GREENVILLE, N.C. - Leroy Hyman, a retired postal worker, lives in a tidy working-class neighborhood of Greenville. Petunias and forget-me-nots frame the front porches of brick ranch homes. On the surface, it is all Norman Rockwell - geraniums and Southern geniality. Yet underneath lies something more sinister. Last week, a young man was shot to death a few blocks away. A month before, a similar scene had unfolded on a nearby block. Pops of small-caliber gunfire frequently punctuate the night. "The violent crime in Greenville is terrible, worse even than New York City," says Mr. Hyman, a native North Carolinian...