Anne Chesky Smith

Murder at Asheville's Battery Park Hotel Anne Chesky Smith

The words of a murderer. In 1936, Helen Clevenger's uncle discovered her bloodied body crumpled on the floor of her small room in Asheville's grand Battery Park Hotel. She had been shot through the chest. Buncombe County sheriff Laurence Brown, up for reelection, desperately searched for the white teenager's killer as the public clamored for answers. Even after Sheriff Brown secured a confession from a young Black man, many southerners feared that the crime had not been solved. Author Anne Chesky Smith weaves together varying accounts of the murder and investigation to expose a complex and disturbing chapter in Asheville's history.