On a chilly evening in fall of 1966, Annie Jean Barnes left her home in East Brewton, Alabama, to spend time at a secluded fishing camp owned by a local doctor. Less than forty-eight hours later she was hospitalized--beaten and abused. Within a week, she was dead. And, it would seem, willfully forgotten by the citizens of Brewton--the more prosperous area on the west side of Murder Creek--who soon came to refer to the fate of Jean Barnes as an "unfortunate incident."The 2003 publication of Suzanne Hudson's novel In a Temple of Trees raised the ghost of Annie Jean. Present at Hudson's premiere book signing in Brewton, Joe Formichella met Barnes' surviving children and became moved to tell the story in full. Who was culpable for their mother's death? The town physician who owned the camp? The authorities who mishandled the subsequent investigation? Had there been a cover-up? With so much evidence either contradictory or mysteriously missing, was there now any way to bring anyone to justice?Formichella, in seeking those answers, found instead a larger question: What would justice mean for a community built as though it were a functioning social model for certain principals set down in the deeply flawed Alabama state constitution--a document penned in 1901 by wealthy land-owners and politicians, seeking to keep the riff-raff at bay? Systems of justice, in Alabama, and throughout America, should be designed to protect precisely those citizens too poor to wield any kind of influence. This is the story of a breakdown in that system, a clarion call for its correction, and a ray of hope for those who have waited too long for the answer to the simple question: Who Beat Annie Barnes?"Murder Creek is an astounding story told powerfully and proudly. The unfolding facts pull the reader like a rip tide. I soon found myself engulfed in the quagmire of this real-life mystery story that wouldn't let go." -- Wayne Greenhaw, coauthor of The Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People Who Broke the Back of Jim Crow.Murder Creek was a national Forward Magazine and IPPY true-crime book of the year finalist.

Murder Creek: The "Unfortunate Incident" of Annie Jean Barnes

Formichella, Joe

Constitutional Law

Independently published

"Author investigates 1966 death and questions multitude of crime experts, law enforcement officers, and citizens, including many who, so it was said, would never speak about the 'unfortunate incident' of Annie Jean's death. A tale of how the upper class often gets its way through violence and coercion"--Provided by publisher.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

River City Pub

What Primary Colors by Anonymous did for the Clintons, Schopenhauer's Maxim by Formichella does for the politics of the religious right. Part political intrigue, part fairy tale, and all humor, at its darkest and most noir.

Schopenhauer's Maxim

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Livingston Pr

"...although we know these marginal folks might be a train wreck waiting to happen, we would dearly miss them if they weren't there--refusing to fit neatly, safely beneath the bell curve."--R.P. Saffire, author of Shoe Burnin' Season: A WomanifestoLumpers is a family story, or rather, it's a story about what constitutes a family, a lot like what constitutes a rock-and-roll band: if it works, it's worth it, all other expectations be damned. The principal lumpers, Steph Abrams and Tony Zimbarco, chance to meet in Tripoli, Pennsylvania, in 1979, and commence assembling their ad hoc family piece by piece. Before long they are a full fledged unit, with a matriarch, of sorts, a patriarch, certainly, a designated pet, habits, rituals, even their own holiday. But it is in no way a textbook family, would never be sanctioned. As such, it is open to questioning, criticism, ridicule, and judgment. They ignore it all.The lumpers are just one portion of the legions of folks who work behind the scenes, the folks we rely on to keep the shelves stocked, the streets clean, the ports operating, and the systems we depend on so thoroughly functioning. They make no headlines, unless something goes wrong. They receive no accolades or attention, unless they deviate. When that happens, then they're noticed.For our Lumpers, though, deviation is the only option. In a life so otherwise proscribed, a life dictated by an indifferent and unforgiving time clock, deviation is survival. So they do, regularly, from the poolroom to the basketball court, the baseball stadium and the laundry mat. They ignore traffic rules and social mores equally. For that they are deemed unacceptable, irresponsible.But those judgments reveal more about the adjudicators than the condemned. Because just as we are certainly glad that they do what they do, that is, that they perform their jobs, even if that appreciation is only expressed by the assumption that they will - or pathetic whining when they don't - in the case of the Lumpers, life is clearly more fun when they're around, and we're definitely going to miss them when they're gone."Because all lives start with a crash, don't they?"-- Joe Taylor, author of Pineapple, Ghostly Demarcations

Lumpers, Longnecks, and One-Eyed Jacks: A 70s Recipe for a Rainy Day

Humor & Satire

The Last Best Class of Fish River Community School had lost one of its members every year since the second grade. Waffle Houses were popping up throughout small-town Alabama with one corporate rule: "Good Food Fast." Struggling to cope with the tragedy that shadowed him most of his life, Dr. Jimmy Ryan dedicated himself to bringing people back from the brink, driven by his own guiding principle "Ain't Dead Yet." Not until Jimmy's own death did the folks at the Waffle House in Penelope, Alabama, learn the full extent of the secrets buried with the dead. Secrets resurrected over hot coffee refills at the Waffle House.

Waffle House Rules

River's Edge Media, LLC

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Formichella, Joe. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Formichella, Joe

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Formichella, Joe. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Murder Creek: The "Unfortunate Incident" of Annie Jean Barnes

Murder Creek: The "Unfortunate Incident" of Annie Jean Barnes

Schopenhauer's Maxim

Schopenhauer's Maxim

Lumpers, Longnecks, and One-Eyed Jacks: A 70s Recipe for a Rainy Day

Waffle House Rules