True Crime (History Press)
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(1)
The True Story of Tom Dooley
From Western North Carolina Mystery to Folk Legend
by John Edward Fletcher, Ph. D.
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
The crime that shocked post-Civil War America and inspired the folk song that became The Kingston Trio's hit, "Tom Dooley."
At the conclusion of the Civil War, Wilkes County, North Carolina, was the site of the nation's first nationally publicized crime of passion. In the wake of a tumultuous love affair and a mysterious chain of events, Tom Dooley was tried, convicted and hanged for the murder of Laura Foster. This notorious crime became an inspiration for musicians, writers and storytellers ever since, creating a mystery of mythic proportions. Through newspaper articles, trial documents and public records, Dr. John E. Fletcher brings this dramatic case to life, providing the long-awaited factual account of the legendary murder. Join the investigation into one of the country's most enduring thrillers.
"Fletcher has spent a great deal of time researching almost all of the characters involved with the Foster homicide and has gone further than any researcher I know in establishing the relationships-blood, marriage and social-between the major actors in the tragedy."-Statesville Record & Landmark
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Notorious Antebellum North Alabama
by John O'Brien
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Before the Civil War, North Alabama was infamous for lawlessness. The era saw courts filled with defendants who spanned the socioeconomic gamut-farmers, merchants and politicians. In 1811, John B. Haynes tore apart William Badger's house with his bare hands. Rodah Barnett ran a series of ill-reputed brothels in the early 1820s. In 1818, Rebecca Layman "accidentally" gave her husband sulfuric acid instead of rum. There is even a case of assault with frozen corn. Author John O'Brien relays these and more stories of the shady side of North Alabama during the antebellum period.
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Notorious Antebellum North Alabama
by John O'Brien
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Before the Civil War, North Alabama was infamous for lawlessness. The era saw courts filled with defendants who spanned the socioeconomic gamut--farmers, merchants and politicians. In 1811, John B. Haynes tore apart William Badger's house with his bare hands. Rodah Barnett ran a series of ill-reputed brothels in the early 1820s. In 1818, Rebecca Layman "accidentally" gave her husband sulfuric acid instead of rum. There is even a case of assault with frozen corn. Author John O'Brien relays these and more stories of the shady side of North Alabama during the antebellum period.
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(5)
Mystery, Millions & Murder in North Jersey
The Tragic Kidnapping of Exxon's Sidney Reso
by John E. O'Rourke
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
On a spring morning in Morristown in 1992, authorities discovered a car idling in a driveway with the door open and the driver missing. After they learned the driver was Sidney Reso, the president of Exxon International, the FBI joined the investigation. Over the next two months, law enforcement received cryptic communications that led to a cat-and-mouse chase for those responsible. Retired cop Arthur Seale and his wife, Irene, demanded one of the largest ransoms in U.S. history, and authorities struggled to solve the case. Author John E. O'Rourke recounts the crime that rocked a sleepy community and brought the nation's eyes to North Jersey.
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Murder in Linn County, Oregon
The True Story of the Legendary Plainview Killings
by Cory Frye
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
On June 21, 1922, Linn County sheriff Charles Kendall and Reverend Roy Healy drove out to the town of Plainview to arrest a moonshining farmer named Dave West. By the end of the day, all three men were dead. First responders found Sheriff Kendall facedown with his pistol still holstered. The court appointed William Dunlap as the new sheriff, but within a year, someone killed him, too. Author and journalist Cory Frye delivers a riveting, detailed account of these shocking and tragic crimes that haunted Linn County for decades.
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(4)
Murder at Rocky Point Park
Tragedy in Rhode Island's Summer Paradise
by Kelly Sullivan Pezza
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
On a summer day in 1893, little Maggie Sheffield was murdered. Maggie's own father did the unthinkable against a backdrop of laughter and barrel organ music at Rocky Point Amusement Park. The tragedy aroused a strange reaction from the peaceable community of Warwick, Rhode Island. Many seemed to be more concerned for the murderer, Frank Sheffield, than for his young victim. Frank was rumored to be insane or addicted to drugs, and after a trial, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The murder did not tarnish Rocky Point's reputation as a premier destination, and the park operated until 1995. Investigating official records and newspaper archives, author Kelly Sullivan Pezza uncovers the facts and oddities behind a grim crime in Rhode Island's summer paradise.
