The Sly-Fanner Murders
The Sly-Fanner Murders

Author: Allan R. May

Publisher: Conallan Press LLC

Published: 2014-06-25

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 9780983703747

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Cleveland Police Department Never Gave Up! From the moment of the double-murder the police never gave up in the hunt for the six suspects involved in the payroll robbery-gone bad. Cleveland detectives and prosecutors pursued and/or arrested the killers in Los Angeles, Mexico City, San Francisco and finally Sicily, taking some fifteen years to make sure justice was served. The crime was carried out by members of Cleveland's infamous Mayfield Road Mob. The plot to rob the local businessmen was hatched after one gang member, convicted of auto theft, was desperate for cash to file an appeal. Short on manpower, the gang's leader was forced to involve himself and an immature teenager in the daring hold-up. The young man's inexperience led to the double slaying and the manhunt was on. In the end, three of the participants would pay with their lives in the electric chair, one would be sent to prison for life, another received 30 years at hard labor; the last one, the younger brother of Cleveland's first Mafia boss, would go free. This story also gives a chilling look at one of the most violent periods in the history of Cleveland. When a new prosecutor takes office on January 1, 1921, he is confronted with handling three sensational murder trials in addition to the killings, which just took place the day before. This lawless period resulted in the Cleveland Crime Survey of 1921, the country's first in-depth study of the justice system of a major United States city

Hidden History of Northeast Ohio
Hidden History of Northeast Ohio

Author: Mark Strecker

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2021-10-04

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1439673829

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Northeast Ohio is awash with nearly forgotten historical events. In 1780, American scout Captain Samuel Brady leaped across the Cuyahoga River where Kent now stands to evade a party of Native Americans aiming to take his scalp. During the Civil War, Confederates tried to free their compatriots from the Johnson's Island prisoner of war camp by capturing two ferries and attempting to poison the crew of the Union's only gunboat in Lake Erie. The town of Kirtland was briefly the national headquarters of the Mormons and the location of one of the Church of Latter-day Saints' most revered temples. Mark Strecker has unearthed a hidden gem of local history for each of Northeast Ohio's twenty-two counties.

Chin
Chin

Author: Larry McShane

Publisher: Citadel Press

Published: 2018-08-28

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 080653916X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This true crime biography chronicles the life of the so-called “Oddfather” who ran a powerful NYC crime family while playing crazy to avoid prosecution. Vincent “Chin” Gigante was a professional boxer before discovering his true calling as a ruthless contract killer. When Vito Genovese went to prison, he picked Gigante to run the Genovese crime family in his absence. While raking in more than one hundred million for the family, he routinely ordered the murders of mobsters who violated the Mafia code—including John Gotti. At the height of Gigante's reign, the Genovese Family was the most powerful in the United States. And yet he was, to all outside appearances, certifiably crazy. He wandered the streets of Greenwich Village in a ratty bathrobe and slippers. He urinated in public, played pinochle in storefronts, and hid a second family from his wife. On twenty-two occasions, Gigante admitted himself to a mental hospital—evading criminal prosecution while maintaining his nefarious operations. It took nearly thirty years of endless psychiatric evaluations by a parade of puzzled doctors for federal authorities to finally bring him down.

Women Behaving Badly
Women Behaving Badly

Author: John Stark Bellamy, II

Publisher: Gray & Company, Publishers

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1598510002

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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!