Name: California's Lamson Murder Mystery
Brand: Tom Zaniello
SKU: 9781467136532
Price: 21.99 USD
Availability: InStock

California's Lamson Murder Mystery

9781467136532

$21.99

On Memorial Day 1933, Stanford executive David Lamson found his wife, Allene, dead in their Palo Alto home. The only suspect, he became the face of California's most sensational murder trial of the century. After a judge sentenced him to hang at San Quentin, a team of Stanford colleagues stepped in to form the Lamson Defense Committee. The group included poets Yvor Winters and Janet Lewis, as well as the "Sherlock Holmes of Berkeley," criminologist E.O. Heinrich. They managed to overturn the verdict and incite a series of heated retrials that gripped and divided the community. Was Lamson the victim of aggressive prosecutors, or was he a master of deception whose connections helped him get away with murder? Author and Stanford alum Tom Zaniello meticulously examines the details of a notorious case with a lingering legacy.

The Ruthless Northlake Bank Robbers: A 1967 Shooting Spree that Stunned the Region

9781467119382

$21.99

Automatic gunfire hammered police arriving at Northlake Bank in response to a silent alarm on the morning of October 27, 1967. The shootout killed two officers and injured two others. One of the robbers lay wounded as the other two fled in a getaway car. The ensuing manhunt tore across state lines and thrust the quiet Illinois community into a national debate over rehabilitated prisoners--two of the men were fresh out of jail for bank robbery. Local author Edgar Gamboa Navar traces this violent midwestern crime saga from the initial grocery store holdup in Ohio before the bank job to the capture of the murderous gang in Indiana, as well as the conviction and imprisonment.

The Ruthless Northlake Bank Robbers: A 1967 Shooting Spree that Stunned the Region

Tragedy at Southern Oregon Tunnel 13

9781626193468

$24.99

The DeAutremont brothers were looking for a big score. They brought dynamite, guns and a getaway car. On October 11, 1923, at the summit of the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon, the three young men held up a passenger train, with disastrous consequences. Their rash actions resulted in the tragic deaths of three Southern Pacific trainmen and one U.S. Mail clerk, unleashing a public outcry that still rings through Oregon's history. In this riveting account, rail historian Scott Mangold draws on interviews, in-depth research and previously unpublished maps and photographs to document the events at Tunnel 13. Join Mangold as he chronicles the resulting four-year manhunt and eventual conviction of the DeAutremonts and provides insight into the lives derailed by the robbery's bitter legacy.

Delaware Prohibition

9781467147446

$21.99

Daring raids, sporadic gun fights, and midnight chases filled the headlines in 1920s Delaware.

Prohibition attempted to kill John Barleycorn, the personification of intoxicating drinks, but in Delaware the notice of his death was premature. Government agents tried in vain to stop bootleggers and rumrunners who fed the speakeasies that quenched the thirst of the people of the First State. Against the backdrop of the Roaring '20s, bootleggers sped up and down the new Du Pont Boulevard while enforcement agents, such as the bible-thumping Three Gun Wilson, tried in vain to stop them. The stock market crash and the Great Depression ended dry laws and brought about Barleycorn's resurrection.

Local author and historian Michael Morgan recounts dramatic tales of rumrunners, bootleggers, dry laws and wet politicians.

Wanted in Indiana

9781467147309

$21.99

To most Hoosiers, John Dillinger is the very picture of an Indiana fugitive, but the state has seen many fascinating criminal characters on the run. In Tippecanoe County, two Lafayette youths murdered the sheriff's deputies transporting them to prison. The gun-toting "Elwood gun girl" walked from the headlines into legend. One fugitive passed himself off as a small-town cop while on the run, and a well-spoken Indiana killer became the first fugitive captured as a direct result of the TV show America's Most Wanted. Veteran true crime author Andrew E. Stoner examines not only the trail of destruction criminals have left in their wake but also their lives on the run.

