Asbury Park Child Murder Case Shattered New Jersey Shore Town’s Calm

The New Jersey shore town of Asbury Park seemed like an idyllic place in the early years of the 20th century. But that image was shattered in 1910, when a 10-year-old girl named Marie Smith went missing. Her body was found several days later, and authorities tried to pin the crime on a Black man named Tom Williams. The tale is the subject of Alex Tresniowski’s recent book, “The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP.”