Trial By Fury: Internet Savagery and the Amanda Knox Case (Kindle Single)

The Amanda Knox murder case generated one of the most savage outpourings of commentary the Internet has ever seen. There are countless statements calling for the murdering, raping, torturing, throat-cutting, frying, hanging, electrocution, burning, and rotting in hell of Amanda, along with her sisters, family, friends, and supporters.

Why?

Trial By Fury explores this dark netherworld, identifying the people involved, and investigating their motives. It documents the real-world damage caused by these anonymous bloggers, including how they managed to get a much decorated ex-FBI agent fired from his job. It also recounts the story of the Wikipedia entry about the case, which triggered a spectacular brawl among top wiki-editors, leading to outings, rants, bannings-for-life, and death threats, requiring the intervention of Jimmy Wales himself.

The author, Douglas Preston, is one of the foremost authorities on the Amanda Knox case. He lived in Italy for many years and is an expert on the Italian criminal justice system. He has spoken about the case on the Today show, Anderson Cooper, 48 Hours, Dateline NBC, and Fox. He is the coauthor with Mario Spezi of The Monster of Florence, a nonfiction account of Italy’s most notorious serial killer, currently being made into a movie starring George Clooney.