The Boys of the Dark: A Story of Betrayal and Redemption in the Deep South
Though the abuse OÖMcCarthy and Straley suffered as teenagers in the late 1950s and early Ö60s at the Florida School for Boys, a reform school, was horrific, journalist FisherÖs (After the Fire) maudlin tone dilutes their inspirational story. Both OÖMcCarthy and Straley were subjected to brutal beatings in a building known as the White House and heard rumors of other boys who were whipped and never seen again. The 2006 death of a 14-year-old boy in a Florida youth boot camp forced Straley to confront emotions and memories heÖd bottled up for decades. He contacted OÖMcCarthy, now a journalist whoÖd made a documentary on the 1923 Rosewood massacre, and the two men tracked down other survivors of the Florida School for Boys, enlisting the help of former Florida legislator and childrenÖs crusader Gus Barreiro. Fisher is strongest at detailing FloridaÖs lackluster history of treating youthful offenders but when conveying the emotional and often troubled lives of OÖMcCarthy and Straley in and after reform school, she adopts the tone of a cheesy after-school TV special.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.