the ballad of frankie silver

[glowbelly]

-by sharyn mccrumb

i grabbed this book from my aunt's desk while on vacation because i finally had some down time where i could read for a bit. i didn't really know what to expect. the little blurb on the back of the book made it sound like a pretty good read. i was right.

it's the tale of frankie silver, who was one of the first white women to be hung in north carolina for murder. she killed her husband. you can still go visit his graves (there are 3) in north carolina.

the author did a good job with all the research seeing that the murder took place in the 1830's. i also liked how she touched on some more global issues in regards to class and the judicial system.

it's not the best book i've ever read, but i was pleasantly surprised.

[executioneer]

wait how does he have three graves, did she chop him up :eek

[glowbelly]

she did, sorta. well, the story goes she killed him with an axe then chopped him up and burned part of him and then threw the rest of the bits around the mountain when she ran out of wood. it was winter, so as the spring thaw hit they found more and more parts of him. i guess back in those days it was bad news bears to desecrate a grave, so they created 2 more as they found more pieces parts.

i kinda left out the twist cause i didn't want to ruin the book, so if you go a-googlin and the story comes up a bit different, you'll know why.