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Bluegrass: A True Story of Murder in Kentucky Kindle Edition

by William Van Meter (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 230 ratings
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By the lights of absolutely everyone who ever knew her, Katie Autry never harmed a hair on a dog's head.

She came from a tiny village in Kentucky. The State moved her as a child into a foster home in a town so small it had one stoplight. New to her own beauty and a little awkward, Katie had the biggest smile on her high school cheerleading squad. In September 2002, she matriculated as a freshman at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. She majored in the dental program, but as it was for many college students her age, partying was of equal priority. She worked days at the smoothie shop, nights at the local strip club, and fell in love with a football player who wouldn't date her.

Five feet two in heels and without a bad word to say about anyone, Katie Autry was sweet, kind, and utterly naïve. She was making the clumsy strides of a newborn colt, discovering what the world was like and learning to be her own person. And on the morning of May 4, 2003, Katie Autry was raped, stabbed, sprayed with hairspray, and set on fire in her own dormitory room.

In telling the true story of this shocking crime, Bluegrass describes the devastation of not one but three families. Two young men, whose lives seem preordained to intertwine, are jailed for the crime: DNA evidence places Stephen Soules, an unemployed, mixed-race high school dropout, atthe scene, and Lucas Goodrum, a twenty-one-year-old pot dealer with an ex-wife, a girlfriend still in high school, and an inauspicious history of domestic abuse, is held by an ever-changing confession. The friends of the suspects and the foster and birth families of the victim form complex and warring social nets that are cast across town. And a small southern community, populated by eccentrics of every socioeconomic class, from dirt-poor to millionaire, responds to the horror. Like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, this tale is redolent with atmosphere, dark tension, and lush landscapes.

With the keen eye of a talented young journalist returning to his southern roots, Van Meter paints a vivid portrait of the town, the characters who fill it, and the simmering class conflicts that made an injustice like this not only possible, but inevitable.
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  1. Print length
    241 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Free Press
  5. Publication date
    January 6, 2009
  6. File size
    1617 KB
  7. Page Flip
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 2003, college student Katie Autry was brutally raped, stabbed and set on fire in her dorm room at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky. Returning to his hometown, journalist Van Meter explores Autry's murder, and the subsequent investigation and trial. But his scattershot approach leaves the account as full of holes as the suspects' alibis. Authorities tracked down several people who'd been at a fraternity party Autry had attended before focusing on Stephen Soules, a high school dropout who at first said he'd had consensual sex with the drunken girl in her dorm. But Soules blamed the murder on Luke Goodrum, a 21-year-old with a history of domestic violence. Despite mounting evidence implicating Soules, Goodrum was tried for the crime, while Soules—who now claimed Goodrum forced him to rape Autry—agreed to testify in exchange for life in prison, thus avoiding a capital trial. Instead of exploring the glaring legal errors that ran rampant during the investigation and Goodrum's trial, Van Meter instead cobbles together a melodramatic narrative that doesn't do Autry's tragic death justice. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The murder of Katie Autry would seem to have it all, true-crime-wise. Attractive coed is raped and killed in her dorm room, and her corpse set afire. Authorities quickly determine she was at a frat party the night before, so the always-enjoyable drunken witnesses and suspects come into play. Then DNA evidence points to a high-school dropout who claims to have had consensual sex with her but later contends to have been forced to rape her by a pal he also fingers for the murder. Oddly, the coppers believe him. Unfortunately, Van Meter’s disorganized chronicle dissipates much of the excitement and prosecutorial glee one might expect. What could be a scathing look at a prosecution gone awfully wrong turns into a weepy narrative with more to say about the quaint college-town setting than the carnival of investigative and prosecutorial missteps that would seem to be the real story here. Imperfect though it is, Bluegrass should still satisfy dyed-in-the-wool true-crime fans, if not much of anyone new to the genre. --Mike Tribby

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001TLZEMI
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Free Press; Reprint edition (January 6, 2009)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 6, 2009
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1617 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 241 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 230 ratings

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William Van Meter

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
230 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States

MJS
5.0 out of 5 stars Teenage Wasteland
Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2010
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New titles are published in the True Crime every year but new voices are rare. Anyone who cares about the genre has to wonder when the next Ted Olsen or Darcy O'Brien or Shana Alexander is going to arrive. Or wonder is they'll ever arrive at all. A new voice has arrived with Bluegrass.

The lives of three young people, all barely out of their teens, intersect as a typical college frat party. The girl gets her heart broken, gets drunk, acts out and then gets tossed out. One of the boys has spent the party passed out in a pickup truck after an all too successful pre-party. The second boy is unimpressed by his first frat party. By morning the girl is in ICU suffering horrific injuries. The investigation and murder trial that follow leave many questions unanswered.

