The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston's Racial Divide

Dick Lehr

Jun 2009 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

“A monumental account of an urban travesty….[It] has all the earmarks of a classic.”
—Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River and Shutter Island

Dick Lehr’s The Fence, subtitled, “A Police Cover-up Along Boston’s Racial Divide,” is a shocking true story of racism, brutality, official lies and negligence, when the truth about the savage beating of black plainclothes policeman by white officers was hidden behind a “blue wall of silence.”  Respected journalist Lehr, winner of the Hancock Award, the Loeb Award, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and bestselling author of Black Mass and Judgment Ridge, sheds a brilliant light on all aspects of this powerful, disturbing event and its aftermath.

Ratings and reviews

Gripping account of a terrible incident. The corruption / cover-up extended even to the federal prosecutor, who committed a Brady violation in his attempt to expose the cover-up of the original incident. An enjoyable read, Mr. Lehr presents testimony and statements, often tedious reading, in a story-like fashion. I highly recommend this book, especially for LEOs.

Racism is the foundation of America as well as the BPD.

About the author

Dick Lehr is a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is the author of six previous works of nonfiction and a novel for young adults. Lehr coauthored the New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award Winning Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI and a Devil’s Deal, which became the basis of a Warner Bros. film of the same name. His most recent nonfiction book, The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited The Battle for Civil Rights, became the basis for a PBS/Independent Lens documentary. Two other books were Edgar Award finalists: The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston’s Racial Divide, and Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind The Dartmouth Murders. Lehr previously wrote for the Boston Globe, where he was a member of the Spotlight Team, a special projects reporter and a magazine writer. While at the Globe he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative reporting and won numerous national and local journalism awards. Lehr lives near Boston.