Can you recommend a book on vigilantism?

Hmm, do you want them portrayed as good or bad? There is a large history in Southern American literature of racist vigilante justice. It is actually a quite common motif.

As for positive light... I'll need to think harder for a good example.

I don't know of any about people who've actually gone through with it, but this is an incredible (IMO) examination of the pull of revenge/vigilantism.

Revenge: A Story of Hope by Laura Blumenfeld

From Amazon.com
In 1986, a Palestinian terrorist shot author Laura Blumenfeld’s father. More than a decade later, Blumenfeld, a reporter for The Washington Post, decided to find the man who tried to kill her dad; she also wanted to learn about vengeance. “I was looking for the shooter, but I also was looking for some kind of wisdom,” she writes. “I wanted to master revenge.” Blumenfeld interviews a variety of people, from religious figures to assassins, about the meaning of revenge. The heart of the book, though, is her own journey to find the man who pulled the trigger. First she locates his family and learns vivid details about his life--he was a standout in his public-relations course at the University of Bethlehem. Blumenfeld’s own emotions aren’t far from the surface of this narrative. When she meets the shooter’s own father, for instance, she asks herself: “Am I supposed to shoot him now?” Finally she begins a creepy correspondence with the gunman, who is in prison. Their letters back and forth are oddly compelling--at first the shooter doesn’t know her real identity, though she eventually reveals it. In the end, Blumenfeld says her quest helped her find hope in a dangerous world, even as the final words of her book reflect upon September 11 and its immediate aftermath, when so many other Americans longed for their own vengeance. --John Miller

This link will take you to an online non-fiction "book" about the death of Ken McElroy in the small northwest Missouri town of Skidmore.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/ken_mcelroy/22.html

One book although not a novel about McElroy's death is "In Broad Daylight" by Harry MacLean, published in 1988. It should be available on Amazon, here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/006015876X/?tag=absolutewritedm-20

And there was also a movie, "A Killing In A Small Town."

A synopsis of MacLean's book from Publisher's Weekly:
"Ken Rex McElroy terrorized the residents of several counties in northwestern Missouri for a score of years. He raped young girls and brutalized them after they went to live with him or even married him; he shot at least two men; he stole cattle and hogs, and burned down the houses of some who interfered with his criminal activities. Thanks to the expert efforts of his lawyer and the pro-defendant bias of state laws, he served no more than a few days in jail, the author shows. In 1981, sentenced for the shooting of a popular grocer and free on bail, he was killed by the men of Skidmore, the center of his felonies; they closed ranks against all attempts to identify those who had pulled the triggers. Written by a first-time author, this is an engrossing, credible examination of the way vigilante action can take over when the law appears to be powerless. BOMC and QPBC alternates.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. "


His murder has never been solved.

I remember that story. Vigilante justice all too often is no justice at all, but I will admit to a sneaking admiration for the men of that town.

rugcat said:

I remember that story. Vigilante justice all too often is no justice at all, but I will admit to a sneaking admiration for the men of that town.

Click to expand...

I do, too. I'm from that region - although not in a rural area - but I have friends and relatives who knew some of McElroy's practices and his reputation as a bully.

In an ironic twist of fate, McElroy is buried not far away from my grandparents in a cemetery in St. Joseph, MO.

I have to say that Revenge: A Story of Hope by Laura Blumenfeld that was posted earlier is really good. Not my sort of book and i only started to read it as someone left it on a train.

Well, it's not a book, so sorry in advance if I'm not supposed to mention it here in the Book Club, but The Brave One is a fantastic film that deals with the subject.