The Body in the Reservoir: Murder and Sensationalism in the South

Grandma went to church with Henry Beattie. Her uncle testified for the prosecution. Granddad attended the trial. Dr. Trotti's article on half-tone images [featuring Beattie] in "The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography" whetted my appetite for his new book "The Body in the Reservoir." It was worth the wait.Trotti's book represents a milestone in Virginia's cultural and journalism histories. For the first time [that I am aware] one work summarizes the crimes of Phillips, Cluverius, Marable, McCue and Beattie and their individual and collective significances. The book also reports on the newspapers' handlings of piracy, insurrections, lynchings [especially that of Thomas Smith] and other famous outrages peculiar to the Commonwealth. The author draws comparisons from a broad base of relevancy while maintaining focus on major cases.The author traces development of newspaper sensationalism in Virginia from colonial days to the early twentieth century. Trotti credibly shows how cultural, technological and developments in social sciences encouraged such reporting. He identifies elements common to the South and unique to Virginia. In chapter five, he pauses to further hone his earlier work on image technologies.Trotti's style is precise and logical. His conclusions are astute. The roles of police/dectectives in later cases may be understated, but the author presents newly compiled facts and statistics important to better understand these influences.Illustrations and endnotes support the text well. The endnotes double as an informal bibliography. The index is optimal.For scholarship, analysis and historical value, "The Body in the Reservoir" ranks high. The work compliments Lebsock's "A Murder in Virginia" by expanding the contributions of the African-American publisher/editor John Mitchell. Trotti's research on sensationalism belongs on a shelf beside Hamm's "Murder, Honor and Law;" each illuminates a different, key aspect of Virginia's legal psyche and that of the "New South."Trotti covers all the great murder sensations of Virginia's yellow journalism period . . . . . all, of course, but the last one. The sensational Hall Case and its subsequent cover-up were only revealed recently in "Murder At Green Springs."