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Pittsburgh’s small but lucrative Cosa Nostra mafia family was on the rise in 1985 with a newly crowned Don...

The men who came to dominate the rackets in western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and West Virginia opened the family to massive profits from drug trafficking and a street tax on other criminal activities. At the same time, the Youngstown, OH faction of the family launched a brutal mob war against the weakening Cleveland mafia and the Altoona, PA crew violently clamped down on their city.

Discover gritty stories of a made member who controlled who a local police department hired, an informant who betrayed his own mafia grandfather and father, numerous unsolved murders and a mob mole in the Pittsburgh office of the FBI.

This is the tale of a mafia family at the pinnacle of its power, willing to do anything to hold on to that power and its downfall in the criminal underworld.

Chilling Tales of the Hudson Valley

Nestled on the banks of the Hudson River, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown are steeped in history and ghost lore. Famous for Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the storied Westchester region also has a dark history of witches, spies, and pirates. Rumors of Headless Horseman sightings surge during spooky season while visitors flock to the Valley’s haunted hot spots like the Old Dutch Church and the famed writer’s Sunnyside home. Join author and journalist Sam Baltrusis on a bone-chilling journey through the streets of Sleepy Hollow as he breathes new life into the legendary village’s long-departed souls.

In the Steel City, “Yinzer” is a term of endearment, reserved for the city’s most beloved and embraced by locals as a symbol of the grit and determination that Pittsburgh endows anyone from there .

The city’s undeniable impact on the character and life of those who grew up there has shaped iconic figures of American sports, entertainment and culture. Legends of the gridiron such as Jim Kelly, Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino and Joe Namath forged their football prowess in Western Pennsylvania. Business pioneers including Mark Cuban, Ray Werner and Bill Strickland were ingrained with the value of hard work in the Steel City. Music and movie stars like Jeff Goldblum, George Benson and Billy Gardell found creative inspiration in Pittsburgh that led to new heights. Author Dick Roberts presents profiles, interviews and memories from some of the most famous and adored Pittsburghers.

A Thrilling Lost Chapter of Mob Rule

Western Pennsylvania’s New Kensington was in the grips of Mafia control throughout the 1950s, with a bevy of bookie joints, gambling casinos and brothels. An outgrowth of the Pittsburgh mob, New Kensington’s Costa Nostra ordered a group of Mafiosi to break into a National Guard station in Ohio and steal a shipment of weapons. The guns were destined for Fidel Castro, who was waging guerrilla war in Cuba. The Pittsburgh Mafia was hoping to get on Castro’s good side if he won the war to secure the reopening of gambling casinos. From a daring heist in Canada to Swiss bank accounts and CIA informants, this infamous gunrunning scheme was a high-speed saga of international intrigue. Join author Richard Gazarik as he presents a harrowing historical narrative of the criminal underworld of Western Pennsylvania.

In Yaphank, New York, hid the greatest threat to the United States war effort during World War II: the American Nazi.

Building on racial and ethnic biases, lack of trust in government and a dose of conspiracies, the German American Bund was able to contribute to a growing American fascist movement. Fueled partially by Nazi Germany’s financing of propaganda, thousands of New Yorkers embraced the ideals of an American Reich through retreats such as Yaphank’s Camp Siegfried, which groomed Nazi sympathizers to be ready for the fascist overthrow of the American republic. In opposition to Nazism, multiple local citizen groups fought to combat the Bund’s organized efforts to undermine America. Author Christopher Verga brings to life the often-overlooked history of New York’s World War II era through a story of Nazi sedition, espionage and citizen resistance to preserve the American republic.

Pittsburgh in 50 Maps offers unique new views of a city at a crossroads—culturally, economically, and demographically.

There are countless ways to map a city. Roads, bridges, and waterways help you navigate the twists and turns; topography gives you the lay of the land; population trends show you a region’s changing fortunes. But the best maps let you feel what a city’s really like. Whether you call it the Steel City, the City of Bridges, City of Champions, Hell with the Lid Off, or even the Paris of Appalachia, Pittsburgh’s distinctive character is undeniable. Pittsburgh in 50 Maps considers the boundaries of the city’s 90 distinct neighborhoods (plus Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood), the legacy of the steel industry, and how immigration continues to shape the city. You’ll also find the areas with the highest concentrations of bike lanes, supermarkets, tree cover, and fiberglass dinosaurs. Each colorful map offers a new perspective on one of America’s most consistently surprising cities and the people who live here.

Sure to be a conversation starter for Pittsburgh locals, transplants, and expats, Pittsburgh in 50 Maps is for anyone keen to understand the city in new and unexpected ways.

In 1988, Judge Joe O'Kicki was regarded by his peers as one of the most brilliant legal minds in the United States. He was newly re-married, sworn in as the president judge of a Pennsylvania county and on the fast track to a federal bench....

Silently, however, a state police vice unit was in the midst of covert operation into O'Kicki's personal affairs. The judge would be accused of soliciting bribes, frequenting brothels and running the county as if he were a “battleship commander.” Later he'd concoct a plan to flee the country and exact revenge on his enemies.   

Set in the aftermath of the 1977 Johnstown flood and including courtroom testimony, the memos of whistleblowers, contemporary interviews and excerpts from O'Kicki's unfinished tell-all memoir, “Jailing the Johnstown Judge” is a fresh examination of the extraordinary Western Pennsylvania case that attained international infamy.

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.

Take a tour of Buffalo, NY's mobster and mafia history. Local mob expert reveals gangsters' stories, hangouts and more.

