One day in June 1921, the editor of the Herald newspaper in Troy, Alabama finally had enough. On his desk lay a clipping from the previous Sunday’s Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle. “An Assassin’s Monument,” the headline said. It had been reprinted in papers from coast to coast.

The editor angrily banged out his reply to the Eagle on a manual typewriter. “The people of our city to do not appreciate the publicity we are getting out of this thing,” he fumed.

You couldn’t blame them. After all, for 15 years the tiny town of Troy, tucked in the southeast corner of Alabama, had been stuck with a notoriety not of its own making. Continue reading →