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Pittsfield's Fosburgh Murder Mystery
Scandal in the Berkshires
by Frank J. Leskovitz
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Shots rang out in a prominent Pittsfield family home on the morning of August 20, 1900, ending the life of young socialite May Fosburgh. Who pulled the trigger was unclear, and the scandal captivated attention well beyond the Berkshires. Her brother was a top suspect, but the distraught family claimed an intruder was to blame. Investigators, media and the public struggled to make sense of conflicting details, including suspicious gunpowder residue, as the mystery remained unsolved. Author Frank J. Leskovitz unravels the tale that still lingers in the hills generations later.
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Pittsfield's Fosburgh Murder Mystery
Scandal in the Berkshires
by Frank J. Leskovitz
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Shots rang out in a prominent Pittsfield family home on the morning of August 20, 1900, ending the life of young socialite May Fosburgh. Who pulled the trigger was unclear, and the scandal captivated attention well beyond the Berkshires. Her brother was a top suspect, but the distraught family claimed an intruder was to blame. Investigators, media and the public struggled to make sense of conflicting details, including suspicious gunpowder residue, as the mystery remained unsolved. Author Frank J. Leskovitz unravels the tale that still lingers in the hills generations later.
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(3)
The Ruthless Northlake Bank Robbers
A 1967 Shooting Spree that Stunned the Region
by Edgar Gamboa Návar
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Automatic gunfire hammered police arriving at Northlake Bank in response to a silent alarm on the morning of October 27, 1967. The shootout killed two officers and injured two others. One of the robbers lay wounded as the other two fled in a getaway car. The ensuing manhunt tore across state lines and thrust the quiet Illinois community into a national debate over rehabilitated prisoners-two of the men were fresh out of jail for bank robbery. Local author Edgar Gamboa Návar traces this violent midwestern crime saga from the initial grocery store holdup in Ohio before the bank job to the capture of the murderous gang in Indiana, as well as the conviction and imprisonment.
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(5)
Murder of a Herkimer County Teacher
The Shocking 1914 Case of a Vengeful Student
by Dennis Webster
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
In 1914, Poland, New York, was a picturesque slice of small-town America. But that innocence was shattered with the shocking murder of beloved schoolteacher Lida Beecher at the hands of her former student Jean Gianini. At twenty-one years old, Lida wasn't much older than her students. The son of a successful furniture dealer, Jean had all the advantages in life, but he had been labeled as different by all who encountered him. The shocking murder brought the world's best alienists to the packed Herkimer County Courthouse to try to prove that the teenager's mental development precluded his guilt. Author Dennis Webster utilizes unprecedented access to court documents to reveal details of the sensational crime never before made known to the public.
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(6)
The Corpsewood Manor Murders in North Georgia
by Amy Petulla
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
In 1982, Tony West and Avery Brock made a visit to notorious Corpsewood Manor under the pretense of a celebration. They brutally murdered their hosts. Dr. Charles Scudder and companion Joey Odom built the "castle in the woods" in the Trion forest after Scudder left his position as professor at Loyola. He brought with him twelve thousand doses of LSD. Rumors of drug use and Satanism swirled around the two men. Scudder even claimed to have summoned a demon to protect the estate. The murders set the stage for a trial vibrant with local lore. Author Amy Petulla uncovers the curious case that left two men dead and the incredible story still surrounded by controversy, speculation and myth.
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Murder at the Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids
by Diane Fannon-Langton
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Byron C. Hattman sealed his fate when he checked into the Roosevelt Hotel on December 13, 1948. A maid found his body in a blood-spattered room two days later. An investigation linked him to the young wife of St. Louis pediatrician Robert C. Rutledge, who confessed to the brutal attack after trying to poison himself. The scandal made national headlines and seemed like an easy case for the Linn County court. That is, until new evidence changed the story completely. Reporter and author Diane Fannon-Langton uncovers the truth and compiles the complete details of the Hattman slaying for the first time.
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(2)
Slaying in South St. Louis
Justice Denied for Nancy Zanone
by Vicki Berger Erwin
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
On a crisp December day in 1963, Nancy Zanone left her young son and daughter playing in the backyard while she went inside to check the laundry. She never came back. A troubled teen prowling for unlocked doors along Chippewa in South St. Louis surprised her in the kitchen and stabbed her to death. Despite Joseph Arbeiter's confession and hard evidence, he was freed on a technicality. In response, Zanone's family fought to change how juvenile murderers are tried in the state of Missouri. Local authors Vicki Berger Erwin and Bryan Erwin investigate the senseless tragedy and the family's quest for justice.
