Join local historian Tim Crumrin as he reveals the blackguards, rogues and swindlers of Terre Haute's rough and rowdy past. For more than a century, Terre Haute earned its reputation as a sin city. One of the most notorious red-light districts in the Midwest, the West End, housed sixty brothels and nearly one thousand prostitutes at its height in the 1920s. Across this sordid scene strode the stylish and indomitable Edith Brown, the city's most famous madam. When Prohibition made the city bootlegger central, violence erupted as rival gangs vied for turf. Gamblers flooded in from all corners of the country, making Terre Haute's Wire Room second only to Las Vegas. Through it all, corrupt politicians like Mayor Donn Roberts profited handsomely from grift and deception.
The author of Hidden History of Terre Haute and Wicked Terre Haute explores the home of sin in the Sin City. Home to uproarious saloons, swindling gambling dens, and thriving brothels, Terre Haute's infamous West End was so wild the Chicago Tribunecalled it "the scene of a hundred all night carousings." Pimps, pickpockets, and conmen roamed the crowded streets where legendary Madam Edith Brown's pleasure palace was the crown jewel of brothels. Yet more than a mere den in inequity, the West End was also a community that could put bickering differences aside and pull together to help their neighbors. And it wasn't only a place for seedy enterprise, but also a place for stores, cafes, and homes. Historian Tim Crumrin presents the first complete history of this legendary area and separates myth from reality to reveal the very human side of the West End.
While many know about Terre Haute's long-gone reputation as a "sin city," other stories include the city being home to a Confederate POW camp, druggist Jacob Baur discovering a way to liquefy carbon dioxide, and the hometown of 1930s and '40s child star Billy Lee
The author of Hidden History of Terre Haute and Wicked Terre Haute explores the home of sin in the Sin City. Home to uproarious saloons, swindling gambling dens, and thriving brothels, Terre Haute's infamous West End was so wild the Chicago Tribunecalled it the scene of a hundred all night carousings. Pimps, pickpockets, and conmen roamed the crowded streets where legendary Madam Edith Brown's pleasure palace was the crown jewel of brothels. Yet more than a mere den in inequity, the West End was also a community that could put bickering differences aside and pull together to help their neighbors. And it wasn't only a place for seedy enterprise, but also a place for stores, cafes, and homes. Historian Tim Crumrin presents the first complete history of this legendary area and separates myth from reality to reveal the very human side of the West End.
These are not the aspects of Indianapolis history you'll see flaunted in visitors' brochures. These are the abhorrent, the grim, the can't-look-away misdeeds and miscreants of this city's past, when bicycle messenger boys peddled through the night to link prostitutes with johns and when the bigoted masses tightened their grip on the city behind mayor and Klansman John Duvall. From the unseemly to the deviant to the disastrous, Hoosier Andrew E. Stoner brings you lives as out of control as the worst wreck at the Indy 500 with a history as regrettable as it is riveting.
This is a true story of sweat and sacrifice, of triumph over adversity. Professional boxer Bud Taylor became a star in the Golden Age of Sports, when Americans worshipped their sports heroes, and the popularity of boxing ranked second only to baseball. Known as "The Terre Haute Terror," Taylor hit hard and trained hard in passionate pursuit of the world bantamweight title. His obstacles were plenty: the physical, from injuries such as battered hands and broken noses; the emotional: the anguish of watching two men die from his blows; and the practical: a champion who eluded him, wanting no part of The Terror. His story is told from the ringsides, dressing rooms and gymnasiums of the boxer's travels. Meet the fight game's quirky characters, follow the money, marvel at the media frenzy and enjoy anecdotes about the people and places of the 1920s in a first-ever biography of Taylor. The book is part biography and part history lesson of the times, written in the entertaining style of a former sportswriter who became an award-winning investigative news reporter. It is foremost a book about boxing, but it is also about the glitzy, glamorous 1920s, when Americans cherished their diversions-fashion, jazz, auto-mobiles, and above all, sports. This is a story of an underdog, who grew up poor but ideally equipped for his career with the tools of self-discipline and perseverance, who rode the backing of his beloved hometown supporters to the pinnacle of his profession. Along the way, Taylor's reputation for fighting through injuries and his never-quit attitude notched him a reputation as a great boxing ticket, and his show-stopping performances earned him a great fan following in such cities as Chicago and Los Angeles. Taylor was a paradox in many ways: A ferocious predator inside the ring but vulnerable and compassionate outside; So self-focused on a career goal that he trained obsessively, yet generously giving of his time to community causes; A model of fitness and frugality during his fight career who ultimately wound up obese and broke. Bud Taylor fought 166 pro fights in 11 years, an average of about one every three weeks. His classic battles with Tony Canzoneri, Jimmy McLarnin, Pancho Villa and Pal Moore, among others, are recounted. Like many success stories, Taylor surrounded himself with talent: first-rate trainers Jack Blackburn and Barney Furey; his loyal manager, Eddie Long; and the friendship and tutelage of talented boxers of the times-champions Tommy Gibbons, Sammy Mandell, and others. A basher with either fist, Taylor's blows killed two men, ended a third man's career and left others unconscious for tense moments. He was left with the task of reconciling the deaths before he destroyed himself from self-guilt. JOHN D. WRIGHT lives in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has a master's degree from Indiana State University and has worked on the staff of the Terre Haute Tribune-Star newspaper for more than 20 years. As a longtime reporter, he covered news and sports in the Wabash Valley ranging from high-school basketball to murder trials. Among his awards is a state Society of Professional Journalists 1992 first-place award for investigative reporting; and a Hoosier State Press Association 1994 first place for deadline reporting after witnessing in person the execution of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy.Wright's interest in boxing dates from his childhood; his father, "Ren"Wright, boxed amateur bouts out of Sullivan, Indiana, from 1949 to 1951, and often talked about "Bud" Taylor. Wright also knows about one-on-one sports - he is a USPTA-certified tennis instructor and frequently a nationally ranked player in his age division.
"Who is an American?" asked the Ku Klux Klan. It is a question that echoes as loudly today as it did in the early twentieth century. But who really joined the Klan? Were they "hillbillies, the Great Unteachables" as one journalist put it? It would be comforting to think so, but how then did they become one of the most powerful political forces in our nation's history? In The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland, renowned historian James H. Madison details the creation and reign of the infamous organization. Through the prism of their operations in Indiana and the Midwest, Madison explores the Klan's roots in respectable white protestant society. Convinced that America was heading in the wrong direction because of undesirable "un-American" elements, Klan members did not see themselves as bigoted racist extremists but as good Christian patriots joining proudly together in a righteous moral crusade. The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland offers a detailed history of this powerful organization and examines how, through its use of intimidation, religious belief, and the ballot box, the ideals of Klan in the 1920s have on-going implications for America today.
From the days of French explorers and the establishment of Fort Harrison in 1811 to the rise of the "Pittsburgh of the West" and beyond, Terre Haute's history is a study in paradox. Home to prominent schools, railroads, and distilleries as well as social reformers, national figures, and corrupt politicians, the city that grew up along the Wabash suffered devastating setbacks but also soared to spectacular achievements.
Set in the Indiana city of its title in the early 1960s, explores the implications of the narrator's burgeoning homosexuality. Fourteen-year-old Jared McCaverty both profits and suffers from precocity; he sees the emptiness of the world of his privileged, materialistic parents, yet craves their approval.