Touhy vs. Capone

9781625858931

$21.99

When beat cop Don Herion and his partner responded to shots fired on December 16, 1959, they didn't know that they had heard the final, fatal salvo in one of the most contorted conflicts in the history of organized crime. A canny bootlegger, Roger Touhy had survived a gang war with Al Capone, false imprisonment for a faked kidnapping, a prison break and recapture. His story dragged in all the notorious men of his day: Frank Nitti, John "Jake the Barber" Factor, Mayor Cermak, Melvin Purvis, J. Edgar Hoover, Baby Face Nelson, Dan "Tubbo" Gilbert, FDR and JFK. As Touhy's life was ending on his sister's front porch, Herion's quest to unravel the tangle of events that led to his assassination had just begun.

Murder & Scandal in Prohibition Portland:

9781467119535

$21.99

The 1917 election of Mayor George Luis Baker ushered a long era of unscrupulous greed into Portland government. While supposedly enforcing prohibition laws, Baker ordered police chief Leon Jenkins to control and profit from the bootlegging market. Baker filled city coffers and his friends' pockets with booze-soaked cash while sensational headlines like the 1929 affair between policeman Bill Breuning and informant Anna Schrader scandalized the city. Maligned in the press, Schrader executed a bitter campaign to recall the mayor. In 1933, a hired gunman murdered special investigator to the governor Frank Aiken a day before he would have filed a report on corruption in the city government. Authors JD Chandler and Theresa Griffin Kennedy unearth the salacious details of Baker's crooked administration in a revelatory account of prohibition in the Rose City.

Murder & Scandal in Prohibition Portland:

Louisville's Alma Kellner Mystery

9781467138161

$21.99

A kidnapping, a brutal murder, an international manhunt, and a diabolical priest… This is the true story of the murder of eight-year-old Alma Kellner.

On a bitterly cold day in December of 1909, young Alma Kellner simply disappeared from the altar of St. John's Church in Louisville. Her body was found four months later near the site of the church, and news of the murder rocked the city. The manhunt for the suspect Louisville police Captain John Carney eleven thousand miles across the country, and even to South America, to return the killer to justice. While a man was tried and convicted to life in prison for the crime, suspicion lingers that the true culprit was the murderous and maniacal Catholic priest Hans Schmidt, the only priest to have ever been executed in the United States. Author Shawn M. Herron details the fascinating story of a tragedy that still remains a source of mystery to this day.

The Counterfeit Prince of Old Texas: Swindling Slaver Monroe Edwards

9781467117876

$21.99

After Monroe Edwards died in Sing Sing prison in 1847, penny dreadfuls memorialized him as the most celebrated American forger until the turn of the century. With a bizarre biography too complicated for easy history, his critical contributions to Texas settlement, revolution and annexation were inextricably mired in his activities as a slave smuggler and confidence man. Author Lora-Marie Bernard unravels the unbelievable story of one of the most notorious criminal adventurers ever to set foot on the soil of the Lone Star State.

The Counterfeit Prince of Old Texas: Swindling Slaver Monroe Edwards

Jailhouse Stories from Early Pacific County

9781467135290

$24.99

Hangings, lynchings and jail breaks are long forgotten in Pacific County, where tourists flock to quaint attractions every season. But back in the early days, when the first jailhouse was built, this was a rough, rustic setting. Popular cannery worker Lum You was hanged here in 1902--the only legal execution in county history. Industrious smugglers and creative entrepreneurs outwitted state-sanctioned prohibition measures, though some still did time in the jailhouse. Historian Sydney Stevens presents a collection of tales culled from a forgotten prison record book. Opium fiends, thieves, military deserters and even wayward girls jailed for incorrigible acts are brought out of the shadows of a wilderness long gone.

Jailhouse Stories from Early Pacific County

San Luis Obispo County Outlaws

9781625859266

$21.99

California was a wild and lawless place in the 1850s, and San Luis Obispo County was no exception. Outlaws and bandits passed along the El Camino Real, now Highway 101, leaving a trail of victims. Despite attempts to stem the tide of crime with a vigilante committee and a string of executions, notorious men continued to be drawn to the central coast well into the next century. The James brothers, the Daltons and even Al Capone made their mark here, while lawmen worked to tame this piece of the western frontier. Author Jim Gregory details nefarious activities lost to time.

