She was the girl who avenged her father’s death—and became a legend the law could not contain.
In 1931, Helen Spence shocked Depression-era Arkansas when she shot her father’s murderers in open court. Raised among the houseboat communities of the White River, Helen was young, beautiful, and utterly fearless. But her act of vengeance set her on a path that no prison could hold and no justice system could forgive.
Drawing on newly uncovered prison records and firsthand accounts, Denise White Parkinson restores the humanity behind the sensational headlines.
Daughter of the White River is the haunting true story of a woman shaped by loss, survival, and the wild beauty of the river that claimed her life and her legend.
