Bonus Episode: The Murder of Lita McClinton - A Conversation with Author Deb Miller Landau

Once Upon A Crime | True Crime

Esther Ludlow

True Crime, Crime, Truecrime, Criminology, History, Criminals

4.6 • 5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton, written by Deb Miller Landau, is the story of the murder-for-hire of Lita McClinton Sullivan in 1987.

Lita was a beautiful, accomplished woman from a respected Atlanta family. Her interracial marriage to millionaire Jim Sullivan in 1970s Georgia was noteworthy in itself. Their differences fueled their deep attraction for each other in the beginning—she was a college-educated, Black debutante from the South. He was a white entrepreneur from working-class Boston, ten years her senior.

They fell in love and soon married. But, before long, Lita found herself trapped in a marriage with a controlling man who treated her as a possession. When Lita filed for divorce from Jim Sullivan a decade later, it set off a series of events that ended in her violent death and subjected her family to a decades-long search for justice.

I spoke with Deb Miller Landau about this decades-old murder case detailed in her book, available now in your favorite bookstore or online retailer.

Links:

The author’s website - www.debword.com and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dml_author/

A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege and the Murder of Lita McClinton, Deb Miller Landau, Pegasus Books, 2024. ISBN 9781639366835

To purchase the book on Amazon - https://amzn.to/4dk0zOD

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast details true crime cases.
0:03.0	It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.
0:07.0	It is not intended for children.
0:09.0	Listener discretion is advised. Thank you for joining me for this special bonus episode of Once Upon a Crime.
0:24.4	You know it's a bonus episode because you probably said, hey, why am I getting a new episode
0:29.2	of Once Upon a Crime on a Friday?
0:32.4	Well, there's a particular reason that I'm very excited about. Before
0:36.2	true crime became a thing, those of us who are fascinated by the subject didn't
0:41.0	have true crime podcasts, YouTube videos, or television channels and
0:44.7	streaming services dedicated to true crime content. We had to consume our true crime
0:49.7	the old-fashioned way through true crime books. Even those weren't the easiest to find
0:54.9	when I was a teen and first started searching out true-crime stories. You had to
0:59.1	sneak them off the bottom shelves of bookstores and libraries, or in my case, buy them in cheap paperback versions in my local market, displayed on a circular rack near the pani hose and disposable lighters. True story. Anyway, I've said all that to say this.
1:14.5	We are now inundated with true crime content in all the formats I've already listed, and we also
1:19.4	have a wealth of new true crime books to choose from. That's a great thing, but as a long time
1:24.9	true crime book reader, I have to be honest. Many of the new true crime books I come
1:29.5	across are, well not the best. So when I discover a compelling true crime story
1:35.1	that is thoroughly researched and beautifully written,
1:37.9	I'm excited to share it.
1:39.7	A new book just out this week is one I thoroughly devoured and haven't stopped thinking
1:44.2	about since I turned the last page. A devil went down to Georgia, race, power,
1:49.6	privilege, and the murder of Lita McClintin, written by Deb Miller Landau, is the story of the
	...

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