A death on W Street : the murder of Seth Rich and the age of conspiracy

A death on W Street The murder of Seth Rich and the age of conspiracy

Andy Kroll

Book - 2022

"A true-crime story for the post-truth era. In the early hours of July 10, 2016, gunshots rang out and a young man lay fatally wounded on a quiet Washington, DC, street. But who killed Seth Rich? When he was buried in his hometown, his rabbi declared: "There are no answers for a young man gunned down in the prime of his life." The rabbi was wrong. There were in fact many answers, way too many. In the absence of an arrest, a howling mob filled the void. Wild speculation and fantastical theories surfaced on social media and gained traction thanks to a high-level cast of provocateurs. But it wasn't until Fox News took the rumors from the fringes to the mainstream that Seth Rich's life and death grew into something alto...gether unexpected--one of the foundational conspiracy theories of modern times. A Death on W Street unravels this gripping saga of murder, madness, and political chicanery, one that would ensnare Hillary Clinton and Steve Bannon, a popular pizzeria in northwest DC and the most powerful voices in American media. It's the story of an idealistic twenty-seven-year-old political staffer who became a tragic victim of the culture wars, until his family decided that they had no choice but to defend his name and put an end to the cruel deceptions that surrounded his death. This is the definitive story of Seth Rich, of those who tried to weaponize his memory in a war of words unlike any other, and of one family's crusade to protect the truth against all odds."--provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Rich, Seth, > 1989-2016.
Murder > Washington (D.C.) > Case studies.
Murder > Investigation > Washington (D.C.) > Case studies.
Conspiracy theories.
Disinformation > United States.
True crime stories.
Biographies.
Genres
True crime stories
Biographies
Published
New York : Public Affairs [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Andy Kroll (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xiii, 346 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-335) and index.
ISBN
9781541751149
  • Prologue
  • Act I. Viral
  • 1. Striver
  • 2. The Last Walk Home
  • 3. A Hideous Parade
  • 4. The United States of Sheeple
  • 5. Our Sources Take Risks
  • 6. The First Good Samaritan
  • 7. Through the Looking Glass
  • 8. The Lives of a Few for the Lives of Many
  • 9. She Who Fights Monsters
  • 10. Code Purple
  • Act II. Megaphone
  • 11. Creature of the Green Room
  • 12. Ask Me Anything
  • 13. A Nice but Somewhat Uncomfortable Message
  • 14. War Room
  • 15. Give Us a Wink
  • 16. Rabbits Out of Hats
  • 17. Panic at the Network
  • 18. Never Say Sorry
  • 19. The Widening Gyre
  • Act III. The Dead Have No Defense
  • 20. Q Clearance
  • 21. Never Call Him Brother
  • 22. The Worst Best Option
  • 23. Rendezvous
  • 24. Extreme and Outrageous
  • 25. A Sign in the Crowd
  • 26. Defendant
  • 27. Birth of a Lie
  • 28. The Blood of Tyrants
  • 29. Closure
  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments
  • Source Notes
  • Index
Review by Kirkus Book Review

An unfortunate young man goes from murder victim to QAnon icon. Seth Rich was a junior staffer with the Democratic National Committee's "team of brainy lawyers and wonky data analysts devoted to protecting and expanding the right to vote." In July 2016, someone shot him twice in the back, presumably in the course of a robbery. Within days, writes ProPublica investigative reporter, conspiracy theories began to pop up on the internet. At first, suspicions that Rich died for "knowing too much" came from Bernie Sanders supporters. When the WikiLeaks dump of stolen DNC documents revealed that the organization was working against Sanders, the theory took a sadly predictable turn: Hillary Clinton had ordered Rich's killing. Soon the #IAmSethRich meme took a hard right turn. When Donald Trump entered the White House, he "represented a new style of conspiracy theorist. Unlike those of Alex Jones or the Birchers, his theories didn't attempt to explain the world. They didn't connect any dots or try to make sense of seemingly disparate events." The buzz around Rich's death intensified, soon to fall down the rabbit hole of the Trump internet cult, the Pizzagate set, and, far worse, Fox News, with Laura Ingraham decrying the "aggressive lack of curiosity" of the mainstream media in the case and Sean Hannity acting as a one-man amplifier of a matter that quickly became QAnon gospel. All ignored the plea of Rich's parents: "Stop politicizing our son's murder." Kroll singles out Fox as the worst offender, but he doesn't spare Julian Assange, either, for missing an "opportunity to issue a clarification that could provide a semblance of solace and resolution for a grieving family." Lawsuits were filed, judgments rendered, apologies and retractions issued--but still, as the author writes in this thoroughgoing, riveting narrative, the lies continue to this day. An exemplary investigation, exactly as the author describes it: "a true-crime story for the post-truth era." Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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