Murder Mayhem In The Finger Lakes

The pristine waters of the Finger Lakes inspire tranquility, but the region has not been spared a history of high-profile murders. George Chapman's execution for killing a hostler in a drunken rage drew one of the largest crowds in Seneca County's history. Charles Sprague was the only person from Yates County to be executed and the last person electrocuted at Auburn Prison after shooting a neighbor in a dispute over potatoes. A plea of insanity did not save James Williams from the electric chair after murdering an elderly man and attempting to rape a teenage girl. In the Feedbag Murder, the body of a missing man was found in a canal, and his friend was acquitted of the murder despite confessing to the crime years later. Author R. Marcin explores the gruesome history of homicide in the Finger Lakes.

Lake Erie is known for its beauty and tranquility, but a dark, deadly undercurrent lurks beneath its surface. Bordering four states and two countries, the inland ocean offers the perfect getaway for criminals of all kinds. The bandits who held up the Ashtabula National Marine Bank as well as Ontario's most elusive con man used the lake to avoid capture. Pirate Joseph Kerwin relied on his knowledge of the shipping industry to evade the law. Narene Mozee's murderer quietly slipped away on a luxury cruise ship after completing his heinous deed, and when a lighthouse keeper found a corpse floating in the shallows near his post, all signs pointed to the killer fleeing by boat. Local author Wendy Koile wades into the depths of this great but deadly lake.

The author of Michigan's Haunted Lighthouses shares tales of disaster and misfortune on the Great Lakes. Losing one's life while tending to a Great Lakes lighthouse sadly wasn't such an unusual occurrence. Death by murder, suicide or other tragic causes--while rare--were not unheard of. Two keepers on Lake Superior's Grand Island disappeared one early summer day in 1908, their decomposed remains found weeks later. A newly hired and some say depressed keeper on Pilot Island in Wisconsin's Door County slit his own throat after a consultation with a local butcher about the location of the jugular vein. A smallpox outbreak in the late 1890s led to the tragic death of a lighthouse hired hand on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. Join author Dianna Stampfler as she uncovers the facts (and debunks some fiction) behind some of the Great Lakes' darkest lighthouse tales.

Amanda Bell Brown knows that life as a forensic psychologist isn't quite as cool as it looks on primetime TV. But when she turns 35 with no husband or baby on the horizon, she decides she has to get out and paint the town - in her drop-dead red birthday dress. Instead, she finds herself at the scene of a crime - and she may just know who the killer is. Murder, mayhem and a fine man are all wreaking havoc on Amanda's birthday, but will her newfound love of sleuthing leave her safe enough to see past 35?

"Get ready to discover the rich history of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. From its earliest days, it has evoked words of love, beauty, mystery, and legend. Drawing on oral histories, newspapers, census data, archives, and libraries, Russell M. Magnaghi has written the seminal history of a very 'special place' as seen through the eyes of the men and women who have lived here- the famous and not so famous. For the first time in over a century, a complete history of the U. P.- from prehistoric origins to the present- is available. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan: A History is an extraordinary book celebrating this unique sense of place."--Back cover.

The untold story of the worst disaster on the Great Lakes in U.S. History. On July 24th, 1915, Chicago commuters were horrified as they watched the SS Eastland, a tourism boat taking passengers across Lake Michigan, flip over while tied to the dock and drown 835 passengers, including 21 entire families. Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie had bought into the ship business in the Midwest, creating a boom market and a demand for ships that were bigger, longer, faster. The pressure-filled and greedy climate that resulted would be directly responsible for the Eastland disaster and others. As dramatic as the disaster was, the subsequent trial was even more so. The public demanded justice. When the immigrant engineer who was being scapegoated for the accident was left out to dry by the ship’s owners, penniless and down-on-his-luck Clarence Darrow decided to take his case. The defense he mounted, which he was too ashamed to even mention in his memoirs, would be even more shocking.

Temperance workers had their work cut out for them in the Upper Peninsula. It was a wild and woolly place where moonshiners, bootleggers and rumrunners thrived. Al Capone and the Purple Gang came north to keep Canadian whiskey passing through Sault Ste. Marie to Chicago and Detroit. Federal enforcement agent John Fillion double-crossed both his office and the bootleggers. The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island survived due to gambling and fine Canadian whiskey brought in by rumrunners, sometimes assisted by the Coast Guard. Author Russell M. Magnaghi dives into the raucous history of Yooper Prohibition.

In addition to port security, ship inspection and safety, law enforcement, and search and rescue, the U.S. Coast Guard assumes an important role in national defense at home and abroad. To that end, the Coast Guard has carried out separate and coordinated missions with other armed forces from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, and North Polar region. This chronicle of the Coast Guard's contributions to national defense examines participation in World War I, World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, and the War on Terror. Among the topics explored are defense threats, drug trafficking, and border security, as well as Coast Guard personnel, training, leadership, and assets.