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God'll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi

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God'll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi

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Overview

An unlikely journalist, a murder case in Mississippi, and a fascinating literary true crime story in the style of Jon Ronson.

A notorious white supremacist named Richard Barrett was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 2010 by a young black man named Vincent McGee. At first the murder seemed a twist on old Deep South race crimes. But then new revelations and complications came to light. Maybe it was a dispute over money rather than race—or, maybe and intriguingly, over sex.

John Safran, a young white Jewish Australian documentarian, had been in Mississippi and interviewed Barrett for a film on race. When he learned of Barrett’s murder, he returned to find out what happened and became caught up in the twists and turns of the case. During his time in Mississippi, Safran got deeper and deeper into this gothic southern world, becoming entwined in the lives of those connected with the murder—white separatist frenemies, black lawyers, police investigators, oddball neighbors, the stunned families, even the killer himself. And the more he talked with them, the less simple the crime—and the people involved—seemed to be. In the end, he discovered how profoundly and indelibly complex the truth about someone’s life—and death—can be.

This is a brilliant, haunting, hilarious, unsettling story about race, money, sex, and power in the modern American South from an outsider’s point of view.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594633997
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/08/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	1,131,638
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Safran is an award-winning documentarian and radio storyteller on a wide range of subjects, including the media, religion, and race. He lives in Melbourne, Australia. This is his first book.

Read an Excerpt

***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof***
1.
Melbourne
“See that man?” my dad whispers.

“Yes,” I say.

“See the tie he’s wearing?”

“Yes.”

“See that little symbol on his tie?”

“Yes,” I reply, squinting my eyes.

“That’s the Freemason symbol,” he says. “They’re a secret society. They don’t like it when you ask them about it.”

“Wow.”

“Go up and ask him about it,” he tells me.

So I shuffle over to the guy and ask if he’s a Freemason.

“Yes, um,” he splutters, his eyes darting about. “But, listen, we don’t do anything unusual.” He then backs away from the buffet and creeps out of the room.

In that moment I learned there are secret worlds out there. We can glance over a landscape and think we’re seeing everything, but there are realms operating just out of our lines of sight.

I became hooked on secret worlds. And the clunky encounter with the Freemason taught me you can ask questions even when you’re not supposed to. That’s why I became what I became, a documentary filmmaker of sorts. I say “of sorts” because mine are not the straightest of documentaries. I often ask dangerous people indelicate questions and try not to get thumped. And I often ask them about race. I’m a bit of a Race Trekkie—like a sci-fi Trekkie, but with race, not space.

So the murder at hand? That part of the story begins—although I didn’t know it at the time—about ten years ago. I was filming a segment for a television series called John Safran vs God, in which I tried to join the secret world of the Ku Klux Klan even though I’m a Jew.
My First Meeting with the Klan
“I’m a little confused about who can and can’t join the Klan,” I tell the Grand Dragon. “Are you allowed to join the Klan if you’re not American?”

“Yes, absolutely!” he assures me.

“And what about if you’re Catholic?”

“You know, Catholics are every bit as Christian as anyone else,” he says. “Sure.”

“And what happens,” I ask, trying hard not to squirm in my seat, “if you were brought up Jewish but you don’t do anything Jewish anymore? Because that’s where I’m at.”

The Grand Dragon shoots his eyes to his fellow Klansmen.

“Was your mother Jewish?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say.

(Continues…)

Excerpted from "God'll Cut You Down"
by .
Copyright © 2015 John Safran.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

What People are Saying About This

bestselling author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The City of Fallen Angels - John Berendt

John Safran's captivating inquiry into a murder in darkest Mississippi is by turns informative, frightening and hilarious. It is enlivened by a swarm of creepy locals and a torrent of astonishing details—such as hedge clippers put to surgical use in the performance of an official autopsy.

bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and Them - Jon Ronson

A hilarious and bizarre story that leads where you least expect it. John Safran has for years been one of my favourite journalists - forever pushing the boundaries, funny, startling, a hurricane.

BBC journalist - Louis Theroux

Funny and gripping and wonderfully weird.