Buffalo has housed its fair share of thugs and mobsters. Besides common criminals and bank robbers, a powerful crime family headed by local boss Stefano Magaddino emerged in the 1920s. Close to Canada, Niagara Falls and Buffalo were perfect avenues through which to transport booze, and Magaddino and his Mafiosi maintained a stranglehold on the city until his death in 1974. Local mob expert Michael Rizzo takes a tour of Buffalo's mafia exploits everything from these brutal gangsters' favorite hangouts to secret underground tunnels to murder.

The history of infamous witch trials and witchcraft accusations is deeper than just those most often discussed at Salem. The Empire State has had numerous moments of pandemonium over the potential existence of witches.

From Native Americans viewing European colonists as witches in the Mohawk Valley to witchcraft hysteria among early Long Island colonial settlements, the history of New York state's witchcraft accusations encompases all regions and communities in the state.

Join author Scott R. Ferrara as he presents harrowing narratives of those who were accused of witchcraft, the feverish community dramas that resulted and the lives of those who faced their community as an outsider.

Violent bank heists, bold train robberies and hardened gangs all tear across the history of the wild west--western Pennsylvania, that is.

The region played reluctant host to the likes of the infamous Biddle Boys, who escaped Allegheny County Jail by romancing the warden's wife, and the Cooley Gang, which held Fayette County in its violent grip at the close of the nineteenth century. Then there was Pennsylvania's own Bonnie and Clyde--Irene and Glenn--whose murderous misadventures earned the trigger blonde and her beau the electric chair in 1931. From the perilous train tracks of Erie to the gritty streets of Pittsburgh, authors Thomas White and Michael Hassett trace the dark history of the crooks, murderers and outlaws who both terrorized and fascinated the citizenry of western Pennsylvania.

The shocking murder of railroad laborers in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania—and the coverup that followed—is revealed in this true crime history.

In June 1832, railroad contractor Philip Duffy hired fifty-seven Irish immigrant laborers to work on Pennsylvania's Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. They were sent to a stretch of track in rural Chester County known as Duffy's Cut. Six weeks later, all of them were dead.

For more than 180 years, the railroad maintained that cholera was to blame and kept the historical record under lock and key. In a harrowing modern-day excavation of their mass grave, a group of academics and volunteers found evidence some of the laborers were murdered.

Authors and research leaders Dr. William E. Watson and Dr. J. Francis Watson reveal the tragedy, mystery, and discovery of what really happened at Duffy's Cut.

Move over, Jersey Devil. A new generation of thrilling—and true!—stories is here to raise South Jersey’s shock factor.

Largely lost to time, these stunners include Atco’s dizzying love dreams, Camden’s underground mystical labyrinth, Glassboro’s UFO frenzy, and the origin of the “cursed” Deptford portion of Route 55. This gripping journey through New Jersey’s southernmost counties also offers views of an escaped show lion, a fatal family love triangle, and the young woman who hoodwinked Camden newspapers before going on to threaten the free world as Nazi propagandist “Axis Sally.”

Local author Danielle L. Burrows collected and researched these happenings and presents them here with detail and aplomb.

On July 26, 1981, eight-year-old Cheryl Ziemba and her four-year-old brother, Christopher, disappeared from their backyard in Old Forge, Pennsylvania.

Within hours, hundreds of neighbors, police and firefighters were engaged in a frantic search, praying that they were not a town “snakebitten,” or cursed to misfortune. Two days later, all hope was lost when firefighters discovered the bodies of the children in an abandoned strip-mining pit. Pennsylvania State Police arrested their fifteen-year-old neighbor, Joey Aulisio, who was tried as an adult and sentenced to death by electric chair. Forty-three years later, Joey Aulisio still sits in prison.

Author Brian W. Kincaid presents a definitive account of one of the most infamous crimes and sensational trials in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Since William Penn presided over the state's only official witch trial in 1684, witchcraft and folk magic have been a part of the history of the Keystone State.

English and German settlers brought their beliefs in magic with them from the Old World--sometimes with dangerous consequences. In 1802, an Allegheny County judge helped an accused witch escape an angry mob. Susan Mummey was not so fortunate. In 1934, she was shot and killed in her home by a young Schuylkill County man who was convinced that she had cursed him. In other regions of the state, views on folk magic were more complex. While hex doctors were feared in the Pennsylvania German tradition, powwowers were and are revered for their abilities to heal, lift curses and find lost objects. Folklorist Thomas White traces the history and lore of witchcraft and the occult that quietly live on in Pennsylvania even today.

Local storyteller Jonathan Kruk shares the mysterious lore of the Hudson Valley, best known among them Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." 

This exciting volume and its author has been featured in the Travel Channel's "Mysteries at the Museum," and helped establish the galloping goblin's origin story.

The story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman is one of America's best known fables, but what other stories does the Hudson Valley hold? Imps cause mischief on the Hudson River, a white lady haunts Raven Rock, Major Andre's ghost seeks redemption and real headless Hessians search for their severed skulls. These mysterious and spooky tales from the region's past that inspired Irving and continues to captivate the imagination to this day.

New York City, one of the world's premier urban centers, is also home to the world's most famous and storied municipal law enforcement service: the NYPD.

Policing in New York is as old as the city itself, although much has changed since the first Dutch rattle watch patrolled streets in the 1620s. Technological improvements, advancing professional standards, and historical moments like the 1898 consolidation of New York City and the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, have each profoundly changed the way New York City police officers do their jobs. Still, as New York City Police emphasizes, certain elements of the job remain true through the decades and centuries. Being a police officer in New York City has always involved a certain amount of danger, sacrifice, and public coordination.

The third entry in Belt's urban cartography series, Buffalo in 50 Maps offers a truly unique view of the City of Good Neighbors, from the East Side to Millionaires' Row to Cazenovia Park.

