Deer Creek Drive
A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta
2 of 2 copies available
In 1948, in the most stubbornly Dixiefied corner of the Jim Crow south, society matron Idella Thompson was viciously murdered in her own home: stabbed at least 150 times and left facedown in one of the bathrooms. Her daughter, Ruth Dickins, was the only other person in the house. She told authorities a Black man she didn’t recognize had fled the scene, but no evidence of the man's presence was uncovered. When Dickins herself was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, the community exploded. Petitions pleading for her release were drafted, signed, and circulated, and after only six years, the governor of Mississippi granted Ruth Dickins an indefinite suspension of her sentence and she was set free.
In Deer Creek Drive, Beverly Lowry—who was ten at the time of the murder and lived mere miles from the Thompsons’ home—tells a story of white privilege that still has ramifications today, and reflects on the brutal crime, its aftermath, and the ways it clarified her own upbringing in Mississippi.
Cover images: (pruning shears) Tragedy-of-the-Month, 1949, Triangle Publications, Inc.; (background) Special Collections, University of Mississippi Libraries
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 2, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593590157
- File size: 473738 KB
- Duration: 16:26:57
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 20, 2022
In this thought-provoking memoir, Lowry (Who Killed These Girls? The Unsolved Murders That Rocked a Texas Town) weaves her story of growing up in mid-20th-century Mississippi with the story of a white socialite’s murder and its aftermath. In 1948, Idella Thompson, the widow of a prominent planter, was stabbed 150 times in her house in Leland, deep in the Mississippi Delta. The victim’s 42-year-old daughter, Ruth Dickins, was home at the time and claimed a Black man was the killer. Given the lack of evidence pointing to an unknown intruder, Dickins was eventually left as the only suspect. She was brought to trial, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison in 1949. However, after Dickins’s well-off white friends and family applied political pressure and embarked on a letter-writing campaign, Dickins was released having spent six years in prison and given a full pardon. Focusing less on the crime itself and more on white privilege in that time and place, Lowry elegantly details Southern daily life and the struggles for equality that eventually led to desegregation. This timely reminder of the injustices of America’s past deserves a wide readership. Agent: Anne-Lise Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary. -
June 10, 2024
In 1948, prominent widow Idella Thompson was viciously murdered in her home in Leland, MS, on Deer Creek Drive, the town's most affluent street. Idella's daughter, Ruth Dickins, claimed that she and her mother were attacked by an unknown Black man. However, evidence clearly pointed to Ruth, and she was eventually arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Author Lowry (Who Killed These Girls?), who was ten at the time and living in the nearby town of Greenville, interweaves her own family narrative into her meticulous reconstruction of the crime and aftermath. Ruth eventually served only seven years of her sentence before she was released and pardoned by the governor. The state of Mississippi's history of racial discrimination (another headline-making story of the time involved the death of Emmett Till) is a prevailing element throughout. As the author notes, present-day residents of Leland, MS, are still reluctant to discuss details about the Thompson murder. Lowry's narration is clear and authoritative, conveying the knowledge of someone close to the subject. VERDICT A vivid and descriptive account of a chilling crime and the environment in which it occurred. True crime fans will be captivated.--Phillip Oliver
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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