The Reverend Russ Ford, who served as the head chaplain on Virginia’s death row for eighteen years, raged against the inequities of the death penalty—now outlawed in Virginia—while ministering to the men condemned to die in the 1980s and 1990s. Ford stood watch with twenty-eight men, sitting with them in the squalid death house during the final days and hours of their lives. In July 1990 he accidentally almost became the 245th person killed by Virginia’s electric chair as he comforted Ricky Boggs in his last moments, a vivid episode that opens this haunting book.
Many chaplains get to know the condemned men only in these final moments. Ford, however, spent years working with the men of Virginia’s death row, forging close bonds with the condemned and developing a nuanced understanding of their crimes, their early struggles, and their challenges behind bars. His unusual ministry makes this memoir a unique and compelling read, a moving and unflinching portrait of Virginia’s death row inmates. Revealing the cruelties of the state-sanctioned violence that has until recently prevailed in our backyard, Crossing the River Styx serves as a cautionary tale for those who still support capital punishment.
Table of Content
Author’s Note
Introduction
1. Russ Ford
2. Mac
3. Henry Tucker
4. Marjorie Lee Bailey
5. Morris Odell Mason
6. Michael Marnell Smith, Syvasky Poyner, and Mickey Wayne Davidson
7. Earl Washington and Joseph Payne
8. Alton Waye
9. Jerry Givens
10. Wilbert Lee Evans
11. Albert Clozza
12. Derick Lynn Peterson
13. Willie Leroy Jones
14. Timothy Bunch
15. Andrew Chabrol
16. Willie Lloyd Turner
17. Joseph Savino
18. Coleman Gray
19. The Bitter and the Good
About the author
Russ Ford is a retired chaplain. Charles Peppers is an independent writer and educator. Todd C. Peppers is the Henry H. and Trudye H. Fowler Professor of Public Affairs at Roanoke College and a Visiting Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University.
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