Gangs of St. Louis

9781596299054

$24.99

St. Louis was a city under siege during Prohibition. Seven different criminal gangs violently vied for control of the town's illegal enterprises. Although their names (the Green Ones, the Pillow Gang, the Russo Gang, Egan's Rats, the Hogan Gang, the Cuckoo Gang and the Shelton Gang) are familiar to many, their exploits have remained largely undocumented until now. Learn how an awkward gunshot wound gave the Pillow Gang its name and why Willie Russo's bizarre midnight interview with a reporter from the St. Louis Star involved an automatic pistol and a floating hunk of cheese. From daring bank robberies to cold-blooded betrayals, Gangs of St. Louis chronicles a fierce yet juicy slice of the Gateway City's history that rivaled anything seen in New York or Chicago.

New Castle’s Kadunce Murders

9781467144025

$23.99

Author Dale Richard Perelman tells the tragic story of the 1978 murders and the mystery surrounding them.

In the summer of 1978, a mother and her four-year-old were stabbed to death in the quiet town of New Castle. Police suspected the husband, Lou Kadunce, but were unable to find either a weapon or a motive. Sitting in a Lawrence County jail in 1981, convicted serial killer Michael Atkinson accused Frank Costal - a carny, petty thief and Satanist - of having an affair with the Kadunce husband and participating in the murder. A series of intense trials ensued as Costal was convicted of the homicides and a jury found the husband not guilty. Questions surrounding the case gripped the region and grabbed headlines in the Pittsburgh Press.

Murder in Linn County, Oregon

9781467135221

$21.99

On June 21, 1922, Linn County sheriff Charles Kendall and Reverend Roy Healy drove out to the town of Plainview to arrest a moonshining farmer named Dave West. By the end of the day, all three men were dead. First responders found Sheriff Kendall facedown with his pistol still holstered. The court appointed William Dunlap as the new sheriff, but within a year, someone killed him, too. Author and journalist Cory Frye delivers a riveting, detailed account of these shocking and tragic crimes that haunted Linn County for decades.

Early Organized Crime in Detroit

9781467117548

$21.99

Social scientist and crime writer James A. Buccellato explores Detroit's struggle with gang violence, public corruption and the politics of vice during the tumultuous first half of the twentieth century.

Though detectives denied it, the Italian mafia was operating in Detroit as early as 1900, and the city was forever changed. Bootleggers controlled the Detroit River and created a national distribution network for illegal booze during Prohibition. Gangsters, cops and even celebrities fell victim to the violence. Some politicians and prominent businessmen like Henry Ford's right-hand man, Harry Bennett, collaborated closely with the mafia, while others, such as popular radio host Gerald Buckley, fought back and lost their lives.

Napa Valley Case Files

9781467151849

$21.99

Well known for its picturesque setting, Napa Valley is also home to crimes perpetrated in the name of greed, love and rage.

Shocking incidents have rocked the small communities nestled among the vineyards, like that of greedy young Billy Duvall, who killed his parents as they slept, and Bob Edwards, who suffocated his beloved wife in a misguided attempt to keep a promise. Two victims of domestic violence came to very different ends--one murdered and the other offered a second chance at life after a jail sentence.

Join author and retired Napa Superior Court judge Raymond A. Guadagni as he offers his unique perspective on these notorious court cases and the criminal justice system.

Notorious Antebellum North Alabama

9781467141116

$21.99

Before the Civil War, North Alabama was infamous for lawlessness. The era saw courts filled with defendants who spanned the socioeconomic gamut--farmers, merchants and politicians. In 1811, John B. Haynes tore apart William Badger's house with his bare hands. Rodah Barnett ran a series of ill-reputed brothels in the early 1820s. In 1818, Rebecca Layman "accidentally" gave her husband sulfuric acid instead of rum. There is even a case of assault with frozen corn. Author John O'Brien relays these and more stories of the shady side of North Alabama during the antebellum period.

Notorious Kansas Bank Heists

9781626198357

$23.99

Bank robbers wreaked havoc in the Sunflower State. After robbing the Chautauqua State Bank in 1911, outlaw Elmer McCurdy was killed by lawmen but wasn't buried for sixty-six years. His afterlife can be described only as bizarre. Belle Starr's nephew Henry Starr claimed to have robbed twenty-one banks. The Dalton gang failed in their attempt to rob two banks simultaneously, but others accomplished this in Waterville in 1911. Nearly four thousand known vigilantes patrolled the Sunflower State during the 1920s and 1930s to combat the criminal menace. One group even had an airplane with a .50-caliber machine gun. Join author Rod Beemer for a wild ride into Kansas's tumultuous bank heist history.

