Author Entertainment Series – McCracken Poston, Jr.
October 17 @ 6:30 pm
Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom
When Alvin Ridley’s wife was discovered dead in her home, residents of the small town of Ringgold, GA assumed the recluse, hoarder, and odd figure naturally murdered her. Idealistic young defense attorney McCracken Poston Jr., still recovering from a failed congressional run, had already encountered the eccentric Ridley – dubbed “Zenith Man” for his work repairing televisions – and took the case. His client was belligerent, incomprehensible, secretive, a puzzle for his lawyer. The entire case seemed doomed for failure, until the diligent lawyer looked past the community’s biases, as well as his own, to reveal the astonishing truth.
A true crime tale featured on Forensic Files, American Justice, and People – set in a small southern town where the truth lay buried for decades: Zenith Man – Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom by McCracken Poston Jr. “With the kinds of twists and turns that will make readers think it’s great fiction – except it all happened.” – Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
This Author Entertainment Series event will be hosted on Thursday, October 17th at 6:30pm in the Stuckey Auditorium of the UGA Griffin Campus.
Meet the Author
McCracken King Poston Jr. is an American criminal defense attorney, former politician and part-time juvenile court judge. He gained national attention for several notable cases which were featured on TV series specials such as CNN Presents, Dateline NBC, A&E’s American Justice and Forensic Files. Poston is a practicing defense attorney in Georgia and Tennessee. Poston was elected and served as a state representative in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1989 to 1997. In 2024, Poston’s account of his representation of Alvin Ridley in the 1999 murder trial (where Ridley was accused of imprisoning his wife for decades before killing her) was published by Citadel Books (Kensington Publishing), titled “Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom.”