Richard H. Underwood
Richard H. Underwood, University of Kentucky Research Professor and Professor Emeritus of Law at the J. David Rosenberg College of Law, is the award-winning author of three true crime books and the author and co-author of several books and articles on the law, legal history, perjury, famous trials and true crime. He has lectured or presented papers on diverse subjects at conferences across the United States and in London and Amsterdam.
Featured Book
Springtime for Sophie: Murder and Madness in a Connecticut Mill Town
“The year was 1909, the setting a decaying New England mill town. A saloonkeeper was left for dead, shot a dozen times, his throat slashed for good measure, yet still babbling that a winsome music teacher and her young beau, the victim’s rival in love, had done the deed. The two murder trials that followed drew curious hordes and the attention of a nation. With meticulous archival work and rare narrative gifts, Professor Richard Underwood unearths this lost tale of death, duplicity, and personal ruin. In retelling a grisly true-life crime story, Underwood delivers a rich ethnography of Naugatuck, Connecticut, and a law school seminar on evidence, criminal procedure, trial strategy, and lawyers’ ethics….”—GEORGE FISHER, Stanford Law School
Meet Richard H. Underwood and get a copy of their book at the 2026 Kentucky Book Festival, Saturday, November 7, 2026, at Joseph-Beth Booksellers.