The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo

I would highly recommend this book as a companion to Mary Stanton's book, "From Selma to Sorrow." The May account is far more gritty and insistent on exposing the ugliness of both the Liuzzo events and the predjudices of the time. The book is a terrible journey into a land and a time of inner and outer darkness and turmoil.

Exhaustively researched and beautifully crafted, this book provides a much needed insight into the inherent flaws and complication posed by the FBI's informant system. It's historical -- in the sense of looking at historical events -- but it's also extremely relevant to the problems of today.

Gary May is a talented storyteller and his account of what happened to Viola Liuzzo is riveting. I spent Christmas week with his book in hand, taking every opportune moment to continue learning about this young mother's quest to do something right about the civil rights movement and how she was partly the victim of Hoover's FBI. Often, I felt that I was traveling along with Liuzzo as May's tale unfolded - I felt I was in the... Read Full Review

Forty years ago, a civil rights movement grew in the south that was opposed by white supremacists who thought blacks should not have equal opportunities in shopping, dining, transportation, and education, and who were ready to use violence to maintain segregation. The murder in Alabama of white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo on 25 March 1965 got the immediate attention of the nation, and of President Johnson, who was proud... Read Full Review

Gary May brilliantly tells the story of the murder of civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo on March 25, 1965, and exposes the violent misdeeds of KKK members, who mostly considered themselves to be doing "God's work" when they harrassed, beat, and murdered blacks as well as white citizens who were unfortunate enough to get in the way. The career of the self-centered, attention hungry, redneck informant Gary Thomas Rowe is skillfully... Read Full Review