From the Publisher

Praise for God'll Cut You Down

“John Safran’s captivating inquiry into a murder in darkest Mississippi is by turns informative, frightening and hilarious. It is enlivened by a swarm of creepy locals and a torrent of astonishing details--such as hedge clippers put to surgical use in the performance of an official autopsy.”
—John Berendt, bestselling author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

"A hilarious and bizarre story that leads where you least expect it. John Safran has for years been one of my favourite journalists - forever pushing the boundaries, funny, startling, a hurricane." —Jon Ronson, bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and Them

"Imagine In Cold Blood written not by Capote by an Australian, higher-brow Johnny Knoxville." -- Boris Kachka, New York Magazine

"If you enjoyed In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, and have been drawn to other true-crime books, then you will probably devour this book.... [Safran's] approach, mixed with a sharp sense of humor, wise pacing, and plain, powerful writing, makes this book into a deeper experience than you suspect... That deeper experience comes from Safran's refusal to quickly analyze according to traditional crime-solving plotlines.... As a more complex picture of the two men's relationships to other people and each other emerges, we follow breathlessly into a kind of mesmerizing psychosocial-cultural drama.... [O]n each reading, it gained a kind of substance--it somehow grew--until I felt it resembled a house of rooms. It gained a personality. In the end, I felt that I knew, personally, Vincent McGee and Richard Barrett... I do not remember a nonfiction book that seemed to bring me so close to its subjects." -- Garden & Gun magazine

“Safran’s book will make readers chuckle, fidget, and turn page after page wondering what will happen next as the author looks to find the truth about the murder of a white supremacist by a black man in the deep South…. This true crime book will stick with readers. Safran does a great job of looking at the murder from multiple perspectives and brings in his own experience learning about the culture, which is in itself a character. For fans of true crime, Southern tales, and books similar to Capote’s [In Cold Blood] and John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” —Library Journal, STARRED review

“It's not often that the retelling of a brutal murder is full of laughs but documentarian and debut author Safran is an entertaining writer… Weaving a tale that is simultaneously about race, failed systems, money, sex, family and simple rage, Safran truly did lose a year in Mississippi, and getting lost with him is a joy.” —Kirkus, STARRED review

“[T]his stranger-than-fiction true crime story finds Safran—a white, Jewish documentary filmmaker from Australia—relocating to Rankin County, Miss., to dig deep into the grisly stabbing murder of a 67-year-old white supremacist in April 2010… [A] bizarrely unsettling, yet often witty book that paints a disturbing picture of the deep South today.” —Publishers Weekly

"John Safran’s God’ll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi is to true crime what “The Daily Show” is to nightly news. There’s much more mirth than you might expect given the grave matter, and it sublimely unearths some buried truths." —Kirkus

"Funny and gripping and wonderfully weird." —Louis Theroux, BBC journalist

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Praise for God'll Cut You Down

“John Safran’s captivating inquiry into a murder in darkest Mississippi is by turns informative, frightening and hilarious. It is enlivened by a swarm of creepy locals and a torrent of astonishing details—such as hedge clippers put to surgical use in the performance of an official autopsy.”
—John Berendt, bestselling author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

"A hilarious and bizarre story that leads where you least expect it. John Safran has for years been one of my favourite journalists - forever pushing the boundaries, funny, startling, a hurricane." —Jon Ronson, bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and Them

"Imagine In Cold Blood written not by Capote by an Australian, higher-brow Johnny Knoxville." — Boris Kachka, New York Magazine

"If you enjoyed In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, and have been drawn to other true-crime books, then you will probably devour this book.... [Safran's] approach, mixed with a sharp sense of humor, wise pacing, and plain, powerful writing, makes this book into a deeper experience than you suspect... That deeper experience comes from Safran's refusal to quickly analyze according to traditional crime-solving plotlines.... As a more complex picture of the two men's relationships to other people and each other emerges, we follow breathlessly into a kind of mesmerizing psychosocial-cultural drama.... [O]n each reading, it gained a kind of substance—it somehow grew—until I felt it resembled a house of rooms. It gained a personality. In the end, I felt that I knew, personally, Vincent McGee and Richard Barrett... I do not remember a nonfiction book that seemed to bring me so close to its subjects." — Garden & Gun magazine

“Safran’s book will make readers chuckle, fidget, and turn page after page wondering what will happen next as the author looks to find the truth about the murder of a white supremacist by a black man in the deep South…. This true crime book will stick with readers. Safran does a great job of looking at the murder from multiple perspectives and brings in his own experience learning about the culture, which is in itself a character. For fans of true crime, Southern tales, and books similar to Capote’s [In Cold Blood] and John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”  —Library Journal, STARRED review

“It's not often that the retelling of a brutal murder is full of laughs but documentarian and debut author Safran is an entertaining writer… Weaving a tale that is simultaneously about race, failed systems, money, sex, family and simple rage, Safran truly did lose a year in Mississippi, and getting lost with him is a joy.”  —Kirkus, STARRED review

“[T]his stranger-than-fiction true crime story finds Safran—a white, Jewish documentary filmmaker from Australia—relocating to Rankin County, Miss., to dig deep into the grisly stabbing murder of a 67-year-old white supremacist in April 2010… [A] bizarrely unsettling, yet often witty book that paints a disturbing picture of the deep South today.”  —Publishers Weekly

