Martha Mea Van Hook

Death by Force

Martha Mae Van Hook, a 28-year-old white woman from Somerset, Kentucky, was a young mother and a familiar face behind the counter of a local café, where regulars knew her as a friendly, hard-working waitress. On the cold night of February 3, 1959, that ordinary life ended on a lonely stretch of Crab Orchard Road outside town. Passersby found her lying in the roadway, partially undressed, her body still warm in the winter air. The violence done to her was immediately apparent: she had been savag ...Read More