Worse Than The Devil

Book excerpt: A bomb explodes in a police station, killing nine officers and a civilian. Those responsible are never caught, but police, press and public are quick to condemn a group of eleven immigrants. This story could have been ripped from today's headlines. In fact, it comes from a 1917 case in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; a miscarriage of justice examined for the first time by Dean Strang, the lawyer whose passionate defence of alleged murderer Steven Avery was at the heart of the hit Netflix series Making a Murderer. Days after the explosion, the eleven suspects went to court on unrelated charges. The spectre of the larger, uncharged crime haunted the proceedings and against the backdrop of the First World War and amid a prevailing hatred and fear of immigrants, a fair trial was impossible. In its focus on a moment when patriotism and terror swept the nation, Worse than the Devil exposes broad concerns that persist today, and failures in the American justice system that will resonate with anyone who has followed the Avery trial.