William Van Meter tells this story with nary a trace of hysteria and what's even more impressive is that he also does it without an ounce of condescension. Life in semi-rural Kentucky would be filled with only alcohol and Ten Commandments road signage in the hands of other writers but Van Meter avoids the clichés. He shows us the aimless lives of the two boys and the semi-aimless life of the girl, their stunningly bad choices and their almost innocent kindnesses. His occasional commentary on their lives is devastating in its brevity. Case in point is his assessment of Stephen Soules: "a sluggish existence wholly in the present - a life structured around `chillin'."

This is the rare true crime book that is successful despite a genuine ambiguity about what actually transpired. Van Meter never hands the reader an easy out of "this is what I think happened", leaving us to sort it all out for ourselves. It's not a perfect book, the writing could stand a bit more polish in places but this is Van Meter's first book I'm willing to overlook a few rough edges when the overall content is this good. At 240 pages this is a short book well worth the time of any True Crime fan. Highly recommended.
13 people found this helpful
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Bob Dees
4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good book
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2013
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I guess I always knew that having a ton of money does not necessarily grant you happiness. This book really solidifies that in my mind. The way young folks have the ability to be incredibly kind with each other is only counter-weighed by horrendous way folks can treat each other. It saddens me to think that this young lady's life was cut short as it was. It is a terrible way to die and upsets me a lot. I will get over it but for now I am saddened.
This was a well written book about a very interesting cast of characters who lead very interesting lives. You have to work hard for things and if you do you will appreciate them. If you don't you will not appreciate much of anything and will slide through life like Lucas Goodrum apparently is according to this book.
I appreciate all of the research that went into this book and appreciate the depth at which the research was done. I see that this book has been re-released under a different title - which I find interesting too. I think the author wanted to sell more books and make a bigger name for his book and himself. Nothing wrong with that but you don't see books re-released all that often so the story must be reaching some folks.
3 people found this helpful
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Tracy O.
5.0 out of 5 stars Heart wrenching
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2022
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Being from Kentucky I had to read this. I had heard about it before, but while researching the case I came across the book. So being a crime junkie, a book lover, and fellow Kentuckian I stopped researching and bought the book. I read it in 2 days and cried through most of it. Amazingly written, and tells all sides of the story. He even does enough research to tell as much of Katie’s side as possible (considering we’ll never know what her side really was). Just an FYI this book was re-released under the name Cruel Heart about a year after. So no need to purchase both.
2 people found this helpful
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K. Andrews
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Book
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2010
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This is hands down one of the best books I have ever read. The author, William Van Meter, returns to his hometown to investigate the brutal murder of Katie Autry and the people involved.

What benefits this book so much is the fact that Van Meter has no agenda; he's not here to preach against college drinking or rant about the breakdown of family values. No judgment is passed; he simply tells the story and allows you to draw your own conclusions- that makes for excellent investigative writing.

It is clear Van Meter is a journalist through his writing style, he is descriptive enough that the readers can place themselves there, but he avoids being long-winded and rambling. This skill is especially effective in his descriptions of Kentucky; I've never been there but I felt as if I were sitting next to Van Meter as he talked about the landscape, culture and people.

The outline of the book mirrors a Greek tragedy- the beginning of the story follows three people as they go about their lives, completely unaware of what is going to transpire a few days. As each detail brings Katie, Stephen and Lucas closer and closer to the party, the reader can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of doom.

Although this is a phenomenal book, be warned it is a very heavy book. I've read stories about crime for years and no other books have had that kind of emotional effect on me. It's been weeks since I read this book and I still think about Katie every day. At the same time I think it is important to know that these brutal, senseless things do happen in America. This is really well written book. I look forward to reading more William Van Meter in the future.
8 people found this helpful
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Andrew Furlong
3.0 out of 5 stars I think the author did a pretty good job with what he had to work with
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2017
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I think the author did a pretty good job with what he had to work with. The story itself was very interesting to me as I am an alum of the college where this took place and everyone was outraged when this took place. I found the characters of the story to not be particularly interesting though. I'm not sure that this is the fault of the author or if these just weren't particularly interesting people. I am not a good enough writer myself to make that judgment.
2 people found this helpful
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Jeanne
5.0 out of 5 stars The true storied
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2021
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I just received this book today and already read over half
Of it. I love it but maybe because its close to home but the author is really good on this story. Will be ordering more from this author.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

S C O ♿
4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book was very informative and a v good read. I had always been suspicious of whether Luke was involved and didn't think he had been, and before I even got to the end of the book, with the actual timeline of events I knew I had been correct. Its such a shame that the police involved "messed" up the investigation. Maybe if it had been taken over, Luke's name would never have been linked to this crime and I think its sad that there's ppl who truly believe he's guilty. N near the end I disagreed that Ryan wasn't helpful to the defense or prosecution. It's further evidence that Stevens story was untrue as he stated he didn't remember them talking while he dropped them off. Only Steven said this occurred, so it could've helped the defense. Also his friend (not Ryan) had told the police that he has told him several versions of what happened before Steven was even talked to. Again, this was a very good read and I would recommend it to anyone who's heard of this crime as it lays out everything as it sadly happened.
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