ON AMERICAN SOIL How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II

Softcover. During the night of August 14, 1944, an Italian prisoner of war, Private Guglielmo Olivotto, was lynched on the Fort Lawton army base in Seattle - a murder that shocked the nation and the international community. It was a time of deep segregation in the army, and the War Department was quick to charge three African American soldiers with first-degree murder, although there was no evidence linking them to the crime. Forty other black soldiers faced lesser charges over the incident, launching one of the largest and longest army trials of World War II. In this harrowing story of race, privilege, and power, the author explores the most overlooked civil rights event in American history. He raised important questions about how justice is carried out when a country is at war. Illus. + Map, Epilogue, Notes on Sources, Bibliog. and Index. 358pp. 8vo. softcover. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F.