The History Press

Did the phrase “That’s what I was wondering…” solve a murder?

In the morning hours of July 16, 1936, Helen Clevenger’s uncle discovered her bloodied body crumpled on the floor of her small room in Asheville’s grand Battery Park Hotel. She had been shot through the chest. Buncombe County Sheriff Laurence Brown, up for reelection, desperately searched for the teenager’s killer as the public clamored for answers. Though witnesses reported seeing a white man leave the scene, Brown’s focus turned instead to the hotel’s Black employees and on August 9 he arrested bell hop Martin Moore. After a frenzied four-day trial that captured the nation’s attention, Moore was convicted of Helen’s murder on August 22. Though Moore confessed to Sherriff Brown, doubt of his guilt lingers and many Southerners feared that justice had not, in fact, been served.

Author Anne Chesky Smith weaves together varying accounts of the murder and investigation to expose a complex and disturbing chapter in Asheville’s history.

South Dakota's Mathis Family Murders brought death and deception to the heartland.

It was perhaps the most infamous murder case in state history. Ladonna Mathis was shot twice in the head at point-blank range inside the family's metal shed serving as their makeshift home. Two of her three children, ages 2 and 4, were also shot in the head. The brutality of the killings shocked the state and set off a frenzy of law enforcement activity. Despite its intensity, the investigation never found the murderer or the murder weapon. Though charged with the crime, the husband was acquitted, leaving the door open for endless speculation about what really occurred on that late summer morning of Sept. 8, 1981.

With renewed insight from those involved, veteran South Dakota journalist Noel Hamiel explores this cold case of murder and mystery that still haunts the Mount Rushmore state.

Haunting cold cases from the Heart of It All

Northern Ohio is best known for its stunning lake views and bustling cities, but even a region as gorgeous and prosperous as this has seen its measure of tragedy. Judy Martins was a beautiful Kent State University coed who disappeared after a dorm party. Frank Noch was a mathematical genius and valuable employee at the General Motors plant in Cleveland. Someone broke into his home and killed him. Hinckley Police Chief Mel Wiley had a secret. Maybe that is why he disappeared. DNA helped Sandusky Police identify a Jane Doe forty-three years to the day she washed up on the shores of Lake Erie. Now, detectives are hoping to find out who put Patricia Greenwood in the water and why.

Award-winning author Jane Ann Turzillo unfolds these unsolved cases and eight more from the north of the Buckey State.

Investigate the mysteries surrounding the brutal murder of Wauwatos's Arthur "Buddy'? Schumacher Jr. A must-read for fans of true crime and Wisconsin history enthusiasts.

In 1925, the peaceful Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosafound itself involved in mystery and horror. Eight-year-old Arthur ""Buddy"" Schumacher Jr. was last seen by three of his friends after they hopped off a freight train they'd jumped to get a ride to a nearby swimming hole.

For seven weeks, the community and state searched desperately to find the boy until his body was found just a mile from his house with his clothing torn and a handkerchief shoved down his throat. The police pursued several promising leads, but to no avail.

In this engaging mystery, author Paul Hoffman walks us back to the scene of the crime and through the reasons it was never solved.

In the summer of 1967, 19 year old Brenda Joyce Holland disappeared.

A mountain girl who had come to Manteo to work on The Lost Colony, Brenda’s body was found three days later, floating in the Sound. This riveting narrative, built on unique access to state investigative files and multiple interviews with insiders, searches for the truth of the unsolved murder. This island odyssey of discovery includes séances, a suicide, and a supposed shallow grave.

Journalist John Railey cuts through the myths and misdirections to finally arrive at the long-hidden truth of what happened to Brenda Holland that summer on Roanoke Island.

They used arsenic to obtain chemical divorces and strychnine to settle scores. They bludgeoned husbands to make way for lovers. They flattened love triangles with blunt objects. They murdered for money, for revenge, for pleasure.

Meet the heiress who just could not take "no" for an answer from her mechanic lover; meet the two nursing home workers whose deadly game ended after the murders of six residents; meet the three sirens who lured a wealthy banker to the strip poker game of death. And many, many other Michigan mistresses of mayhem in this collection of true crime tales.

Death on the Turnpike

Discover the bloody story of John Wesley Wable's 1950s killing spree that rocked Western Pennsylvania, and left truckers and drivers alike frightened of the turnpike. After a series of murdered truck drivers and a high-speed interstate chase, Wable's gruesome criminal story also involves a thrilling court case and unresolved mysteries to do this day.

