True Crime

From Mesoamerican mysteries to local legends, history waits to be unearthed on Colorado’s western slope.

Revelations include discovering new evidence in the infamous Alferd Packer case and old Spanish colonial relics near Kannah Creek. Investigators follow the trail of lost Spanish explorers searching for the Seven Cities of Gold and pursue archaeological signs of a prehistoric civilization north of Collbran. Expeditions search for the legend of the Utes’ Cave of the Ancients and the fabled location of Aztlán, the Aztecs’ original homeland.

A crew of historians, archaeologists and scientists, the Western Investigations Team uses ground-penetrating radar, electron microscopy, innovative metallurgic research and newly discovered documents to reexamine fascinating historical questions and contribute new chapters to history.

Highlands, North Carolina, is not just home to cool mountain breezes, breathtaking views and world-class shopping and restaurants, it also boasts a rich and vibrant history. What started as the dream of two developers in 1875 has grown from a tiny hamlet into a beloved home and home-away-from-home for many. Join sixth-generation Highlands native Isabel Hall Chambers and her husband, Overton Chambers, as they share charming tales of old Highlands, from lazy summer days playing "town ball" to ice-skating and celebrating Christmas. Woven into this collection of articles from the Laurel are true stories of some of the area's grand old homes, its traditions and an array of interesting residents and visitors through the years, as told by fathers and grandfathers, old postcards, letters, deeds and even tombstones. Everyone who loves this unique mountain community will delight in Remembering Highlands.

Colorado's Grand Valley has an extensive geological and human history going back millennia. Franciscan priests worked in tandem with the native Ute people to plot passage through the territory, opening the valley to unprecedented settlement. The region became the playground of enterprising visionaries, murderous outlaws, hooligans and harlots alike. From the gruesome Meeker massacre and its tragic consequences for the Ute nation to the mysterious murder of Sam McMullin and a showdown with the Ku Klux Klan in 1925, uncover the engrossing stories of an unyielding land. Author Kate Ruland-Thorne recounts many of the defining and damning moments throughout Grand Valley history.

The untold stories of the tranquil town of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, that have been swept under the rug or lost over the years.

Sheboygan deserves its reputation as a conservative city clean, quiet and law-abiding. But here are some stories that have been swept under the rug or lost overboard. Venture into the mists of the ""Lake Michigan Triangle"" that have swallowed boats, planes and entire tribes. Investigate speakeasy shootings, safes burgled by a fly swatter, poisoned Christmas candy, flaming shipwrecks and the hoax that had militiamen firing on their own cattle. Or just sit down with some bizarre anecdotes about a hometown you thought you knew, from the town's first baseball game to the man freed from jail by a jug of whiskey to the deputy sheriff who had to enforce Nicholas Hoffman's first bath in 50 years.

If you lived in Hull, Massachusetts, during the first four decades of the twentieth century, you were susceptible to two forces: the political machinations of Boss John Smith and the vitriolic editorial columns of Hull Beacon publisher Floretta Vining. Smith ran the town with an iron fist through fixed elections, padlocked town meetings, kickbacks, graft and bribes. Vining reported on it all and fought it like no other Progressive Era woman could, using newsprint space to lash out at girls who chewed gum in public and small boys who made too much noise at night, and calling for old men over sixty years of age to simply be put to sleep. Hull Times contributor and local historian John Galluzzo brings back the days of Vining and Smith, of steamboats and trains, of Paragon Park and the grand hotels of Nantasket Beach. In this accessible history, the reader gets a ringside seat to some of the most heated political battles in the history of the South Shore, fought in town halls and occasionally spilling into the streets of the once quiet and peaceful Hull Village.