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(7)
The Witch of Delray
Rose Veres & Detroit's Infamous 1930s Murder Mystery
by Karen Dybis
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Detroit was full of stark contrasts in 1931. Political scandals, rumrunners and mobs lurked in the shadows of the city's soaring architecture and industrious population. As the Great Depression began to take hold, tensions grew, spilling over into the investigation of a mysterious murder at the boardinghouse of Hungarian immigrant Rose Veres. Amid accusations of witchcraft, Rose and her son Bill were convicted of the brutal killing and suspected in a dozen more. Their cries of innocence went unheeded until one lawyer, determined to seek justice, took on the case. Author Karen Dybis follows the twists and turns of this shocking story, revealing the truth of Detroit's own Hex Woman.
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Francis "Two Gun" Crowley's Killings in New York City & Long Island
by Jerry Aylward
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
On a May morning in 1931, Nassau County police officer Fred Hirsch was gunned down by the notorious New York City gangster Francis Crowley. Nicknamed "Two Gun" for tricking and murdering cops with a second loaded firearm, Crowley left a bloody trail from the Bronx to Long Island. He shot and wounded two men at a local dance hall and a New York City police detective and murdered one of Nassau County's finest. Eventually, he was tracked to a hideout in Manhattan, where a two-hour gun battle, including more than two hundred cops and ten thousand spectators, led to his capture. His murder spree involved thousands of law enforcement personnel, stole national media attention and cut across the New York metropolitan area. Author Jerry Aylward presents the murderous life of Francis "Two Gun" Crowley from the streets of New York to the electric chair in Sing Sing.
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Napa Valley Lawmen and Outlaws
by Todd L. Shulman
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Law enforcement in Napa County traces its roots back to the days of Spanish rule and was formalized when California became a state in 1850. Since then, those who wear the badge have pursued the lawless in search of justice. Chuck Hansen, who started as a patrol officer, pioneered the use of forensic science at the Napa Police Department, collecting DNA evidence in 1974 that would become key in solving a murder decades later. And the killer known as "Willy the Woodcutter" was caught thanks to the expertise of Hal Snook of the Napa County Sheriff's Department. Napa police sergeant Todd Shulman brings to life the stories of those who played a part in solving some of wine country's most infamous crimes.
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(3)
Louisville's Alma Kellner Mystery
by Shawn M. Herron
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
On a bitterly cold day in December 1909, eight-year-old Alma Kellner simply disappeared from the altar of St. John's Church in Louisville. Her body was found months later near the site of the church, and news of the murder rocked the city. The manhunt for the suspect took Louisville police Captain John Carney eleven thousand miles across the country, and even to South America, to return the killer to justice. Author Shawn M. Herron details the fascinating story of a tragedy that still remains under a cloud of suspicion.
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Texas Pistoleers
The True Story of Ben Thompson and King Fisher
by G. R. Williamson
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
The Vaudeville Theater Ambush of 1884 went down in history as one of the most famous gunfights in San Antonio, but the killing that night of Ben Thompson and John King Fisher, two of the most notorious pistoleers of the day, became something of a mystery. The two men entered the theatre just before midnight on March 11, and less than an hour later, both lay dead, shot down in what for all accounts was a true massacre. The responsible gunmen never were prosecuted for their crimes, and Thompson and Fisher, a mere mention of either man's name was enough to put the fear of death in any opponent, have been widely ignored since. Now, historian G.R. Williamson brings to light the mystery and the myths surrounding these men and their infamous deaths in Texas Pistoleers.
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(4)
Death on the Devil's Teeth
The Strange Murder That Shocked Suburban New Jersey
by Jesse P. Pollack
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Four decades after Jeannette DePalma's tragic death, authors Jesse P. Pollack and Mark Moran present the definitive account of the shocking Springfield township cold case.
As Springfield residents decorated for Halloween in September 1972, the crime rate in the quiet, affluent township was at its lowest in years. That mood was shattered when the body of sixteen-year-old Jeannette DePalma was discovered in the local woods, allegedly surrounded by strange objects. Some feared witchcraft was to blame, while others believed a serial killer was on the loose. Rumors of a police cover up ran rampant, and the case went unsolved - along with the murders of several other young women.
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Murder in Lexington
VMI, Honor and Justice in Antebellum Virginia
by Daniel S. Morrow
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
In 1853 Lexington, Virginia, Mary Evelyn Anderson, one of the most beautiful women in the Commonwealth, spurned the advances of a young law student named Charles Burks Christian. Humiliated and heartbroken, Christian confronted, stabbed and killed the man he believed responsible for Anderson's decision. The man was her cousin, Thomas Blackburn, a VMI cadet and student of Stonewall Jackson. What followed was a circus of inept and brilliant lawyers dragging members of the most prominent families in antebellum Virginia through an all-too-public discussion of seduction, courtship, honor and self-defense. Author and historian Daniel S. Morrow chronicles the history of the events that led to Blackburn's death, the trials that followed and the impact on Lexington, its two colleges and the men and women who would soon find themselves engaged in a great Civil War.
