Synopses & Reviews
The spellbinding story of one of the most celebrated kidnapping cases in American history and a haunting family mystery that took almost a century to solve.In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar, the son of an upper-middle-class Louisiana family, went missing in the swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country, the boy was found in the pinewoods of southern Mississippi. A wandering piano tuner was arrested and charged with the boy’s kidnapping—a crime punishable by death at the time. But when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the boy as her son, not Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle over custody—and identity—that divided the South.
Amid an ever-thickening tangle of suspicion and doubt, two mothers and a father struggled to assert their rightful parenthood over the child. For two years, lawyers dissected and newspapers sensationalized every aspect of the story. Psychiatrists, physicians, criminologists, and private detectives debated the piano tuner’s guilt and the boy’s identity. And all the while the boy himself remained peculiarly guarded on the question of who he was. It took nearly a century, the detective work of Bobby Dunbar’s granddaughter Margaret Dunbar Cutright, and the science of DNA to discover the truth.
First told in a stunning episode of National Public Radio’s This American Life, A Case for Solomon chronicles the epic struggle to determine one child’s identity, along the way probing unsettling questions about the formation of memory, family, and self.
Review
and#8220;A thoughtful look at the elusiveness of truth and the fluidity of identityand#8230; Itand#8217;s difficult not to empathize with both sides of this case, as everyone loses somethingand#8212;particularly the child caught in the middle.and#8221; --andlt;bandgt;andlt;iandgt;Publisher's Weeklyandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"andlt;iandgt;A Case For Solomonandlt;/iandgt; is a fascinating tale of an American changeling -- a little boy lost to the Louisiana swamps, only to be conjured back by headlines and a mother's agony. Within the life of Bobby Dunbar, a man who was a mystery even to himself, Tal McThenia and Margaret Cutright have uncovered a dramatic case of families caught between grief, injustice, and the desperate will to believe." --andlt;bandgt;Paul Collins, author ofandlt;/bandgt; andlt;iandgt;andlt;bandgt;The Murder of the Centuryandlt;/bandgt;andlt;/iandgt;
Review
"A Case for Solomon is haunting and unforgettable.
Review
"A Case for Solomon can easily be read as a kidnapping mystery or a legal thriller or a saga of class privilege or a lively indictment of the deadly shenanigans when the media circus comes to town.
Review
"a solid read that provides plenty of food for thought." --Library Journal
Review
and#8220;andlt;iandgt;A Case For Solomonandlt;/iandgt; is a thoroughly researched and detailed work of history that lets its mystery unfold with the restraint and craft of a detective story. Though as suspenseful and dark as any good thriller... it wonders, through the telling of the shocking tale, at greater questions - about the nature of identity, and family, and to what lengths people might go to avoid knowing a terrible truth." --andlt;bandgt;andlt;iandgt;The Times-Picayuneandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"A Case for Solomon... which reads like fiction, revisits the sensational 1912 kidnapping of four-year-old Bobby Dunbar from the swamps of Louisiana. The discovery of a boy matching Bobby's description in rural Mississippi and the shocking emergence of an indigent woman from North Carolina claiming to be his mother were red meat to newsmen ravenous for scandal. The nation was rapt for months, although the mystery wouldn't be solved for a century." --Vanity Fair
Review
"The saga related in the book is so mind-bending that some readers might need to digest certain passages about family connections more than once, as I felt compelled to do. It is worth the effort." -- andlt;bandgt;andlt;iandgt;The Atlanta Journal-Constitutionandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"A fascinating narrative about an ostensible kidnapping and a 90-year case of mistaken identity, fully steeped in the flavor of the era. [andlt;iandgt;A Case for Solomonandlt;/iandgt;] is a narrative about the fierceness of parental love, the flaws of the legal system, and ultimately about how we derive our own sense of who we are." --andlt;bandgt;andlt;iandgt;The Boston Globeandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"A Case for Solomon is haunting and unforgettable.
Review
"a solid read that provides plenty of food for thought." --andlt;bandgt;andlt;iandgt;Library Journalandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
“A thoughtful look at the elusiveness of truth and the fluidity of identity… It’s difficult not to empathize with both sides of this case, as everyone loses something—particularly the child caught in the middle.” --Publisher's Weekly
Review
"A Case For Solomon is a fascinating tale of an American changeling -- a little boy lost to the Louisiana swamps, only to be conjured back by headlines and a mother's agony. Within the life of Bobby Dunbar, a man who was a mystery even to himself, Tal McThenia and Margaret Cutright have uncovered a dramatic case of families caught between grief, injustice, and the desperate will to believe." --Paul Collins, author of The Murder of the Century
Review
"A Case for Solomon is haunting and unforgettable.
Review
"A Case for Solomon can easily be read as a kidnapping mystery or a legal thriller or a saga of class privilege or a lively indictment of the deadly shenanigans when the media circus comes to town.
