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Goat Castle

A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South

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Goat Castle

By: Karen L. Cox
Narrated by: Pam Ward
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About this listen

In 1932, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, reckoned with an unexpected influx of journalists and tourists as the lurid story of a local murder was splashed across headlines nationwide. Two eccentrics, Richard Dana and Octavia Dockery, enlisted an African American man named George Pearls to rob their reclusive neighbor, Jennie Merrill, at her estate. During the attempted robbery, Merrill was shot and killed.

The crime drew national coverage when it came to light that Dana and Dockery, the alleged murderers, shared their huge, decaying antebellum mansion with their goats and other livestock, which prompted journalists to call the estate "Goat Castle". Pearls was killed by an Arkansas policeman in an unrelated incident before he could face trial. However, as was all too typical in the Jim Crow South, the white community demanded "justice", and an innocent black woman named Emily Burns was ultimately sent to prison for the murder of Merrill. Dana and Dockery not only avoided punishment but also lived to profit from the notoriety of the murder.

Strange, fascinating, and sobering, Goat Castle tells the story of this local feud, killing, investigation, and trial, showing how a true crime tale of fallen southern grandeur and murder obscured an all too familiar story of racial injustice.

©2017 Karen L. Cox (P)2017 Tantor
Murder Racism & Discrimination State & Local United States Mississippi
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" Goat Castle is a riveting exploration of a true crime that illuminates the complicated relationship between race and the law in the post-Civil War South." ( Foreword Reviews)

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Fascinating tale of murder bigotry and racism

Didn't know about this.
GOSH what a story. You'd laugh at the melodramatic plot if you didn't know this really happened.
Shocking how bigotry and racism intervened in the court case. Hold on Nothing much has changed in 2023 !!!
Too many black people being oppressed and blamed.
Very good tale but so sad that nearly a 100 years later, society hasn't changed much

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