LITTLE BROTHER

A journalist seeks to tease out the truth behind the murder of a young Black man.

Jorell was an at-risk child in a rough part of St. Louis, where his single father was trying to raise eight children; his mother was in prison. Westhoff, a White journalist and author of Original Gangstas and Fentanyl, Inc., came into the picture as a volunteer in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. During a stint in Brooklyn, Westhoff brought Jorell to the city: “We looked out from the top of the Empire State Building. We explored art galleries in Chelsea. He tried sushi for the first time.” Still, searching for an identity and as a footloose adolescent at the time that racial violence was widespread in his hometown, punctuated by the rioting in Ferguson in which Jorell participated, the young man entered dangerous territory, literally and figuratively. When he was shot and killed in 2016, the police took little interest. Following clues and talking with witnesses and Jorell’s friends, Westhoff worked to find answers, and he recounts his quest in diligent yet sometimes stultifying detail. “Learning the truth about Jorell’s killer required me to understand the troubled history of St. Louis, how discrimination and pervasive poverty has shaped life for millions,” he writes, and there’s plenty of sociology to follow. His investigation also forced him to confront his own identity and privilege. Having narrowed his list of likely suspects down to three Black men and closing in on the likeliest, he raises a hard point: “Was it right for me, as a white person, to try to get him thrown in prison?” He adds, “Especially in the post–George Floyd era, with millions demanding societal change and criminal justice reform, this was a pertinent question.” It’s a question he answers in thought-provoking fashion.

A sometimes plodding but ultimately satisfying study in true crime.