"Funny and gripping and wonderfully weird." —Louis Theroux, BBC journalist

From the Publisher

10/13/2014
Originally published in Australia as Murder in Mississippi in 2013, this stranger-than-fiction true crime story finds Safran—a white, Jewish documentary filmmaker from Australia—relocating to Rankin County, Miss., to dig deep into the grisly stabbing murder of a 67-year-old white supremacist in April 2010. A 23-year-old African-American man named Vincent McGee pleaded guilty in the case, but this was no run-of-the-mill race crime. With allegations swirling of a money-for-sex relationship between the founder of a white nationalist organization and his black neighbor, the lure was too great for Safran (a self-proclaimed “Race Trekkie”) to resist. Armed with his Dictaphone and a thirst for the truth, Safran tracks down and interviews nearly all individuals associated with the case, resulting in wildly opposing accounts of what happened that spring evening. Safran chronicles the twists and turns of the case through his own interactions with key players, coloring the narrative with text messages and Facebook posts that he received at the time. The result is a bizarrely unsettling, yet often witty book that paints a disturbing picture of the deep South today. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Funny and gripping and wonderfully weird.”

BBC journalist Louis Theroux

A hilarious and bizarre story that leads where you least expect it. John Safran has for years been one of my favorite journalists—forever pushing the boundaries, funny, startling, a hurricane.”

New York Times bestselling author Jon Ronson

Imagine In Cold Blood written not by Capote by an Australian, higher-brow Johnny Knoxville.”

New York Magazine

A sharp sense of humor, wise pacing, and plain, powerful writing, makes this book into a deeper experience than you suspect…A kind of mesmerizing psychosocial-cultural drama…I do not remember a nonfiction book that seemed to bring me so close to its subjects.”

Garden & Gun

John Safran’s captivating inquiry into a murder in darkest Mississippi is by turns informative, frightening, and hilarious. It is enlivened by a swarm of creepy locals and a torrent of astonishing details—such as hedge clippers put to surgical use in the performance of an official autopsy.”

New York Times bestselling author John Berendt

06/15/2014
After interviewing infamous white supremacist Richard Barrett in Mississippi for a film on race, Safran, a white Jewish Australian documentarian born in that state, learned that Barrett had been murdered by a young black man named Vincent McGee. He returned to investigate. As he shows here, the crime was a lot more complicated than what it first appeared to be: an inversion of the race crimes that dominated the Old South. The book promises to be an impassioned study of race, money, sex, and power, with a touch of humor.

Library Journal

Let’s play word association. Look at the subtitle and tell me what comes to mind. Sweltering Delta nights? A combustible racist brew? A murder whose motive is—what? Race? Sex? Money? Here’s a twist: The victim is a notorious white supremacist, and the murderer is a young African-American. It’s a complicated story, and it’s told by—wait for it—an Australian movie director and narrated by Tom Bromhead who is also—Australian. Are you still with me? Bromhead has a steady, clear voice, and he paces himself well, but the mismatch between the subject matter and the upbeat, bouncy narration creates too much incongruity to be believable. That’s a shame because Bromhead and the book are both good—but not together. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2015 - AudioFile

★ 2014-10-08
A murdered white supremacist sparks a remarkable investigation that is anything but straightforward.It's not often that the retelling of a brutal murder is full of laughs, but documentarian and debut author Safran is an entertaining writer. After becoming fascinated by the true crime genre, in 2010, he heard about the murder of white supremacist Richard Barrett, whom he had once pranked for a TV series. Armed with some personal knowledge of the victim, Safran headed for Mississippi, where he expected to uncover a racially charged crime and a defendant deserving his sympathy. However, he discovered that Barrett's black neighbors were mourning the victim, unaware that he was racist. That confusion was only the beginning. Whispers of homosexuality, possible schizophrenia and more continued to surface, with each new layer murkier than the last. Safran bounced among police and lawyers and families, neighbors, acquaintances and enemies of both the victim and perpetrator, and he documents every step, misstep, conspiracy theory and just plain weird encounter. While laughing at himself and the often absurd situations in which he was embroiled, Safran creates a rare animal: a true-crime account that provides no hard answers or even smoking guns but plenty of promised ones. The narrative moves in so many directions it feels like a carnival fun house—though it's always a pleasurable reading experience. Safran never found a way to neatly wrap up the story. Instead, he presents all the layers and angles, portraying a world that is more than black and white, where sometimes the absolute truth is an impossible dream and the only option left is acceptance of a flawed mystery. Weaving a tale that is simultaneously about race, failed systems, money, sex, family and simple rage, Safran truly did lose a year in Mississippi, and getting lost with him is a joy.

Kirkus Reviews