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Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation
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About This Book
From CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams, a revelatory account of how one man, four teenagers, and a struggling city collided over race, vigilantism, and public safety . . . exposing the fault lines of a nationOn a dirty New York subway car on December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz shot Barry Allen, Darrell Cabey, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur, four teenagers from the Bronx, at point blank range. Goetz claimed they were going to mug him; the teens claim that one of them had simply asked for five dollars.Crime was at an all-time high. So was racial tension. Was Goetz, who was white, a hero who finally fought back? Or a bigot whose itchy trigger finger seriously wounded three unarmed black kids and condemned a fourth to irreversible brain damage? By the time Goetz went on trial for quadruple attempted murder, the "Subway Vigilante" saga had become a global sensation, and New Yorkers across race and class were split over whether he deserved decades in prison…or a medal.In Five Bullets, Elliot Williams vaults back to gritty 1980s Manhattan and reexamines the first major true-crime story of the cable news era. Drawing on archives and interviews with many main characters, including Goetz, Williams presents a masterful and vivid tale that also tells the origin stories of larger-than-life Al Sharpton, a polarizing young local activist rocketing to national prominence; Rudy Giuliani, a rising-star prosecutor with an important decision to make; the NRA, which needed a poster boy for its transition from hunting club to political juggernaut; and Rupert Murdoch, whose new purchase, the New York Post, grew his empire by keeping a scary story in the headlines.A shocking account of a pivotal moment in our history, Five Bullets demonstrates why, in order to understand today's debates about race, crime, safety, and the media, it's imperative to reflect on what went down in the subway four decades ago. As Williams's powerful narrative reveals, it was not just Goetz on trial, but the conscience of a nation.
Reviews
"Williams closes with an interview with Goetz, who is allowed to emerge, if not exactly sympathetically, then at least as a three-dimensional figure."
"Vividly brings to life this flash point in American culture and examine its long-term repercussions."
"A lively and haunting account of five men linked by a shooting—echoing New York's enduring tensions over fear and race."
"Williams has a firm command of the case."
"Williams' careful inclusion of multiple viewpoints and balanced, thoughtful commentary go far beyond typical true-crime accounts, elevating this to relevant social commentary."
"Williams understands that telling the story properly requires acknowledging the forgotten citizen of New York City in the 1980s—the wary pedestrian and the terrified straphanger."
"Williams dedicates much of the book to a play-by-play of the criminal proceedings … Adequate, suffers by inevitable comparison [to Fear and Fury] … He makes a lawyerly distinction between the legal outcome (which he considers 'supportable and sound') and morality."
"Williams is quick to present Goetz as a hateful paranoiac—because he is—but he largely stops short of offering a broader explanation for what happened."
"It amounts to a sharp look at a touchstone moment."
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