The Ore Knob Mine Murders

The Ore Knob Mine Murders
Author: Rose M. Haynes
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2013-10-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786473169

How could the peace and quiet of Ashe County, North Carolina (in the mountains, at the Virginia-Tennessee corner), turn into a nightmare of crime and drugs, and the old copper mine itself become a dumping ground for the dead? In 1982, two bodies had been chipped from an icy grave and brought up from the 250-foot mine shaft where they had been thrown while still alive. Now, there were rumors of 21 bodies still down there. If the mine was ever re-opened, what would they find--copper or bodies? Murder, drugs, prostitution and gangs come together in the history of the Ore Knob Mine. A small Appalachian community became the heart of a vicious drug ring ruled by the Outlaws motorcycle gang from Chicago. Ashe County made national headlines when a police informant came forward confessing that he had pushed a man alive into the Ore Knob Mine shaft. This book is the full story.

The Ore Knob Mine Murders

The Ore Knob Mine Murders
Author: Rose M. Haynes
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2013-09-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1476604436

How could the peace and quiet of Ashe County, North Carolina (in the mountains, at the Virginia-Tennessee corner), turn into a nightmare of crime and drugs, and the old copper mine itself become a dumping ground for the dead? In 1982, two bodies had been chipped from an icy grave and brought up from the 250-foot mine shaft where they had been thrown while still alive. Now, there were rumors of 21 bodies still down there. If the mine was ever re-opened, what would they find--copper or bodies? Murder, drugs, prostitution and gangs come together in the history of the Ore Knob Mine. A small Appalachian community became the heart of a vicious drug ring ruled by the Outlaws motorcycle gang from Chicago. Ashe County made national headlines when a police informant came forward confessing that he had pushed a man alive into the Ore Knob Mine shaft. This book is the full story.

Murder Down Under

Murder Down Under
Author: Anthony Ferguson
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2021-01-29
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 147664151X

Notorious, numerous and varied, serial murderers from Australia have an eclectic record of crimes, methods and trademarks. Scrutinizing these murderers at length, this book aims to identify characteristics exclusive to Australian serial killers, connecting the crimes with the continent's geography, culture and social structure. Featured are murderers like the "Granny Killer" John Wayne Glover, William "The Sydney Mutilator" McDonald and "Backpacker Killer" Ivan Milat. Also covered are well-known events like the Snowtown Murders and killer couples like David and Catherine Birnie. Unique in the true crime genre, this book studies fictional Australian murderer Mick Taylor to examine how pop culture portrayals develop the distinct psychology of killers from "down under."

Hot Tickets

Hot Tickets
Author: H. George Frederickson
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2019-11-06
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476677875

In 2010, University of Kansas officials were shocked to learn that the FBI and IRS were on campus investigating Rodney Jones, former head of the Athletics Ticket Office, for stealing Jayhawks basketball tickets and selling them to brokers. Investigators found that for more than five years Jones and a small ring of university officials had conspired to loot the university of $2 million in tickets, reselling them for $3-5 million. In what was perhaps the biggest scandal in college sports history, all seven members of the "Kansas Ticket Gang" pleaded guilty to RICO Act indictments. Five went to prison--two were given probation for turning state's evidence.

Have You Seen This Person?

Have You Seen This Person?
Author: LJ Roberts
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2020-12-11
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1476681295

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people are reported missing in the United States alone. The majority of those who disappear turn up within a week, but a small percentage are never heard from again. Why did a Swedish teenager on an Australian adventure mail a cryptic letter to his family in Stockholm before disappearing forever? What became of a young woman whose car was found crashed and abandoned off a cliffside in Whatcom County, Washington? How can an individual vanish without a trace in a world so connected and monitored? This book explores ten unsolved missing persons cases from around the world, from a 12-year-old British boy who purchased a one-way ticket to London King's Cross never to return, to an American traveler who walked into the Himalayas not to be seen again. Included are exclusive interviews, statistical information and a case-by-case analysis of the most common and probable theories for each disappearance.

