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Author Tobin T. Buhk recounts the thrilling tales of Detroit's most violent, clever and misunderstood female criminals.

"Queen of the Underworld" Sophie Lyons faced off with detective Teresa Lewis in court three times, and twice in the street, rendering both women battered and bloodied. Nellie Pope goaded her lover to axe her husband in what the press called "one of the most atrocious, cold-blooded, and deliberately-planned murders" in city history. Mother Elinor L. Mason, "High Priestess of the Flying Roller Colony," was no holy roller but a criminal chameleon who changed personas as easily as some people change clothes. And a feud between Delray madams Julia Toth and Annie Smith exposed widespread graft in the thriving red-light industry and led to one of the worst police scandals in Motor City history. These stories and more await in this deliciously entertaining collection.

Award-winning crime writer Jane Ann Turzillo recounts the stories of Ohio's most notorious vixens, viragoes and villainesses.

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.

A young man charged with murder is marched through the streets of Winston and Salem and hanged on the outskirts of town...
?A tragic event carries several citizens into a raging river and to their deaths...
?An eccentric with a fascination for chemicals blows himself up at the Salem Hotel...

Through the use of primary documents, these and other fascinating stories of Winston and Salem's past are vividly brought to life. Jennifer Bean Bower, associate curator of photographic collections at Old Salem Museums & Gardens, has spent many years collecting accounts of the extraordinary historic events that have occurred in her hometown of Winston-Salem. Winston & Salem: Tales of Murder, Mystery and Mayhem covers 118 years of history and introduces readers to real-life characters and stories not soon to be forgotten.

In 1897, the Wisconsin state legislature approved the creation of the Wisconsin State Reformatory on a 200-acre site between Green Bay and De Pere. It was born during a period of profound change when liberal reformers began to question the traditional punitive approach employed in American prisons. The result was a shift from a punishment-based system to one that favored progressive rehabilitation within the framework of the traditional prison model. Elmira, New York, may have served as the reformatory model, but no other state embraced the idea more fully than Wisconsin. For more than 50 years, the Wisconsin State Reformatory remained faithful to the reform mission, adapting to changes when necessary but always maintaining a strong link to its past.