Wicked Baltimore

As home to Edgar Allan Poe's body, the acerbic wit of H.L. Mencken and Fells Point's nest of pirates, Baltimore revels in the deliciously dark side of its history. From the incensed citizens of 1808 who torched a cargo of Geneva gin on Hampstead Hill to the Gilded Age socialite who allegedly poisoned four family members, the city's early history is littered with tales of raucous violence and sordid misdeeds. Local author Lauren R. Silberman leads readers through the horrors of slave pens, the chaos of the Pratt Street Riots and the backroom speakeasies of Prohibition to reveal the sinister and scintillating face of Charm City.