Lake Erie is known for its beauty and tranquility, but a dark, deadly undercurrent lurks beneath its surface. Bordering four states and two countries, the inland ocean offers the perfect getaway for criminals of all kinds. The bandits who held up the Ashtabula National Marine Bank as well as Ontario's most elusive con man used the lake to avoid capture. Pirate Joseph Kerwin relied on his knowledge of the shipping industry to evade the law. Narene Mozee's murderer quietly slipped away on a luxury cruise ship after completing his heinous deed, and when a lighthouse keeper found a corpse floating in the shallows near his post, all signs pointed to the killer fleeing by boat. Local author Wendy Koile wades into the depths of this great but deadly lake.
Gruesome Tales From the Gem City of the Great Lakes From the French and Indian War to Oliver Hazard Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie, the city of Erie has a prideful place in the American story, but there also exists a seedy history of crime and murder. In 1905 Detective James "Jimmie" Higgins was mysteriously killed at Central High School and the drawn-out manhunt for his murderer occupied headlines for months. On a cold January night in 1911, a massive explosion rocked the Erie waterfront when criminals bombed the Pennsylvania Railroad Coal Trestle, leaving it a smoldering mass of steel and debris. The unsolved murder of Manley W. Keene inspired a local newspaper to bring in the "Female Sherlock Holmes," Mary Holland, who defied gender expectations and reshaped detective work in Erie for generations. Author Justin Dombrowski uncovers dark stories from Erie's illicit past.
The author of Wicked Northern New York delivers the most chilling historic true crime stories from the state’s northern tier. Jefferson County, located in New York’s beautiful North Country, has a dark and violent past. During the long winter months, it was not the cold that was feared, but the killers. In 1828, Henry Evans committed a crime so brutal that the location in Brownsville is still called Slaughter Hill. A real-life Little Red Riding Hood, eleven-year-old Sarah Conklin met someone far worse than a wolf on her way home from school in 1875. And in 1908, Mary Farmer, a beautiful young mother hacked her neighbor to death and was sent to the electric chair. Author Cheri L. Farnsworth has compiled the stories of the most notorious criminal minds of Jefferson County’s early history. Includes photos!
From murder and matchstick men to all-consuming fires, painted women, and Great Lakes disasters--and the wide-eyed public who could not help but gawk at it all--"Milwaukee Mayhem" uncovers the little-remembered and rarely told history of the underbelly of a Midwestern metropolis. "Milwaukee Mayhem" offers a new perspective on Milwaukee's early years, forgoing the major historical signposts found in traditional histories and focusing instead on the strange and brutal tales of mystery, vice, murder, and disaster that were born of the city's transformation from lakeside settlement to American metropolis. Author Matthew J. Prigge presents these stories as they were recounted to the public in the newspapers of the era, using the vivid and often grim language of the times to create an engaging and occasionally chilling narrative of a forgotten Milwaukee. Through his thoughtful introduction, Prigge gives the work context, eschewing assumptions about "simpler times" and highlighting the mayhem that the growth and rise of a city can bring about. These stories are the orphans of Milwaukee's history, too unusual to register in broad historic narratives, too strange to qualify as nostalgia, but nevertheless essential to our understanding of this American city.
The notorious history of two nineteenth-century hamlets in western New York, famous for an era of bustling commerce—and criminality. The Town of Mendon and the Village of Honeoye Falls are today quiet western New York suburbs, but they weren't always so idyllic. In years past, the village was a center of commerce, manufacturing and railroads, and by the mid-nineteenth century, this prosperity brought with it an element of mayhem. Horse stealing was commonplace. Saloons and taverns were abundant. Street scuffles and barroom brawls were regular, especially on Saturday nights, after the laborers were paid. By Sunday morning, numerous drunks—like Manley Locke, who would eventually go on to kill another man in a fight—were confined to the lockup in the village hall. It was at this time that the Village of Honeoye Falls earned the name “Murderville.” As the town and village turn two hundred, join local historians Diane Ham and Lynne Menz as they explore the peaceful region’s vicious history. Includes photos!
