Mark Shelnutt has dined at the Big Eddy Club -- twice.
But that doesn't make him a conspirator in the case against Carlton Gary.
"Carlton Gary comes to Columbus in August 1977 and gets arrested in South Carolina in 1979, and everything happens in that time," Shelnutt said.
Rose was getting a free pass with the arguments in his book, Shelnutt said, and he spent more than 90 minutes detailing problems he believes run through its pages.
Shrouding the case beneath the looming specter of racism in the South is Rose's method of bypassing the case's facts, he said. It's ammunition to lead the reader away from the evidence -- ammunition that tells the reader that judges, attorneys, detectives and everyone involved in the case are part of the conspiracy. Rose casts the case in the light of racism, Shelnutt said, and the Big Eddy Club is its symbol.
"Nothing will ever change the fact that Carlton Gary is black and the victims are white," Shelnutt said.