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Murder in Manteo
Seeking Justice For Stacey Stanton
by John Railey
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Stacey Stanton, a beloved resident of Manteo, was found stabbed to death in her apartment on the afternoon of February 3, 1990. The slaying was the most horrendous crime the town had seen in years. With tourist season coming on and Manteo in the midst of a revitalization, a rushed investigation followed. Overlooked leads and racial tension led to the conviction of an innocent man. This riveting narrative, built on access to the state's investigative file and multiple interviews with case insiders, delves into the truth behind the murder. Investigative journalist John Railey explores the mistakes made and finally arrives at the long-hidden truth of what happened to Stacey.
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Murder at the National Cathedral and Other Historic D.C. Crimes
by Zachary G. Ford
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Bloody discoveries, potential serial killers & dramatic court cases.
Washington, D.C., saw its share of grim murders in the mid-twentieth century. From a love triangle gone wrong to an unknown killer on the loose, there was no shortage of sensationalized headlines keeping residents up to date. Reports of a respected businessman found in a hotel room with the body of his longtime mistress shocked locals, while the murder of eleven-year-old Carol Bardwell in Rock Creek Park sparked a manhunt for her killer. The racially charged case of Catherine Reardon's murder in the National Cathedral's library would even end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Join author Zachary G. Ford as he uncovers the capital region's dark past.
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(5)
1960s Austin Gangsters
Organized Crime that Rocked the Capital
by Jesse Sublett
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Timmy Overton of Austin and Jerry Ray James of Odessa were football stars who traded athletics for lives of crime. The original rebels without causes, nihilists with Cadillacs and Elvis hair, the Overton gang and their associates formed a ragtag white trash mafia that bedazzled Austin law enforcement for most of the 1960s. Tied into a loose network of crooked lawyers, pimps and used car dealers who became known as the "traveling criminals," they burglarized banks and ran smuggling and prostitution rings all over Texas. Author Jesse Sublett presents a detailed account of these Austin miscreants, who rose to folk hero status despite their violent criminal acts.
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Manhattan Mafia Guide
Hits, Homes & Headquarters
by Eric Ferrara
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
The New York City historian and author of The Bowery takes readers on a tour of New York's infamous underworld in this revealing guide.
During the early twentieth century, Sicilian and Southern Italian immigrants poured into New York City looking for a better life. But while they escaped the kind of poverty and persecution they experienced in the old country, they soon discovered that certain criminal enterprises followed them to America. Over the years, the island of Manhattan would become a hotbed of organized crime and underworld intrigue. It's a version of the city that remains invisible to most visitors-until now.
In this revealing tour of New York City's mafia history, Eric Ferrara gives readers an insider's look at how the mob lived-and where they died. Ferrara goes inside mafia hangouts from the Copacabana to Milady's Bar and the Thompson Street Social Club. He vividly recounts infamous episodes in the lives of famous mafia men, like Charlie "Lucky" Luciano and Joey Gallo, as well as more obscure players who will be new to most readers.
From the beginnings of Black Hand criminal networks to the reign of an all-powerful organized crime syndicate, Manhattan Mafia Guide offers a fascinating look down New York City's mean streets.
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(4)
South Carolina Killers
Crimes of Passion
by Mark Jones
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
A South Carolina historian examines a selection of true crime murder stories from the Palmetto State, from 1903 to 2003.
Murder leaves no decade unscarred. In 1903, the lieutenant governor of South Carolina shot dead a local newspaper editor, in full view of witnesses. George Stinney was marched to the electric chair in 1944 at age fourteen. A mother made national news in 1994 pleading for the return of her kidnapped sons, when in truth she had driven them to a watery grave herself. Jones spares no chilling detail in describing each of these crimes; all make for fascinating, and terrifying, reading.
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Leavenworth Seven
The Deadly 1931 Prison Break
by Kenneth M. Lamaster
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
The infamous escape from the maximum security federal prison is recounted in gripping detail in this Depression Era true crime history.
On December 11, 1931, chaos erupted behind the limestone walls of Leavenworth Penitentiary as seven desperate men put months of planning into action. Aided by notorious gangsters Frank Nash, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Thomas James Holden, these convicts enacted one of the most legendary prison breaks in history, blazing a path to freedom with stolen cars and terrorized hostages.