The best maps give you a feeling for what a place is really like, and Buffalo in 50 Maps offers a brand-new look at both the past and present of the Queen City of the Great Lakes. Through its colorful maps and insightful commentary, you'll discover the history of the city's changing boundaries, its numerous breweries, and its most popular bus routes. Learn how long it takes to get to a Bills game on Sunday, why the city smells like Cheerios, or where the city's immigrants have recently opened businesses. You'll also discover the city's food deserts, how the layout of its streets led to intense segregation, and how its vacant lots reveal where reinvestment and development have actually taken place.

It's a beautiful and nuanced look that's perfect for Buffalo natives but also for those who just want to get to know the city a little bit better.

“Show me your cemeteries, and I will tell you what kind of people you have.” - Benjamin Franklin

Discover the historic haunts and frightful specters that make the city of brotherly love a haven for unexplained phenomena.  

Author Josh Hitchens details the spooky stories of Philadelphia’s past and present.

One candy heiress, two bullets and three suspects.

The small Southern California island of Coronado rarely makes news for violent crime. But in the spring of 1975, World War II widow and retired librarian Ruth Quinn was murdered, execution-style, in her cottage. Her death sent a shock wave through the community. The granddaughter of Jujubes and Jujyfruits creator Henry Heide, Ruth was found fully clothed with her shoes on, in her bed, dead from two gunshot wounds. To this day, her murder has never been solved, but whispers about her brother, her son and even a local petty thief still swirl.

Author Taylor Baldwin Kiland sifts through the dirt for the facts about Ruth’s life and her untimely end in Coronado.

A fascinating history of law and power, Pennsylvania's Coal and Iron Police documents the law enforcement group which ruled these communities from 1865 to 1931.

Pennsylvania's Coal and Iron Police ruled small patch towns and industrial cities for their coal and iron company bosses from 1865 to 1931. Armed with a gun and badge and backed by state legislation, the members of the private police force were granted power in a practically unspecified jurisdiction. Set in Pennsylvania's anthracite and bituminous regions, including Luzerne, Schuylkill, Westmoreland, Beaver, Somerset, and Indiana Counties, at a time when labor disputes were deadly, the officers are the story behind American labor history's high-profile events and attention-grabbing headlines. Paid to protect company property, their duties varied but unfortunately often resulted in strikebreaking, intimidation, and violence.

Authors Joseph Bilby and Harry Ziegler chart the brief rise of the Ku Klux Klan and how New Jersey collectively stood up to bigotry.

The state, though, was not immune to the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the first half of the twentieth century. Former vaudevillians Arthur H. Bell and his wife used the tactics of public theater to advertise and recruit for the organization. At a massive riot in Perth Amboy, thousands of immigrants besieged a few hundred Klansmen, tossed them out of building windows, burned their cars and ran them out of town. The allying of pro-Nazi German Bund groups and the Klan in the lead-up to World War II marked the end of the Klan’s foothold. Authors Joseph Bilby and Harry Ziegler chart the brief rise of the Ku Klux Klan and how New Jersey collectively stood up to bigotry.

Four decades after Jeannette DePalma's tragic death, authors Jesse P. Pollack and Mark Moran present the definitive account of the shocking Springfield township cold case.

As Springfield residents decorated for Halloween in September 1972, the crime rate in the quiet, affluent township was at its lowest in years. That mood was shattered when the body of sixteen-year-old Jeannette DePalma was discovered in the local woods, allegedly surrounded by strange objects. Some feared witchcraft was to blame, while others believed a serial killer was on the loose. Rumors of a police cover up ran rampant, and the case went unsolved - along with the murders of several other young women.

The first recorded Jewish immigrants arrived in New York in 1654 by way of Brazil. Their assimilation and influence on the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, and the continual influx of Jewish immigrants from Germany, Eastern Europe, and Russia, have provided a rich tapestry of historic sites in New York. Author Paul M. Kaplan has written more than a mere travel guide; he has provided a road map to the history of Jewish immigration in this great American city. With a focus on the communities of Manhattan, Kaplan includes museums, places of historic interest, restaurants, synagogues, and entertainment venues of the present and those that no longer exist.

Alive in vintage photos, these sites are divided by their location, traveling from the south to the farthest northern tip of Manhattan. Each section provides a map of the area and a broad introduction to the district's place in the historic timeline of Jewish immigration. Included are the regions known as Lower Manhattan; the Lower East Side; Greenwich Village and the East Village, Chelsea, and Midtown; the Upper East Side and Upper West Side; Harlem and Morningside Heights; and Washington Heights. The author provides suggested itineraries, tips for the visitor, and reference notes for further exploration. Kaplan's historical introduction provides the framework for locals and visitors of every religion and nationality to delve into the rich history and contribution of Jewish immigrants in New York.

On a cold morning in December 1960, sixty-year-old Laura Mutch was found strangled behind a house in downtown Erie....

The city was reaching new heights, including a triumphant run for the coveted “All-American City” award, yet the incident created pandemonium. As investigations progressed, attacks on women continued, sending citizens and seasoned investigators to the brink of chaos. Seventy-two-year-old Clara Carrig was brutally stabbed, and Helen Knost narrowly survived an attempted killing. Mary Lynn Crotty, Eleanor Free and Marian Graham were found murdered, all by strangulation. Women throughout the region locked their doors and avoided the streets at night. The case attracted nationwide attention after the arrest of truck driver John Howard Willman in 1963 yet many questions remain unanswered.

Author Justin Dombrowski charts the harrowing attacks, investigations and mystery surrounding Erie’s 1960s reign of terror.

Ghostly travelers are said to wander the lonely roads of western Pennsylvania. Is it the angry spirit of a jealous husband or a gypsy king who stalks Erie County's Axe Murder Hollow?

