Convoluted: The 1972 Durham Family Triple Homicide

By: Harmon, Terry L.

For fifty years, the 1972 murders of Bryce and Virginia Durham and their teenage son Bobby on a bitter winter's night in Boone, North Carolina were unsolved, but in 2022, the Watauga County Sheriff's Office announced that their killers had finally been identified. Based on information from Georgia, four men associated with the Dixie Mafia (including the infamous Billy Sunday Birt, whose notoriety was explored by the popular In The Red Clay podcast) were proclaimed with certainty to be the guilty parties who strangled the Durhams and placed them headfirst into a water-filled bathtub. Although the case was officially closed, questions remain about motive and who orchestrated the crime. Who and what would have brought these men from northeast Georgia to the home of a small town car dealer and his family in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina and why? Or have the killers accurately been identified? Containing more than 160 images (photos, maps, and diagrams), this detailed account explores the lives and murders of the Durhams, the decades of investigation that followed, and the multiple leads, theories, motives, and suspects that have been put forth.

Note: For an abridged edition of this book, please check out the author's 2026 book, "Cold in Carolina."

Following is a comparison of the two books:

"Convoluted"8 x 1.32 x 10 inches2.53 pounds10-point font568 pages, 160+ images, 2700+ notes, indexAvailable as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook
"Cold in Carolina"6.24 x 1.11 x 9.24 inches1.51 pounds11-point font406 pages, 45 images, 10 notes, no indexShorter chapters with some new chapter headings and minor rewritesAvailable as a hardback, paperback, and ebook

AWARDS FOR "CONVOLUTED"

2025 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards Gold Medalist for Nonfiction: True Crime
2025 Literary Global Independent Author Award for Best True Crime Book
2025 National Indie Excellence Award for Best True Crime Book
2025 Speak Up Talk Radio Firebird First Place Book Award for True Crime
2025 Literary Titan Gold Book Award for Nonfiction
2025 North Carolina Society of Historians Historical Book Award of Excellence
Spring 2025 Pencraft Book Award for Best Nonfiction
2025 Pencraft 2nd Place Book Award for General Nonfiction
2025 American Legacy Book Award Finalist (Runner-up) for Nonfiction/True Crime
2025 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for True Crime
2025 Best Indie Book Award Finalist for True Crime
2025 Indie Reader Discovery Award
2025 Reader Views Five Star Review & Reviewers Choice Silver Award for Societal Issues/True Crime
2024 Foreword Indies Book Award Finalist for History/Adult Nonfiction
2024 Readers' Favorite Five Stars Award

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DDLK8GTY
• ISBN13: 9798326519740
• Release Date: August 2024
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 586 Pages
• Weight: 2.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 8.0" x 10.0"