She Said God Blessed Us

She Said God Blessed Us
Author: Gail Hovey
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2020-07-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1476682771

When Gail Hovey was a teenager, her local Presbyterian church hired Georgia, a seminary-trained Christian education director. Brilliant and charismatic, Georgia used the language of faith to seduce several of her students, swearing each to secrecy. When she eventually abandoned the others and focused on Gail, Gail believed herself uniquely blessed and for the next 15 years modeled her life on Georgia's--the seminary degree, the minister husband. The relationship had a profound and lasting influence on the woman Gail became and left her a legacy of guilt and shame. Shedding light on the largely invisible issue of sexual abuse of girls by women, Hovey's brave memoir relates her decades-long journey--from East Harlem to South Africa to Brooklyn--to break free of an overwhelmingly powerful and deeply destructive first love.

Pardonable Matricide

Pardonable Matricide
Author: Tobin T. Buhk
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2019-03-08
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1476635935

In January 1889, as London constables hunted for Jack the Ripper and theaters around the world presented theatrical renditions of the Jekyll and Hyde story, Jackson, Michigan, Police Captain Jack Boyle searched for the murderer of Mary Latimer. This book follows Captain Boyle to the bordellos of gaslight-era Detroit--populated by madams, pimps, prostitutes and gamblers. It describes the investigation that led him to a pharmacist that prowled the streets, akin to a real-life Jekyll and Hyde. Ultimately, the book delves into the mind of Robert Irving Latimer, known as the most dangerous prisoner in Michigan and the man who inspired talk about resurrecting the state's long-dead death penalty.

Big Trouble

Big Trouble
Author: J. Anthony Lukas
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 884
Release: 2012-07-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439128103

Hailed as "toweringly important" (Baltimore Sun), "a work of scrupulous and significant reportage" (E. L. Doctorow), and "an unforgettable historical drama" (Chicago Sun-Times), Big Trouble brings to life the astonishing case that ultimately engaged President Theodore Roosevelt, Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the politics and passions of an entire nation at century's turn. After Idaho's former governor is blown up by a bomb at his garden gate at Christmastime 1905, America's most celebrated detective, Pinkerton James McParland, takes over the investigation. His daringly executed plan to kidnap the radical union leader "Big Bill" Haywood from Colorado to stand trial in Idaho sets the stage for a memorable courtroom confrontation between the flamboyant prosecutor, progressive senator William Borah, and the young defender of the dispossessed, Clarence Darrow. Big Trouble captures the tumultuous first decade of the twentieth century, when capital and labor, particularly in the raw, acquisitive West, were pitted against each other in something close to class war. Lukas paints a vivid portrait of a time and place in which actress Ethel Barrymore, baseball phenom Walter Johnson, and editor William Allen White jostled with railroad magnate E. H. Harriman, socialist Eugene V. Debs, gunslinger Charlie Siringo, and Operative 21, the intrepid Pinkerton agent who infiltrated Darrow's defense team. This is a grand narrative of the United States as it charged, full of hope and trepidation, into the twentieth century.

The Lonely Hearts Killers

The Lonely Hearts Killers
Author: Tobin T. Buhk
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2020-06-08
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1476679118

The shocking series of crimes committed by lovers Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez dominated the front pages in 1949. Caught for the double homicide of a widow and her young daughter in Michigan, the first couple of crime became the focus of an intense debate over the death penalty and extradition. Their story climaxed in a sensational trial in New York City and concluded two years later inside Sing Sing's notorious "Death House." Pulp fiction era reporters, who followed every step taken by the accused slayers, christened Beck and Fernandez the "Lonely Hearts Killers"--a nickname that stuck and has since been used to describe an entire category of criminal behavior. Despite the sensationalization of the killer couple's exploits, the story of the Michigan crime that ended their spree has until now remained largely untold. Drawing on rare archival material, this book presents, for the first time anywhere, a detailed account of this lost chapter in the saga of the "Lonely Hearts Killers." Both biography and analysis, this book also attempts to deconstruct the myths and misconceptions and to provide answers to a few unanswered questions about the case.

Put the Money in My Purse!

Put the Money in My Purse!
Author: Judith A. Yates
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2022-01-27
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1476645760

Drawing on media reports, interviews and court records, this book recounts the stories of women bank robbers in the United States, from the time of the Revolutionary War to the present. Ranging from sensational to poignant to comical, the heists of frontier outlaws, gun molls, insurrectionists, housewives, grandmas and young mothers "literally robbing for Pampers" are narrated as part of the social history of women in America.