Books for the Armchair Detective in Your Life

Name: Gangs of St. Louis
Brand: Daniel Waugh
SKU: 9781596299054
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Inside some of the mildest people we know is a penchant for reading dark stories of small-town murders, or chilling serial killers. Why not arm the armchair detective in your life with true crime books from every dark corner of the American dream? Here are fascinating stories of unsolved cases, organized crime, historical murders, detective memoirs, epic manhunts, and everyday small-town murder. For the true crime fan in your life, we offer these gripping cases served hot, cold, strange, and straight – so go ahead, throw the book at them!

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Lost Missouri Treasure

Missouri State Penitentiary

$24.99

Slaying in South St. Louis

$21.99

Wicked Branson

$21.99

St. Louis Gambling Kingpins

$24.99

Murder & Mayhem Jefferson City

$23.99

Wicked St. Louis

$21.99

Prohibition in Kansas City, Missouri

$21.99

Gangster Queen Bonnie Parker and Other Murderous Women of Missouri

$24.99

Missouri's Murderous Matrons

$21.99

Gangs of St. Louis

9781596299054

$24.99

St. Louis was a city under siege during Prohibition. Seven different criminal gangs violently vied for control of the town's illegal enterprises. Although their names (the Green Ones, the Pillow Gang, the Russo Gang, Egan's Rats, the Hogan Gang, the Cuckoo Gang and the Shelton Gang) are familiar to many, their exploits have remained largely undocumented until now. Learn how an awkward gunshot wound gave the Pillow Gang its name and why Willie Russo's bizarre midnight interview with a reporter from the St. Louis Star involved an automatic pistol and a floating hunk of cheese. From daring bank robberies to cold-blooded betrayals, Gangs of St. Louis chronicles a fierce yet juicy slice of the Gateway City's history that rivaled anything seen in New York or Chicago.

Missouri Outlaws

9781625859150

$23.99

Whether seen as a common criminal or Robin Hood with a six-shooter, the Missouri outlaw left an indelible mark on American culture. In the nineteenth century, Missouri was known as the "Outlaw State" and offered a list of lawbreakers like Jesse James, Bloody Bill Anderson, Belle Starr and Cole Younger. These notorious criminals became folk legends in countless books, movies and television shows. Author Paul Kirkman traces the succession of Missouri's first few generations and how each contributed to the making of some of the most notorious outlaws and lawmen in American history.

Lost Missouri Treasure

9781467155014

$24.99

Lost and Forgotten Gems of Missouri History

From the mining industry to the shipping industry to the Civil War, Missouri has lost a lot. Emigrants and traders have lost countless values during their travels. The Civil War caused a loss of not only citizens, but numerous valuable historic items. The host of outlaws who traversed the area have hidden loot that has never been found. Join author Craig Gaines as he details the state treasures lost to time.

Bald Knobbers

9781626192010

$21.99

At the close of the nineteenth century in the Ozark Plateau, lawlessness ruled. Lawmakers, in bed with moonshiners and bootleggers, fueled local crime and turned a blind eye to egregious wrongdoing. In response, a vigilante force emerged from the Ozark hills: the Bald Knobbers. They formed their own laws and alliances; local ministers donned the Knobber mask and brought justice to the hills, lynching suspected bootleggers. As community support and interest grew, reporters wrote curious articles about Knobber exploits. Join Vincent S. Anderson as he uncovers these peculiar reports including trials, lovers' spats ending in coldblooded murder and Ozark vigilante history that inspired a folk legend.

Notorious Missouri

9781467146692

$21.99

From the duel on Bloody Island to the "Missouri Miracle'? kidnapping and recovery of Shawn Hornbeck, Missouri has seen its share of notorious crimes. The Show-Me State was home to the first Western gunfight on the town square between Wild Bill Hickok and Dave Tutt. The three trials of the alleged murderer of Colonel Thomas Swope, the founder of Kansas City's Swope Park, enveloped the state. Residents also saw the killings within a few blocks of each other that inspired the songs "Stagger Lee'? and "Frankie and Johnny.'? Vicki Berger Erwin and James W. Erwin explore crimes, criminals, and victims from the violent history of the last two hundred years in the Show-Me State.

