Bestselling Author M. William Phelps Provides Another True Crime Hit With TARGETED

In Colbert, Georgia, on June 5, 2000, local amateur bodybuilder, 38-year-old Doug Benton, disappears. Two weeks later, Benton is found shot and ‘stabbed,’ his body encased in cement inside a cattle trough, dumped on a remote stretch of farmland. Local law enforcement—with help from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation—launch what is later alleged to be a ‘targeted’ investigation, focused on one of their own—local deputy sheriff, 36-year-old Tracy Fortson, Doug Benton’s girlfriend.

As evidence piles up (perhaps too conveniently), just two days after Benton’s body is discovered Tracy Fortson is arrested and charged with his murder. Yet questions of her innocence and a ‘botched’ investigation emerge.

Investigative journalist M. William Phelps interviews Tracy Fortson, getting her incredible account of ‘cover-ups’ and ‘coercion.’ Phelps and Fortson, however, combatively collide at one point, with Fortson alleging Phelps is targeting her.

In his genre-bending first-person narrative style of investigative reporting, Phelps unlocks the eccentric persona behind Tracy Fortson, spending close to a year interviewing her, fleshing out Tracy’s controversial story of what happened. Tracy’s exclusive account will not only shock readers, but cast doubt on the facts of the case, putting ‘Southern Justice’ from America’s past under a contemporary light.

In his first full-length, original true-crime book for WildBlue Press, Phelps delivers a hard-hitting, unique reading experience, immersing readers in the life of the first female deputy in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, who claims a sexual harassment suit she filed against the sheriff led to a murder charge.

Is Tracy Fortson guilty or innocent? Read and decide.

“A gripping, no-hands-barred work of investigative journalism.” – New York Times Bestselling Author Steve Jackson

From The Book:

From The Author:

The woman at the center of this book, Tracy Fortson, a former deputy sheriff, will not like everything she reads about herself and her case. Moreover, Tracy’s supporters will find fault in some of my reporting. This is inevitable. I cannot stop it. Yet I do want to acknowledge … that within this story—seeing how at its core lies the challenge of believing that overwhelming circumstantial evidence and questionable forensic evidence is enough to convict and the idea that a cover-up took place seems more and more likely as you begin to dig in—is the first time I have encountered a murder victim’s parent siding with the person convicted of his murder. That, alone, is something we need to take note of and keep in mind as we go through this case and try to understand what happened. In addition, I could not have written this book without Tracy’s input and the months of prison interviews I conducted with her. Tracy is an enigma. At first, I had a hard time believing anything she said. Yet, as time moved on and I learned more about her, I began to understand that the truth is sometimes not always what it seems.