ORANGE SLICES
Guest Columnist
“One summer night in 1951, Rachel Crook mysteriously disappeared.”
So begins the story of one of Chapel Hill’s most enduring historical episodes, when Rachel Crook, a well-known and well-loved 71-year-old businesswoman, student, and friend to all was found outside of town brutally murdered. Aspects of her story, and what happened to her on that night, continue to circulate in Chapel Hill to this day — incomplete oral histories — not least because the name and place of what was one of the South’s finest restaurants, Crook’s Corner, is inherited from her, established on the very corner where she plied her trade as a fishmonger. But only now has the story of her life and death in Chapel Hill been captured in its entirety. And it’s riveting.
“Who Killed Rachel Crook?” is a four-part podcast series by 27 Views Podcast that explores the murder that has haunted Chapel Hill for nearly 75 years. The series follows the fervid newspaper coverage of her murder, and considers the case against her accused killer, one Hobart Lee…