Karen and I have each recently acquired a book that we both think is interesting reading. Karen was told a story by a fellow Coffee County school teacher about the clock at the Atkinson County courthouse in Pearson. It seems that Atkinson County had one legal hanging and the man that was hung cursed the town of Pearson, and the clock stopped when he was hung, never to run again. we've done some asking around recently and everyone we talked with in Pearson told us to talk with a man named Carlie Lastinger. Mr. Lastinger's grandfather was killed by the man that was sentenced to be hung and he has written a book about the events. The book is called, "The truth about Old Geech", and if you can overlook the rather gruesome front cover, it makes for good reading. It is also an "easy-to-read" book of 106 pages and contains short chapters on life back in the early 1920s, some of the Lastingers, as well as interviews with different people that attended the public hanging, that knew his grandfather, and knew Claude King, the young black man known as Geech. It contains interviews with former Atkinson County residents such as: Miss Eva Dell White, one of Mr. Lastinger's former teachers, Mrs. Martha Ella Pafford Corbitt, S. B. Lastinger, Mr. Ken Jasper (Coaden) Giddens, Mrs. Ada McKinnon Witherspoon, Mrs. Rachel (Lovey) Cooper Wilson, Mr. James Mullis, Mrs. Nessie Belle Tucker Lastinger (who made the black hood to slip over the condemned man's head),and Mrs. Olive Deen Sumner. Mr. Lastinger sets out on a journey in search of the truth and to find an answer to that age-old question......WHY????? And during his search, he able to lay to rest some of the many superstitions and rumors that surround the hanging, some of which continue to be passed around even today. If you are interested in the book or the trial, please contact Mr. Lastinger at: anfhl@InfoAve.Net The book is sold for $11.95 and he has some copies left. Take care, Melody