Missouri State Penitentiary

9780738590806

$24.99

The Missouri State Penitentiary was established in 1833 via a bill passed by the state legislature, and the first prisoner was incarcerated in 1835. Inmates constructed the main prison building from rock quarried at the site in 1836. The penitentiary closed on September 15, 2004, and plans are in place to redevelop the site into offices for state agencies and private enterprises. The Missouri State Penitentiary was once considered one of the largest maximum-security penal institutions in the United States. After 550 serious assaults occurred inside the prison in the early 1960s, Time magazine called it the bloodiest 47 acres in America (although the walls of the penitentiary only contained 37 acres). The penitentiary had the distinction of housing some very famous individuals: boxing champion Sonny Liston learned to box there under the direction of the prison chaplain, infamous gangster Charles Arthur Pretty Boy Floyd spent time there, and James Earl Ray was an escapee when he shot and killed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Slaying in South St. Louis

9781625859068

$21.99

On a crisp December day in 1963, Nancy Zanone left her young son and daughter playing in the backyard while she went inside to check the laundry. She never came back. A troubled teen prowling for unlocked doors along Chippewa in South St. Louis surprised her in the kitchen and stabbed her to death. Despite Joseph Arbeiter's confession and hard evidence, he was freed on a technicality. In response, Zanone's family fought to change how juvenile murderers are tried in the state of Missouri. Local authors Vicki Berger Erwin and Bryan Erwin investigate the senseless tragedy and the family's quest for justice.

Wicked Branson

9781467137119

$21.99

Branson's wholesome brand of entertainment made it the nation's destination for family fun, but the vacation wonderland can't claim a spotless past. Murder and mischief dogged the town's efforts at respectability from the very beginning. The founder's own brother, Galba Branson, was a prominent member of the notorious vigilante gang the Bald Knobbers. He died in a picnic shootout that originated in a church prank. Branson's transformation into a showbiz mecca brought quarrel and scandal in its wake, from provoked orangutans to wire-tapped dressing rooms. Three comedians and authors—Ed and Karen Underwood and John Pinney—offer this backstage pass to the seamier side of Branson's history.

St. Louis Gambling Kingpins

9781467156226

$24.99

A history of betting on the East Side. Making it as a professional gambler in the first part of the twentieth century was a long shot, but wagering on the wide open scene of East St. Louis could help even the odds. Folks who were feeling lucky enough might grab a copy of Louis Cella’s racing form, or get the inside scoop from turf men like Barney Schreiber. Students of the art of bookmaking had plentiful mentors in local legends like Adam “Mulepole” Fritz. But even then, a hot streak could attract the attention of a representative of the Chicago Outfit such as Frank “Buster” Wortman. The nephew of Vic and Jim Doyle, who built the Ringside Casino into the Midwest's largest casino, author James Doyle connects the dice rolls of bygone St. Louis Kingpins to high stakes players in New York and New Orleans.

Murder & Mayhem Jefferson City

9781467152273

$23.99

The Dark Side of Jeff City

The first century of the wilderness-born Missouri capital was filled with villainous escapes from the state’s only prison, resulting in theft, abuse and even murder. The grandest of escape attempts ended with the city’s only triple hanging. The capital city had plenty of entrepreneurs willing to sidestep the federal Volstead Act, which attracted Ku Klux Klan activity and culminated in the election of a “law and order” sheriff, whose deputies broke laws to enforce them. Many other tragedies grieved the community, including the South Side murder of a German immigrant by a teen-aged deputy, who had been caught sleeping with the victim’s daughter. Author Michelle Brooks has collected a sample of some of the shocking events of Jefferson City’s first century.

Wicked St. Louis

9781609492984

$21.99

Watch a duel on Bloody Island from the stern of a river pirate's ship and be glad that Abraham Lincoln did not have to keep his appointment. Venture into a brothel where a madam's grin was filled with diamonds or where Ta Ra Ra Boom de Ay" was hummed for the first time. Witness children forced into labor and aristocrats driven to suicide. Keep company with the gangsters who were a little too "cuckoo" for Al Capone. Visit Wicked St. Louis."

Prohibition in Kansas City, Missouri

9781467138710

$21.99

Like most cities during Prohibition, Kansas City had illegal alcohol, bootleggers, speakeasies, cops on the take, corrupt politicians and moralizing reformers. But by the time the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed, Kansas City had been singled out by one observer as one of the wettest cities, as well as the wickedest. A grocer managed a still in the basement of his store. A raid on the Tingle Oil Company found two hundred drums of oil and the largest illegal brewery ever found in the state. This seedy underworld transformed the Heart of America into the Paris of the Plains. Author John Simonson resurrects forgotten stories by revisiting places where they occurred and telling the salacious history of booze in Kansas City.

Missouri's Murderous Matrons

9781467140720

$21.99

At the turn of the twentieth century, people in Missouri experienced unexpected and horrible deaths due to arsenic. Two different women in two different areas of Missouri, and for two different reasons, used arsenic as a means to get what they wanted. Emma Heppermann, a black widow killer, craved money. Bertha Gifford, an angel of mercy, took sick people into her home and nursed them to death. Follow the trails of these women who murdered for decades before being tried and convicted. From Wentzville to Steelville, Emma left a trail of bodies. And Bertha is suspected of killing almost 10 percent of the population of the little town of Catawissa. Authors Victoria Cosner and Lorelei Shannon offer the gruesome history of Missouri’s murderous matrons.