Scout, look! Reverend, he's crippled! Reverend Sykes leaned across me and whispered to Jem. "He got it caught in a cotton gin, caught it in Mr. Dolphus Raymond's cotton gin when he was a boy...like to bled to death...tore all the muscles loose from his bones - "

“Scout,” breathed Jem. “Scout, look! Reverend, he’s crippled!”
Reverend Sykes leaned across me and whispered to Jem. “He got it caught in a cotton gin, caught it in Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s cotton gin when he was a boy…like to bled to death…tore all the muscles loose from his bones – “

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 18. When Atticus asks Tom Robinson to stand up so his accuser Mayella Ewell can get a good look at him, we discover there is no way Tom is guilty. His left arm is twelve inches shorter than his right, it hangs dead at his side and ends in a small shriveled hand. And Mayella had two hand prints around her neck and was beaten by a strong, left-handed man. This suggests the Mayella Ewell is lying.

Harper Lee Quotes