This historical novel is the result of many years of study into family history and American history of the period that is often called the Great Depression, but should also be called the Great Prohibition. Both of these national calamities collaborated to shape the lives depicted in the present work of historical fiction. It is inspired by the struggle of a real life family in northern Minnesota. It describes what they went through to survive in a country racked by poverty and moralistic values. "Moonshine, Murder and Mayhem's" climactic moment is described as follows: "As Katie stood up to face her jealous lover, she knew she had never seen him in such a state of rage and she began to wonder whether she could control the situation. "I told you many times, that if I caught you with another man, I would kill you!" Big Al said spitting out the words one at a time and emphasizing that final expression, kill you." The thirteen years that Prohibition held the country hostage to its morality has been called, a period of Mayhem. History has judged the country harshly over this curtailing of human rights. But while it was illegal to sell alcohol openly, moonshiners thrived and prospered. The story of the Shea family is a saga interwoven with the struggles over "White Lightning" and the ominous and pervasive poverty of the Depression. It takes place in northern Minnesota and finds its terrible peak on a cold March night in the year 1930. Katie Shea Gendreau, full of life at 33 years old, looses the struggle with Poverty and Prohibition. This is her story.

Accounts of bizarre, grisly and breath-taking incidents which have occurred in Georgia over the past 200 years. All of the accounts are true and factual. Information collected by reliable researchers from historic newspaper articles, court records, legal documents, personal interviews and first-person accounts. Includes over 400 amazing period photographs. Includes full-name and subject indexes for reference purposes.

This volume relates 75 true crime stories from Macon County, Tennessee between 1879 and 1939. These stories run the gamut of crime. Some are tragic, some bizarre, some grotesque, and some are a little humorous. Although all of the alleged crimes mentioned here took place decades ago, many of them detail the types of crimes that remain common today across the United States and the world. Besides murder, there are stories about child abduction, rape, bullying, domestic violence, racial problems, drunk driving, confidence games, and others.

Uncle Dave Macon, made the county of Cannon quite famous when he sang about those Cannon County Hills from the Grand Ole Opry stage. Later on, it was Porter Wagoner who recorded the King of the Cannon County Hills song and even Grandpa Jones sang about being the King of the Cannon County Hills on the Hee Haw show in 1969. Maybe the tale of Al Capone supplying his speakeasies with Cooper Melton's moonshine from Short Mountain gained the county it's notoriety or it could be the county's nickname of Shotgun County. No matter which claim you are taken by, you'll find murder, moonshine and other general mayhem aplenty. Read through newspaper articles and old court documents that take you through a timeline of the stories of convicted murderers John Hollandsworth, Dillard Warren, Albert Jetton; the first county lynching of Tom Lillard, the death of moonshiner Cooper Melton or the robbing of the Bank of Auburn...all three attempts. Scan through old sworn testimonies where neighbors swear to the illegal activities of each other involving Lewdness, Carrying a Pistol, Selling Liquor and Disturbing Public Worship to Running a House of Ill Fame or read about the Cannon County son who became Sheriff and then on to U. S. Deputy Marshal and was called 'one of the most successful officers in the country.' These were the times when words like desperado and assassin were frequently used and it all happened in those Cannon County Hills. A few of the more notable stories and various court documents are compiled here in Murder, Moonshine and General Mayhem in Shotgun County.