But their audacious escape was only the beginning. Across Kansas, anyone who could carry a gun and knew the terrain quickly picked up the pursuit. In Leavenworth Seven, historian and Kansas native Kenneth LaMaster recounts the incredible story through first-person accounts, news reports, and official FBI files.
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Mississippi Moonshine Politics
How Bootleggers & the Law Kept a Dry State Soaked
by Janice Tracy
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
A Mississippi historian chronicles the rise and fall of The Magnolia State's moonshine empire in this revealing true crime history.
For most states, the repeal of prohibition meant a return to legally drunken normalcy, but not so in Mississippi. The state had gone dry more than a decade before the rest of the nation. In that time, a lucrative black market for moonshine and bonded liquor became a way of life for many Mississippians. By the time Prohibition was lifted, bootleggers and state politicians were unwilling to give up their hold on the sale of alcohol.
For nearly sixty years, Mississippi was known as the "wettest dry state in the country." Until statewide prohibition was finally repealed in 1966, illegal booze fueled a corrupt political machine that intimidated journalists who dared to speak against it and fixed juries that threatened its interests. Author and native Mississippian Janice Branch Tracy offers an intimate and authoritative look inside Mississippi Moonshine Politics.
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Massacre at Duffy's Cut
Tragedy & Conspiracy on the Pennsylvania Railroad
by William E. Watson
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
The shocking murder of railroad laborers in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania-and the centuries-long coverup that followed-is revealed in this true crime history.
In June 1832, railroad contractor Philip Duffy hired fifty-seven Irish immigrant laborers to work on Pennsylvania's Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. They were sent to a stretch of track in rural Chester County known as Duffy's Cut. Six weeks later, all of them were dead. For more than 180 years, the railroad maintained that cholera was to blame and kept the historical record under lock and key. In a harrowing modern-day excavation of their mass grave, a group of academics and volunteers found evidence some of the laborers were murdered. Authors and research leaders Dr. William E. Watson and Dr. J. Francis Watson reveal the tragedy, mystery, and discovery of what really happened at Duffy's Cut.
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Solving the West Georgia Murder of Gwendolyn Moore
A Cry From the Well
by Clay Bryant
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
On a sultry August morning in 1970, the battered body of a young woman was, hoisted from a dry well just outside Hogansville, Georgia. Author and investigator Clay Bryant was there, witnessing the macabre scene. Then fifteen, Bryant was tagging along with his father, Buddy Bryant, Hogansville chief of police. The victim, Gwendolyn Moore, had been in a violent marriage. That was no secret. But, her husband had connections to a political machine that held sway over the Troup County Sheriff's Office overseeing the case. To the dismay and bafflement of many, no charges were, brought. That is, until Bryant followed his father's footsteps into law enforcement and a voice cried out from the well three decades later.
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The Lost Colony Murder on the Outer Banks
Seeking Justice for Brenda Joyce Holland
by John Railey
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
In the summer of 1967, nineteen-year-old Brenda Joyce Holland disappeared. She was a mountain girl who had come to Manteo to work in the outdoor drama The Lost Colony. Her body was found five days later, floating in the sound. This riveting narrative, built on unique access to the state investigative file and multiple interviews with insiders, searches for the truth of her unsolved murder. This island odyssey of discovery includes séances, a suicide and a supposed shallow grave. Journalist John Railey cuts through the myths and mistakes to finally arrive at the long-hidden truth of what happened to Brenda Holland that summer on Roanoke Island.
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Death at Papago Park POW Camp
A Tragic Murder and America's Last Mass Execution
by Jane Eppinga
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
This WWII true crime history reveals a shocking story of murder inside an Arizona POW camp-and the U.S. military's controversial response.
Though Arizona was far from any theater of battle during World War II, the grim realities of combat were brought home with the construction of POW camps. Located outside Phoenix, Camp Papago Park became famous for its prisoners' attempted escape through the Faustball Tunnel, but it also had a dark reputation of violence among its prisoners.
One casualty was Werner Drechsler, a prisoner who supplied German secrets to U.S. Navy authorities. Nazis held at Papago Park labeled him a traitor and hanged him from a bathroom rafter. Controversy erupted over whether the killing was an act of war or murder. Some also questioned the lack of protection Drechsler received for aiding in espionage. Ultimately, seven POWs were hanged for the crime. Author Jane Eppinga examines the tangled details and implications of America's last mass execution.
