The Whole Truth?: A Case of Murder on the Appalachian Trail

This is a good book. It exposes some of the extreme prejudice against lesbians. To stalk and murder a woman because she is gay is beyond fanatic hatred. If you're a lesbian this book will outrage you. Once you realize how vulnerable you can be it will make you really mad, and more careful.

This is an excellent book. It details the shooting of Rebecca Wight and Claudia Brenner, two lesbians hiking near the Appalachian Trail in Adams County, Pennsylvania. When Stephen Roy Carr, the "mountain man," saw them engaged in sexual activity, he shot at them with a .22 caliber rifle, killing Wight and injuring Brenner. What follows is a reconstruction of those events, Carr's subsequent capture, and the legal proceedings that followed. Pohlman does an excellent job describing the events that occured that day in the woods in May 1988 - so well that it reads like a murder mystery. He is also equally strong in presenting the legal issues at hand. Did Carr shoot the women because of his anti-homosexual beliefs, or was he simply jealous? Could the victims and their families expect justice in a conservative small town such as Gettysburg, PA, where the jury could conceivably lessen Carr's crime because of their own anti-homosexual beliefs? The author makes good use of interviews with the prosecuting and defense attorneys in the case, as well as with the State Police officers associated with the investigation. One quickly realizes that what would appear to be an open-and-shut case - no one really belived Carr *didn't* shoot the women - can easily develop into a complcitaed web of legal issues. This happens as easily in small-town America as it does in O.J. Simpson's L.A.I grew up in Adams County, and I was in junior high when this incident happened. I remembered hearing about it and even remember seeing it in the local news paper. For me, it was incredibly interesting to go back as an adult and read about these events. Just recently, I was able to use the author's description of the crime scene to retrace the steps Brenner and Wight took on that fateful day. That should give you some idea as to how detailed this book is.

Pohlman, a political science professor, has done an excellent job of shedding light on the inner workings of the criminal justice system and raising issues with which every thoughtful American should be concerned. I read this book in two sittings and found it fascinating. The story is dramatic, the writing tight and clear, and the treatment of the issues even-handed.