Without Mercy (29 page)

THE OPENING CRIME IN THIS NOVEL—THE HORRIFYING
fate of a young man chained to a tree, fed and kept alive for weeks or months as he paced in a circle, gradually wearing a path in the ground and a groove in the bark—is, we're told, one that actually occurred. Not recently, and not as a hate crime, but as a revenge killing: a rural Southern father's version of rough justice, the vengeance he took on a privileged young man who had raped his daughter. We haven't yet confirmed the accuracy of the story, but we hope to.

What we can, alas, confirm, is a shrill polarization in American public discourse, along with a rise in hate speech, hate groups, and hate crime. After three years of declines, in 2015 the number of hate groups rose by 14 percent, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, to a total of 892. Among the most worrisome increases: a 164 percent rise in white-supremacy
Klan groups, from “only” 72 Klan groups in 2014 to 190 in 2015. At the other end of the spectrum, extremist black-separatist hate groups (not to be confused with Black Lives Matter activists, who advocate peacefully for justice and equality) also increased sharply, from 113 in 2014 to 180 in 2015. In a different category, yet one also marked by extremist ideology and talk of armed violence, antigovernment “patriot” groups and militias—such as the armed group that occupied a federal wildlife refuge earlier this year—increased from 874 in 2014 to 998 in 2015; more disturbingly, such groups have increased more than
sixfold
since 2008.

Not surprisingly, in the fertile soil of extremism—and with liberal applications of the fertilizer of hate speech—murders motivated by extremism flourished in 2015, rising to their highest level in years, with 52 killings by domestic extremists. These were roughly equally divided between jihadists and far-right extremists. At one end of the spectrum was the December 2015 murder of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, by two homegrown jihadists, a married couple. At the other end was the murder of nine African Americans at a Bible study group in Charleston, South Carolina, by a 21-year-old white supremacist and neo-Confederate. Tragically, 2015's total was nearly equaled during a single mass shooting in June 2016, when a lone gunman pledging allegiance to ISIS killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando: an act that combined terrorism and hate crime on a horrific scale.

The picture is not
entirely
bleak. The FBI reports that hate crimes (including nonlethal assaults and incidents such as vandalism, harassment, and bullying) declined in 2014, the most recent year for which FBI statistics are available—for
most
target groups, including blacks, LGBT victims, and Jews. Still, Jews remain the largest group of hate-crime victims,
accounting for 647 of the 1140 hate-crime victims the FBI tallied in 2014—an appalling 57 percent.

But while Jews remained the most prevalent victims, hate crimes against Muslims rose by 14 percent in 2014, according to the FBI, occurring at roughly five times the rate they did before Al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks. And in the wake of the deadly jihadist shootings in Paris and San Bernardino in November and December 2015, a further spike in anti-Muslim violence, harassment, bullying, and vandalism ensued, resulting in a tripling of anti-Muslim hate crimes for the year, according to a non-FBI study.

Another deadly act of domestc terrorism in late 2015 was the murder of three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, gunned down by a self-described evangelical Christian who said he was doing “God's work.”

To paraphrase, very slightly, a comment by one of this book's characters: People have been hating and killing in the name of God—one God or another—ever since the dawn of religion.

It's enough to give God a black eye, a bad rap, and some serious second thoughts about whether we humans were such a good idea after all.

THE BODY FARM SERIES BEGAN IN 2006, AND—IN
the blink of an eye, seemingly—here we are, ten novels later. Fitting, then, we begin by thanking our publishing family at William Morrow: publishers Liate Stehlik and Lynn Grady, executive editor Lyssa Keusch, assistant editor Rebecca Lucash, production editor Stephanie Vallejo, cover designer Richard Aquan, publicist Danielle Bartlett, and marketing guru Katherine Turro. These terrific folks, together with some who helped earlier and then moved on, have made it possible for us to tell more stories, and better stories, than we ever expected. We couldn't have done it without them, and we're deeply grateful.

