Gilbert King – författare

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“A must-read, cannot-put-down history.” — Thomas Friedman, New York Times

Arguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and cost him his life.

In 1949, Florida''s orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor with the help of Sheriff Willis V. McCall, who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old girl cried rape, McCall pursued four young black men who dared envision a future for themselves beyond the groves. The Ku Klux Klan joined the hunt, hell-bent on lynching the men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys."

Associates thought it was suicidal for Marshall to wade into the "Florida Terror," but the young lawyer would not shrink from the fight despite continuous death threats against him.

Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, including the FBI''s unredacted Groveland case files, as well as unprecedented access to the NAACP''s Legal Defense Fund files, Gilbert King shines new light on this remarkable civil rights crusader.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“A must-read, cannot-put-down history.” —Thomas Friedman,New York Times

Arguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suitBrown v. Board of Educationbefore the U.S. Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and cost him his life.

In 1949, Florida''s orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor with the help of Sheriff Willis V. McCall, who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old girl cried rape, McCall pursued four young black men who dared envision a future for themselves beyond the groves. The Ku Klux Klan joined the hunt, hell-bent on lynching the men who came to be known as ""the Groveland Boys.""

Associates thought it was suicidal for Marshall to wade into the ""Florida Terror,"" but the young lawyer would not shrink from the fight despite continuous death threats against him.

Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, including the FBI''s unredacted Groveland case files, as well as unprecedented access to the NAACP''s Legal Defense Fund files, Gilbert King shines new light on this remarkable civil rights crusader.

From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King comes a chilling exploration of one of America''s most haunting wrongful conviction cases. Based on the hit podcast, Bone Valley dives into the dark heart of rural Florida, where a young man''s life was upended by a tragic miscarriage of justice.

''Captivating, enraging, and all too true.'' - Bob Kolker, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road

''Bone Valley is a work of rare moral clarity and deep compassion.'' - Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

In 1988, Leo Schofield was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, Michelle. Always insistent on his innocence, he was poorly served by his legal defense: the investigation was sloppy, the case flimsy and numerous pieces of evidence were ignored. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Over thirty years later, Gilbert King is tipped off to Leo''s case and is astonished by what he finds: layers of corruption, flawed evidence and deep-seated errors. He can''t shake the story and starts to get to know Leo and his family. Leo shows an incomprehensible amount of grace and love about his situation, which spurs Gilbert even more to tell his story.

Bone Valley is at once a revelatory investigation into a murder, a chilling portrait of the US criminal justice system and a uniquely powerful story of grace and redemption. Gilbert King has written a new classic of narrative nonfiction.