American Biographies - History Books

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.

Ghost stories from the Hoosier State have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!/

em>Welcome to the spooky streets of Bloomington, Indiana!/em>

Stay Alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know that there are haunted paintings on the walls at Indiana University's Memorial Union? Or that a ghostly woman in black follows people around downtown? Can you believe that two children haunt one of the most beautiful houses in town?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Bloomington forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

Defined by a tangled web of deception for more than a century, Northwest Indiana's political culture involved secret handshakes, tapped phone calls, backroom deals and murder.

Found submerged in his car with a rock on the gas pedal, city official Babe Lopez's execution-style murder rocked East Chicago. Shot and killed at a political fundraiser, power broker Jay Given's murder occurred while four hundred guests mingled in a neighboring room. Former Lake Station mayor Keith Soderquist stole thousands of dollars from his reelection campaign and the city's food pantry account to gamble at local casinos. Author Jerry Davich explores the hidden political scandals and highly publicized court cases of public servants once sworn to serve and protect.

Explore the notorious and unusual side of Muncie's history.

Muncie is the classic small American city. But for much of the past two centuries, the city fell victim to murder, corruption and the bizarre. Mayor Rollin Bunch went to prison for mail fraud, while his police commissioner faced a murder rap. Viola Babe Swartz ran a brothel out of a truck stop that was raided by police at least a dozen times but ran for sheriff in the 1974 primary election. June Holland, of the locally famous Holland triplets, killed her neighbor for refusing to sell her house.

Not short on ambition, he volunteered to join a new breed of combatant: the fighter pilot. Dogfighting in the skies over France during World War I, Baer earned a giant reputation as the first-ever American to shoot down an enemy plane and the first to earn the title of "combat ace" for earning five victories--before being shot down himself. Author Tony Garel-Frantzen celebrates the 100th anniversary of Baer's aerial heroics with rarely seen images, a previously unpublished POW letter from Baer himself and a look at the restless raptor's life of roaming.

May Wright Sewall struggled to uplift womankind and unflinchingly called for peace in a world sleepwalking toward conflict. In the guise of Abe Martin, Kin Hubbard graced the Indianapolis News's back page for twenty-six years with folksy humor. Combat photographer John A. Bushemi bravely faced the terrors of war and perished capturing its violence. Audacious automotive pioneer Carl G. Fisher went to any length to promote himself, even flying a car via a hot-air balloon. Drawing on more than thirty years of experience, author Ray E. Boomhower, the dean of Hoosier biographers, brings together forty of the most notable figures from the nineteenth state.

Join local historian Tim Crumrin as he reveals the blackguards, rogues and swindlers of Terre Haute's rough and rowdy past.

For more than a century, Terre Haute earned its reputation as a sin city. One of the most notorious red-light districts in the Midwest, the West End, housed sixty brothels and nearly one thousand prostitutes at its height in the 1920s. Across this sordid scene strode the stylish and indomitable Edith Brown, the city's most famous madam. When Prohibition made the city bootlegger central, violence erupted as rival gangs vied for turf. Gamblers flooded in from all corners of the country, making Terre Haute's Wire Room second only to Las Vegas. Through it all, corrupt politicians like Mayor Donn Roberts profited handsomely from grift and deception.

Wolf and Dessauer documents the rich and interesting history of this chain of department stores.

Remember how it used to be at W&D? From its humble beginnings as a dry goods store in 1896, Wolf and Dessauer grew to provide customers with revolutionary services and previously unheard of amenities: personal shoppers, in-store models, escalators, an open-air French café and the magical Christmas WanDerland--home to Santa and his precious elf, Wee Willie WanD. Join Jim and Kathie Barron on this glorious return to one of the most progressive department stores in history. Relax in the tearoom with one of Edith Goodyear's California Dream Bars, don elegant couture from around the world and luxuriate in this remembrance of a beloved Fort Wayne icon.

In these pages, rediscover the legend of Diana of the Dunes...and learn the truth.

