The Algiers Motel Incident

by Hersey, John

• ISBN13: 9780801857775
• ISBN10: 0801857775
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-11-19
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

Thirty years ago, in the midst of the 1967 riots that rocked Detroit, the Algiers Motel was the site of a brutal confrontation. Three black men were killed and nine others were brutally beaten by, as John Hersey describes it in The Algiers Motel Incident, an "aggregate of Detroit police, Michigan state troopers, national guardsmen, and private guards". Responding to a telephoned report of sniping, the police group invaded the Algiers Motel and interrogated ten black men and two white women, none of whom were armed, for an hour. By the time the interrogators had left, the three men had been shot to death and the others, including the women, beaten. Hersey spent months interviewing those involved in the incident and sorting out the ensuing court proceedings in order to demonstrate that there had in fact been no sniping and that the three black men were murdered "for being thought to be pimps, for being considered punks, for making out with white girls ... for being, all in all, black young men and part of the,black rage of the time".

Author Biography

John Hersey won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for his first novel, A Bell for Adano. He is the author of Hiroshima and many novels, including The Wall, The Child Buyer, Under the Eye of the Storm, and Blues. He died in 1993. Thomas Sugrue is an assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Origins of the Urban Crisis.

Table of Contents

Introduction: John Hersey and the Tragedy of Race	ix
Thomas J. Sugrue
I The Odor of a Case July 26-31	7	(56)
1 Do You Hate the Police?	7	(23)
2 A Dangerous Account	30	(8)
3 Too Hot to Handle	38	(25)
II Three Cops and Three Days July 23-5	63	(104)
4 The First Day	63	(19)
5 Snake	82	(27)
6 The Second Day	109	(12)
7 An Out-of-Doors Man	121	(7)
8 The Third Day	128	(15)
9 Quiet and Respectable	143	(14)
10 An Alarm of Snipers	157	(10)
III Auburey and His Circle	167	(40)
11 The Fork in the Road	167	(40)
IV Confession July 31	207	(12)
12 Could You Get My Statement Back?	207	(12)
V The Algiers Motel Incident July 25-6	219	(68)
13 The Snipers	219	(8)
14 A Game of Chess	227	(4)
15 Man, They're Going to Shoot	231	(4)
16 How to Attack a Building	235	(2)
17 Everybody Downstairs!	237	(5)
18 Phone Calls	242	(2)
19 Enter and Exit: State Police	244	(7)
20 Conduct Becoming an Officer	251	(2)
21 Up and Down the Line	253	(4)
22 Just in Time to Pray	257	(2)
23 Enter Warrant Officer Thomas	259	(5)
24 Interrogations	264	(5)
25 The Knife Game	269	(2)
26 Skin Show	271	(2)
27 The Death Game	273	(4)
28 The Death Game Played Out	277	(4)
29 Out	281	(6)
VI Aftermath July 31 and after	287
30 A Matter for Investigation	287	(15)
31 First Man in Court	302	(2)
32 Logical to Be Nervous	304	(3)
33 Senak's Peninsula	307	(2)
34 These Are Not Little Boys	309	(9)
35 The Law Was Made by People	318	(4)
36 Law and Order for All?	322	(5)
37 Under Indictment	327	(1)
38 A Mother Speaks	328	(8)
39 The Net Is Thrown Again	336	(2)
40 Snipers: The Myth	338	(6)
41 Fuel for the Fire Next Time	344	(9)
42 Harassment?	353	(6)
43 The Paille Appeal	359	(2)
44 A Numbness	361	(2)
45 Conspiracy?	363	(5)
46 Padlocking	368	(5)
47 A Cutting	373	(6)
48 A Winter of Waiting	379	(2)
49 Three Men at Work	381	(5)
50 The Legal Maze	386	(6)
51 Last Words	392	(3)
52 What Is Wrong With the Country?	395