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CRUELLY MURDERED: THE MURDER OF MARY MAGDALENE PITTS AND OTHER KENTUCKY TRUE CRIME STORIES (Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2008)
Kentucky history is an inexhaustible gold mine for those who would write in the true crime genre. Cruelly Murdered is the second serving, and I anticipate many more to come. Chapter synopses are as follows:
How Isaac Desha Escaped the Noose Five Times. The son of a Kentucky governor committed a hamfisted murder; his dad pulled political strings to have him acquitted after four trials; then the son moved to Texas and killed another man.
Adventures of a Busy Young Man. In the book, I describe the criminal career of Estill Countys Edward Hawkins as seeming like a surrealistic novel. He was a triplet with 36 siblings, for example. His murderous ways got him hanged when he had barely reached adulthood, but not before a career in bigamy and philandering that will excite the readers grudging admiration.
Gore in Garrard. In January 1882, Garrard County was horrified by two separate ax murder incidents by two separate perpetrators. The former, James Wilmot, most of his family due to insanity; the latter, William Austin, murdered his great-aunt out of sheer greed.
Death of an Artist. In which Clarence Boyd, up-and-coming Louisville painter, is shot by his dentist brother-in-law.
The Best-Looking Man Ever Hanged. Thats what Granville Prewitt of Wayne County called himself, for no good reason.
The Murdered Maid. Like the account of the Ashland Tragedy in Murder in Old Kentucky, this is a sprawling epic of criminality involving a brutal murder and race relations in the Louisville of 1887. In this chapter I follow one of my own inviolable rules for writing: never fail to work in a ghost story whenever possible. (Another inviolable rule: if an opportunity arises to bludgeon the vastly overrated New York Times, take it.)
Never Tease an Angry Sheriff. Sheriff VanArsdale of Mercer County was so angry at being voted out of office in favor of a Republican that he took it out on his old enemy, Dr. Harrod. Or was it self-defense, as he claimed?
Sketches in Kentucky Murder. This chapter consists of seven interesting murder cases that could not be turned into individual chapters, mostly because research failed to turn up sufficient details.
Bad Tom Smith Entertains 5,000 Spectators. Breathitt County feudist Bad Tom Smith, who more than lived up to his nickname, and his live-in girlfriend Catherine McQuinn murdered Dr. John Rader in their bedroom in 1895; in a rare triumph of mountain justice, Smith ended up dancing a jig at the end of a rope.
What Came of Stealing Some Quilts. In which a seemingly trivial Harlan County crime snowballed into the murders of the Loebs, two elderly married Jewish peddlers.
The Fictitious and Real Ordeals of Robert Laughlin. After Laughlins Bracken County home burned down and the bodies of his wife and young niece were found in the rubble, he told the authorities a thrilling tale of fighting two intruders who gave his throat a negligible cut and let him escape. For some reason, few people believed him.
In Which Mr. Dever and Mrs. West Loses Their Social Standing. A ghastly tale of murder, flagrant adultery, and mob vengeance in Marion County.
The Case of the Killer Coroner. Hugh McCullough, coroner in 1900 Louisville, drums up some business by shooting the son of his obnoxious neighbors.
Four Murderers. Another epic, describing the overlapping criminal careers of four murders in turn-of-the-century Lexington: Claude OBrien and Earl Whitney, young vagrants who shot prominent merchant A. B. Chinn; William McCarty, whose jealousy and fondness for drink led him to kill his wife; and James Best, a wealthy married contractor who clumsily slew his mistress and tried to make it look like suicide.
Perfect Monsters: The Murders of Lillian Patrick and Mary Magdalene Pitts. Two horrifying cases of child abuse and murder that took place a generation apart and in adjoining counties, Boyd and Greenup. The 1928 murder of three-year-old Mary Magdalene Pitts still ranks as one of the most infamous crimes in Kentucky history.
Hanging of the Mystery Tramp. When John Owen was sentenced to be hanged for killing a fellow hobo in Illinois, he took pleasure in dropping vague hints about his real identity and his Kentucky heritage.
A Picnic Spoiled. An insane fathers overprotectiveness leads to a shooting spree in this Louisville case from the Roaring Twenties.
Cruelly Murdered may be purchased via Amazon.com, numerous other online retailers, and by special order at your local bookstore.
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