An infamous occurrence in the year 1948 — granted there were several during that time — may be one of the best kept secrets in the Mississippi Delta, or perhaps not.
Greenville native Beverly Lowry’s memoir entitled “Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta,” unearths for readers — those who may be unfamiliar with the event — one of the most provoking instances in which moral eptitude in society was a foregone conclusion.
“Deer Creek Drive” chronicles not only her life, but a murder that “rocked” the region she called home and “forever shaped” her perception of it.
That murder was of Idella Thompson, who is dubbed as a society matron.
The suspect and eventual convicted killer was Thompson’s daughter, Ruth Dickins, who stabbed her mother “some 150” times and accused a black man of committing the vicious crime even though she was the only other person in the house at the time.
Lowry was asked if writing the memoir served as somewhat therapeutic given the troubling memory of the murder and how the subsequent events unfolded.
“I didn’t set out, when I began working on this book, to do therapy on myself or to heal old wounds, although it could be said that all books, whether fiction or nonfiction, emerge from the writer’s desire or need to deal with a particular event or question in her Life,” said Lowry. “This is now the third nonfiction book I’ve written which deals with a particularly horrific murder. The first one came out in 1992.”
She continued, “Since then I’ve often been asked why I write about such terrible events. I always respond the same way: because of the unimaginable, unforgettable crime that occurred only nine miles from my home in Greenville, Mississippi when I was 10, 11 years old.”
Now that Lowry has written about it, she cannot neither affirm she is healed nor that the “grisly details of the crime” no longer cause her to tremble in horror.
In fact, the details as well as the uncertainty of what exactly went on in Leland, on Deer Creek Drive, Nov. 17, 1948, still haunt her.
One thing her memoir indicates she is certain of is that nobody has “let go” of the memory and that even people too young to remember know about it.
Willingness among people to talk about the murder is another thing.
“That the two women’s homes were situated on what some Leland families consider the “wrong” side of the creek should also be noted. It is, of course, a measure of small-town snobbery that there exists, to some, a bad side of the best street in town, but the distinction is also significant in terms of current property values,” Lowry writes. “Houses on South Deer Creek Drive, according to a longtime realtor and lifelong resident, command a higher price. Asked why this was, she answered with a sigh, as if the reason should have been obvious. Because, she said, “Black people live on the north side.””
Lowry provides not only historical context in her memoir, but legal context as well.
From the architectural rendering of Thompson’s home presented as State’s Exhibit No. 1 on the first day of the trial to the reference of the Nov. 18, 1948 issue of the Delta Democrat Times, Lowry frames that moment in history in what could be called captivating detail.
What was it exactly that may have caused Lowry’s life and perception of home to be forever shaped by Thompson’s murder and the ensuing trial?
It could be easily deduced that she saw what it looked like for a certain group of people in society to cry out against due justice being applied and have someone in the highest levels of authority to actually heed those cries.
What she saw was just one of a myriad of examples of atrocities being the accepted norm of the Jim Crow South.
“The timeline of the book extends from 1948 when Jim Crow rules obtained, through 1956 and beyond, after the Brown decision changed everything throughout all of the Deep South states, racially, culturally, educationally…an avalanche of possibilities,” Lowry noted.
On what she hopes for readers to glean, she said, “The murder of Idella Thompson and the subsequent trial of her daughter, Ruth Dickins, reveal a great deal about the situation in the late forties and early fifties, especially in the coverage of both in newspapers and magazines. My own life gives the story, I think, not just a measure of personal experience during those years, but also a voice, speaking from now, looking back. I wanted to braid together those three narratives into one solid story.
”Lowry’s memoir has been reviewed by some of the most acclaimed and respected writers of this time including John Grisham, who is best known for “A Time to Kill.”
“Mix together a bloody murder in a privileged white family, a false accusation against a Black man, a suspicious town, a sensational trial with colorful lawyers, and a punishment that didn’t fit the crime, and you have the best of southern gothic fiction. But the very best part is that the story is true,” Grisham wrote in his blurb.
Lowry will be discussing her book on Aug. 20 at the Mississippi Book Festival, which will be held at the State Capitol Building and Grounds in Jackson.
She will also discuss her book on Aug. 24 at Square Books in Oxford.
