When a front page story came out in the Bowling Green(Ky)Daily News recently that a book had been written regarding the freshman murder of Katie Autry at Western Kentucky University, I knew that I had to get the book. I ordered the book online the first day it came out. Autry was raped and set on fire on the front mid-section of her body with hair spray in her dorm room after getting drunk at a party at the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity house on campus. She later died at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., which is about 60 miles south of Bowling Green, a couple days later.

When I received my book, it immediately grabbed my attention and I hated to break away from it because I had to go to bed or go to work. However, the book is a short read with only 231 pages and it can be read in a brief amount of time especially if you’re extremely interested in the case like I was. The author is William Van Meter, a Bowling Green native who apparently now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and is a freelance journalist who contributes to such publications as “New York magazine,” “Harper’s Bazaar” and “The New York Times.” I don’t know Van Meter personally but I know of the family—the Van Meters—a prominent Bowling Green family who made a fortune in the insurance business. There are rumors that the Bowling Green community is not too happy that a book was written regarding this notorious murder case because it is a major public relations disaster for Western Kentucky University which is also located in Bowling Green. The university definitely wants to put this case to rest because of the bad publicity, I can assure you. Even one of the major local chain book stores, I heard, is not having a book signing for Van Meter and the book because they don’t want to support the sensationalism of the tragic death of Autry. I even heard from one person who lives in Bowling Green who knows the Van Meter family personally say that Van Meter probably would not have written the book if his mother were still alive and was still living in the community.

Being a native of Memphis, Tenn., and having lived in North Mississippi where I graduated high school and attended Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss., for five years, I have now lived in Bowling Green for the last 21 years of my life. This crime is probably of the most bizarre, shocking, grizzly, heinous and tragic murder cases that has ever hit Bowling Green and South central Kentucky since I have lived here, as far as I’m concerned. However, there was one particular case that happened in the mid-1990’s in Bowling Green which was the kidnapping and murder of a little five year-old girl that drew national attention. She was kidnapped by a child predator in van at a Bowling Green apartment complex and taken across the state-line in Tennessee where she was sexually molested, raped and murdered. Police later found her skeletal remains in a ditch on a side road off Interstate 65 south of Bowling Green at the White House, Tenn., exit. Police never did find the child predator but it was speculated that it was probably a serial killer who travels the country committing these horrible and evil acts.

This particular book, “Bluegrass,” summons up past events of the murder from May of 2003 to the court room trial in March of 2005 in Owensboro, Ky. At the time, I wasn’t subscribing to Bowling Green Daily News, so I didn’t keep up with all the details of the murder case and the trial. But I did see the news reports on the local television station WBKO Channel 13 from time to time. Mainly, I remember people in the community commenting about the case and I think the majority of citizens in Bowling Green and South central Kentucky felt that Lucas Goodrum, the 21-year murder suspect from Scottsville, Ky., was responsible for the crime and who made Stephen Soules, another young man from Scottsville, a guilty partner in the crime by forcing him to commit rape also. However, after the reading the book, I am not sure that Goodrum is guilty even though he was not found guilty at the trial. Some people around here still think he is guilty. Soules made a plea bargain with life without parole in order to avoid the death penalty if he implicated Goodrum in the case. Goodrum was connected with an extremely wealthy family from Scottsville and Soules, a mixed racial person, half white and half African American, was from a poor family, and the victim, Autry, was from a broken home and had lived in foster care for half of her life. Autry was experiencing new found freedom at Western Kentucky University where she drank alcohol at fraternity parties and was dancing a local strip club as a part-time job. Autry, being a white girl, was friends with a lot of African Americans on campus as well as being in love with a Western Kentucky University African American football player. All of this was apparently a new life for her especially since she had come from extremely strict living conditions with her foster parents in Pellville, Ky. Goodrum had a history of domestic violence in his family where he was known to have choked his ex-wife and slapped her around. Soules was known to be a follower and could easily be controlled by others such as Goodrum and even though he was thought to be a gentle person by always checking on his grandmother where he lived. There are stories of elicit sex, foul rap song lyrics and drug and alcohol abuse revealed in the book.

However, one of favorite parts of the book is where Van Meter describes Bowling Green and South central Kentucky in a chapter about the culture and history of the area and how this part of the country between Louisville, Ky., and Nashville is a growing area in population and economically with Western Kentucky University being here along with two major hospitals and the General Motor Corvette plant, the only place in the world, where the car is produced. Not to mention, the hundreds of other factories that are in Bowling Green and in the South central Kentucky area, which adds to the local economy and job market. Van Meter also describes Scottsville, Pellville, and Morgantown, Ky. Morgantown is where Katie’s aunt, Betty White lives. White was and probably still is the most outspoken critic against Western Kentucky University by blaming the university for her niece’s death and even filed a lawsuit against the university.

Being a former newspaper reporter and book reviewer for the Bowling Green Daily News, I would have to say this is one of the biggest books to ever be published by a writer from Bowling Green and about a murder that happened in Bowling Green which has drawn national and probably world-wide attention now because of the book being published. I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in true crime stories and especially if you live in Bowling Green or South central Kentucky and are somewhat familiar with the case like I was. I don’t think the citizens of Bowling Green or South central Kentucky and the staff at Western Kentucky University, should shun Van Meter for his endeavor of writing this book. Van Meter obviously had the guts, the talent, the intelligence and the ability to write a book about a tragedy that we should never forget that happened in this community. Universities and college towns across America and society in general should learn a lesson from this tragic murder case and how drugs, alcohol and sex involving young people can affect them at parties and after parties on campus and off campus. When all of these elements are mixed in together, they can create a deadly combination that can affect families and friends of all races and backgrounds with a tremendous sense of loss and pain for years to come.

Galen A. Smith Sr. is a native of Memphis, Tenn., and graduated high school and attended college in North Mississippi. He studied print journalism at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in Oxford, Miss., under the late Southern and Mississippi writer, Willie Morris (My Dog Skip, Good Ole Boy and New York Days.) He has lived in Bowling Green with his wife and son since 1988. His web-site is www.myspace.com/galenasmithsr and blog site is galenasmithsr.blogspot.com