Publisher:
Free Press
Pages: 464
Source:
Review copy from publisher
Genre: Adult,
Non-fiction
A CASE FOR SOLOMON: BOBBY DUNBAR AND THE KIDNAPPING THAT
HAUNTED A NATION chronicles one of the most celebrated—and most
misunderstood—kidnapping cases in American history. In 1912, four-year-old
Bobby Dunbar, the son of an upper-middle-class Louisiana family, went missing
in the swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and
destroyed Bobby’s parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recognizable,
in the pinewoods of southern Mississippi. A wandering piano tuner who had been
shuttling the child throughout the region by wagon for months was arrested and
charged with kidnapping—a crime that was punishable by death at the time. But
when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the
boy as her son, not Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle
over custody—and identity—that divided the South. Amid an ever-thickening
tangle of suspicion and doubt, two mothers and a father struggled to assert
their rightful parenthood over the child, both to the public and to themselves.
For two years, lawyers dissected and newspapers sensationalized every aspect of
the story. Psychiatrists, physicians, criminologists, and private detectives
debated the piano tuner’s guilt and the boy’s identity. And all the while the
boy himself remained peculiarly guarded on the question of who he was. It took
nearly a century, a curiosity that had been passed down through generations, and
the science of DNA to discover the truth.
A Case for Solomon is a gripping historical mystery, distilled
from a trove of personal and archival research. The story of Bobby Dunbar,
fought over by competing New Orleans tabloids, the courts, and the citizenry of
two states, offers a case study in yellow journalism, emergent forensic
science, and criminal justice in the turn-of-the-century American South. It is
a drama of raw poverty and power and an exposÉ of how that era defined and
defended motherhood, childhood, and community. First told in a stunning episode
of National Public Radio’s This American Life, A Case for Solomon chronicles the epic
struggle to determine one child’s identity, along the way probing unsettling
questions about the formation of memory, family, and self.
My Thoughts:
This is one of those books that sticks with you for a
while. I was horrified to learn
the role the press played in this whole fiasco. We really have not learned from past mistakes. When Bobby Dunbar went missing, no
stone was left unturned. Yet when
a boy was found who was similar in looks, the press was there to “get the story”. I felt like they were willing to make
the story fit a happy ending no matter what.
My sympathies went to Julia Anderson who had no resources due to
her financial circumstances. I was
pleased to learn the truth had been found but saddened by the pain everyone
involved in this case suffered.
The authors have done a tremendous amount of research and have successfully
told the story in a way that carried the reader along, making them want to know
what happened next.
We are given a look at the time period and how things worked for
those who had and those had not.
In this day and age we have the benefit of DNA testing. Yet I wonder how much the press would be able to skew the
opinions of all parties involved.
It is sad that so many lives have been destroyed. Yet I feel that a mystery was left
unanswered in this story. I don’t
know if anyone will ever solve that mystery. This is definitely worth the read.
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