When Good Men Do Nothing: The Assassination of Albert Patterson (Alabama Fire Ant) Review

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(More customer reviews)I love history and I'm one of those buffs who usually slowly juggles several eras at once, some because of mild interest and others out of a sense of obligation. Last Friday, someone at work lent me Alan Grady's When Good Men Do Nothing, telling me he was positive I would like it. I asked how long I could keep the book because I was in the middle of several rather lengthy bestsellers and would not be able to get to it anytime soon. Friday night, out of mild curiosity, I read the first page and before I knew it, I had lost two good night's sleep. My wife finally told me that I had to put the book down.
Reading the first page is akin to eating one potato chip or one peanut; don't start if you have other plans for the next several days. This is truly an incredible book, well-researched, unpredictable and with a slate of characters so bizarre, you can't believe this really happened. It did, though.
Albert Patterson was a small town lawyer in the 1950's in Phenix City, Alabama, the "Wickedest city in America". The major industry in Phenix City in the first half of the 20th century was the peddling of sin. Prostitution, gambling and almost every other vice were not only available on every corner, but most everyone in the city government and law enforcement were not only supportive of the system, but were actively participating in it. This is the story of a few good men who decided to stand up to the mob and what it ultimately cost them.
Buy this book. I promise you won't be disappointed.

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Product Description:
On June 18, 1954, former state senator Albert Patterson, the Democratic Party's nominee for state attorney general, was shot to death as he left his law office in Phenix City, Alabama, infamous for its prostitution, gambling, bootlegging, and political corruption. Patterson had made the cleanup of Phenix City his primary campaign promise. With millions of dollars in illegal income and hundreds of political and professional careers at stake, the question surrounding Patterson's murder was not "why," but "who" pulled the trigger. Although the subject matter of this book is lurid, the scholarship is flawless. Alan Grady has mined the state's original murder case files; the private papers of John Patterson, Albert's son; previously unreleased material from the Office of Alabama Attorney General (who directed the subsequent murder investigation); the case files of the Alabama Department of Toxicology and Criminal Investigation; official National Guard reports; and more than 30 original interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses to the events described.Grady's account takes a story of complicated dimensions - a spider's web of alliances and allegiances, a large cast of judicial, criminal, and political players, and a knotted sequence of investigative revelations and deadends - and transforms it into a highly readable and incisive analysis of the powers and loyalties that governed, and corrupted to the core, the body politic of the state. Historians, political scientists, and criminal justice experts; fans of police stories, courtroom dramas, and murder mysteries; military personnel; or movie screenwriters - all will be enthralled and educated by this authoritative account of the most compelling crime drama in Alabama during the 20th century.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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