BIO

Kip Gayden is a judge of the First Circuit Court in Nashville, Tennessee, where he attended Vanderbilt University Law School.

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AUTHOR TALK

May 2, 2008

Judge Kip Gayden's MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE is a work of historical fiction based on a shocking murder trial that took place in 1913 Tennessee. In this interview, Gayden explains how he came across the case and discusses what fascinated him enough to base a full-length novel around this seemingly forgotten historical event. He also shares what surprised him the most while researching the story, weighs in on the trial's outcome and talks about how the legal system has changed over the course of the last century.

Question: How did you come across the actual case this novel is based on?

Kip Gayden: A genealogist friend of mine came across the story while he was researching in the state archives. This story was just one of several he had told me about, knowing that I have an interest in writing. For this story my friend xeroxed three articles from March 1913 news reports in The Tennessee Democrat newspaper. After reading the news clips I became curious and began to conduct further research. I discovered that the case was widely publicized and I found over fifty newspaper articles published in the three Nashville dailys: The Nashville Tennessean, The Nashville Banner and The Tennessee Democrat. Almost all of the news stories were front page articles and many were the headline stories.

Q: What made you to decide to write a novel about it?

KG: At first, I thought the story would be a good subject for a law-related periodical or a short story. Ultimately, I decided to write a novel.

The reason I broadened my goal to a novel is because the saga is a uniquely sensational case with power, money, romance, adultery, and murder involving prominent people during a tumultuous period in out nation's history, the coming of the Edwardian Age and the departing of the Victorian Age. Most prevalent, the period was during the time women were becoming an organized, powerful force demanding equal civil rights.

In my research, there was one particular headline that caught my attention; it was published in the Nashville Tennessean newspaper, March 16, 1913, the morning after the murder: "...WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE...SENSATIONAL KILLING". This headline and its implications became my beacon and guiding light in formulating and combining two true historical plots into the fabric of my novel, the murder and the trial that followed combined with the simultaneous women's suffrage movement.

I came up with the notion that the two stories, the murder case and the suffrage movement were not so disconnected. The suffrage movement, born out of women's desire for independence, equal rights and greater recognition, was also reflected in the restless life of the protagonist in my novel, Anna Dotson, the attractive young wife of an affluent Gallatin, Tennessee physician, Dr. Walter Dotson. Both the suffrage movement and the state of Anna Dotson's personal life reflected the quest for independence and recognition as an equal.

Q: As you were researching the story, what did you find the most surprising/intriguing?

KG: Despite the widespread notoriety of this case, the murder and the trial, by far the most surprising was the phenomenon that they were not remembered by any local historians that I talked to --- including the venerable former Historian for the State of Tennessee, who was born and lives in the same town where most of the story took place, Gallatin, Tennessee. It became apparent that the case simply had fallen through the cracks.

Q: Which parts of the novel are based on fact?

KG: The main plot, the murder and the trial are factual. The events describing the suffrage movement are factual. All of the main characters are factual. One lesser character, Elizabeth Jennings, is a fictional best friend of the protagonist, Anna Dotson.

Many of the scenes are fictional, but are based on reasonable extensions of events as reported in the newspapers, remaining faithful to the characters and to the events as they actually happened.

Q: Do any of the places in this novel still exist?

KG: Unfortunately, just as the story has largely vanished from memory, so it is with the physical structures described in the book. The Gallatin Courthouse was torn down years ago as was the Dotson homeplace, the Gallatin Train Depot, and the buildings surrounding the Gallatin Square. Jackson's Barbershop in Nashville where the murder took place (I prefer to call the incident an ambush) was razed years ago as was the Davidson County Courthouse in Nashville, where the criminal trial took place.

The only two remaining structures are the Union Railway Station in Nashville, and the Dotson tombstones in the Gallatin Cemetery.

Q: Without giving too much away, what do you think of the case and the verdict as a judge?

KG: The final verdict in this case, where the death penalty was fervently sought by the state, did not surprise many folks, as reported in the newspapers. On the other hand, many people thought the sentence was wrong and should have been different.

One person who disagreed with the verdict was the presiding judge over the trial, the famous, respected Judge A.B. Neil (Judge Neil later became a respected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee). The judge was quoted in the newspapers the day after the verdict saying the verdict "was a miscarriage of justice." It was his statement that is the source for the title to my novel.

Despite Judge Neil's statement, I respectfully disagree with his conclusion and I think the all-male jury (women were not allowed to sit on juries) carefully considered the evidence and gave the defendant what was probably deserved. It was a decision that may have been different in the Victorian days, which made the verdict modern according to the standards of the time.

But my opinion is just that --- only one man's opinion. One of the dynamics of my book is that I close with the rhetorical challenge to the reader: You be the judge!

Q: How do you think our current society and legal process differ from when this case took place? What hasn't changed?

KG: The obvious change is also a major part of the novel and that is in 1913, women were denied the right to vote and thus to sit on juries. But it went further than that --- women couldn't practice law or be judges, and these were only restrictions within the legal sphere duplicated universally in general society. Today, although its coming was at a snail's pace, women are closing in on equality in the legal justice system as well as in other walks of life. What hasn't changed is that there still exists a need for more introspection and reconciliation between men and women.

Q: Were the people in this story "victims" of the time? If they lived today, would events have played out as they did?

KG: I think it can be fairly said that the people were indeed victims of the time. During the period, the social stew of the female demand for equal rights and recognition was brewing, but also there was the impact and attendant pressures arising out of the industrial revolution with such advances as the automobile and the airplane.

As I view this case, especially the verdict of the jury, as a modern case for the times, I think events would have played out similarly in front of a jury today even if the jury was equally divided between men and women.

Q: Do you see similarities in this case and any recent modern cases?

KG: I do not see any similarities. This case is one of a kind!

Q: Who do you see as your audience for this book? What types of readers will be attracted?

KG: Humbly, I suggest that this novel may have broad appeal. The book may interest men and women who are legal professionals, true crime readers, mystery readers, historical fiction buffs, those interested in the suffrage movement, book clubs, young, middle age, and older folks.

© Copyright 2008, Kip Gayden. All rights reserved.

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