Child Murder: The Town That Lived in Silence

What consistently sets Siegel's writing apart from many other newspaper narratives is his ability and willingness to construct an authoritative, muscular "argument." In this case, he shows how a middle-class community in the 1960s failed to prevent a child's murder, and then failed to prosecute it. By framing the story in this way—by offering a theme that is not just organizing but instructive—he elevates the piece above other works of journalism that, in the end, engage and entertain, but enlighten little.

Read “Child Murder: The Town That Lived in Silence,” by Barry Siegel