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The Westside Park Murders
Muncie's Most Notorious Cold Case
by Keith Roysdon
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
On a warm night in September 1985, teenagers Kimberly Dowell and Ethan Dixon were brutally murdered in Westside Park in Muncie, Indiana. Their killer has never been charged. Early on, police focused on a family member of one of the teens as a primary suspect. The investigation even ruled out fantastic scenarios, including a theory that the perpetrator was a Dungeons & Dragons devotee. The case grew cold. Only decades later did a dogged police investigator narrow the scope to a suspect whose name has never been publicly revealed until now.
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The 1868 St. Bernard Parish Massacre
Blood in the Cane Fields
by C. Dier
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
The slaughter of newly liberated African Americans just days before a Reconstruction Era election is recounted in this true crime history.
Louisiana, 1868. With the Civil War over, a victorious Ulysses S. Grant was riding a wave of popularity straight to the White House. But former Confederates across the South feared what Reconstruction might look like under President Grant. Days before the tumultuous election, Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish descended into chaos.
As African American men gained the right to vote, white Democrats of the parish feared losing their majority. Armed groups mobilized to suppress these recently emancipated voters. Freed people were dragged from their homes and murdered in cold blood. Many fled to the cane fields to hide from their attackers. The reported number of those killed varies from 35 to 135. Though efforts were made to cover up the tragedy, its implications reverberated throughout the South and lingered for generations. In this authoritative chronicle, historian Chris Dier reveals the horrifying true story behind the St. Bernard Parish Massacre.
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The Hunt for the Last Public Enemy in Northeastern Ohio
Alvin "Creepy" Karpis and his Road to Alcatraz
by Julie Thompson
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
This Depression Era true crime biography chronicles the notorious gangster's life, eventual capture by the FBI, and long stay in Alcatraz.
Growing up in Topeka, Kansas, Alvin Karpis started his life of crime at age ten. By the early 1930s, he was a hardened criminal and leader of the Barker-Karpis Gang. He reportedly committed fifteen bank robberies, fourteen murders, three jailbreaks and two kidnappings. One of only four outlaws to be named Public Enemy No. 1, Karpis was the last-and the only one taken alive.
His criminal career came to an end when J. Edgar Hoover and his famed G-Men apprehended him in New Orleans. From there, Karpis found himself confined on Alcatraz Island, where he spent nearly twenty-six years-more than any inmate in the prison's history. This riveting tale of his life takes readers from the rural Midwest to the bustling streets of the Big Easy and into the bleak innards of "the Rock."
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Coatesville and the Lynching of Zachariah Walker
Death in a Pennsylvania Steel Town
by Dennis B. Downey
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
"A compelling narrative that moves crisply through the murder, the lynching, and the cover-up by silence that local residents thereafter affected."-The Journal of American History
On a warm August night in 1911, Zachariah Walker was lynched-burned alive-by an angry mob on the outskirts of Coatesville, a prosperous Pennsylvania steel town. At the time of his very public murder, Walker, an African American millworker, was under arrest for the shooting and killing of a respected local police officer. Investigated by the NAACP, the horrific incident garnered national and international attention. Despite this scrutiny, a conspiracy of silence shrouded the events, and the accused men and boys were found not guilty at trial. More than 100 years after the lynching, authors Dennis B. Downey and Raymond M. Hyser bring new insight to events that rocked a community.
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Chicago's First Crime King
Michael Cassius McDonald
by Kelly Pucci
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
This true crime biography details the remarkable rise of the 19th century mob boss who ran Chicago from the streets to the mayor's office.
Michael Cassius McDonald arrived in Chicago as a teenage gambler and scam artist who quickly hustled his way into running the city through its criminal underworld. Long before the reign of Al Capone, McDonald was Chicago's original mob boss. He procured presidential pardons, fixed juries, stuffed mayoral ballot boxes, and operated the city's most popular-and most crooked-gambling parlor.
But McDonald also maintained a reputation as a decent man. He was a philanthropist who befriended Clarence Darrow, promoted the World's Fair, ran the Chicago Globe newspaper-where he employed Theodore Dreiser-and funded the Lake Street L. Meanwhile, he had multiple marriages mired in love triangles and murder trials. His remarkable story comes to life in this.
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Murder in the Courthouse
Reconstruction & Redemption in the North Carolina Piedmont
by Jim Wise
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
An in-depth look at the historic murder of an infamous politician during America's Reconstruction following the Civil War.
