#6 in this Cleveland crime and disaster series includes 15 stories. Sometimes gruesome, often surprising, these tales are meticulously researched and delivered in a literate and entertaining style. Meet a daring Jazz Age stick-up man, a murderous grandmother, an ageless fire chief addicted to profanity, and other unforgettable characters.
Recounts the behind-the-scenes happenings at Cleveland newspapers during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, describing how reporters found their stories, the role of the papers in the city's daily life, and the political ins and outs of the reporting world.
Women who murder . . . why are they so much more fascinating than their male counterparts? For evidence, dip into any of the sixteen strange-but-true tales collected in this anthology by Cleveland’s leading historical crime writer. You’ll meet: • Ill-fated Catherine Manz, the “Bad Cinderella” who poisoned her step-sister in revenge for years of mistreatment, then made her getaway wearing her victim’s most fetching outfit, a red dress and an enormous feathered hat . . . • Velma West, the big-city girl who scandalized rural Lake County in the 1920s with her “unnatural passions”—and ended her marriage-made-in-hell with a swift hammer’s blow to the skull of her dull husband, Eddie . . . • Eva Kaber, “Lakewood’s Lady Borgia,” who, along with her mother and daughter, conspired to dispose of an inconvenient husband with arsenic and knife-wielding hired killers . . . • Martha Wise, Medina’s not-so-merry widow, who poisoned a dozen relatives—including her husband, mother, and brother—because she enjoyed going to funerals . . . And a cast of other, equally fascinating women who behaved very, very badly. This is wickedly entertaining reading!
Destroyed yet paradoxically preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, Pompeii and other nearby sites are usually considered places where we can most directly experience the daily lives of ancient Romans. Rather than present these sites as windows to the past, however, the authors of The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection explore Pompeii as a modern obsession, in which the Vesuvian sites function as mirrors of the present. Through cultural appropriation and projection, outstanding visual and literary artists of the last three centuries have made the ancient catastrophe their own, expressing contemporary concerns in diverse media--from paintings, prints, and sculpture, to theatrical performances, photography, and film. This lavishly illustrated volume--featuring the works of artists such as Piranesi, Fragonard, Kaufmann, Ingres, Chass�riau, and Alma-Tadema, as well as Duchamp, Dal�, Rothko, Rauschenberg, and Warhol--surveys the legacy of Pompeii in the modern imagination under the three overarching rubrics of decadence, apocalypse, and resurrection. Decadence investigates the perception of Pompeii as a site of impending and well-deserved doom due to the excesses of the ancient Romans, such as paganism, licentiousness, greed, gluttony, and violence. The catastrophic demise of the Vesuvian sites has become inexorably linked with the understanding of antiquity, turning Pompeii into a fundamental allegory for Apocalypse, to which all subsequent disasters (natural or man-made) are related, from the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina. Resurrection examines how Pompeii and the Vesuvian cities have been reincarnated in modern guise through both scientific archaeology and fantasy, as each successive cultural reality superimposed its values and ideas on the distant past. An exhibition of the same name will be on view at the Getty Villa from September 12, 2012, through January 7, 2013; at the Cleveland Museum of Art from February 24 through May 19, 2013; and at the Mus�e national des beaux-arts du Qu�bec from June 13 through November 8, 2013.
All In. The moment that LeBron James declared his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014, there was no doubt the franchise was all in on ending the city of Cleveland's over half-century drought without a major sports championship. From the mid-season coaching change to a 3-1 NBA Finals deficit, the Cavs were determined to overcome any obstacle to capture the first NBA title in franchise history. Unlike in 2015 when they were decimated by injuries, they stayed largely healthy in the 2016 playoffs and torched the Pistons, Hawks, and Raptors on their way to a Finals rematch versus Stephen Curry and the record-breaking Warriors. Packed with unmatched analysis and dynamic color photography, Cleveland Is King takes fans through the Cavaliers historic and improbable journey, from Tyronn Lue taking over as coach during the season, to LeBron shaping the team in his image, to the team rallying from the brink of elimination in dramatic fashion to steal the championship in Oakland. This commemorative edition also includes in-depth profiles of King James, Finals hero Kyrie Irving, big man Kevin Love, and more key players in the Cleveland's extraordinary championship run.
For many Clevelanders, the accolades the city has finally begun to collect are a celebration of what residents have already known for years. One need look no further than the bartenders at Cleveland's regular haunts, the burgeoning comedians the city laughs along with, the musicians gaining national recognition, and the owners of the restaurants making Cleveland a foodie destination. For all the recognition the city has recently been earning, there are key residents that keep the gears in motion. Cleveland photographer Laura Wimbels has spent the last two years capturing their portraits. The final product is Faces of Cleveland.
"This book should be required reading for every elected official and for every citizen." -- Chief Edward P. Kovacic (retired), Cleveland Police Department Gritty, scary, hilarious, and heartbreaking . . . these remarkable true stories will take you on the roller coaster ride that is life as a Cleveland police officer. These are the real stories cops trade with each other after the shift, over a couple of beers. They're stories the rest of us rarely get to hear, because cops are often reluctant to open their world to outsiders. But now they share their compelling personal tales with the rest of us. Listen in as dozens of cops--active and retired, young and old, from rookie to chief--tell about their most memorable moments patrolling the streets of Cleveland. The biggest arrests, the dumbest criminals, the funniest practical jokes, the most frightening calls . . . Their stories will give you goose bumps on one page and make you laugh until you're gasping for breath on the next. Some hit like a punch in the gut, some will make you stop and wonder. On this ride you'll get a front-seat look at one of the toughest jobs in town--and gain a better understanding of the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to do it. A real eye-opener, and great fun to read.
Offers a brief history of the city before the author's birth in 1939, then focuses on the author's life in the city and the ups and downs it faced during those seventy years.
A true-adventure, coming-of-age tale set in the exhilarating first wave of Beatlemania … It’s 1964, and 16-year-old Janice is struggling in a grim foster home in Cleveland when she falls suddenly, deeply in love … with the Beatles. They and their music stir in her an ecstatic new sense of freedom. With a friend, she hatches a bold plan to escape their dreary lives and run away to London to meet the Fab Four. On their own for the first time—in “Beatleland”—they explore a new city, a new culture, and a new life, visiting the hippest clubs of Soho, meeting some nice English boys, hitchhiking to Liverpool … But unbeknownst to them, the runaways have become international news—and a hunt is on. Adventure and newfound freedom end abruptly when Janice is apprehended by London police and hauled home to Cleveland and an unforgiving juvenile justice system. Warned by responsible adults to put it all behind her, she doesn’t speak of her extraordinary adventure for more than fifty years. In this memoir, she looks back with fresh insight on the heady early days of Beatlemania and an era in America when young women exercising some control over their lives presented a serious threat to adult society.
Winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, a breathtaking elegy to the waning days of human spaceflight as we have known it In the 1960s, humans took their first steps away from Earth, and for a time our possibilities in space seemed endless. But in a time of austerity and in the wake of high-profile disasters like Challenger, that dream has ended. In early 2011, Margaret Lazarus Dean traveled to Cape Canaveral for NASA's last three space shuttle launches in order to bear witness to the end of an era. With Dean as our guide to Florida's Space Coast and to the history of NASA, Leaving Orbit takes the measure of what American spaceflight has achieved while reckoning with its earlier witnesses, such as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and Oriana Fallaci. Along the way, Dean meets NASA workers, astronauts, and space fans, gathering possible answers to the question: What does it mean that a spacefaring nation won't be going to space anymore?