A creeping fog rises from Blue Mist Road, and stories of car crashes, lynchings and even strange beasts haunt this isolated stretch outside Pittsburgh. Shades of Death Road in Washington County may be host to phantom coal miners killed during a deadly labor dispute. With firsthand accounts and historical research, authors Thomas White and Tony Lavorgne travel the backcountry roads and byways of western Pennsylvania to discover their ghost tales and mysterious legends.

The kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. and the subsequent arrest, trial, and execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann have intrigued true crime buffs for decades.

New Jersey's Lindbergh Kidnapping and Trial tells the story of the case that never dies through vintage photographs. Rare photographs, many not seen since the 1930s, will allow the reader to experience the massive police investigation led by New Jersey State Police superintendent H. Norman Schwarzkopf and the circus-like trial and execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann.

Before chain coffee shops and luxury high-rises, before desegregation and the 1968 riots, Washington’s Greater U Street was known as Black Broadway.

From the early 1900s into the 1950s, African-Americans plagued by Jim Crow laws in other parts of town were free to own businesses on U Street and built what was often described as a “city within a city.” Stores, banks, and barbershops along with theaters, restaurants and hotels crowned a neighborhood know for Black affluence. U Street competed with Harlem in its heyday, and showed Black culture to the world.

Local author and journalist Briana A. Thomas narrates U Street’s rich and unique history from the early triumph of Emancipation to the days of Civil Rights pioneer Mary Church Terrell and music giant Duke Ellington through the recent struggles of gentrification.

Founded amidst the bloodshed of the French and Indian War, Pittsburgh is haunted by the ghosts of its gritty and sometimes violent past.

Many believe American industrialist Henry Clay Frick still inhabits Clayton, one of the last surviving homes on Millionaires' Row. The spirit of Kate Soffel lingers at the Allegheny County Jail, where she helped plot the escape of the Biddle brothers and fell in love in the process. The Duquesne Incline in 1877 employed teens disguised as ghosts to boost business. However, an authentic sinister entity is said to haunt the nearby Monongahela Incline without compensation. Join the Haunted Pittsburgh team as it explores ghostly encounters in the Steel City.

Erie's Shocking Turn of the Century Extortion Scandal

On February 8, 1911, the Scott Mausoleum, a symbol of wealth for the Scott and Strong families in Erie, Pennsylvania, was desecrated by unknown vandals, coined by nationwide papers as ghouls. With the inside of the mausoleum heavily damaged - and a body missing - the crime set off shockwaves throughout the country during a time in which grave robbery, extortion and murder reigned supreme. 

Hundreds of reporters and newspaper correspondents throughout the country and world descend upon the Great Lakes port city. Private Detectives from the Perkins Detective Agency in Pittsburgh took charge of the case, pitted against rival detectives from the famous Burns Detective Agency. The case took a sinister turn when a series of letters were sent to wealthy local philanthropist Charles Hamot Strong, threatening to blow up his mausoleum and murder his granddaughter.

Author Justin Dombrowski presents the twists and turns of a historic and shocking crime and coverup in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The disappearance of Horace Marvin, Jr. became a national sensation.

In early March 1907, young Horace, just a few weeks shy of his fourth birthday, was playing in the yard of his father's new farm in a sparsely populated area near Dover, Delaware. The family had just moved from Iowa and this was the first day Horace had to explore their new home. In the farmyard with Horace were his brother John and cousin Rose, all visible to neighbors helping the previous owner move off the farm. Then Horace disappeared without a trace. Within two weeks this heartbreaking event was being reported to hundreds of other families in newspapers across the country and around the world.

Horace's disappearance would be the most publicized missing child story until the Lindbergh kidnapping exactly twenty-five years later. Local author Brian G. Cannon tells the full story of this tragedy for the first time.

Syracuse Television features the zaniness of Baron Daemon, lessons from the Magic Toy Shop, and live fun from Jim Deline and the Gang and The Markert Place.

Central New Yorkers have been treated to many memorable television moments since December 1, 1948, when WHEN-TV Channel 8 signed on the air for the first time. In a record 16 days after equipment arrived at its 101 Court Street site, the station was miraculously up and running. Syracuse's pioneer broadcasters were eager to explore this bold, new world with programs that would entertain, educate, and inform.  Over the years, personalities and programs became familiar to Central New Yorkers. There was news coverage from Fred Hillegas, Ron Curtis, Rod Wood, and Carrie Lazarus and weather forecasts from Stormy Meredith, Big Al Roker, Dave Eichorn, and Wayne Mahar.

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.

Brooklyn. The most populous borough in New York City. Birthplace of the Dodgers, Sweet‘n Low, and Season 21 of “The Real World.” With more than 400 years under its belt, the borough is filled with a history of both sweet and savory moments.

It’s hard to imagine Brooklyn as anything other than a concrete jungle. Who would guess that that first battle of the Revolutionary War was fought here? Or that the world’s oldest subway is hidden beneath the streets of Boerum Hill? Or how an airplane fell from the sky and landed in the middle of the street in Park Slope?  Hundreds of people pass by the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park everyday. Virtually no one stops to read the plaque. If they did, they would learn that it is actually a grave, holding up to 15,000 bodies.   

Author Allison Huntington Chase, Brooklyn's own Madame Morbid, takes readers on a journey beyond the brownstones, to discover the hidden, macabre and bizarre throughout Brooklyn history.

Discover sinister stories of Erie's hidden history.

Life on the lake is not always pleasant, as these stories of scandal, robbery, murder, suicide, the mob, and more, reveal. The threatening reign of terror from the Phantom Burglar in the winter of 1926 kept Erie residents living in fear, culminating in a shocking finale. In 1927, bandits stole the payroll of the Erie County Electric Company in a harrowing robbery, and the manhunt and investigation that followed captivated the city. Extortion and blackmail were the purported tactics of local Black Hand gangsters in threatening letters sent to one of Erie’s wealthiest turn-of-the-century citizens. The tragic murder of twenty-two-year-old Mary Sobucki enraged local law enforcement and shined a light on the underworld operations of baby harvesting farms. Author Justin Dombrowski presents narratives of Erie’s wicked past.

