The organ thieves : the shocking story of the first heart transplant in the segregated South / Chip Jones.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part one. Roots. Case of the missing heart ; The resurrectionists ; The anatomy men ; "The limbo of the unclaimed" -- Part two. The race. Breaking the heart barrier ; Heart on ice ; Restless genius ; The glass jar ; Foreign exchange ; Finish line -- Part three. Reckoning. The fall ; His brother's heart ; The scream ; "Facts and circumstances" -- Part four. Troubles, trials, and tribulations. Rejection ; The making of a medical celebrity ; The defender ; Relative death ; Time of trial ; Friends in high places ; Shaping of a verdict ; The unresolved case of Bruce Tucker ; Down in the well -- Epilogue. The soul of medicine -- Afterword. Unhealed history.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks meets Get Out in this landmark investigation of racial inequality at the core of the heart transplant race. In 1968, Bruce Tucker, a black man, went into Virginia's top research hospital with a head injury, only to have his heart stolen out of his body and put into the chest of a white businessman. Now, in The Organ Thieves , Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding Tucker's death and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family's permission or knowledge. The circumstances surrounding his death reflect the long legacy of mistreating African Americans that began more than a century before with cadaver harvesting and worse. It culminated in efforts to win the heart transplant race in the late 1960s. Featuring years of research and fresh reporting, The Organ Thieves is a story that resonates now more than ever, when issues of race and healthcare are the stuff of headlines and horror stories.