Peculiar Tribe of People: Murder And Madness In The Heart Of Georgia

On May 12, 1960, as John F. Kennedy campaigned for the presidency, Chester Burge―slumlord, liquor runner, and the black sheep of the proud (and wealthy) Dunlap family of Macon, Georgia―lay in a hospital bed, recovering from surgery. He listened to the radio as the news reported that his wife had just been murdered. Police soon ruled out robbery as a motive, and suspicion centered upon the Ku Klux Klan, which two weeks earlier had descended upon his house to protest his renting of homes in white neighborhoods to black families. Then, on June 1, Chester was charged with the murder, and when the trial finally began, the sweet Southern town of Macon witnessed a story of epic proportions―a tale of white-columned mansions, an insane asylum, real people as “Southern grotesque” as the characters of Flannery O’Connor, and a volatile mix of taboo interracial relationships and homosexuality.

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