Rio Grande Sniper Killings, The

9781467153430

$23.99

Untangle the complex conspiracy that led to the tragic deaths of Charlotte Kay Elliott and Kevin Edwin Frase on the banks of the Rio Grande. On the night of July 13, 1980, a hitman fired a high-powered rifle into the crowd at Pepe's On the River, an outdoor bar in Mission, Texas. He missed his target, a witness in the Loop 360 drug case, but killed two young bystanders. While state court prosecutions for capital murder inexplicably faltered, a federal court gave the assassin a life sentence for attempted murder of a grand jury witness. A member of the judge's staff who was present throughout the trial, author John W. Primomo revisits the dramatic twists and turns surrounding this murder on the Rio Grande.

Richmond in Ragtime

9781596294431

$24.99

The three years from 1909 to 1911 were busy ones in Richmond, what with the misadventures of Adon A. Yoder, a muckraking
pamphleteer who gets beaten up, sued and thrown in jail; the organizing of women like Lila Meade Valentine to fight for their right to vote; the art of sculptor Ferruccio Legnaioli; the novels of Ellen Glasgow, Mary Johnston and James Branch Cabell; increased restrictions against African Americans; a public spectacle surrounding the murder trial of Henry Clay Beattie Jr.; exotic flying machines and automobile endurance contests; and the recording of Polk Miller and his Old South Quartette. Join local author Harry Kollatz Jr. (True Richmond Stories) as he revives the city of a century ago for a tour of Richmond in ragtime.

Ohio's Black Hand Syndicate

9781467139762

$24.99

Organized crime was born in the back of a fruit store in Marion. Before America saw headlines about the Capone Mob, the Purple Gang and Murder Inc., the specter of the Black Hand terrorized nearly every major city.

Fears that the Mafia had reached our shores and infiltrated every Italian immigrant community kept police alert and citizens on edge. It was only a matter of time before these professed Robin Hoods formed a band. And when they did, the eyes of the world turned to Ohio, particularly when the local Black Hand outfit known as the Society of the Banana went on trial. Authors David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker unfold this first and nearly forgotten chapter on crime syndicate history.

Cover image for Ohio's Black Hand Syndicate, isbn: 9781467139762

The Murder of JoAnn Dewey in Vancouver, Washington

9781467138857

$23.99

Before midnight on March 19, 1950, several startled bystanders watched two men force a screaming young woman into a car and drive away from Saint Joseph's Hospital in Vancouver. One of them yelled out that she was his wife and was drunk. That was the last time anyone saw JoAnn Dewey alive. Her battered, naked body washed up on the banks of the Wind River seven days later. Suspicion quickly fell on two brothers, Turman and Utah Wilson, who fled town before police caught them in Sacramento. Their arrest and sensational trial captivated and divided the peaceful community. Author Pat Jollota uncovers the chilling details of this tragic story.

The Murder of JoAnn Dewey in Vancouver, Washington

The Rise & Fall of Nashville Lawyer Tommy Osborn

9781467138048

$23.99

Author William L. Tabac describes the extraordinary legal proceeding with the twists and turns of a modern television drama and the fall of a prominent attorney.

Tommy Osborn's star was rising. The young Nashville lawyer led a band of Tennessee reformers to victory in a landmark Supreme Court case. Hailed by Chief Justice Earl Warren as the most important of his career, Baker v. Carr's "one man, one vote" mandate revolutionized how Americans chose their representatives. Osborn was hired by Jimmy Hoffa to take on Bobby Kennedy for the fourth time. Unfortunately, the young lawyer met his match in Walter Sheridan, Kennedy's top aide and brilliant spymaster.

