Bluegrass: A True Story of Murder in Kentucky. By William Van Meter. Free Press. 231 pages. $24.
Katie Autry was pretty and precocious, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Western Kentucky who had already earned a reputation for being free with her favors. Her dorm mates had an unkind nickname touching on her habits. More than most freshmen, however, Katie was exploring and forming her identity. She had been raised partly by relatives, partly in foster care. Her costs for college were paid by a state program for foster children.
Luke Goodrum had few excuses for his life. His mother's second husband was wealthy thanks to the Dollar General empire. Goodrum, however, had been brought up working-class, though he didn't himself work. He garnered income from dealing drugs. and, at 21, was divorced with a baby whom he seldom saw.
Stephen Soules was of mixed race and as aimless as Goodrum. A high-school dropout, he was the consummate follower, up for anything, whether or not it was a good idea. He sometimes bummed marijuana from Goodrum.
On May 3, 2003, however, Soules had managed to round up liquor and young women and invited Goodrum to join him for a gathering that he described as a warm-up to a fraternity party at Western that Soules planned to crash. Katie was already there with her roommate, Danica Jackson. Soules missed it. He was so drunk upon arrival that he stayed in the truck to recuperate. By the time one of the designated drivers rounded up Katie and got her into the truck, complete with Soules, it was past 1 a.m.
That much is clear; the rest is a mystery. At a few minutes after 4 a.m. the fire alarms went off in the dormitory where Katie and Danica lived. The sprinkler in their room had been covered with a blanket, and Katie had been brutally attacked, and afterward burned from chest to privates. She died three days later.
Soules told police that he had followed Katie up to her room to make sure she was all right and that, at her invitation, they had intercourse. He was still there when Danica called at 2:30 a.m. Soules said that Goodrum had come into Katie's room and that Soules had watched Goodrum "turn crazy." Both Soules and Goodrum were arrested. One was sentenced, one freed.
If you read enough of them, true-crime books tend to blur. Most follow a formula as predictable as a Law & Order rerun. William Van Meter dwells on the dysfunction in the lives of those involved, but it is that detail as much as anything that keeps the reader turning pages. As horrible as the crime itself was, as sad as the lives of the young people, there ought to be nothing remarkable in the unfolding of the crime and what followed. Van Meter succeeds in creating vivid images of the people, the landscape, the relationships. It's easy to feel sorry for the victim. With simple, compelling reporting, Van Meter persuades the reader to feel sorry for the perpetrator or perpetrators. At least temporarily.
■ Beth Woodard, a former Journal editorial assistant, now writes from Greensboro.
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