Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they change laws, change society or even earn the label Crime of the Century.

But the stories that made headlines in decades past aren't necessarily remembered today. I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author,

and in each episode of this show,

I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today

but was huge when it happened. This is crimes of the centuries. On the night of July 27th, 1957, in a small town about an hour northwest of Montgomery, Alabama,

Jimmy Wilson and Estelle Barker encountered one another in her bedroom.

Now that doesn't sound like the makings of a riveting crime of the century,

but it will become one that made a mighty ripple

through the world press at the time

and is now on occasion something law school

students debate when they're asking themselves fundamental questions about

race and American justice.

Mr Wilson 53 was American justice.

Mr. Wilson, 53, was black, and Mrs. Barker, reported to be either 74 or 82, was white.

What exactly occurred in that Marion, Alabama bedroom is and was known only to them.

Suffice to say, they had different versions of that evening.

Mrs. Barker testified that evening.

Mrs. Barker testified that Mr. Wilson had done some yard work for her that day.

Something entirely understandable as Mrs. Barker was a widow, and she needed the occasional hand doing chores in the hot Alabama summer sun.

Mr Wilson had finished the tasks she'd given him, was paid for his work and went home.

He drank a bit.

He later said he partook of some wild cat whiskey,

...