The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge

Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2011: One part police procedural, one part historical narrative, T.J. English's The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge follows three different men caught in the fallout of New York City's most turbulent decade as race relations, corruption, and crime reached a stormy head. English traces the events that shook the city to its core during the '60s and early '70s, from the assassination of Malcolm X and the rise and fall of the Black Panthers, to the trial that exposed the multiple layers of corruption plaguing the city's police department. Woven throughout this narrative is the troubling story of George Whitmore, a young black man who was bullied into confessing to several of the city's gristliest murders--and who spent the next ten years attempting to prove his innocence and earn back his freedom. The Savage City is an expansive, remarkably detailed account of one of the most tumultuous moments in America's history, and of the lingering effects of the decade's injustices. --Lynette Mong

A Look Inside The Savage City
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Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert were both brutally killed in their Manhattan apartment on the same day as the March on Washington. The murder scene was bloody, but it revealed few clues. The sensational nature of the crime put pressure on detectives to come up with a suspect. (© New York Daily News) Prize catch: George Whitmore is paraded before photographers after he was coerced into signing a sixty-one page confession, the longest in NYPD history. (© New York Daily News) Dhoruba Bin Wahad was charged with the attempted murder of Curry and Binetti. Here he is being transferred while in custody from the 48th precinct police station to the Bronx House of detention. (© Bettman/Corbis) Bill Phillips being taken into custody on two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. (© New York Daily News).