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ISBN:
0-9724224-0-4
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Behind the Moss Curtain and
Other Great Savannah Stories “Behind the Moss Curtain” is Murray Silver’s intensely personal tour of Savannah that few people know. A fifth generation Savannahian, Silver’s grandfather owned and operated the most celebrated hangout in the city, from 1927 until 1958. Bo Peep’s Billiard Parlor on Congress and Drayton was where wives could find their husbands when they couldn’t be found anywhere else, and a steady stream of characters --gangsters, gamblers, and stars from every sport –passed through these doors. Four of the ten stories making up this book are drawn from the high times of Savannah’s golden age. Elsewhere in this collection are two major works of contrast. The first is the title story, an account of the infamous Butcher Murder of 1945, which no Savannahian living at that time could ever forget. This factual account is more fantastic than any fiction, and Silver has uncovered elements of the story that were unknown to the public at the time and which are perhaps more shocking than the crime itself. It was a rush to judgment that put a poor soul in the electric chair, and Silver pleads a case that is slowly making even the family of the victim change their hardened hearts. The second major piece is a fresh look at Shoeless Joe Jackson, widely known as the greatest baseball player that ever lived, but scarcely recognized as a citizen of Savannah for 23 years. Jackson began his pro career with the Savannah Indians in 1909, and Silver has traced his every barefoot step in recounting where Jackson lived and what he did here. The author relates many facts heretofore unknown as part of his successful bid to have Joe enshrined in the Savannah Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. Elsewhere in this matchless collection are Silver’s essays on contemporary Savannah affairs: the restoration of the Pulaski monument, the Snakehead Smugglers, and the harbor deepening project, all of which are masterfully rendered so that it is practically impossible to tell where objective fact-finding ends and editorial opinion begins. In short, “Behind the Moss Curtain” is the best book ever written about Savannah, bar none. |
