Aug. 7, 2013
“After (the first episode of “Innocence Lost” aired in 1991), letters and phone calls poured into the mayor’s office.
“ ‘Dear Mayor: Thank God I don’t live in Edenton. It’s full of witches…..’
“ ‘Dear Mayor: I suppose since lynching Negroes is verboten, the next best thing is for Southerners to cannibalize each other….’
“John Dowd, Edenton’s mayor at the time, is trying to correct some of the damage done to the town’s reputation….
“Many reporters have wanted to know: ‘Will Edenton be able to heal from this?’ The question is a little too touchy-feely for some residents, too intimate and much too insincere. Dowd replies, ‘Hell, we’ve recovered from the Civil War, from World War II.’ Then, dryly: ‘Yeah, I think we’ll recover from this.’ ”
– From “Little Town of Horrors” by Kathy Dobie in McCall’s (June 1992)
The Civil War, World War II and the Little Rascals Day Care case? The mayor’s resolve was apparent, if not his logic – but that was true for the whole case, wasn’t it?