Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

The story returns once again to Odom. He is now living on the ground floor of a famous historic home, the Hamilton-Turner House. It is St. Patrick’s Day, and everyone at the house is watching the famous St. Patrick’s Day parade, “the equivalent of Mardi Gras in New Orleans” (254). A part of the parade involves a column of marchers dressed as Confederate soldiers pulling a wagon holding “a blue-clad Union soldier sprawled motionless on the floor of the wagon” (255). When Berendt questions the need to display Civil War figures—“Isn’t it time all that was forgotten?” (255)—Odom responds that it’s more of a symbol of what could happen to outsiders:

‘[A]ny Yankee, even a modern-day Yankee, who comes down here and gets folks all riled up. […] He could be some fella from New York who decided to write a book about us and started filling it with drag queens and murderers and corpses and bottles of poison and […] Voodoo!’ (255).

Odom continues to reflect on his own role in Berendt’s future book. Odom assumes that readers will now consider him the hero of the book in contrast to all the negative events, such as the trial, Berendt writes about.

Berendt depicts Odom’s current domestic situation. He is back to giving unsanctioned tours of his residentially-zoned home even though the inside of the house has no architectural value (the interior has been carved up into apartments). The tourist buses and crowds annoy his neighbors, who spy on Odom’s operations and learn all about the “chaotic atmosphere” formed by the mix of tourists and Odom’s regular guests, who continue to cycle in and out of his home, just like they did at his former residences. He eventually receives a letter from the Department of Inspections, notifying that he must stop the tours. However, he refuses to obey, especially since the tourist industry is so lucrative. Odom’s attempt to influence the Metropolitan Planning Commission does not work. He tells Berendt of his latest plan to incorporate the structure as a nonprofit organization so that the city will give the property the same treatment as a museum. Berendt asks him if he thinks this plan will work: “It’ll work until they figure out how to get around it. But by the time they do, I reckon it won’t matter because I’ll be rich and famous as the hero of your book” (262).

Frank “Sonny” Seiler is Williams’s new lead lawyer since Bobby Lee Cook is unavailable for Williams’s second trial. Seiler is a famous Savannah attorney who has great confidence about the second trial. When Berendt asks him about how Seiler’s approach will be different from Cook’s approach, Seiler says that they will face “the homosexual issue head-on” (266). Williams is apprehensive because his mother will be in the court room, but Seiler assures him that she will not be in the courtroom when Williams testifies. In addition, Seiler says that he has experts who can explain the absence of gunshot-residue on Hansford’s hands as well as why a chair leg was on top of Hansford’s trousers. The lawyer spends the rest of the time talking about his dog, Uga, the mascot for the University of Georgia. He then invites Williams to join him for a football game.

At the game, Seiler is in high spirits, and as he brings Uga out to the game, the fans cheer. Later, Berendt tells Williams about the game. Williams finds it silly, but he also realizes that Seiler’s mood, and subsequently his own case, is dependent on whether Georgia wins or not.

At the second trial, many jury members react in disbelief when they discover they will be sequestered for two weeks: “I refuse it! I’ll lose work. It will make me hostile to the case!” (276). Despite their protests, they must perform their civic duty.

The trial opens with Lawton questioning the police photographer. When Seiler cross-examines her, he gets her to admit that items in the crime scene were moved, and thus the evidence at the crime scene has been contaminated. During the testimony, Minerva, waits in the hall. Seiler will call her as a character witness in the hopes of gaining influence with the African Americans on the jury. But she will also use her time on the stand to put a curse on the DA, the judge, and the jury. When Seiler calls Williams to the stand, Williams admits to his sexual relationship with Hansford, saying that sex with Hansford “was just an occasional, natural thing that happened” (280). However, “[t]he expressions on the jurors’ faces suggest they do not find this arrangement natural at all” (280).

When a defense witness testifies that Hansford was violent, saying that he had kicked him in the stomach for no reason, Minerva is livid, saying that his testimony angers Hansford. She proceeds to calm Hansford down through a complicated ritual involving burning candles and Bible phrases written on parchment.

Seiler does not end up calling Minerva as a witness since she realizes that she had cast some black magic on one of the jurors. However, Seiler has two new witnesses. Vanessa Blanton testifies that she saw Hansford and not Williams out in the Square, a month before the murder, shooting a pistol. The second is Dina Smith, who testifies that she heard a rapid succession of shots, supporting Williams’s story that he shot back quickly in self-defense. Three hours later, the jury returns and finds Williams guilty of murder: “The sentence is life imprisonment. That’s mandatory” (288).