The author of Wicked Northern New York delivers the most chilling historic true crime stories from the state’s northern tier. Jefferson County, located in New York’s beautiful North Country, has a dark and violent past. During the long winter months, it was not the cold that was feared, but the killers. In 1828, Henry Evans committed a crime so brutal that the location in Brownsville is still called Slaughter Hill. A real-life Little Red Riding Hood, eleven-year-old Sarah Conklin met someone far worse than a wolf on her way home from school in 1875. And in 1908, Mary Farmer, a beautiful young mother hacked her neighbor to death and was sent to the electric chair. Author Cheri L. Farnsworth has compiled the stories of the most notorious criminal minds of Jefferson County’s early history. Includes photos!

Before the Colorado Territory, this land was Jefferson Territory. Made up mostly of ranching and farming communities, early Jefferson County was the kind of place where only the stouthearted and downright crazy could survive. And with any settlement comes violence. It's true that Hollywood has embellished the history of the Wild West, but that doesn't mean it wasn't truly wild. From the "psychic" Italian mother who lured an elderly woman to her death to the violent end of the McQueary-Shaffer feud in the upper Platte region, local historian Carol Turner's Notorious Jefferson County offers readers a peek into some of the area's most famous and infamous murder cases of the frontier era.

The Dark Side of Jeff City The first century of the wilderness-born Missouri capital was filled with villainous escapes from the state's only prison, resulting in theft, abuse and even murder. The grandest of escape attempts ended with the city's only triple hanging. The capital city had plenty of entrepreneurs willing to sidestep the federal Volstead Act, which attracted Ku Klux Klan activity and culminated in the election of a "law and order" sheriff, whose deputies broke laws to enforce them. Many other tragedies grieved the community, including the South Side murder of a German immigrant by a teen-aged deputy, who had been caught sleeping with the victim's daughter. Author Michelle Brooks has collected a sample of some of the shocking events of Jefferson City's first century.

St. Lawrence County is known for its picturesque waters and pristine seasons. But underneath this fair faade lies a sordid past, rife with tales of killings and cunning, like the man who slashed his wife to death after instructing a constable to close the door and depart; a robbery that descended into the brutal axing of a mother and her two small children; the unsolved case of a young woman bludgeoned to death on school grounds in an upscale neighborhood; and the gruesome poisoning of one man at the hands of his son, his wife and her lover. Join author Cheri Farnsworth as she investigates these and other notorious cases of murder and mayhem in New York's North Country. Book jacket.

Desperadoes like Frank and Jesse James earned Missouri the nickname of the "Outlaw State" after the Civil War, and that reputation followed the region into the Prohibition era through the feverish criminal activity of Bonnie and Clyde, the Barkers and Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Duck into the Slicker War of the 1840s, a vigilante movement that devolved into a lingering feud in which the two sides sometimes meted out whippings, called slickings, on each other. Or witness the Kansas City Massacre of 1933, a shootout between law enforcement officers and criminal gang members who were trying to free Frank Nash, a notorious gang leader being escorted to federal prison. Follow Larry Wood through the most shameful and savage portion of the Show-Me State's history.

This true crime history chronicles more than a century in the life of a small Midwestern city with an outsized reputation for violence and vice. Gambling, prostitution and bootlegging have been going on in Steubenville for well over century. In its heyday, the city’s Water Street red-light district drew men from hundreds of miles away, as well as underage runaways. The white slave trade was rampant, and along with all the vice crimes, murders became a weekly occurrence. This revealing history chronicles the rise of Steubenville’s prodigious underworld from the 1890s to the modern day. By the turn of the century, Steubenville’s law enforcement seemed to turn a blind eye, and cries of political corruption were heard in the state capital. This scenario replayed itself over and over again during the past century as mobsters and madams ruled and murders plagued the city and surrounding county at an alarming rate. Newspapers nationwide would come to nickname this mecca of murder "Little Chicago."

"Discover the history of the infamous Egan murders in Jefferson County, New York"--

The true story of a triple murder that shocked a New York community and drew the interest of famed criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey. Twenty-seven-year-old Peter Egan, his wife Barbara Ann, and Peter’s younger brother Gerald were familiar to Watertown, New York, authorities long before December 31, 1964. The police suspected the brazen trio in a long string of burglaries and petty crimes. They were also under investigation by the FBI for grand theft auto. But on that New Year's night, the Egan family’s criminal career came to a violent end. All three were found with a bullet to the head at a rest stop off Interstate 81. The gruesome killings puzzled local and state police. Was it a random murder? A confrontation gone awry? Or a premeditated act of retribution by hardened criminals who feared the Egans would turn state's witness? Then, a surprise arrest was made. But when F. Lee Bailey, lawyer for the self-confessed Boston Strangler, entered the fray, the case took an unexpected twist that shrouded the murders in mystery to this day.

Explore the dark side of small town North Carolina. Chapel Hill has seen its share of violence and murder, but somehow has been able to push those instances aside and kept the ambiance of a Norman Rockwell style small town. A walk through the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill can be inspiring, but the school has a darker side that has been well hidden. Over the years there have been many murders that have taken place among those oak trees, in the dorms and frat houses on campus. Many of the murders are unsolved and remain mysteries to this day. The victims know the truth, though, that evil has no boundaries. Local historian Rick Jackson narrates the mysteries of one of North Carolina's quaintest towns.

"For over three years Mack Marsden was suspected of every major crime in Jefferson County, Missouri, but he was never convicted of any wrongdoing. All of the available resources, including oral histories, are mined for clues that explain who ambushed and killed Marsden"--Provided by publisher.