Cheshire Library Retains True-Crime Book about Town Murders
The Cheshire (Conn.) Public Library Advisory Board voted 5–1 November 16 in favor of Director Ramona Harten’s decision to purchase two copies of Brian McDonald’s In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood for the collection. The library’s acquisition of the title drew controversy because the book depicts the 2007 murders of three members of a local family—Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters Hayley and Michaela Petit— from the perspective of one of the men awaiting trial for the crime.
At the meeting, Town Attorney Dwight Johnson noted that under the town charter, the library director has discretion over what materials the library purchases, the Meriden Record-Journal reported November 16. “The vote was basically an affirmation on their part that the selection policy was followed,” Harten told American Libraries.
Johnson also assured the board that the gag order on the case was limited to the state’s attorney’s office. “The judge also stated explicitly that the gag order was not being imposed upon lay people or witnesses,” he said, according to the Record-Journal.
Marilyn Bartoli, the board member who cast the dissenting vote, argued that opposition to the book was based on protecting a community member and that calling the dispute a censorship issue gives too much credit to the book’s defenders. “There’s thousands of other books that the library doesn’t have, but apparently those two [copies of the book] will get [Harten] a national library award,” she said in the November 17 New Haven Register.
About 60 residents attended the meeting. Three weeks earlier, more than 100 people came to the board’s October 22 meeting, with 30 commenting about the appropriateness of acquiring the book, the Record Journal reported October 22.
Martin Cobern, a resident and member of the Friends of the Cheshire Public Library, spoke in favor of making the book available, arguing that deselecting the title because its contents offend the victims’ family and friends would set a precedent that could be applied to nearly every book. Cobern also noted that the attempt to keep the book out of the Chesire library collection just brought more publicity to it. “If Dr. Petit and his supporters had merely ignored this book, it would have vanished quickly to the remainder rack alongside the hundreds of other trashy books written to capitalize on the day’s sensational news,” Cobern wrote in his prepared statement to the board, which he shared with American Libraries.
The two copies have been delivered to the library and checked out, Harten told AL. Given the number of people who have reserved it, she added, both copies will likely be out of the library on loan for several months.
—Greg Landgraf, American Libraries;
Posted on November 17, 2009.