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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
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FREEDOM'S DETECTIVE
Hiram Whitley, the KKK, and the Secret History of Reconstruction
A fascinating historical story with a complex, in many ways contradictory hero at its center, FREEDOM'S DETECTIVE touches on the origins of modern law enforcement and the enduring legacy of racial prejudice in the American South.
A little-known but key player in American history, Hiram Whitley lead the covert war against the nascent KKK and was the first to use undercover intelligence work in mass crime investigations, what we now call terrorism. A complex figure who was less a classic hero than an opportunist, he lived in a time when survival was the end game and morality was a pastime of the fortunate.
At the time that Whitley was called into service, several members of the KKK had recently assassinated George W. Ashburn, a white republican organizer in Columbus, Georgia. Local law enforcement was unable to make headway on the case and called for Federal assistance. It was a plush assignment for a former slave catcher.
Whitley's success against the KKK lead to him being named head of the Secret Service, where he is credited for designing and issuing its first silver badges, drafting a code of conduct for agents, and developing the U.S. government’s first files on criminals, photographs included. For a time he thrived , but Whitley eventually fell prey to both temptation and political games manship. His story makes for high drama and intrigue and measures up well against books from Ben Macintyre, James Swanson and Stephan Talty.
Charles Lane is one of America’s best-known journalists and political commentators. A member of The Washington Post editorial board and a weekly op-ed columnist, he was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. Previously, Lane served as the Post’s Supreme Court correspondent. He has also been editor of The New Republic, where he unraveled one of history’s greatest journalistic frauds—a real-life drama later chronicled in the acclaimed film Shattered Glass. He earned distinction as a foreign correspondent for Newsweek in Central America and the former Yugoslavia during the 1980s and 1990s. Lane graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 1983 and studied law at Yale.
At the time that Whitley was called into service, several members of the KKK had recently assassinated George W. Ashburn, a white republican organizer in Columbus, Georgia. Local law enforcement was unable to make headway on the case and called for Federal assistance. It was a plush assignment for a former slave catcher.
Whitley's success against the KKK lead to him being named head of the Secret Service, where he is credited for designing and issuing its first silver badges, drafting a code of conduct for agents, and developing the U.S. government’s first files on criminals, photographs included. For a time he thrived , but Whitley eventually fell prey to both temptation and political games manship. His story makes for high drama and intrigue and measures up well against books from Ben Macintyre, James Swanson and Stephan Talty.
Charles Lane is one of America’s best-known journalists and political commentators. A member of The Washington Post editorial board and a weekly op-ed columnist, he was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. Previously, Lane served as the Post’s Supreme Court correspondent. He has also been editor of The New Republic, where he unraveled one of history’s greatest journalistic frauds—a real-life drama later chronicled in the acclaimed film Shattered Glass. He earned distinction as a foreign correspondent for Newsweek in Central America and the former Yugoslavia during the 1980s and 1990s. Lane graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 1983 and studied law at Yale.
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