McLaughlin discusses “Killer of Quiet Dell”

 

 

This Tuesday, September 9, Dr. Vance McLaughlin of the faculty of Criminal Justice at JSU will give a public lecture on his most recent research project, "The Serial Killer of Quiet Dell."

It is the account of a killer who passed as a minister in West Virginia in the Depression Era. The shocking tale was told in a highly fictionalized account in the film The Night of the Hunter (1955), staring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish, directed by Charles Laughton. In the film, Robert Mitchum plays the role of Harry Powell.

Powell in real life was Herman Drenth, who used the alias of Harry Powers and Cornelius Pierson, and married and murdered several widows for their savings while impersonating an itinerant preacher. As shocking as the film was, the real story was even more chilling. Sorting the facts from the myths is the task Dr. McLaughlin has undertaken in his study of this sexual deviant and killer.

Dr. McLaughlin is the 2007-2008 recipient of the Faculty Scholar Lecturer Award and is widely published in his discipline. An active member of the national Homicide Investigations Working Group, he also is a consultant on use-of-force issues in criminal justice.

Dr. McLaughlin recently published a book on another serial killer, The Postcard Killer: The True Story of America's First Profiled Serial Killer and How the Police Brought Him Down (Thunder Mountain Press, Paperback, 2006). Copies of this book will be on display and available for sale and autographing after the lecture.

The lecture will be on the 11th floor of the Houston Cole Library at 6:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

The lecture is open to the public and JSU students, faculty and staff are invited to celebrate with Dr. McLaughlin his 2007-2008 Faculty Scholar Lecturer Award.

There is no admission charge and the general public, students, faculty and staff of JSU are invited.

 

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