The Rise & Fall of Nashville Lawyer Tommy Osborn

The 1926 Orland Park Murder Mystery

9781467139915

$23.99

On the morning of April 14, 1926, the Inland Steel payroll delivery was hijacked in Indiana Harbor. Later that afternoon, Will County deputy sheriff and Mokena resident Walter Fisher died in a hail of gunfire just outside Orland Park. That night, the bullet-riddled body of Santo Calabrese turned up on a Broadview road. The exact sequence of events remains uncertain, but a jury was able to trace enough of the day's violent trajectory to send Daniel Hesly on the path to Alcatraz. Matthew Galik leaps into a drama of high-speed pursuit and mistaken identity that shocked the jaded sensibilities of Prohibition-era Chicago and plunged the town of Mokena into mourning.

The Cold Case Murder of Fred Wilkerson

9781467154048

$23.99

Nearly two decades after the fact, tragedy meets justice. One day in 1987, Fred Wilkerson up and vanished in Troup County, Georgia. It was a mystery beset with suspicious circumstances, but the evidence never led anywhere, and the case went cold, Wilkerson's whereabouts unknown. That is, until a remarkable set of circumstances allowed author and investigator Clay Bryant to breathe life back into the case nearly two decades later. Diving into what had previously been overlooked, Bryant was able to locate and recover Wilkerson's remains and successfully prosecute the killer, who'd crafted a calculating plot to take everything the victim had and murder him in order to keep it. The story concludes with the Wilkerson Family finally getting closure and the killer getting sentenced to life in prison. Join Byrant as he unravels this West Georgia cold case.

Montana's Dimple Knees Sex Scandal

9781467139182

$21.99

Beverly Snodgrass made a lot of poor choices. Once a prostitute in the old mining town of Butte, she later became a madam running two of the most popular brothels. She fell deeply in love with a crooked politician, whom she nicknamed Dimple Knees. When corrupt cops in uniform came to her businesses, it usually wasn't to serve and protect but rather to collect payoffs. Butte is sometimes described as a town that drinks her liquor straight, but things never were the same after Beverly told her story to a newspaper reporter. That reporter, John Kuglin, recounts the scandal that rocked The Richest Hill on Earth and for a time made Dimple Knees the most famous name in Montana.

Cover image for Montana's Dimple Knees Sex Scandal, isbn: 9781467139182

Missouri's Murderous Matrons

9781467140720

$21.99

At the turn of the twentieth century, people in Missouri experienced unexpected and horrible deaths due to arsenic. Two different women in two different areas of Missouri, and for two different reasons, used arsenic as a means to get what they wanted. Emma Heppermann, a black widow killer, craved money. Bertha Gifford, an angel of mercy, took sick people into her home and nursed them to death. Follow the trails of these women who murdered for decades before being tried and convicted. From Wentzville to Steelville, Emma left a trail of bodies. And Bertha is suspected of killing almost 10 percent of the population of the little town of Catawissa. Authors Victoria Cosner and Lorelei Shannon offer the gruesome history of Missouri's murderous matrons.

Colorado's Carlino Brothers

9781467143271

$21.99

From 1922 to 1931, Pete and Sam Carlino controlled the flow of Prohibition alcohol from southern Colorado to Denver before their empire suffered a gruesome, bloody demise. The brothers battled their own kin in the Danna family to secure southern Colorado's bootleg liquor territory. Dozens perished in their rise to power. Eventually, mafia boss Nicola Gentile intervened to settle a dispute involving the brothers' associates. Pete Carlino's grandson, author Sam Carlino, uncovers intimate photos and new revelations, including confirmation that Pete Carlino met with Salvatore Maranzano in New York and that the death of both men on September 10, 1931, may not have been a coincidence.

Trial and Error:

9781596290358

$24.99

The city of Georgetown, South Carolina, is situated along the Atlantic coast where the Sampit River feeds into Winyah Bay. The early wealth of the area through 1865 was derived from an agricultural economy built on the backs of slave labor. This economy and the institution of slavery collapsed with the emancipation of the black population after the Civil War. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, however, Georgetown remained marred with inequalities between blacks and whites despite efforts to achieve a racial and cultural balance.

In Trial and Error, Tom Rubillo explores the volatile case of John Brownfield--a black man tried for shooting a white policeman in the 1900s--and the Jim Crow mentality that was imbedded in the turn-of-the-century South. The result is a stirring narrative that examines the history of race relations in Georgetown, the trial of John Brownfield and the impact of the trial through the twentieth century to the present day. With meticulous research and engaging prose, Rubillo reconstructs the case and trial that became a watershed for race relations in Georgetown. Trial and Error is an essential volume in the history of Georgetown, the South Carolina Lowcountry and indeed the South as a whole.