Author Richard Gazarik details the incredible true crime narratives of the man dubbed the "Pennsylvania Turnpike Phantom Killer."

Local historians Geoffrey Fleming and Amy Folk uncover this gruesome 19th-century story of revenge and murder on Long Island.

In the mid-19th century, James Wickham was a wealthy farmer with a large estate in Cutchogue, Long Island. His extensive property included a mansion and eighty acres of farmland that were maintained by a staff of servants. In 1854, Wickham got into an argument with one of his workers, Nicholas Behan, after Behan harassed another employee who refused to marry him.

Several days after Behan's dismissal, he crept back into the house in the dead of night. With an axe, he butchered Wickham and his wife, Frances, and fled to a nearby swamp. Behan was captured, tried, convicted and, on December 15, became one of the last people to be hanged in Suffolk County.

Enduring mysteries from the Hoosier State

Crime and tragedy have all too often disturbed the peace and stained the memory of Indiana's bucolic countryside. The small town of Dupont was thrust into the nation's spotlight in 1947 after a series of suspicious deaths were blamed on a well-known local housekeeper--suspected serial killer Lottie "Tot'? Lockman. On a fall day in 1976, a Benton County farmer found an unusual package in his cornfield--a corpse. Dubbed "The Box Lady of Benton County,'? her identity remains a mystery. On September 13, 1989, Joseph Bova was killed outside of his Merrillville home when a pipe bomb rigged to his truck's ignition exploded. With no witnesses, suspects, or motive, his case remains unsolved.

Author Autumn Bones explores some of Indiana's least-known unsolved cases.

Join author & reporter Kelly Sullivan Pezza as she investigates and recounts the murder of 5-year old Maggie Sheffield.

On a summer day in 1893, little Maggie Sheffield was murdered. Maggie's own father did the unthinkable against a backdrop of laughter and barrel organ music at Rocky Point Amusement Park. The tragedy aroused a strange reaction from the peaceable community of Warwick, Rhode Island. Many seemed to be more concerned for the murderer, Frank Sheffield, than for his young victim. Frank was rumored to be insane or addicted to drugs, and after a trial, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The murder did not tarnish Rocky Point's reputation as a premier destination, and the park operated until 1995. Investigating official records and newspaper archives, author Kelly Sullivan Pezza uncovers the facts and oddities behind a grim crime in Rhode Island's summer paradise.

Haunting mysteries from America's Heartland

Indiana rightly prides itself as a safe place to live. Nevertheless, the Hoosier State has experienced its share of unexplained deaths and unsolved disappearances. The state's oldest missing child case, the disappearance of four-year-old Richmond Byers from Seelyville in 1904, may never be solved. The 1998 attempted bombing of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse remains one of the only unsolved instances of domestic terrorism in the United States. The identities of Bedford's so-called Carnival Babies will likely forever be unknown. The 1929 murder of Elizabeth Miller tragic death may have been the result of the community's belief that she was a witch, but the true culprit has never been brought to light.

Author of Unsolved IndianaAutumn Bones explores some of Indiana's least known unsolved mysteries.

Author Karen Dybis follows the twists and turns of a shocking story, revealing the truth of Detroit's own Hex Woman.

Detroit was full of stark contrasts in 1931. Political scandals, rumrunners and mobs lurked in the shadows of the city's soaring architecture and industrious population. As the Great Depression began to take hold, tensions grew, spilling over into the investigation of a mysterious murder at the boardinghouse of Hungarian immigrant Rose Veres. Amid accusations of witchcraft, Rose and her son Bill were convicted of the brutal killing and suspected in a dozen more. Their cries of innocence went unheeded - until one lawyer, determined to seek justice, took on the case.

Uncover the details of the most murderous times in Birmingham Alabama's history.

A reign of terror swept the streets of Birmingham in the 1920s. Criminals armed with small axes attacked immigrant merchants and interracial couples, leaving dozens dead or injured over the course of four years. Desperate for answers, police accepted clues from a Ouija board, while citizens clamored for gun permits for protection. The city's Italian immigrants formed their own association as protection against the Black Hand, an organized band of brutal criminals. Eventually, the police turned to a dangerous and untested truth serum to elicit confessions. Four black men and a teenage girl were charged and tried, while copycat killers emerged from the woodwork. Journalist Jeremy Gray tackles one of the most curious and violent cases in Magic City history.

On February 5th, 1946, the Ferguson brothers were concluding a night out celebrating Charles Ferguson's reenlistment in the Army...

