Harper Lee's Unwritten True Crime Book About Alabama Preacher

Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, spent years investigating a true crime case in Alexander City, Alabama, in the late 1970s. The case involved Willie Maxwell, a Baptist preacher who was acquitted multiple times after the suspicious deaths of five family members, each time collecting life insurance payouts. In 1977, Maxwell was shot dead at a funeral by Robert Burns, the uncle of his latest victim. Burns was defended by Tom Radney, the same lawyer who had previously defended Maxwell, and was acquitted by reason of insanity. Lee attended the trial and gathered extensive materials, including Radney's case files, intending to write a nonfiction book tentatively titled The Reverend. However, she never completed it, leaving only four pages of a first draft. Journalist Casey Cep documented this story in her 2019 book Furious Hours: Harper Lee and the Story of an Alabama Preacher, published in Italy as Ore disperate by Minimum Fax. Lee's creative block after Mockingbird, exacerbated by alcoholism and media aversion, is cited as the reason the book was never finished.