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In the summer of 1957, a young Holmes County farmer was gunned down in cold blood. There was little to distinguish this slaying from hundreds of others throughout the United States that year except for one detail: Paul Coblentz was Amish. A committed pacifist, Coblentz would not raise a hand against his killers. As sensational crimes often do, the “Amish murder” opened a window into the private lives of the young man, his family and his community—a community that in some respects remains as enigmatic today as it was more than half a century ago. Authors of Wicked Columbus, Ohio’s Black Hand Syndicate and others, David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker unravel the intricacies surrounding one of Ohio’s most intriguing murder cases.

Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933, and Steubenville hoped that its reputation as "Little Chicago" would end with it. That hope was short-lived when, eight weeks later, the Phantom Killer made his midnight debut. Under the glow of a full moon, in the mill yards of Steubenville's Wheeling Steel Plant, the killer ambushed a rail worker, shooting him five times. The Steubenville Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and Wheeling Steel Mill Police joined forces in the New Year to find the Phantom before he took another victim. The strongest of millworkers on the midnight shift began to arm themselves, wondering who would be next. As the investigation wore on, Steubenville was once again thrust into the national spotlight as the Phantom's reign of terror continued. Local historian Susan M. Guy delves into one of the city's most infamous crimes.