Trail of Feathers : Searching for Philip True, a Reporter's Murder in Mexico and His Editor's Search for Justice

by Rivard, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781586482220
• ISBN10: 158648222X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-17
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

In December 1998,San Antonio Express-Newsreporter Philip True vanished during a solo backcountry trek in western Mexico, home of the reclusive Huichol Indians and the Chapalagana, the Twisted Serpent Canyon, a 150-mile long gash that twists and plunges through the heart of the Sierra Madre. Five days later his editor, Robert Rivard, was part of a small search party that, nearly miraculously, tracked a trail of feathers that had leaked from True's sleeping bag to find his body.Trail of Feathersis the story of the search for True and of the quest to bring his killers to justice. It is also the story of another perplexing mystery: Why had True taken such a dangerous trip, into such a raw, uncivilized wilderness, alone and without sufficient safety preparations, in the first place? After an unhappy and unsettled youth, True was at the age of fifty finally settling down to a career and a wife he loved. His first child was about to be born. What was he running from, or to?Rivard's search for answers to these questions leads him deep into the Sierra Madre Occidental, one of Mexico's last true wildernesses, and deep into the secrets of Philip True's past. It also leads him into his own past, and an acknowledgment of the ways in which his life and True's mirrored each other. Suspenseful, atmospheric, and moving,Trail of Feathersis more than a true crime tale; it's a classic tragedy about how the past reverberates destructively into the present for individuals, for cultures, for nations.

Author Biography

Robert Rivard has served as the editor of the San Antonio Express-News since 1997. He was awarded the 2002 Maria Moors Cabot Award from Columbia University and the Society of Professional Journalists' top prize for foreign correspondents in 1982. Both were in recognition of his work as a journalist in Latin America. He is married to Monika Maeckle. They have two sons.

Table of Contents

Author's Note	ix
PART 1
Map of True's Route	2	(152)
1 Agent True	3	(12)
2 Caminando/Getting Ready	15	(16)
3 A Keepsake and Family Secrets	31	(20)
4 On the Road	51	(21)
5 A New Life on the Border	72	(21)
6 Desaparecido	93	(6)
7 Out There Somewhere	99	(17)
8 Five Extra Letters	116	(14)
9 Trail of Feathers	130	(24)
10 Two Autopsies	154	(25)
PART 2
11 Who Killed Philip True?	179	(16)
12 The Case of Mexico	195	(21)
13 The Depth of the Holes You Climb Out of	216	(26)
14 Mexican Justice	242	(17)
15 A Second Anniversary	259	(12)
PART 3
16 Friends of the Defense	271	(35)
17 Injustice North of the Border	306	(4)
18 Murders, But No Murderers	310	(11)
19 Revelations in Guadalajara	321	(15)
20 Wooing the Defenders	336	(7)
21 Final Verdict	343	(10)
22 The Silence of the Huichols	353	(10)
23 A Return to the Chapalanga	363	(8)
Epilogue: The Search Ends	371	(4)
Acknowledgments	375	(6)
Bibliography	381	(4)
Notes	385	(16)
Index	401