We also couldn't have done it without our literary agent, Giles Anderson, who took us on when all we had was an idea for a single book, and has been representing us and encouraging us ever since.

We are further grateful to many, many people in law enforcement,
anthropology, social justice, the media, and other arenas of crime and punishment, of life and love, who helped us with this story.

Gordon Webster planted the seed of this story, in different form, years ago, while ferrying Jon Jefferson up the Tennessee Valley in the cockpit of a single-engine airplane a few thousand feet up. Many thanks to Gordon—and a word of warning to all: Be careful what you tell a writer!

FBI Executive Assistant Director (EAD) Michael Steinbach, head of the National Security Branch, provided tremendously helpful perspectives on counterterrorism. FBI media liaisons Ann Todd and Betsy Glick were gracious, helpful, and efficient in arranging the interview with EAD Steinbach.

Retired FBI Special Supervisory Agent James McNamara, a veteran profiler who helped us understand serial-killer psychology in our prior novel,
Cut to the Bone
, circled back to help us deal once more with serial killer Nick Satterfield. And former Special Agent Mike Brennan—who worked undercover to infiltrate domestic terrorist groups, and is now a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University—explained the far right's little known but systematic creation of “lone wolf” terrorists in recent decades.

ATF Special Agent Michael Knight—public information officer
and
certified explosives specialist—was extraordinarily generous with his time and expertise, going many extra miles to arrange a research visit to the ATF laboratory—the National Center for Explosives Training and Research—in Huntsville, Alabama.

Lieutenant Keith Debow, commander of the Knoxville Police Department's remarkably equipped and highly trained SWAT team, shared his time, expertise, and encouragement with astonishing generosity.

The Southern Poverty Law Center—Laurie Wood, especially, along with Heidi Beirich, Keegan Hankes, and Richard Cohen—provided cooperation, information, and inspiration beyond all deserving. Laurie's courage in researching hate groups is matched only by her gameness in agreeing to be (loosely) fictionalized in this book.

Forensic ace Amy George, as usual, gave invaluable insights into crime-scene evidence. Emergency physician Charlie Hartness, MD, was generous with both medical information and musical inspiration. Robin Catmur guided us cheerfully through the labyrinth of international education, student visas, and privacy regulations.

Beth Haynes and WBIR-TV were game and gracious, as ever, in allowing Beth to be the bearer of the bloody news of Satterfield's escape. Beth is a good sport, an admirable television journalist, and a messenger we would never, ever shoot! Another good sport—as well as a terrific facial-reconstruction artist—is Joanna Hughes, who cheerfully agreed to a clay-intensive cameo.

Our spirited wives, Carol Bass and Jane McPherson, have supported us—some might say “borne with us”—through far more books, and far more book tours and signings, than any spouses should have to, and for that, as well as an infinitude of other mercies, we are most grateful.

A passel of other anthropologists—forensic, molecular, and biological—provided crucial technical insights, as well as collegiality and friendship. Heartfelt thanks to Drs. Graciela Cabana, Richard Jantz, Angi Christensen, Tony Falsetti, Kate Spradley, Amy Mundorff, and Bridget F.B. Algee-Hewitt.

Last but most important of all: Our readers and fans never cease to amaze us. If only we could complete books as quickly as you can! Your enthusiasm and encouragement—your calls
for more and more and more!—have sustained us lo these many years, inspiring us to do more than we ever imagined. It's been an astonishing privilege.

We've ended this book by giving Dr. Bill Brockton a well-earned sabbatical. And now, in the blurring of fact and fiction that have always been a hallmark of the Body Farm novels, we're granting Jefferson Bass a sabbatical, too. It's been our aim to instruct and delight; to make you laugh and cry; to make you root for justice and rage against cruelty, abuse, and narrowness of mind and heart. If we've succeeded in those aims, we've done a good decade's work. And we've had a fine time doing it.

Thank you, and bless you.

Jefferson Bass