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Fatal Feud

Sunday, November 1, 2009

It's a well-known incident -- the traffic stop in Franconia that ended with two men, the police officer and driver of the car, dead. The sensational story was widely reported on when it happened back in May 2007.

Now, two years later, comes a book that re-visits the crime and paints a fascinating picture of the people -- and the community -- involved. If you thought you knew who the heroes and villains were, think again.

The soon-to-be-released "Bad Blood: Freedom and Death in the White Mountains" by journalist Casey Sherman [University Press of New England, $26.95] delves deeply into the personalities of Bruce McKay, the police officer, and Liko Kenney, the driver. Was McKay a rogue cop who dispensed justice as a way to settle scores? Was Kenney a hell-raiser and mentally unstable?

There was a third person in the mix -- Greg Floyd, a passerby who killed Kenney after Kenney killed McKay. Each of the three players in this tragedy had his own idea of individual freedom and the role of civic authority. And they came from very different cultures in this live-free-or-die state -- Kenney, who lived an alternative lifestyle, and the two others, both conservative ex-military -- cultures that were destined to clash in the worst possible way.

-- Barbara Coles

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