Snake Eyes: Murder in a Southern Town

In an arresting debut, Martin delves into how one violent man rocked her hometown, Hot Springs, Ark., in the 1960s. When 13-year-old Cathie Ward was killed while horseback riding at Blacksnake Ranch outside Hot Springs in the summer of 1966, the ranch’s owner, Frank Davis, claimed she fell off her horse and was dragged to death. Rumors suggesting Davis was somehow responsible swirled, but it would take another death before the truth about the riding accident came out, that of Davis’s fourth wife, Sharron, who left Davis and filed for divorce, and was fatally shot by Davis in January 1967. Davis was indicted for his wife’s murder as well as Ward’s, based on a letter Sharron left behind implicating him in the girl’s death. When charges in the Ward case were dismissed, no one seemed to mind since Davis was sentenced to death for killing his wife. Later, Davis’s sentence was commuted to life, and then he was paroled in 1984. Martin does a good job portraying the tensions between the respectable residents of Hot Springs, a gambling haven, and the notorious characters—Al Capone, Lucky Luciano—who often visited. This sad and frustrating tale of when the justice system fails and a killer pays only a small price for his crimes deserves a wide audience. (Mar.)