The New Yorker
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- "The book is beautifully written from the first page to the last."West Coast Review of Books Hollywood, Cal.
"An outstanding writing and research job." - The Atlanta Journal
- "The reader is caught up and swept along with each thrilling chapter of the swiftly moving narrative. It is inevitable that one day it will find its way onto movie/television screens."- Florida Magazine
- "An excellent reporter and exceptional writer, the author has breathed life into her facts." - New Orleans Times-Picayune
"Of course I recommend this book. It should be a textbook of justice for all honorable law officers."- Miller Newton, Jr. The Tampa Tribune
- "Like the Tennessee sheriff in Walking Tall, this story cries out to be filmed."Chattanooga Times
"A true story made all the more chilling with detailed and realistic reconstruction of the crime and the investigation."- Las Vegas Sun
"Pick any superlative you want to describe Murder In Coweta County and the spellbinding way Margaret Anne Barnes tells the true story. . ., a thriller peopled with characters you won’t soon forget."- Newport News Daily Press
"This book invokes a splendid atmosphere of rural decadence and a feudal social structure. A good suspense story."- Publishers Weekly
"Vividly describes what it was like in the South before the early 50s. A thorough job research."-Wichita Falls Times
"Written with the suspense of a who-dun-it, Murder In Coweta County is the new fictionalized style of recording historic events. The combination makes exciting reading."- El Paso Times
"The atmosphere comes vividly alive in this fascinating book. Its people lean from the pages with a stunning authenticity." - Charleston Evening Post
"A well-drawn portrait of a Southern lawman. This hard-to-put-down version seems to cry out to become a movie."- Fort Worth Star Telegram