Book Review: Hixson, W. L. (2001). Murder, Culture, and Injustice: Four Sensational Cases in History. Akron, OH: University of Akron Press. 274 pp

• DOI: 10.1177/0734016807300511
• Author: Wade C. Myers
• Published date: 01 June 2007
• Date: 01 June 2007
• Subject Matter: Articles

Book Reviews

Hixson, W. L. (2001). Murder, Culture, and Injustice:

Four Sensational Cases in History. Akron, OH:

University of Akron Press. 274 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016807300511

In this well-written work, Hixon covers what he calls “four sensational murder trials” from

American history. The uniting theme for this collection is that each one of them resulted in a

miscarriage of justice due to cultural influences. As the author aptly states, “Although the ver-

dicts in these cases were issued in a hall of justice, in reality they were decided in the prover-

bial court of public opinion.” The cases span a little more than the past century and involve

defendants Lizzie Borden, Bruno Hauptmann, Sam Sheppard, and O. J. Simpson.

Being a psychiatrist who works in a forensic and research capacity with murderers, and

also being a lifelong student of history, I eagerly approached this book and was not disap-

pointed. As a bonus, the writing style is engrossing and can best be described as creative

nonfiction. Aiding its novelesque flow is the avoidance of footnotes. Rather, Hixon has

added a critical biography at the end that reviews the merits and drawbacks of his sources.

Hixon’s concise introduction sets the stage for this homicide sampler. He points out that

trials are not independent, objective procedures with a logical conclusion that is based on the

intrinsic worth of a set of facts. Instead, they are fragile entities susceptible to outside influ-

ences. Their outcome pivots on such capricious factors as public pressure, media attention,

investigator competence, attorney skill, jury bias, judicial prejudice, race, gender, class, and

ethnicity. This is no less the case with the four cases found in Murder, Culture, and Injustice.

Hixon captures the tragedy that befalls the truth, theoretically the ideal of blind Lady Justice,

as it falls casualty to these phenomena.

Chapter 1, “Gendered Justice,” covers the case of Lizzie Borden. Her parents,Abby and

Andrew Borden, at first glance had fallen prey to a hatchet-wielding maniac intruder. They

took 19 and 12 hatchet strikes to the head, respectively, on August 4, 1892. Their 32-year-

old spinster daughter, Lizzie, eventually was arrested and charged with their murders. Yet

could a Fall River, Massachusetts court countenance the inconceivable: that a pious,

churchgoing, Sunday school teacher could morph into some sort of heinous monster capable

of killing her own parents? Of course, no piece on this case would be complete without the

associated macabre ditty that Hixon has included:

Lizzie Borden took an axe,

And gave her mother forty whacks.

And when she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one.

Chapter 2, “Vengeance,” addresses the catastrophe that struck the lives of Charles and

Anne Lindbergh on March 1, 1932. Their 20-month-old son, Charles Lindbergh Jr., was kid-

napped from a second-story bedroom window at the family’s 400-acre estate near Hopewell,

New Jersey. The Lindberghs were already a famous couple across North America and

beyond. In 1927, Charles had become a national hero by becoming the first pilot to fly across

the Atlantic Ocean solo in The Spirit of St. Louis and remains a household name. A barely

literate note was left behind demanding $50,000 in ransom and warning the family not to

167

Criminal Justice Review

Volume 32 Number 2

June 2007 167-168

© 2007 Georgia State University

Research Foundation, Inc.

http://cjr.sagepub.com

hosted at

http://online.sagepub.com