Gone South

In 1985, Harold and Thelma Swain were shot and killed during Bible study at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Spring Bluff, Georgia. The double murder went unsolved for years — until a man named Dennis Perry was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to two life terms for a crime he almost certainly didn't commit.

In 2019, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Josh Sharpe began investigating the case for the Georgia Innocence Project. What he found was damning: a botched investigation, unreliable witnesses, and a key suspect — Eric Sparre — whose alibi turned out to be completely fabricated.

This episode of Gone South follows Sharpe's six-month investigation into the Georgia Church Murders, the wrongful conviction of Dennis Perry, and the evidence pointing to the man many believe actually pulled the trigger. Based in part on Sharpe's book, The Man No One Believed.

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New Orleans. 1918. A killer the papers call “The Axeman” breaks into homes at night, mostly targeting Italian grocers, and attacks with an axe taken from inside the house. No robbery. No clear motive. Just terror. The case is never officially solved.In this episode of Gone South, former Times-Picayune editor James Karst walks Jed Lipinski through what the archives actually show: the earliest attacks, the infamous Axeman letter demanding jazz music, and the overlooked suspect Joseph Mumfre, a Black Hand linked extortionist whose name keeps resurfacing.

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A unaccredited private school in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana became a national sensation when its students began landing acceptances at Harvard, Stanford, and other Ivy League universities. The viral videos were inspiring. The story seemed almost too good to be true. It was.New York Times reporters Katie Benner and Erica Green investigated T.M. Landry and uncovered a years-long college admissions fraud: fabricated transcripts, invented extracurriculars, and personal essays built on trauma the students never experienced. Behind it all was the school's charasmatic and manipulative founder, Mike Landry.This episode explores the rise and fall of T.M. Landry, the college admissions scandal it exposed, and who really pays the price when a system built to exclude finally gets gamed.

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Katie Benner and Erica L. Green's book is "Miracle Children: Race, Education and a True Story of False Promises": https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Children-Education-Story-Promises/dp/1250759102

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Patterson Hood grew up in Florence, Alabama — a deeply conservative, Bible Belt town where his father was quietly making history. David Hood was a session bassist for the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, recording with Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, and Wilson Pickett at a time when it wasn't always safe to go to dinner with the artists you were recording with. Patterson learned early not to mention his dad's job at school. When people asked what church his father attended, he changed the subject.Decades later, Patterson co-founded Drive-By Truckers — a band that has spent 25 years wrestling with Southern identity, racism, abuse of power, and what it means to be American. In this conversation, he talks about growing up progressive in the Deep South, why he thinks a Black and white soul band should replace the Confederate flag as the symbol of the South, and what he hopes listeners will make of his songs 20 years from now.

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Before the Civil Rights Movement's major victories of the 1960s, a pro wrestler named Sputnik Monroe was already integrating Memphis, Tennessee one arena at a time. Born Roscoe Brumbaugh in Dodge City, Kansas, Monroe became one of the most beloved figures in Memphis wrestling history, counting Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash among his friends and fans.

This episode of Gone South tells the story of how Monroe — a white heel wrestler with a bleached streak in his hair and a gift for provocation — used his fame to desegregate the Ellis Auditorium, challenge Jim Crow on Beale Street, and form one of the first interracial tag teams in the South. He was arrested repeatedly for socializing in Black nightclubs. He didn't stop.

Featuring interviews with music historian Robert Gordon, wrestling journalist Steve Johnson, and Jerry Phillips (son of Sun Studio founder Sam Phillips) plus archival audio of Monroe himself. A story about race, rebellion, and one of the most unlikely civil rights figures the South ever produced.

Check out Robert Gordon's book It Came From Memphis https://tinyurl.com/yys8pxdhSteve Johnson has written many fine books about wrestling history, includingThe Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Heelshttps://tinyurl.com/28h6nacm​Follow Jerry Phillips on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/p/Jerry-Phillips-61559154401992/

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