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A Devil Went Down to Georgia
Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton
Table of Contents
About The Book
The 1987 murder of Lita McClinton Sullivan sent shockwaves through the affluent Atlanta suburb of Buckhead, Georgia like few other crimes before it. The neighborhood, with its stately mansions and top-tier schools, was simply not the kind of place where women were gunned down in cold blood in broad daylight. How many socialites had enemies so dangerous they would be murdered by a hitman pretending to deliver roses on an early winter morning?
Lita was an intelligent, accomplished, and stunning Black woman from a respected Atlanta family. Her interracial marriage to white millionaire Jim Sullivan, who hailed from working-class Boston, was a newsworthy occurrence in 1970s Georgia. For a while, the couple made the marriage work, but it wasn’t long before Jim’s roving eye and controlling nature put Lita on edge. When he bought a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida (without telling her), the façade of their life together began to crumble. Finally, after a decade of marriage, she loaded her belongings in a U-Haul and never looked back.
But as the legal battle over the divorce raged and Jim’s financial outlook grew precarious, he had a chance encounter with a long-haul trucker, a smooth-talking ex-con who said he could he’d "take care" of Jim’s wife problem. . . .
In A Devil Went Down to Georgia, award-winning writer Deb Miller Landau details the shocking events that followed Lita’s murder in 1987, including the surprising lack of evidence, racial bias in the justice system, and the international manhunt for Lita’s killer. Full of twists and turns, legal battles, and the McClinton family’s unrelenting dedication to justice, Landau's rigorous investigation is the first complete account of this tragic American crime.
Product Details
- Publisher: Pegasus Crime (September 26, 2024)
- Length: 256 pages
- ISBN13: 9781639366835
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Raves and Reviews
“This is an important story of race and justice and of a crime still very much unresolved. As a Southerner, I know just how vital-and how delicate-this work can be. Through impeccable research and vibrant writing, Miller Landau has told a story that is both riveting and respectful of all that happened.”
– Brooke Baldwin, former CNN anchor, director, on-air host, and bestselling author of Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power
“Deb Miller Landau’s heartbreaking true crime tale of murder and greed is a meticulously researched portrayal of an accomplished young Black woman’s extraordinary life and cruel death. Obscured behind the lies and manipulations of her charming, obsessive, white millionaire husband, the breathtaking narrative unravels the facts behind the investigations and multiple trials to finally reveal the shocking truth."
– Deborah Holt Larkin, author of A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California’s Most Notorious Killer
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