From the Pine Barrens to the Shore, the natural beauty of southern New Jersey is shrouded in local legends and lore passed down through the generations by way of oral tradition.

Deep in the woods of Colliers Mills, the mysteries of a place called Jack Davis keeps travelers at bay in the Bermuda Triangle of the pines. The state’s most famous legendary creature, the Jersey Devil, is often described as making its home among the pines. It is said that there is a hermit of Oswego Lake who guards the pines as a great mystical white stag. In the swamps of South Jersey, local legend tells of Hessian Island, a historic secret outlaw hideout of Pine Robbers, established by renegade soldiers from the Revolutionary War. Local author William J. Lewis colorfully presents tales, legends, lore and reflections from South Jersey and the Pine Barrens.

Discover the true story of Moll Dyer and the witches of Southern Maryland... if you dare...

Despite the attention that Salem receives, they were far from the only town to organize a witch hunt in colonial America. Rebecca Fowler was tried as a witch in St. Mary’s in 1685, and in 1674, John Cowman became the only man ever charged with witchcraft in Maryland. In Moll Dyer’s case, locals took the law into their own hands. According to legend, Moll Dyer was chased from her burning home by a mob in St. Mary’s County in the year 1697, left to die in the dark and cold. Was she just an ordinary woman blamed for problems beyond her control? Or was she a witch whose curse lingers on? Author Lynn Buonviri uses period records and local lore to discover the truth behind the legend of Moll Dyer and her curse.

Ford's Theatre in downtown Washington, DC, is best known as the notorious scene of Pres. Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1865.

It is among the oldest and most visited sites of national tragedy in the United States. First constructed in 1833 as a Baptist church, the property was acquired by John T. Ford and converted into a theater in 1861.  Presenting almost 500 performances before the assassination, Ford afterward sold the building to the federal government. A century later, the National Park Service reconstructed the theater, and Ford's Theatre Society began presenting live performances there in 1968. Since then, the two organizations have partnered to offer more than 650,000 annual visitors an array of quality programming about Lincoln's presidency and legacy. Today, patrons can explore the Tenth Street campus, consisting of the theater, interactive museum galleries, the house where Lincoln died, and the Center for Education and Leadership.

This is the horrifying tale of the random crime spree that shocked residents of southwestern Pennsylvania in 1979.

During the winter of 1979, southwestern Pennsylvania was rocked by a series of sensational murders, sparking a thirty-year criminal justice saga. A week of brutal, seemingly random killings culminated in the provocation and fatal shooting of Patrolman Leonard Miller, an officer new to the town of Apollo's police force and only twenty one years old. Little more than a year later, two men were convicted of the rash of homicides and sentenced to death— yet both are alive today. Incorporating details of the central characters' personal lives as well as the state's court system, criminologist Michael W. Sheetz here relays the awful story of the so-called kill for thrill crime spree with the drama of a novelist and the insight of an officer of the law.

With interviews from key witnesses, authors Dave Shampine and Daniel Boyer recount the grisly story of this New Year's Eve North Country nightmare, which is still shrouded in mystery today.

The names Peter, Barbara Ann and Gerald Egan were familiar to Watertown police before December 31, 1964. The police suspected the trio in a long string of burglaries, and they were under investigation by the FBI for grand theft auto. But on that New Year's night, the Egans were shot execution style at a rest stop off Interstate 81. The gruesome gangland-style killings puzzled local and state police. Theories ranged from a simple confrontation gone awry to a premeditated act of retribution by hardened criminals who feared the Egans would turn state's witness.

Ghostly Fun in the Sand and Sun

The wide sandy beaches, colorful boardwalks and majestic lighthouses of the Jersey Shore share supernatural secrets and unexplainable encounters...

In Absecon the dead pose as guides for a unique afterhours tour of its historic lighthouse. A reformed criminal met the apparition of his victim, learning remorse is eternal, on Long Beach Island. Newly built casinos in Atlantic City have former patrons stopping by for one last goodbye, from beyond the grave. A spectral organist haunts and plays the pipe organ of Asbury Park’s Convention Hall.

Author Patricia Heyer uncovers the eerie mysteries that shroud many of the Shore’s iconic landmarks.

In this comprehensive compilation of ghost stories and local legends, Shelley Wygant explores the history and horrors of a village that somehow lives on.

Beginning with its founding in 1772, Ellicott City endured an endless procession of tragic deaths. As a result, this eighteenth-century mill town is packed with restless spirits and unexplained supernatural occurrences. A mysterious artist haunts Castle Angelo and threatens to throw residents into the river below. Many of the temporary occupants of the former Easton and Sons Funeral Home seem to have remained, and the ghost of Annie Van Derlot still inhabits the ruins of the Patapsco Female Institute.

The stories, folklore, and history surrounding Maryland’s most haunted places. A must-read for fans of the supernatural and Maryland history.

The demon car of Seven Hills Road, the ominousHell Houseabove the Patapsco River, the mythical Snallygasterof western Maryland--these are the extraordinary tales and bizarre creatures that color Maryland's folklore.

The Blue Dog of Port Tobaccofaithfully guards his master's gold even in death, and in Cambridge, the headless ghost of Big Lizwatches over the treasure of Greenbriar Swamp. The woods of Prince George's County are home to stories of the menacing Goatman, while on stormy nights at the nearby University of Maryland, the strains of a ghostly piano float from Marie Mount Hall.