In the fall of 1915, Alice Gray traded her life in Chicago for a solitary journey in the remote sand hills of northwest Indiana along Lake Michigan. Living in a fisherman's shack, she measured herself against nature rather than society's rigid conventions. Her audacity so bewitched reporters and a curious public that she became a legend in her own time--she became ""Diana of the Dunes."" Nearly a century later, the story is still a popular folktale, but questions remain. Who was Alice Gray? Why did this Phi Beta Kappa scholar leave Chicago? What happened to her soul mate, Paul Wilson? In this first-ever book about Diana of the Dunes, the mystery of Alice Gray is revealed by those who knew her and through new research. Excerpts from her dunes diary are published here for the first time since 1918. In these pages, rediscover the legend of Diana of the Dunes...and learn the truth.

Every city has its secrets and Columbus, Indiana is no exception. Sit back and enjoy the murder and mayhem!

Dubbed the Athens of the Prairie for its array of stunning modern architecture and abundance of public art, Columbus still endured its share of unsavory citizens, crime-ridden neighborhoods and tales of woe. Many residents avoided the infamous slums of Smoky Row and Death Valley, while others gave in to the allure of Lillian ""Todie"" Tull's famed house of ill repute on North Jackson Street. Two different father-and-son hoodlum partnerships, the McKinneys and the Bells, terrorized the area in the 1800s. And a brutal fistfight between a newspaper editor and the mayor sparked a scandal in 1877.

Join author, journalist, and historian Paul J. Hoffman as he takes you on a wild ride through the salacious side of Columbus. A must-read for fans of true crime and Indiana history.

Muncie epitomizes the small-town America of squeaky-clean 1950s sitcoms, but its wholesome veneer conceals a violent past. Public scandals and personal tragedy dogged the long, notorious life of Dr. Jules LaDuron.

Baseball ace Obie McCracken met a tragic and violent end after joining the police force. A mother's love could not stop James Hedges from committing murder. The paranoid delusions of Leonard Redden hounded him until one day he carried a shotgun into a quiet classroom. And newsman George Dale's showdown with the Klan prepared him for the political fight of his life. Douglas Walker and Keith Roysdon, authors of Wicked Muncie, introduce a new cast of characters from the city's notorious past.

Scientists who lived, worked, or were educated in the Hoosier State have made fundamental contributions to astronomy, biology, chemistry, and physics. Astronomer Vesto Slipher discovered that almost all the galaxies were moving away from our own Milky Way Galaxy. Biologist Alfred Kinsey was a pioneer in the field of human sexuality. Chemist Harold Urey discovered deuterium and worked on the Manhattan Project. And physicist Edward Purcell discovered nuclear magnetic resonance, the basis for MRI, one of the most significant medical advances in a century. Scientists with Indiana connections have also been awarded a dozen Nobel prizes.

Hoosier science teacher Duane S. Nickell offers a glimpse into the lives of seventeen scientific heroes from Indiana.

With other dedicated leaders through a time of rapid growth in the mid-20th century, Robert Hartman and Dale Graham set the standard to make Carmel High School a respected rival in academic, sports, and extracurricular competitions. Beautiful art galleries, anchored by the Evan Lurie Building, dot the rejuvenated downtown Arts & Design District where Colonel Trester's blacksmith shop and O.W. Nutt's hardware store once stood. A far cry from tented summer church revivals, world-class musicians and performers now take the stage of the Palladium, an acoustically perfect and visually magnificent performing arts center. Visionary mayor James Brainard seeks a sixth term and hopes to continue on the same path of growth and renewal. The city has been voted one of America's best places to live, and Carmel's varied and colorful residents have been proving this since the 1830s.

From the scheming wife who wanted her dull husband out of the way to make room for a young love affair and the husband who stomped his wife to death because she wouldn't stop singing an irritating song, to the man who murdered an entire family to pay off some farming equipment and the case of a mistaken-identity murder, author Keven McQueen relates the sinister (or not so) motives and gruesome details of nine murders that occurred in southern Indiana between 1880 and 1912. With a detailed, if macabre, look at each story as well as the ambiguities surrounding the criminals and punishments, McQueen illuminates the darker side of Hoosier history.