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Are you sure it was the last lynching?
The comment from an English teacher at Lord Fairfax Community College was one I had heard before. It went something like this: “This wasn’t the last lynching in Northern Virginia. There was another one that came later.” John Owens, a librarian at Lord Fairfax, reported the comment to me. John said that a teacher at
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Why no mention of the Klan?
The first thing that Daniel de Butts said to me when we met last week was, “Why didn’t you say anything about the Klan in your book?” De Butts assumed that I had been pressured by prominent Fauquier County residents to keep any reference to the Ku Klux Klan out of The Last Lynching in Northern
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For this old reporter, lynch coverage was embarrassing
Shedrick Thompson’s attack on the Baxleys and the discovery of his body hanging from an apple tree were big news in Fauquier County in 1932. The Fauquier Democrat, the county weekly, followed the case closely, as did daily newspapers in nearby Strasburg, Winchester, Front Royal and throughout Virginia. I found 29 stories about the Thompson
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Making room for a late arrival
One of the great things about writing for a newspaper is that you can make changes to your story right up to the last minute. That’s not to say that the editors will be happy when you do. But you can, and I did many times. Writing a book is very different, as I learned
Author & Lecturer
Jim Hall 