Somebody Told Me

From children who are killers to an elderly woman's last bequest; from State Troopers saving potential suicides on Floridean bridge to an Inmate Rodeo at Angola Prison in Louisiana; here are more than sixty stories by Pultizer Prize winner Rick Bragg showing the sadness and the humanity that exist all around us.

This collection showcases Bragg's talent for turning seemingly ordinary situations into extraordinary stories by bringing together his most recent feature articles most of them written for the New York Times. Bragg explores such questions as: What happens to someone released from prison for a crime he didn't commit? Who takes care of the graves of poor people? What keeps an elderly woman from selling her land for a healthy profit? Bragg's curiosity often leads him to society's margins, where he returns with some of the most insightful and poignant journalism we have seen in some time.

Rick Bragg is Miami bureau chief for the New York Times.

Introduction

1

(3)

Survivors

Tried by Deadly Tornado, An Anchor of Faith Holds

4

(4)

On Walls, Memories of the Slain Are Kept

8

(5)

Still Haunted, Families See Justice in Shape of a Killer's Grave

13

(3)

The Valley of Broken Hearts

16

(7)

Four Walls to Hold Me

Where Alabama Inmates Fade into Old Age

23

(5)

Inmates Find Brief Escape in Rodeo Ring

28

(5)

A Thief Dines Out, Hoping Later to Eat In

33

(4)

Man Imprisoned for 30 Years Is Rid of Bars but Not Fears

37

(6)

Prisoner's Pittance Is Meant As Reminder of a Great Loss

43

(4)

Hurtful Things

New York's Bodegas Become Islands under Siege

47

(6)

``I Never Seen Nothing Like That,''

53

(8)

Living in Another World

61

(6)

Where a Child on the Stoop Can Strike Fear

67

(7)

The Story of Dirty Red

74

(8)

Secrets

Town Secret Is Uncovered in Birth Quest

82

(5)

Woman, Sold as Infant in '65, Graps at Clues to Her Roots

87

(5)

New Development Stirs Old Case

92

(8)

Autism No Handicap, Boy Defies Swamp

100

(5)

Silver Hair, Golden Years

All She Has, $150,000, Is Going to a University

105

(4)

Band Plays On for Class of'39

109

(7)

Woman Clings to Her Paradise

116

(3)

Little Women Look Back on a Lost World

119

(4)

Country Club Meets Enemy: Country Music and Pigs

123

(3)

Icons

The King Is Long Dead, but Long Live the King

126

(4)

Savoring a Sweet Taste of Southern Summers

130

(3)

A Delicacy of the Past Is a Winner at Drive-In

133

(2)

A Sugar Bowl Lacking a Certain Sweetness

135

(5)

George Corley Wallace

Emotional March Gains a Repentant Wallace

140

(3)

A Symbol of Alabama's Past, Indelible to Black and White

143

(4)

Wallace Remembered, for Who He Was and Who He Became

147

(4)

Monuments

In New Orleans, a Day for Visiting the Dead

151

(3)

A Coach's Shrine, the Fatima of Alabama Football

154

(2)

A Balladeer of Bluegrass Is Now Gone Yet Lives On

156

(4)

Bourbon and Bayous

French Quarter's Black Tapping Feet

160

(4)

In a Louisiana Bayou Town, ``Uncle Pat'' Is the Law

164

(2)

In Louisiana, Card Game Reveals the Cajun Spirit

166

(3)

Cajun Christmas Tradition Refuses to Die Down

169

(5)

Colors

To Bind Up a Nation's Wound with Celluloid

174

(6)

Just a Grave for a Baby, but Anguish for a Town

180

(3)

Racism Wins in Small Town in Texas

183

(6)

Fort Bragg Area Is Haunted by Ghost and Two New Death

189

(4)

Unfathomable Crime, Unlikely Figure

193

(3)

For Jasper, Just What It Didn't Want

196

(4)

Bombs

In Shock, Loathing, Denial: ``This Doesn't Happen Here,''

200

(2)

Tender Memories of Day-Care Center Are All That Remain after the Bomb

202

(4)

Oklahoma Toll Is No Longer in Deaths, but in Shattered Lives

206

(6)

In Oklahoma City, Recovery a House at a Time

212

(3)

Altered by Bombing, but Not Bowed

215

(4)

Susan

An Agonizing Search for Two Boys

219

(3)

Mother of ``Carjacked'' Boys Held in Their Deaths

222

(3)

Sheriff Says Prayer and a Lie Led Susan Smith to Confess

225

(3)

Psychiatrist for Smith's Defense Tells of a Woman Desperate to Be Liked

228

(3)

Father Testifies in Penalty Part of Smith Trial

231

(3)

Carolina Jury Rejects Execution for Woman Who Drowned Sons

234

(4)

A Killer's Only Confidant: The Man Who Caught Susan Smith

238

(4)

Schoolyards

Arkansas Boys Held as Prosecutors Weigh Options

242

(4)

Determined to Find Healing in a Good and Decent Place

246

(4)

Past Victims Relive Pain As Tragedy Is Repeated

250

(4)

Jonesboro Dazed by Its Darkest Day

254

(5)

Murder Trial Opens for First School Shooting Defendant

259

(2)

Arkansas Boys Who Killed Five Are Sentenced

261

(5)

Living and Dying

Living with a Grief That Will Never Die

266

(4)

On Florida Bridge, Troopers Are Also Suicide Counselors

270

(4)

Jazzy Final Sendoff for Chicken Man

274

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials