What lessons can the now-deceased Harper Lee teach a modern-day investigative journalist? Writer Casey Cep retraced Lee’s footsteps to a small town in Alabama to find out. She reopened a 1970s murder case that Lee had once obsessively followed: a rural preacher named Reverend Willie Maxwell who was accused of killing five of his family members for insurance money.
Cep implanted herself in Coosa County and set out to retrace Maxwell’s trial. Like Lee, Cep interviewed townspeople about the case, but she also sought out anecdotes about Harper Lee herself.
Who was the brilliant and private woman behind“To Kill A Mockingbird,” and what were her personal politics and literary ideals?
Host Frank Stasio talks with Casey Cep about her book “Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and The Last Trial of Harper Lee” (Knopf/ 2019) which contextualizes Maxwell’s trial with modern sensibilities and brings to light new information about Harper Lee and her miserable perfectionism.
Note: This program originally aired August 14, 2019.