Charles, wearing his military uniform, walked with his brothers Alphonso, Joseph, and Richard towards the Freeport Bus Terminal to go home. A provisional Freeport police officer named Joseph Romeika stopped the brothers over a disorderly conduct complaint. Words were exchanged, and Officer Romeika killed Charles, Alphonso and shot Joseph within minutes of the initial stop. Following the unarmed shooting, Romeikia was acquitted despite changing stories of eyewitnesses.

Discover how the shooting became a catalyst for civil rights efforts and immortalized in a Woody Guthrie protest song.

Documented in film, crime T.V. shows and now captured in this book; read about Larry Gene Bell and his reign of terror in South Carolina.

Former South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) forensic photographer Lieutenant Rita Y. Shuler leads us through the twenty-eight days of terror and shocking events of one of the most notorious double murders and manhunts in South Carolina history. Shuler shares her own personal interactions with some of the key players in this famous manhunt and investigation. Also included are Bell's chilling calls from area phone booths to the Smith family, along with his disconcerting interviews and bizarre actions in the courtroom, which show the dark, evil and criminal mind of this horrific killer. This case has been featured on the Discovery Channel's FBI Files, episode ""Cat and Mouse,"" and in the CBS movie Nightmare in Columbia County, which can still be seen on Lifetime TV. It currently runs as the episode ""Last Will"" on Court TV's Forensic Files.

With an eye for bizarre, macabre detail, Keven McQueen tracks down seventeen true crimes and unsolved mysteries in this collection of historic Hoosier homicides.

This grim collection of tales includes unimaginable incidents like the Indianapolis businessman whose car contained suspicious hams and the man who handed his new bride a drink of carbolic acid. It also reveals the tragedy of Gary's beautiful Arlene Draves, killed by her football player boyfriend, as well as a surprisingly comic courtroom revelation by Hammond's Hazel McNally that cleared her of all charges.

Author Keven McQueen is an instructor in the Department of English at Eastern Kentucky University. He is the author of twelve books on biography, history, folklore, ghost lore, natural disasters and historical true crime.

An Agatha Nominee for Best Non-Fiction

On a bitter November night in 1945, a widow shot her young boarder, a WWII veteran, and left him to die on the floor of his room.

Helen Clark tossed the gun under the neighbor’s porch and then took a taxi to join her teen daughters at a movie in Bristol. When the body was found, after several conflicting statements, she settled on the claim that he shot himself–four times, twice in the back. The Commonwealth of Virginia called it murder in a jealous rage. The trial enthralled the nation.

Local author Greg Lilly uses newspaper coverage of the murder, the investigation and the trial to reveal the facts of the Abingdon boardinghouse murder.

Louisville has a long history of violence and murder. Editor Godfrey Pope shot Leonard Bliss over a political joke. A hanged man was allegedly revived with electricity. Josephine Lawrence was a sex worker bent on revenge with unfortunate bad aim. Two locals engaged in a feud that resulted in one man's death and the other's marriage to the dead man's widow. A United States president had a direct descendant arrested for committing a murder near the city. Author Keven McQueen details twenty-four little known homicides that rocked the city from the 1840s to the 1920s.

Discover the dark corners of Norton, Ohio, history

For such a small city, Norton's past is rife with bloody deeds, tragic accidents, and destructive disasters. This community on the edge of Akron had its share of train wrecks, plane crashes, and devastating fires, but other events were decidedly more sinister in nature. In 1931, a young robber allowed his twelve-year-old brother to ride along on a bank heist--to little brother's great delight. A labor dispute in 1950 resulted in two bombings of a local farm in a single year. In the 1970s and 80s, serial killers Robert Buell and Edward Wayne Edwards left their evil mark on the city. Digging through two centuries of news coverage, local author Lisa Merrick uncovers Norton's most loathsome crimes and heartbreaking calamities.

Death & Destruction in the Queen City

Cincinnati's history is rife with reprehensible crimes and great tragedies. In 1874, a brutal murder caught the attention of a strange and notorious journalist who turned the crime into a legend. In the 1930s, Cincinnati resident Anna Marie Hahn became Ohio's first female serial killer and the first woman executed in its electric chair--but she isn't the only serial killer to have darkened the dangerous streets of the city. Murderers are not the only monsters. Microbes did the dirty work in 1849 and 1919, and Mother Nature herself turned killer in 1937 when the Ohio River lethally overflowed its banks.

Explore stories of murder and catastrophe as author and history lecturer Roy Heizer leads this dark journey into the sinister side of Cincinnati.