The Man No One Believed: The Untold Story of the Georgia Church Murders

In 1985, a white man walked into a South Georgia church and brutally murdered Harold and Thelma Swain, two pillars of the area’s Black community. The killer vanished into the night. For fifteen years, the case remained unsolved. Then authorities zeroed in on Dennis Perry, a carpenter who grew up nearby. Convicted with devastatingly flawed evidence, Perry received a double life sentence. When award-winning journalist and South Georgia native Joshua Sharpe retraces the case, he discovers a winding path of corruption, devastating missteps, and secrets. Driven by the pursuit of the truth, Sharpe’s investigation takes him through dusty courthouse archives, down winding dirt roads, and into intense interviews. But he keeps knocking on doors—even after they’re slammed in his face. Sharpe uncovers explosive evidence that helps prove Dennis Perry’s innocence. And he confronts a long-ignored suspect: an alleged white supremacist who had bragged about committing the murders. But the fight for the truth is not easily won. When a key figure in the investigation turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, Sharpe’s sources and editors insist that he could be in danger. And even as evidence mounts of Perry’s innocence, local officials work to keep him in prison—until Sharpe’s reporting forces the state to launch a new investigation—thirty-five years after the Swains’ murders. Driven by Sharpe’s tireless reporting, The Man No One Believed tells the unbelievable story of one of the most confounding cases in Georgia history, the extraordinary fight to free an innocent man, and how state officials worked against the odds to deliver justice for the Swains after all. Both a riveting true crime story and a searing indictment of American injustice, The Man No One Believed is a gripping work of literary journalism—a moving examination of how we reckon with the sins of our past.

About the Author :
Joshua Sharpe is a print and audio journalist and editor whose stories have helped free two innocent people from life in prison. He is a 2025 Type Media Center Fellow, a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Fellow, a Livingston Award winner, and a 2022 and 2023 Pulitzer Prize judge. A native of Waycross, Georgia, he lives in Detroit, Michigan.

Review :
"The Man No One Believed inspires powerful, mixed emotions: fury at the failings of the justice system, and gratitude for organizations like the Georgia Innocence Project and indefatigable journalists like Sharpe. He deserves the victory lap he has taken in this illuminating book." "Sharpe, a native of Waycross, Georgia, practices Journalism with a capital J. " "Only very rarely does one of our stories—one of us—change the course of human events. Joshua Sharpe asked the right questions, refusing easy answers." "Every wrong that is righted, like the one at the center of this story, brings us closer to living up to the promise of freedom. The Man No One Believed takes you into a battle for the truth, and inside the forces threatened by the very idea of justice—Joshua Sharpe offers us a chronicle from the beating heart of America. This is essential reading if you want to understand who we are and how we got here." "Joshua Sharpe writes with deep sensitivity, care, context, and perspective about this American tragedy. The Man No One Believed demonstrates the kind of investigative reporting that is increasingly rare, and more important than ever." "A riveting page-turner about miscarried justice, an insightful journey to a fascinating time and place, and a triumphant tale about the search for truth in our tangled legal system. With his tireless reporting, Joshua Sharpe shines a light that not even the dark waters of the Okefenokee can obscure." "A skillfully constructed spiderweb of a true-crime, cold-case narrative. " "[A] gripping, infuriating, and enlightening work of true crime whose real-world impact can be felt on every page."