'The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge' takes a fresh look at "the Career Girls murders" – the case of the savage murder of two young women in their Upper East Side New York apartment on August 28, 1963 – the same day that Martin Luther King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Police eager to "solve" the Career Girls case coerced a confession from a visually impaired young black man who was later proved to be entirely innocent of the crime. English explores the impact of both racism and police corruption on the case and follows its denouement throughout the course of the following decade, which included the Harlem Riots and the trials of policemen in the 1970s prompted by the findings of the Knapp Commission.