From the storied heroics of the First Maryland Regimentin the Revolutionary Warto the mystery of the Poe Toaster, folklorists Trevor J. Blank and David J. Puglia unravel the legends of Maryland.

Bloody discoveries, potential serial killers & dramatic court cases.

Washington, D.C., saw its share of grim murders in the mid-twentieth century. From a love triangle gone wrong to an unknown killer on the loose, there was no shortage of sensationalized headlines keeping residents up to date. Reports of a respected businessman found in a hotel room with the body of his longtime mistress shocked locals, while the murder of eleven-year-old Carol Bardwell in Rock Creek Park sparked a manhunt for her killer. The racially charged case of Catherine Reardon’s murder in the National Cathedral’s library would even end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Join author Zachary G. Ford as he uncovers the capital region’s dark past.

Author Brian Armstrong tells the shocking story of this “sundown town” and how it evolved into the diverse community that exists today.

On March 1, 1894, two African American men broke into a home in rural Franklin Park and murdered a white woman and her daughter before her husband fought and killed the attackers. The newspapers called it the “Franklin Park Tragedy,” and the story captivated public attention nationally and abroad. Another tragedy came afterward, with the racist forced expulsion of many local African American residents.

Uncover the story of the vicious and confounding killing of Pennsylvania School Teacher, Irene Izak, that has remained unsolved for four decades.

It was the summer of 1968, and she had been driving for days. Irene Izak, a young French teacher from Scranton, Pennsylvania, was headed toward a new job and the promise of a new life in Quebec. She never reached the border that early June morning. Savagely bludgeoned, her face and head pummeled with rocks, Irene's body was discovered in a ravine by a state trooper patrolling Route 81 in Jefferson County, New York. Blending suspense with true-crime reporting, author Dave Shampine investigates the brutal murder that shook the communities of northeast Pennsylvania and New York's North Country. Join Shampine as he tells the story of this vicious and confounding killing that has remained unsolved for four decades.

Discover the spooky history of New York's central region From the edge of the Adirondacks, to the heart of Syracuse and everything in between, central New York boasts some of the most haunted history in the state. Utica, Rome and Cazenovia all have historic tales of ghostly moments and unexplained aparations. Join author Dennis Webster as he reveals the hidden haunted history of central New York.

Delaware native and paranormal historian Josh Hitchens invites you on a spooky road trip through the First State, telling scary stories of the most frightening phantoms that lurk in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex Counties.

Read the legend of Fiddler’s Bridge, meet the ghosts in the Governor’s Mansion, learn the truth behind the Selbyville Swamp Monster and many more terrifying tales that will chill your bones. Combining historical facts with fearsome folklore, The Haunting of Delaware: Ghosts and Legends from the First State is sure to keep you reading long past midnight…if you dare. Experience Delaware’s ghostly history and the echoes it creates in the present day, places where the souls of the dead have not yet found rest.

The only comprehensive history of one of America's most infamous prisons, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA.

Looming on the horizon like a storm cloud made of stone, the Eastern State Penitentiary spent more than a century as the fortress that both the law-abiding and criminal feared. In this superbly balanced and thoroughly researched volume, Paul Kahan presents the history of this revolutionary penitentiary, from its inception as a model of the revolutionary Pennsylvania System of incarceration in 1829 to the demands for its closure in the wake of ever-increasing violence in 1971. Through tales of spectacular escapes, official corruption, reformation and retribution, Kahan chronicles the tensions that plagued Eastern State since the arrival of its first prisoners.

John and Laura Leita delve in to the oddities that make Long Island unique and it may be more odd than you thought possible!

Long Island's history is well known, but often overlooked are the island's unique and bizarre stories and treasures--the most interesting locations and darkest legends. From hidden haunts and legends like the Indian Princess of Lake Ronkonkoma to well-known events like the Amityville Horror House murders, this collection chronicles the tales of restless spirits, unrequited loves and otherworldly visits that riddle the island. There is much to be seen along the roadside, too, including the beloved Big Duck, the Riverhead Indian and even the grave site of Nixon's dog, Checkers. Through history, pictures and the personal experiences of a ten-year endeavor, authors John and Laura Leita brings to life Long Island's abandoned structures, including psychiatric hospitals and other ruins waiting to be rediscovered. Join the Leitas as they go in search of the delightfully quirky side of Long Island.

The Inner Life of the Gilded Age’s Court Jester

Harry Symes Lehr was born in 1869 into a family that was neither wealthy nor socially prominent. His natural gift for entertaining and his penchant for hobnobbing with the very rich earned him entry to the powerful circle of New York and Newport social elite during the Gilded Age. Lehr hosted lavish and themed parties that captivated the social scene who dubbed him “King Lehr.” One of his admirers and patrons, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, introduced him to the young widow Elizabeth Wharton Drexel. Drexel was smitten with young Harry, his elegant dress, and outrageous behavior. Soon they married. 

But King Lehr had a secret. On their wedding night he cruelly dictated to his new wife that they would not live in a happy marriage nor would it be consummated. For twenty-three years Elizabeth lived in a loveless and abusive marriage. After Harry’s death, Elizabeth remarried a baron and as Lady Decies, wrote down her secret story in 1938. Incorporating Harry’s most intimate diaries, Lady Decies reveals a scandalous tale of power, desire, and deception. 

With over 500 miles of shoreline, the fireboats of the FDNY have protected the city of New York for the last century and a half. Utilizing historic images, David Rocco showcases their fascinating evolution from wooden-hull tugboats to modern-day specialized watercraft.

