ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1905, eight-year-old Kenneth Beasley walked to the back of his school's playground and into the melting snow of the woods beyond. He never returned.Soon a massive search was underway for the son of a North Carolina state senator. Hundreds combed the cold woods and swamplands of Currituck County, near the state's famed Outer Banks. Not a trace of the boy was found. A reward was offered. Clues, rumors, and even a ransom letter surfaced. All faded to nothingness. Then, a year and a half after Kenneth's disappearance, a political rival hurriedly was charged. Accused of the most bizarre and twisted of plots, he faced a courtroom overflowing with jurors, star lawyers, spectators and newspaper reporters. Allegations and alibis were traded. Epithets flew. The eventual jury verdict and stunning aftermath would rip apart two families and shock a state ... yet leave a mystery unsolved.NOW CHARLES OLDHAM, attorney by trade, has reopened the case. Using modern research methods and his own legal training-while also investigating the state's political, racial, lynching, and liquor cultures-Oldham has come as close as anyone can to the truth. The result is an absorbing, must-read story. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, The Senator's Son is both an important book and a fascinating one.