A comprehensive exploration of Melville’s formative years, providing a new biographical foundation for today’s generations of Melville readers Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, Volumes 1 and 2, follows Herman Melville’s life from early childhood to his astonishing emergence as a bestselling novelist with the publication of Typee in 1846. These volumes comprise the first half of a comprehensive biography on Melville, grounded in archival research, new scholarship, and incisive critical readings. Author John Bryant, a distinguished Melville scholar, editor, critic, and educator, traces the events and experiences that shaped the many-stranded consciousness of one of literature’s greatest writers. This in-depth and innovative biography covers Melville’s family history and literary friendships, his father-longing, god-hunger, and search for the hidden nature of Being, the genesis of his liberal politics, his empathy for African Americans, Native Americans, Polynesians, South Americans, and immigrants. Original perspectives on Melville’s earliest identities—orphaned son, sibling, farmer, teacher, debater, lover, actor, sailor—provide the context for Melville’s evolution as a writer. The biography presents new information regarding Melville’s reading, his early orations and acting experience, his life at sea and on the road, and the unsettling death of his older, rival brother from mercury poisoning. It provides insights on experiences such as Melville’s trauma at the loss of his father, his learning to write amidst a coterie siblings, his struggles to find work during economic depression, his journey West, his life in whaling and in the navy, and his vagabondage in the South Pacific during the moment of American and European imperial incursions. A significant addition to Melville scholarship, this important biographical work: Explores the nature and development of Melville’s creative consciousness, through the lens of his revisions in manuscript and print Assesses Melville’s sexual growth and exploration of the spectrum of his masculinities Highlights Melville’s relevance in contemporary democratic society Discusses Melville’s blending of dark humor and tragedy in his unique version of the picturesque Examines the ‘replaying’ of Melville’s life traumas throughout his entire works, from Typee, Omoo, Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick, Pierre, Israel Potter, and The Confidence-Man to his shorter works, including “Bartleby,” his epic Clarel, his poetry, and his last novella Billy Budd Covers such cultural and historical events as the American revolution of his grandparents, the whaling industry, New York slavery, street life and theater in Manhattan, the transatlantic slave trade, the Jacksonian economy, Indian removal, Pacific colonialism, and westward expansion Written in an engaging style for scholars and general readers alike, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, Volumes 1 and 2 is an indispensable new source of information and insights for those interested in Melville, 19th-century and modern literature and culture, and readers of general American history and literary culture.
Organized crime is perhaps the most fascinating phenomenon of our time. From Al Capone, who boldly claimed his bootlegging activities were a public service, to the flamboyant Teflon Don, the criminals of the underworld have garnered headlines and captured our imagination with their violent and extravagant lifestyles. Arthur Martin provides a gripping introduction to the history of the mob, from the early vendettas of the 19th century in southern Italy to the mass killings a century later across New York, Chicago and other American cities. Featuring shocking photographs of these gang members, Mafia Wars offers shocking insight into the role of the mob explores whether recent high-profile hits are a mark of the Mafia's re-emergence as a violent force in the 21st century. For anyone who wants to know the truth about organized crime and understand the violent forces that have shaped it over the last century, this book is an indispensable guide.
David B. Sachsman and David W. Bulla have gathered a colourful collection of essays exploring sensationalism in nineteenth-century newspaper reporting. The contributors analyse the role of sensationalism and tell the story of both the rise of the penny press in the 1830s and the careers of specific editors and reporters dedicated to this particular journalistic style.Divided into four sections, the first, titled "The Many Faces of Sensationalism," provides an eloquent Defense of yellow journalism, analyses the place of sensational pictures, and provides a detailed examination of the changes in reporting over a twenty-year span. The second part, "Mudslinging, Muckraking, Scandals, and Yellow Journalism," focuses on sensationalism and the American presidency as well as why journalistic muckraking came to fruition in the Progressive Era.The third section, "Murder, Mayhem, Stunts, Hoaxes, and Disasters," features a ground-breaking discussion of the place of religion and death in nineteenth-century newspapers. The final section explains the connection between sensationalism and hatred. This is a must-read book for any historian, journalist, or person interested in American culture.
It's a Terrible Day in the Neighborhood They told you the suburbs were a great place to live. They said nothing bad could ever happen here. But they were wrong. This collection of terrifying true stories exposes the dark side of life in the ’burbs—from corpses buried in backyards and ghosts lurking in fast food restaurants to UFOs, vanishing persons, bizarre apparitions, and worse. Consider: • The Soccer Mom’s Secret. Meet Melinda Raisch of Columbus, Ohio. She’s the wife of a dentist. A mother of three. A PTA member. And she has enough murderous secrets to fill a minivan. • Noise Pollution. More than 100 residents of Kokomo, Indiana, claim their small town is under attack by a low-pitched humming sound that erodes health and sanity. Too bad they’re the only ones who can hear it. • Death Takes a Holiday inn. There’s nothing more reassuring than a big chain hotel in a quaint small town—unless it’s the Holiday Inn of Grand Island, New York, where you’ll spend the night with the spirit of a mischievous little girl. So lock your doors, dim the lights, and prepare to stay up all night with this creepy collection of true tales. We promise you’ll never look at white picket fences the same way again!