The Fire Department of the City of York (FDNY), first utilized the New York Police Department’s steam powered vessel, Seneca in 1862. In 1875, the FDNY purchased their first fireboat, the Havemeyer, a wooden-hulled steam powered vessel retrofitted with basic firefighting equipment. By the beginning of the 20th century, the FDNY averaged ten fireboats in their fleet.

David Rocco has been involved as a volunteer for many cultural and environmental initiatives in the Hudson Valley and NYC. He played a seminal role in the successful development of the Walkway Over the Hudson project. David is also the co-author of The Indestructible Man, a book about Navy legend Dixie Kiefer. 

“A compelling narrative that moves crisply through the murder, the lynching, and the cover-up by silence that local residents thereafter affected.”—The Journal of American History

On a warm August night in 1911, Zachariah Walker was lynched—burned alive—by an angry mob on the outskirts of Coatesville, a prosperous Pennsylvania steel town. At the time of his very public murder, Walker, an African American millworker, was under arrest for the shooting and killing of a respected local police officer. Investigated by the NAACP, the horrific incident garnered national and international attention. Despite this scrutiny, a conspiracy of silence shrouded the events, and the accused men and boys were found not guilty at trial. More than 100 years after the lynching, authors Dennis B. Downey and Raymond M. Hyser bring new insight to events that rocked a community.

Join author Richard Gazarik as he reveals the wicked history of the Steel City.

Muckraking journalist Walter Liggett dubbed Pittsburgh the Metropolis of Corruption in 1930 when he reported the city had more vice per square foot than New York, Detroit, Cleveland or Boston. Decades earlier, the Magee-Flinn political machine ruled public officials, and crooked police helped racketeers protect brothels and gambling dens. Mayor (later Governor) David Lawrence was indicted several times for graft but acquitted each time. Even Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr. colluded with gangsters, according to FBI reports.

Images of America: Delaware State Police illustrates the storied past of the Delaware State Police from 1920 to 1985.

April 28, 1923, marks the birth of the Delaware State Police. Discussions occurred as early as 1906 for a statewide police organization to cope with speeding automobiles, roving bands of troublemakers, and the ever-present bootleggers. Prohibition and the 18th Amendment brought the discussion to the forefront. With the hiring of Charles J. McGarigle and Joseph A. McVey, the Delaware Highway Police Department came to fruition on January 1, 1920. Using many never-before-published photographs from the Delaware State Police Museum archive,

After this survey of Rochester's super natural history and tradition, the Flour City will never look the same!

Avenging specters, demon-tortured roads, holy miracles, weird psychic events, prehistoric power sites, ancient curses, Native American shamans, active battlefields, ghost ships, black dogs, haunted monuments and the phantoms of Rochester's famous—all are part of the legacy of Rochester and the lower Genesee. Supernatural historian Mason Winfield and the research team from Haunted History Ghost Walks, Inc., take us on a spiritual safari through the Seneca homeland of the Sweet River Valley and the modern city in its place. After their survey of Rochester's super natural history and tradition, the Flour City will never look the same.

Folktales, hidden treasures and witchcraft.

The towering skyline of New Brunswick stands in stark contrast with the swampy ceder forest it emerged from in the late 1600s. While the city grew over the original Lenape settlement of Ahanderamock, its history was passed on through whispers of tales both real and imagined. In the Buccleuch Mansion, a skeletal figure dressed as a British Grenadier is said to stagger the halls with a lantern, and at Rutgers University tales of secret societies swirl through campus. Long-lost pirate treasures, some rumored to be connected to mysterious clues etched in stone, remain undiscovered to this day.

Author Mark Neurohr-Pierpaoli uncovers the mysterious stories lurking below the surface of New Brunswick. 

In the early hours on a rainy autumn night in 1955, on a lavish country estate in Oyster Bay Cove, esteemed New York socialite Ann Woodward fired both barrels of her custom-made shotgun into the head of her husband, multimillionaire William J. “Billy” Woodward Jr., killing him. She mistook him for a notorious prowler who preyed on the privileged class. At least that was what the official reports stated. The police focused on catching the prowler, as they cast an impenetrable dragnet around the “Playhouse” for the elusive intruder. However, as with many other aspects of Billy and Ann’s social circle, things were not always as they appeared. Local author and retired detective Jerry Aylward uncovers the uncomfortable truths behind one of the Gold Coast’s most notorious murders.

Dr. Ann Webster Bunch delves into the enigmatic disappearance of William Morgan, a 19th-century figure whose threat to expose Masonic secrets led to his mysterious vanishing, igniting political turmoil and leaving a case that remains unresolved nearly 200 years later.

William Morgan was last seen in Batavia, New York, in September 1826, down on his luck and haunting the local pubs. An elusive local citizen, he had recently threatened to publish purported Masonic secrets. He was later arrested that same month in Canandaigua for petty theft and eventually transported and held in Fort Niagara. From there Morgan seems to have disappeared forever. The local Freemasons were accused of his demise. State Assemblyman and newspaper editor Thurlow Weed fanned the political flames to great effect. Yet Morgan was to return, this time in stone, atop a monument erected at Old Cemetery, Batavia, in 1882. Enigmatically, no body lies there. Thus, the case of Mr. Morgan technically remains that of a missing person almost two hundred years after his disappearance. Dr. Ann Webster Bunch takes an investigative science approach to this extremely cold case to demystify and highlight ways to resolve the fate of this highly polarizing historical figure.

Marianna Randazzo reveals terrifying legends, historical accounts and firsthand testimonies, offering readers a thrilling journey into the dark underbelly of Staten Island's haunted past.

