Includes the Torso Murderer, responsible for 12 homicides in Cleveland, investigated by Eliot Ness and more.

From award winning criminologist R. Barri Flowers and the bestselling author of The Sex Slave Murders 1 & 2, Serial Killer Couples, and Murder of the Banker’s Daughter comes Murder Chronicles, a gripping collection of true crime tales. The collection includes ten compelling stories of murder, madness, and mayhem that span more than a century of American history and homicidal criminality that will keep you reading from beginning to end. 1. Murder at the Pencil Factory: The Killing of Mary Phagan - 100 Years Later, the brutal murder of a young girl turn locals into vigilantes out for justice. 2. The "Gold Special" Train Robbery: Deadly Crimes of the D'Autremont Brothers, a daring train robbery by a trio of brother bandits goes wrong and turns deadly. 3. Murder of the Banker's Daughter: The Killing of Marion Parker, a brazen abduction of a schoolgirl turns tragic as authorities hunt for the killer. 4. Mass Murder in the Sky: The Bombing of Flight 629, a mother’s Christmas gift turns deadly, exploding in an airliner above Denver, with a domestic terrorist on loose. 5. The Amityville Massacre: The DeFeo Family's Nightmare, family is shot to death by a killer too close to home. Inspiration for The Amityville Horror movies. 6. The Pickaxe Killers: Karla Faye Tucker & Daniel Garrett, pair of killers seek revenge and pay the price themselves. 7. Murderous Tandem: James Gregory Marlow and Cynthia Coffman, two killers pick off victims one by one till brought to justice. 8. Murder in Mission Hill: The Disturbing Tale of Carol Stuart & Charles Stuart, a wife’s murder draws national attention with an unlikely killer on the loose. 9. Murder in Bellevue: The Killing of Alan and Diane Johnson, in a case of parricide, a teenage girl’s obsession turns deadly. 10. Murder of a Star Quarterback: The Tragic Tale of Steve McNair & Sahel Kazemi, adultery, jealousy, fame, and fortune turn deadly for a well-known ex-football great. Bonus material includes excerpts from bestselling true crime books by R. Barri Flowers, The Sex Slave Murders and Serial Killer Couples. Follow the author in Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Goodreads, LibraryThing, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, and www.rbarriflowers.net and www.rbarriflowers.com.

The last Public Enemy No. 1 of the Depression era, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis reportedly compiled a record of fifty-four aliases, fifteen bank robberies, fourteen murders, three jailbreaks and two kidnappings. Roaming the country to evade capture (or worse), Karpis regularly hid out in northeastern Ohio, where he and the remnants of the infamous Ma Barker Gang perpetrated the last great American train heist in Garrettsville. His criminal career came to an end when J. Edgar Hoover and his famed G-Men apprehended the man they wanted more than any other 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. Historian Julie Thompson tells the true story of Karpis's life and career, a riveting tale taking readers from rural Kansas and Ohio to the bustling streets of the Big Easy and into the bleak innards of "the Rock."

Chronicles the events surrounding the 1951 disappearance of ten-year-old Beverly Potts in Cleveland, Ohio, discussing how it became the nation's first highly publicized missing child case and why it is still unsolved more than fifty years later.

Ohio history overflows with tales of enterprising thieves. Vault teller Ted Conrad walked out of Society National Bank carrying a paper sack containing a fifth of Canadian Club, a carton of Marlboros and $215,000 cash. He was never seen again. Known as one of the most successful jewel thieves in the world, Bill Mason stole comedian Phyllis Diller's precious gems not once, but twice. He also stole $100,000 from the Cleveland mob. Mild-mannered Kenyon College library employee David Breithaupt walked off with $50,000 worth of rare books and documents from the college. John Dillinger hit banks all over Ohio, and Alvin Karpis robbed a train in Garrettsville and a mail truck in Warren. Jane Ann Turzillo writes of these and other notable heists and perpetrators.

The life, crimes, and rise to fame of Alfred Knapp, “The Strangler,” from the award-winning journalist and author of Cincinnati’s Savage Seamstress. Just before Christmas 1902, Alfred Knapp strangled his wife in her sleep. He put her body in a box and sent the box floating down the Great Miami River, telling everyone that Hannah had left him. When the truth came out, Knapp confessed to four other murders. Newspapers across the Midwest sent reporters to interview the handsome strangler. Despite spending most of his adulthood in prison, he had a charming, boyish manner that made him an instant celebrity serial killer. True crime historian Richard O. Jones examines the strangler’s alleged crimes, the family drama of covering up Knapp’s atrocities and how a brain-damaged drifter became a media darling. Includes photos

In the summer of 1957, a young Holmes County farmer was gunned down in cold blood. There was little to distinguish this slaying from hundreds of others throughout the United States that year except for one detail: Paul Coblentz was Amish. A committed pacifist, Coblentz would not raise a hand against his killers. As sensational crimes often do, the "Amish murder" opened a window into the private lives of the young man, his family and his community--a community that in some respects remains as enigmatic today as it was more than half a century ago. Authors of Wicked Columbus, Ohio's Black Hand Syndicate and others, David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker unravel the intricacies surrounding one of Ohio's most intriguing murder cases.

Explore one of history’s most notorious maximum-security prisons through these tales of mayhem and madness. As “animal factories” go, the Ohio Penitentiary was one of the worst. For 150 years, it housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the United States, including murderers, madmen and mobsters. Peer in on America’s first vampire, accused of sucking his victims’ blood five years before Bram Stoker’s fictional villain was even born; peek into the cage of the original Prison Demon; and witness the daring escape of John Hunt Morgan’s band of Confederate prisoners.

"The Buckeye State produced its share of wicked women. Tenacious madam Clara Palmer contended with constant police raids during the 1880s and '90s. Only her death could shut the doors of her gilded bordello in Cleveland. Failed actress Mildred Gillars left for Europe right before World War II. Because she fell in love with the wrong man, she wound up peddling Nazi propaganda on the radio as "Axis Sally." Volatile Hester Foster was already doing time at the Ohio State Penitentiary when she bashed in the head of a fellow inmate with a shovel. The sinister Anna Marie Hahn dosed at least five elderly Cincinnati men with arsenic and croton oil and then watched them die in agony while pretending to nurse them back to health. Award-winning crime writer Jane Ann Turzillo recounts the stories of Ohio's most notorious vixens, viragoes and villainesses"--Back cover.

The dreadful howls of coyotes are common in the shadows surrounding Medina County, but perhaps something else, something entirely more fearsome, lurks in the night. In 1906, the specter now known as the Woman in Black so terrified residents in Medina Square that a curfew was imposed. Restless spirits, rattling chains, and nefarious deeds are rumored to have occurred in a farmhouse in Sharon Township. Legend has it that about 100 years ago a witch preyed on the residents of Liverpool Township, and the ghost of a teenage boy is said to haunt the men's restroom at Plum Creek Park in Brunswick Hills. Join parapsychologist Brandon Massullo as he sheds light on the ghostly lore surrounding Medina County's restaurants, libraries, freeways, parks, and more.