About this item
"Without Mercy reads like a John Grisham thriller."---David R. Dow, author of The Autobiography of an ExecutionOn December 9, 1938, the state of Georgia executed six black men in eighty-one minutes in Tattnall Prison's electric chair. The executions were a record for the state that still stands today. The new prison, built with funds from FDR's New Deal, as well as the fact that the men were tried and executed rather than lynched were thought to be a sign of progress. They were anything but. While those men were arrested, convicted, sentenced, and executed in as little as six weeks---E. D. Rivers, the governor of the state, oversaw a pardon racket for white killers and criminals, allowed the Ku Klux Klan to infiltrate his administration, and bankrupted the state.
About the Author
David Beasley was an editor and reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper before leaving in 2008 to write books. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and their three dogs. Contact him at dbeasley4@yahoo.com