Most Wanted in Brunswick County

9781467154222

$23.99

"A roving, shiftless fellow…" That's how the newspapers described Jesse C. Walker, who in 1908 was served with an arrest warrant by Brunswick County sheriff Jackson Stanland, with tragic results. Little did Walker know that he was about to set off on twenty-five years of headline-grabbing exploits. Two murders, two wives, three prison escapes, and thousands of miles of travel across eight states are only the surface of the adventures of this North Carolina desperado. Local author Mark W. Koenig relates the untold saga of a man who rocketed to notoriety in the first years of the twentieth century and found atonement decades later.

Murder in Visalia

9781625859808

$21.99

One October morning in 1979, a stamp and coin dealer was gunned down in his Visalia shop. There were no witnesses. Persistent police efforts across jurisdictional lines connected it to another death. Two months earlier, the body of a Fresno coin dealer was found locked in the trunk of his car. The trail of evidence led to a most unlikely suspect. Author Ronn M. Couillard, retired judge and former Visalia district attorney, lays out the facts in this compelling case from the investigation to the court proceedings and the surprise that almost derailed the conviction.

FBI Case Files Michigan

9781467148900

$23.99

The stories in FBI Case Files Michigan are good enough to have been ripped straight from the headlines--and many were!

Across the Mitten and through the Upper Peninsula, the Wolverine State has witnessed some thrilling and historic federal cases. In Detroit, FBI agents took point investigating the kidnapping (and safe return) of a GM executive's son and in a manhunt for an armed killer in the north woods near Escanaba. The Bureau was called in to discover who poisoned patients at the Ann Arbor Veterans Hospital and for a grisly double homicide solved by a persistent and determined fingerprint examiner. Michigan agents spearheaded the first ever investigation and prosecution of an internet threat, and legendary football coach Bo Schembechler inspired an epic international undercover operation targeting the illegal distribution of steroids. Local agents also helped identify the notorious Unabomber and played a hand in the bizarre fall of a Michigan militia movement founder.

Retired Special Agent Greg Stejskal recalls these stories and others from more than thirty years as a G-man in Michigan.

Murder & Mayhem in Boise

9781467151696

$23.99

Explore Boise's Bloody History!

Shortly after the nearby discovery of gold in 1862, outlaws and ruffians from all over began to congregate in newly platted Boise City. Saloon owner-turned-sheriff David Updyke's criminal empire met a violent end. One of the city's only recorded pistol duels settled a dispute between a covetous husband and the lover of a young damsel--both happened to be lawyers. What could be called the area's first mass shooting occurred when an Alaskan gold miner sought revenge against the young woman who stood him up. A local postmaster found himself in a notorious case of a love triangle gone wrong, falling prey to foul play at the hands of his wife and her new beau. Authors Mark Iverson and Jeff Wade go beyond the traditional histories to gain an appreciation for the lives often willfully removed from history's pages and thus forgotten.

Minnesota Mayhem

9781609495978

$23.99

Turn back the yellowing pages of Minnesota's past and explore the best of the state's worst moments, as chronicled in the Minneapolis Tribune and its successor newspapers. These stories and photos, culled from the Star Tribune's microfilm archive by author Ben Welter, range from the catastrophic to the merely curious. From a fire that destroyed the State Capitol in 1881, to a wordless fistfight that broke out on a Minneapolis street in 1898, a flu outbreak that killed more than 10,000 Minnesotans in 1918 and the arrest of Frank Lloyd Wright at a Lake Minnetonka cottage in 1926.

The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia

9781467135658

$21.99

In 1932, a black man was found hanging on Rattlesnake Mountain in Fauquier County. A mob set fire to his body. Officials identified the remains as Shedrick Thompson, wanted for the abduction and rape of a local white woman. Some claimed Thompson killed himself--the final act of a desperate fugitive. But residents knew better, calling the tragedy a lynching--the last one known in Virginia. Author Jim Hall takes an in-depth look at the events to expose a complex and disturbing chapter in Virginia history.