No suspect was ever indicted or tried for the murder of scalawag politician John W. "Chicken" Stephens in a North Carolina courthouse; and the Ku Klux Klan not only rid itself of a troublesome adversary, but also set up a showdown between the state's old guard and the radical regime of Governor William Woods Holden. Follow this little-known tale from the murder, through the "Kirk-Holden War," through the courts and to the finale, when Holden became the United States' first governor impeached and removed from office. Newspaper reporter and historical columnist Jim Wise takes us beyond the final days of the Civil War in North Carolina, amidst the destruction and poverty and debt, to chronicle the men whose clashing agendas and personalities shaped a violent era and laid foundations for the Jim Crow century to come.
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Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer
Gary Gene Grant
by Cloyd Steiger
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
"An in-depth look at the 1971 trial of a serial killer who's been mostly forgotten-except to those who were forever impacted" (The Seattle Times).
In 1969, the body of a young woman was discovered in the woods of Renton, Washington, rocking the communities along Puget Sound. Three more brutal murders followed, drawing the attention of multiple police agencies as they tried to piece together the meager clues left behind. The seemingly unrelated cases challenged detectives, who struggled to realize they were all connected to one man: Gary Gene Grant. Before the term "serial killer" was even coined, Grant stalked his prey, destroying lives and families while walking unseen among the masses. Decades later, his crimes have all but been forgotten.
Join author and homicide investigator Cloyd Steiger as he uncovers the story of the murderer who slipped through the cracks of history.
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Mobtown Massacre
Alexander Hanson and the Baltimore Newspaper War of 1812
by Josh S. Cutler
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
This is a gripping account of how a Federalist editor risked his life to defend his anti-war views.
With a bitterly divided nation plunged into the War of 1812, Alexander Hanson penned an anti-war editorial that provoked a violent standoff that crippled the city of Baltimore and left Hanson beaten within an inch of his life. This little-known episode in American history-complete with a midnight jailbreak, bloodthirsty mobs and unspeakable acts of torture-helped shape the course of war, the Federalist Party and the nation's very notion of the freedom of the press. Josh Cutler's history of the Mobtown Massacre offers a lesson in liberty that reverberates today.
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Woodstock's Infamous Murder Trial
Early Racial Injustice in Upstate New York
by Richard R. Heppner
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
A local historian uncovers a racially charged murder trial in upstate New York in this examination of prejudice and punishment in the early twentieth century.
In 1905, the quiet rural community of Woodstock, New York, was shocked by the murder of Oscar Harrison, a member of a prominent local family. A suspect, Cornell Van Gaasbeek, was quickly identified. As a black man accused of killing a white man, Van Gaasbeek knew that he was doomed. Amid racist animus in the press, he fled across two counties before being apprehended by a vigilante and charged. Local reformer and politician Augustus H. Van Buren stood up to community pressure and defended the accused pro bono. It took three years and multiple trials to overcome racial inequalities in the justice system. Local historian Richard Heppner documents the crime, arrest and trials that revealed racial tensions in upstate New York at the turn of the century.
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Jailing the Johnstown Judge
Joe O'Kicki, the Mob and Corrupt Justice
by Bruce J. Siwy
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
In 1988, Judge Joe O'Kicki was regarded by his peers as one of the most brilliant legal minds in the United States. He was newly re-married, sworn in as the president judge of a Pennsylvania county and on the fast track to a federal bench.
Silently, however, a state police vice unit was in the midst of covert operation into O'Kicki's personal affairs. The judge would be accused of soliciting bribes, frequenting brothels and running the county as if he were a "battleship commander." Later he'd concoct a plan to flee the country and exact revenge on his enemies.
Set in the aftermath of the 1977 Johnstown flood and including courtroom testimony, the memos of whistleblowers, contemporary interviews and excerpts from O'Kicki's unfinished tell-all memoir, "Jailing the Johnstown Judge" is a fresh examination of the extraordinary Western Pennsylvania case that attained international infamy.
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Marple's Gretchen Harrington Tragedy
by Mike Mathis
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Friday, Aug. 15, 1975 began as a typical summer day in the suburbs. Young children played with their friends, adults prepared for work or planned for their vacation at the Jersey Shore.
That all changed in the hours before noon, when Gretchen Harrington, the 8-year-old daughter of a Presbyterian minister and his wife, was kidnapped while walking to a vacation Bible school less than a quarter-mile from her house. Her body was found by a jogger in a state park nearly two months later.
The crime forever changed the lives of the children who were near Gretchen's age and their parents, many of whom chose to live in Marple Township because they considered it a safe refuge from the crime-ridden streets of Philadelphia.
Journalists Mike Mathis and Joanna Falcone Sullivan examine the kidnapping, murder and the nearly five-decade long investigation through rare access to police files in what is still considered an open investigation.
