When Good Men Do Nothing

A true crime classic, the definitive account of the notorious 1954 assassination of Alabama Attorney General Albert Patterson

On June 18, 1954, just a few weeks after being elected Alabama’s Attorney General, Albert Patterson was assassinated outside his law office in Phenix City, Alabama.  His campaign promised hope and inspired reform to law-abiding citizens of Phenix City, which was notorious for organized crime, prostitution, gambling, bootlegging, and political corruption. Patterson’s stance on cleaning up Phenix City had been met with threats and intimidation.  With millions of dollars in illegal income and hundreds of political and professional careers at stake, the motive for his killing seemed apparent.  The primary investigation surrounding Patterson’s shooting focused on who pulled the trigger.

Alan Grady has exhaustively mined the state’s original murder case files; the papers of John Patterson, Albert’s son; records from the Office of Alabama Attorney General (who directed the murder investigation); the case files of the Alabama Department of Toxicology and Criminal Investigation; National Guard reports; and more than 30 interviews with eyewitnesses and interested parties.

Grady takes a complex story of multiple dimensions—a large cast of judicial, criminal, and political players; a web of alliances and allegiances; and a knotted sequence of investigative revelations and dead ends—and transforms it into a readable, incisive analysis of the powers and loyalties that governed, and corrupted to the core, the body politic of the state. Readers will be enthralled and educated by this authoritative account of the most compelling crime drama in Alabama during the 20th century.