Staten Island is known as the mystifying borough, and it is home to numerous ghosts and eerie tales. The Alice Austin House was once home to a pioneering photographer, but ghostly images of a different sort now appear among the beams. The Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp holds tales of supernatural echoes, while over at the Old Bermuda Inn, the specter of Martha Mersereau, waiting for the return of her dead husband, appears at candlelit windows each evening. On some of the island’s most desolate roads, a spectral hitchhiker appears, vanishing from the car mid-ride, leaving only an eerie chill. Countless travelers have encountered her, a haunting reminder of the thin line between the living and the dead. Local author Marianna Randazzo uncovers the secrets behind Staten Island’s haunted houses, spectral sightings and enduring legends.

Thomas White spins a beguiling yarn with tales that reach from the misty hollows of the Alleghenies to the lost islands of Pittsburgh.

Oppaymolleah's Curse. General Braddock's buried gold. The original man of steel, Joe Magarac. Such legends have found a home among the rich folklore of Western Pennsylvania. White invites readers to learn the truth behind the urban legend of the Green Man, speculate on the conspiracy surrounding the lost B-25 bomber of Monongahela and shiver over the ghostly lore of Western Pennsylvania.

Explore the creepiest legends of this southern community in Supernatural Saratoga.

Amid the famous mineral springs and horse races, Saratoga Springs is a hub for the supernatural. Author Mason Winfield, operator of Saratoga's Haunted History Ghost Walks, chronicles the Spa City's spookiest legends, from the Iroquoian zombie-like vampires to Benedict Arnold's Halloween apparitions. The heart of the city brims with lore, as covens work in secret in the Devil's Den neighborhood and phantoms linger at the Arcade on Broadway. In the shadow of the Adirondacks, spectral lights appear on remote Snake Hill, and the Woman in White haunts Saratoga Spa State Park. Explore the creepiest legends of Saratoga history, where some gamblers never leave and demons lurk in the forests.

Eerie Erie explores the dark and bizarre corners of this county's creepy history, from vampire crypts to phantom ships.

A tall creature that howls on the devil's backbone near Harbor Creek Township, phantom ships that erupt into flames and melt into darkness, UFOs on Presque Isle—these are some of the strange tales from the lakeshores and shadowy woods of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Local paranormal expert and author Reverend Robin S. Swope explores the dark and bizarre corners of the county's history, from the forgotten 1812 dead of the brig Niagara and the mysterious earthen mounds that dot the landscape to the legend of the ravenous Storm Hag and the rumored vampire's crypt in Erie Cemetery. Join Swope as he searches for answers in the lost pages of Erie County history and lore.

Experience the architecture and colorful history of the Historic Theaters of New York’s Capital District as author John A. Miller charts the entertaining history.

For generations, residents of New York's Capital District have flocked to the region's numerous theaters. The history behind the venues is often more compelling than the shows presented in them.

John Wilkes Booth brushed with death on stage while he and Abraham Lincoln were visiting Albany. The first exhibition of broadcast television was shown at Proctor's Theater in Schenectady, although the invention ironically contributed to the downfall of theaters across the nation. A fired manager of the Green Street Theatre seized control of the theater with a group of armed men, but Albany police stormed the building and the former manager regained control.

Warren township in the southern portion of Herkimer County has been the scene of more than one gruesome event.

In January 1885, locals reeled in horror when disgruntled wife Roxalana Druse shot her husband and dismembered his corpse to incinerate it in a farm house stove. Her trial and hanging was followed up in May of 1901 with two murders in yet another farm house kitchen.

John C. Wallis had allowed his ex-wife Arvilla to return home, one year after running off with hired farm hand Ben Hoyt. Wallis then rehired Hoyt and within months both Ben Hoyt and Arvilla Wallis were dead. Did Ben Hoyt murder Arvilla in cold blood or did John C. Wallis kill both of them?

Author James M. Greiner investigates a mysterious case of marriage, infidelity and multiple murders in turn of the century Herkimer County.

Author Dale Richard Perelman tells the tragic story of the 1978 murders and the mystery surrounding them.

In the summer of 1978, a mother and her four-year-old were stabbed to death in the quiet town of New Castle. Police suspected the husband, Lou Kadunce, but were unable to find either a weapon or a motive. Sitting in a Lawrence County jail in 1981, convicted serial killer Michael Atkinson accused Frank Costal - a carny, petty thief and Satanist - of having an affair with the Kadunce husband and participating in the murder. A series of intense trials ensued as Costal was convicted of the homicides and a jury found the husband not guilty. Questions surrounding the case gripped the region and grabbed headlines in the Pittsburgh Press.

Detailing the salacious history of Baltimore and its denizens from the city's earliest history up to and through Prohibition.

With nicknames such as ""Mob Town"" and ""Syphilis City,"" no one would deny that Baltimore has its dark side. Before shows such as ""The Wire"" and ""Homicide: Life on the Streets"" brought the city's crime rate to national attention, locals entertained themselves with rumors surrounding the mysterious death of writer Edgar Allan Poe and stories about Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald, who spent time in a Baltimore area sanitarium in the 1930s.

Tourists make the Inner Harbor one of the most traveled areas in the country, but if they would venture a few streets north to The Block on Baltimore Street they would see an area once famous for its burlesque shows. It is only the locals who would know to continue north on St. Paul to the Owl Bar, a former speakeasy that still proudly displays some of its Prohibition era paraphernalia.

Many of the North Jersey Shore towns we know today began as quiet retreats for pious New Yorkers wishing to escape the vice and crime of the city.

Towns such as Long Branch, Ocean Grove, Red Bank, and Atlantic Highlands all got their start like this, but with the passage of Prohibition in 1919, the region became a haven for criminals who began smuggling liquor through the serene seaside. Speakeasies sprang up on virtually every corner, as gangsters like Vito Genovese, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, and Meyer Lansky ruled this brutal underworld, while civilians were caught in the crossfire of gun battles between rival syndicates. Discover the true drama that captured the Jersey Shore during Prohibition.