This humorous book is full of new insights into ways we’ve been missing the point of so many beloved Bible stories. Approximately 80 percent of Americans admit they haven’t read the Bible. If they did, they’d be pleasantly surprised by its impressive quantity of sex and poop jokes. David danced naked. Noah was basically a moonshining hillbilly. Ezekiel baked poop bread. Herod was eaten by worms. Jesus cursed a fig tree, just to prove he could. Mark went streaking. Hosea married a prostitute. Lot was date-raped by his own daughters. It turns out, there’s a lot of weird stuff in the Bible. Murder-Bears, Moonshine, and Mayhem is a funny look at some of the stranger tales in the Bible. From Elisha, who loosed homicidal bears on some kids because they called him bald (it’s a long story), to the story of Ehud, who gets away with assassinating a tyrannical king because his servants think said king is taking a dump (also a long story), this book examines and casts new light on some of the Bible’s stranger moments. Organized by topic (poop, genitalia, weird violence, prostitution, gratuitous nudity, seemingly pointless miracles, and other fun stuff), Murder-Bears, Moonshine, and Mayhem is a thoroughly researched (really!), reverent, and insightful look at the amazing book at the center of our faith.

Death leads photographer Nellie Burns and Sheriff Azgo to a ghost town in the Stanley Basin in 1920's Idaho. Murder and mayhem ensue. Nellie, her dog Moonshine, and others help solve complex riddles in a landscape where greed and evil lurk.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, a rural county located in the backwoods of the Blue Ridge Mountains made national headlines as the most lawless place in America. Winner of the North Carolina Society of Historians' Willie Parker Peace History Book Award, Moonshine, Murder & Mountaineers: The Wildest County in America recounts a time when moonshiners and desperadoes faced off against lawmen in epic battles that made national headlines. The book focuses on actual events from an area in western North Carolina that held the reputation as the wildest county in America. With a masterful blend of entertaining stories supported by historical documentation, the reader is given an exciting account of true events.Moonshine, Murder & Mountaineers also provides readers with historical and genealogical reference points. The names of real people are used throughout the book. An index of names is provided for ancestry research. Old newspaper and court documents are quoted on numerous occasions and provide a solid historical reference point to the accounts. The book is written in a format to both entertain and inform. Entertaining and exciting stories are followed by a chapter documenting historically accurate research. This format takes the reader back in time through vivid short stories and allows one to make their own opinion of the events based on the facts. Moonshine, Murder & Mountaineers: The Wildest County in America will prove to be a fun and informative read!

While the Texas sun is shining brightly on the little town of Parkerville, murder, mayhem and romantic intrigue darken every corner. Mrs. Nesbitt, the owner of the local cafe and the resident doom-sayer, is proclaiming dire happenings for the entire town. Helen Caldwell, the "nose for news" reporter is poking her nose into everyone's business, while her husband, Edgar, is lurking in the background, using the town's secrets for his own ends. Riley Parker is leading the town's bad boy, Devlin Faulkner on a merry chase, but her sister, Lou Parker, is dealing with bigger problems. Her estranged ex-husband shows up in Parkerville looking for something, and he thinks Lou has it. Bo Parker discovers something illegal in the woods, and Sheriff Jonathon stumbles over a dead body while trying to find Bo. Mrs. Nesbitt's prophecy is about to be tested. Will they be able to sort everything out in time for a happy ending? The many twists and tur ns will keep you on the edge of your seat right up until the unxpected ending.

A true crime story of a gruesome double homicide in the Jim Crow South, and the manhunt and trial that followed. In Oxford, Mississippi, the dawn of the twentieth century seemed to present a sweeping landscape of progress and possibility. But under this veneer of technological advancement, cultural achievement, and prosperity lurked a stubborn core of racial discrimination, rampant criminal brutality, and violence. On a Sunday morning in 1901, the mutilated corpses of two federal marshals were discovered in the smoldering remains of the home of a notorious local malefactor. The murders, committed by moonshiner and counterfeiter Will Mathis and his father-in-law’s servant Orlando Lester, captivated the nation. The crimes ignited a manhunt, a trial marked by desperate lies and legerdemain, and a media frenzy around the hanging of a white man and a black man side by side. This enthralling account centers on two men—judged unequal in life but equal in death. The story draws on primary sources to craft a spellbinding narrative of singular immediacy and vitality. With the consummate skill of a master raconteur, author T. J. Ray powerfully evokes an era, a community, and its people.