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Akron's Infamous Escort Case
by Jane E. Bond
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
In the late 1990s, the Akron Vice Squad began Operation Red Light to investigate two local escort services. Little did they expect the political and legal storm their actions would unleash.
Soon everyone wanted to know who was on the list of clients. Were the defense lawyers on the list of false names given by men hiding their identities? Was a prostitute's murder covered up to protect a judge who had taken her into the courthouse for sex and drugs, and did an undercover police officer use public money to fund an abortion for an escort who claimed he was the father? Were bogus racketeering charges used to seize money for cars and expenses for the police?
Progressing step by step through the evidence, presiding judge Jane Bond goes behind the scenes and into her courtroom to see if justice can be done.
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The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas
by E. R. Bills
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
In late July 1910, a shocking number of African Americans in Texas were slaughtered by white mobs in the Slocum area of Anderson County and the Percilla-Augusta region of neighboring Houston County. The number of dead surpassed the casualties of the Rosewood Massacre in Florida and rivaled those of the Tulsa Riots in Oklahoma, but the incident-one of the largest mass murders of blacks in American history-is now largely forgotten. Investigate the facts behind this harrowing act of genocide in E.R. Bills's compelling inquiry into the Slocum Massacre.
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Murder and Mountain Justice in the Moonshine Capital of the World
by Phillip Andrew Gibbs
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
A Story of Hard Spirits and Defiant Souls Franklin County, Virginia has long been known as the Moonshine Capital of the World. That history can seem romantic, but the county has a dark and violent past. The descendants of the Scots-Irish who settled its rugged mountains openly defied the law and employed their own notions of justice to defend their traditions and livelihood. During Prohibition, the production of moonshine skyrocketed, but the liquor didn't stop flowing from the mountains when the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed. County and state officials struggled to maintain order in a region where unsolved murders, strange disappearances, and senseless killings were a way of life. The peak came in 1978, with nine murders linked to moonshine and drugs in the county. Historian and Virginia native Phillip Andrew Gibbs tells story of that horrific year and the history behind it.
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The Rio Grande Sniper Killings
Caught in the Sights of a Drug Conspiracy
by John Primomo
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Untangle the complex conspiracy that led to the tragic deaths of Charlotte Kay Elliott and Kevin Edwin Frase on the banks of the Rio Grande. On the night of July 13, 1980, a hitman fired a high-powered rifle into the crowd at Pepe's On the River, an outdoor bar in Mission, Texas. He missed his target, a witness in the Loop 360 drug case, but killed two young bystanders. While state court prosecutions for capital murder inexplicably faltered, a federal court gave the assassin a life sentence for attempted murder of a grand jury witness. A member of the judge's staff who was present throughout the trial, author John W. Primomo revisits the dramatic twists and turns surrounding this murder on the Rio Grande.
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The Cold Case Murder of Fred Wilkerson
Untangling the Black Widow's Web in West Georgia
by Clay Bryant
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Nearly two decades after the fact, tragedy meets justice. One day in 1987, Fred Wilkerson up and vanished in Troup County, Georgia. It was a mystery beset with suspicious circumstances, but the evidence never led anywhere, and the case went cold, Wilkerson's whereabouts unknown. That is, until a remarkable set of circumstances allowed author and investigator Clay Bryant to breathe life back into the case nearly two decades later. Diving into what had previously been overlooked, Bryant was able to locate and recover Wilkerson's remains and successfully prosecute the killer, who'd crafted a calculating plot to take everything the victim had and murder him in order to keep it. The story concludes with the Wilkerson Family finally getting closure and the killer getting sentenced to life in prison. Join Byrant as he unravels this West Georgia cold case.
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The Hoyt-Wallis Murder Mystery in Herkimer County
by James M. Greiner
Part of the True Crime (History Press) series
Warren township in the southern portion of Herkimer County has been the scene of more than one gruesome event.
In January 1885, locals reeled in horror when disgruntled wife Roxalana Druse shot her husband and dismembered his corpse to incinerate it in a farm house stove. Her trial and hanging was followed up in May of 1901 with two murders in yet another farm house kitchen. John C. Wallis had allowed his ex-wife Arvilla to return home, one year after running off with hired farm hand Ben Hoyt. Wallis then rehired Hoyt and within months both Ben Hoyt and Arvilla Wallis were dead. Did Ben Hoyt murder Arvilla in cold blood or did John C. Wallis kill both of them?
Author James M. Greiner investigates a mysterious case of marriage, infidelity and multiple murders in turn of the century Herkimer County.