Review: Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found

Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another stellar book from Gilbert King. Beneath a Ruthless Sun is the story of Jesse Daniels, who in 1950s rural Florida finds himself accused of the rape of a prominent local woman. Blanche Knowles, the wife of a citrus tycoon was raped and threatened late one night in Okahumpka, Florida. Her description of her abuser led local sheriff Willis McCall to round up every young black man in the county with the expectation of wielding McCall's version of justice on at least one of those men. Despite Knowles' claim that the rapist was a young black man, Jesse Daniels, a poor young white teenager was eventually accused of the crime, despite a solid alibi. What is uncovered is a conspiracy that included many high profile members of law enforcement and state politics, including then-governor LeRoy Collins. Jesse Daniels was simply a patsy. He was developmentally slow and had a stutter, but was smart enough to know the difference between wrong and right and to understand what was going on to him.

To conceal the cover-up, McCall had Daniels reprimanded to the Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, FL, denying him his day in court. It was an unimaginable sentence for the young man who knew he was innocent. He did have champions on his side, however. Besides his mother, Pearl, who never lost faith in hope of her son's eventual release, Mable Norris Reese, a local journalist, used her position as editor of the local newspaper The Topic to keep Daniels' case in the news and the forefront of everyone's mind. Despite threats and abuse, the two women fought every battle that came their way to seek the release of Jesse from the state hospital and to have his criminal record expunged.

Sheriff McCall was a notorious, racist man of the law of Lake County, FL. He was introduced to us in King's prior Pulitzer prize book, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America. McCall served as sheriff from 1944 to 1972 and was no stranger to controversy. He was feared by everyone and had his own brand of justice that spared no one. It is befuddling that he had so much power in such a small county that resonated state-wide.

This is a heartbreaking and infuriating story. You can't help getting sucked into the story and rooting for Jessie along with Mable and Pearl. If there was ever a man to be hated, it was Willis V. McCall. He was pure evil. I thought this was another page-turner. I enjoy King's writing and his way of putting you in central Florida in the 1950s-70s. I suspect this will be another award-winning book for Gilbert King.

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