On the morning of May 4, 2003, a well-loved, hard-working freshman student named Katie Autry was found dead in her dormitory room at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. She had been raped, stabbed, drenched in hairspray, and set on fire. The story of Katie's horrific murder made local headlines-and there was a huge public outcry to bring her killer to justice...
Stephen Soules, an unemployed high school dropout, had given Katie a ride home from a party on the night of her murder. With him was Lucas Goodrum, a twenty-one-year-old, sometime drug dealer with a known history of domestic abuse. Soules claimed that Goodrum forced him to participate in the crime, and received a life sentence in a plea deal. But what really happened in Katie's dorm room that night? And which of the two accused is the real killer? Cruel Heart is the true story of a crime that sent shockwaves through a small Southern town-and the mysteries that still remain...

Cruel Heart: The True Story of a Beautiful Co-ed, a Vicious Murder, and the Trial that Tore Apart a Town

Biographies & Memoirs

Van Meter, William

True Crime

St. Martin's True Crime

By the lights of absolutely everyone who ever knew her, Katie Autry never harmed a hair on a dog's head. She came from a tiny village in Kentucky. The State moved her as a child into a foster home in a town so small it had one stoplight. New to her own beauty and a little awkward, Katie had the biggest smile on her high school cheerleading squad. In September 2002, she matriculated as a freshman at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. She majored in the dental program, but as it was for many college students her age, partying was of equal priority. She worked days at the smoothie shop, nights at the local strip club, and fell in love with a football player who wouldn't date her. Five feet two in heels and without a bad word to say about anyone, Katie Autry was sweet, kind, and utterly naïve. She was making the clumsy strides of a newborn colt, discovering what the world was like and learning to be her own person. And on the morning of May 4, 2003, Katie Autry was raped, stabbed, sprayed with hairspray, and set on fire in her own dormitory room. In telling the true story of this shocking crime, Bluegrass describes the devastation of not one but three families. Two young men, whose lives seem preordained to intertwine, are jailed for the crime: DNA evidence places Stephen Soules, an unemployed, mixed-race high school dropout, atthe scene, and Lucas Goodrum, a twenty-one-year-old pot dealer with an ex-wife, a girlfriend still in high school, and an inauspicious history of domestic abuse, is held by an ever-changing confession. The friends of the suspects and the foster and birth families of the victim form complex and warring social nets that are cast across town. And a small southern community, populated by eccentrics of every socioeconomic class, from dirt-poor to millionaire, responds to the horror. Like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, this tale is redolent with atmosphere, dark tension, and lush landscapes. With the keen eye of a talented young journalist returning to his southern roots, Van Meter paints a vivid portrait of the town, the characters who fill it, and the simmering class conflicts that made an injustice like this not only possible, but inevitable.

Bluegrass: A True Story of Murder in Kentucky

History

Americas

Free Press

A shocking investigation into a true crime that tore a town apart—the violent murder of a young coed in Kentucky, the innocent boy who was jailed for the crime, and a small Southern community filled with haunting, unforgettable characters. Katie Autry was a foster child from a tiny village in Kentucky; a little awkward, but always with the biggest smile on her high school cheerleading squad. In September 2002, she matriculated as a freshman at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, majoring in the dental program. She worked days at the smoothie shop, nights at the local strip club, and fell in love with a football player who wouldn’t date her. On the morning of May 4, 2003, Katie Autry was raped, stabbed, sprayed with hairspray, and set on fire in her own dormitory room. In telling the true story of this shocking crime, William Van Meter describes the devastation of not one but three families. Two young men are jailed for the crime: DNA evidence places Stephen Soules, an unemployed, mixed-race high school dropout, at the scene; and Lucas Goodrum, a twenty-one-year-old pot dealer with an ex-wife, a girlfriend still in high school, and a history of domestic abuse, is held by an ever-changing confession. The friends of the suspects and the foster and birth families of the victim form complex and warring social nets that are cast across town. And a small southern community, populated by eccentrics of every socioeconomic class, from dirt-poor to millionaire, responds to the horror. With the keen eye of a talented young journalist returning to his southern roots, Van Meter paints a vivid portrait of the town, the characters who fill it, and the simmering class conflicts that made an injustice like this not only possible, but inevitable. Like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Bluegrass is redolent with atmosphere, dark tension, and lush landscapes.

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

Books by Van Meter, William

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

Cruel Heart: The True Story of a Beautiful Co-ed, a Vicious Murder, and the Trial that Tore Apart a Town

Bluegrass: A True Story of Murder in Kentucky

Bluegrass: A True Story of Murder in Kentucky