Review
"a solid read that provides plenty of food for thought." --Library Journal
Review
“A Case For Solomon is a thoroughly researched and detailed work of history that lets its mystery unfold with the restraint and craft of a detective story. Though as suspenseful and dark as any good thriller... it wonders, through the telling of the shocking tale, at greater questions - about the nature of identity, and family, and to what lengths people might go to avoid knowing a terrible truth." --The Times-Picayune
Review
"A Case for Solomon... which reads like fiction, revisits the sensational 1912 kidnapping of four-year-old Bobby Dunbar from the swamps of Louisiana. The discovery of a boy matching Bobby’s description in rural Mississippi and the shocking emergence of an indigent woman from North Carolina claiming to be his mother were red meat to newsmen ravenous for scandal. The nation was rapt for months, although the mystery wouldn’t be solved for a century." --Vanity Fair
Review
"The saga related in the book is so mind-bending that some readers might need to digest certain passages about family connections more than once, as I felt compelled to do. It is worth the effort." -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Review
"A fascinating narrative about an ostensible kidnapping and a 90-year case of mistaken identity, fully steeped in the flavor of the era. [A Case for Solomon] is a narrative about the fierceness of parental love, the flaws of the legal system, and ultimately about how we derive our own sense of who we are." --The Boston Globe
Review
and#8220;Rarely do nonfiction books engage me so deeply and satisfyingly as . . . andlt;iandgt;A Case for Solomonandlt;/iandgt; has. Exhaustively researched . . . [the book] reads like fiction.and#8221;
Review
andlt;divandgt;andlt;iandgt;"A Case for Solomonandlt;/iandgt; is haunting and unforgettable.
Review
andlt;iandgt;"A Case for Solomonandlt;/iandgt; is haunting and unforgettable. It swept me up like no other book I've read in a long time. It is a mystery story finally solved after a hundred years, but it's also a profound and heartbreaking examination of identity and loss told by writers whose hard-won research and narrative gifts are plain on every page. The exotic settings, the characters whose love redeems as well as destroys, a plot that is downright biblical...and in the end a little boy with arms outstretched and this question on his lips: Who am I?" -- andlt;bandgt;John Ed Bradley, author of andlt;iandgt;Tupelo Nightsandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;It Never Rains in Tiger Stadiumandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
and#8220;andlt;iandgt;A Case for Solomonandlt;/iandgt; can easily be read as a kidnapping mystery or a legal thriller or a saga of class privilege or a lively indictment of the deadly shenanigans when the media circus comes to town. To me, itand#8217;s a tragic accounting of the abuses inherent in our confidence about what's in the best interests of a child. And all of it is evidence of the power of nonfiction--fact after astonishing fact.and#8221; --andlt;bandgt;Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of andlt;iandgt;Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronxandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Synopsis
The spellbinding story of one of the most celebrated kidnapping cases in American history--the kidnapping of Bobby Dunbar--and a haunting family mystery that took almost a century to solve.
THE MOST NOTORIOUS KIDNAPPING CASE IN AMERICAN HISTORY
In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing in the Louisiana swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and destroyed Bobby's parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recogniz-able. A wandering piano tuner was arrested and charged with kidnapping-- a crime then punishable by death.
But when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the boy as her son, not the lost Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle over custody--and identity--that divided the South. A gripping historical mystery, A Case for Solomon chronicles the epic century-long effort to unravel the startling truth.
Synopsis
andlt;B andgt;THE MOST NOTORIOUS KIDNAPPING CASE IN AMERICAN HISTORY andlt;/Bandgt;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing in the Louisiana swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and destroyed Bobbyand#8217;s parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recognizand#173;able. A wandering piano tuner was arrested and charged with kidnappingand#8212; a crime then punishable by death. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;But when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the boy as andlt;I andgt;herandlt;/Iandgt; son, not the lost Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle over custodyand#8212;and identityand#8212;that divided the South. A gripping historical mystery, andlt;I andgt;A Case for Solomonandlt;/Iandgt; chronicles the epic century-long effort to unravel the startling truth.
About the Author
andlt;bandgt;Tal McTheniaandlt;/bandgt; is a freelance writer who reported and wrote andlt;iandgt;The Ghost of Bobby Dunbarandlt;/iandgt;, a one-hour radio documentary for the acclaimed public radio series andlt;iandgt;This American Lifeandlt;/iandgt;. He has received residencies at the ShenanArtand#8217;s Playwrightsand#8217; Workshop and the MacDowell Colony. He lives in New York.andlt;Bandgt;Margaret Dunbar Cutrightandlt;/Bandgt; is the granddaughter of Bobby Dunbar, the victim of the kidnapping in andlt;iandgt;A Case for Solomonandlt;/iandgt;. She has researched the case for more than a decade, gathering and analyzing legal documents, family correspondence, and newspapers, and has had extensive and ongoing contact with descendants of all three of theandnbsp;families involved in the story.andnbsp;She lives in North Carolina.