In 1929, Chicago gangster Al Capone arranged a special St. Valentine's Day delivery for his favorite arch enemies: a massacre. Seven North Side mobsters were left dead. Yet random killings and bizarre murders were not unfamiliar in Chicago. Tales of the city's most violent and puzzling murders make this gripping work truly hair-raising: a deranged stalker kills his love object and then himself; a sausage maker uses the tools of his trade to rid himself of his wife; and a meticulous serial killer cleans his dead victims' wounds before taping them closed. Through accounts dripping with mystery, gory details and suspense, Troy Taylor brilliantly tells the twisted history of the worst of Chicago's North Side.

Blazing from the West Side, the Great Chicago Fire left nothing but ashy remnants of the developing city leveling its landscape but certainly not its spirit. While the West Side was home to the infamous O'Leary Barn, it was also where the news of some of the city's most gruesome and horrific crime reverberated throughout the state and across the country. Read about the bloody end of Robert 'the Terrible' Toughy, who undoubtedly lived up to his name, met an ill-deserved fate. Troy Taylor also delves into the life of John Wayne Gacy the depraved man masked by the clown costume and yet again proves to be a master storyteller and historian of Chicago's criminal underworld.

New Orleans--the Big Easy, the birthplace of jazz, home of Cafe du Monde and what some call the most haunted city in America. Beneath the indulgence and revelry of the Crescent City lies a long history of the dark and mysterious. From the famous "Queen of Voodoo," Marie Laveau, who is said to haunt the site of her grave, to the wicked LaLauries, whose true natures were hidden behind elegance and the trappings of high society, New Orleans is filled with spirits of all kinds. Some of the ghosts in these stories have sordid and scandalous histories, while others are friendly specters who simply can't leave their beloved city behind. Join supernatural historian Troy Taylor as he takes readers beyond the French Quarter and shows a side of New Orleans never seen.

"Since as early as the 1700s, New Orleans has been a city filled with sin and vice. Those first pioneering citizens of the Big Easy were thieves, vagabonds and criminals of all kinds. By the time Louisiana fell under American control, New Orleans had become a city of debauchery and corruption camouflaged by decadence. It was also considered one of the country's most dangerious cities, with a reputation of crime and loose morals. Rampant gambling and prostitution were the norm in nineteenth-century New Orleans, and over one-third of today's French Quarter was considered a hotbed of sin. Tales in this volume of streets of the Crescent City in the early 1900s and Kate Townsend, a prositute who was murdered by her own lover, a man who later wass awarde her inheritance. Troy Taylor takes a look back at New Orleans's early wicked days and historic crimes" --Back cover.

Hauntings lurk and spirits linger in the Show Me State Reader, beware! Turn these pages and enter the world of the paranormal, where ghosts and ghouls alike creep just out of sight. Author Troy Taylor shines a light in the dark corners of Missouri and scares those spirits out of hiding in this thrilling collection. From a headless ghost who stalks the aptly named "Murder Rocks", to a large hairy monster that roams the banks of the Missouri River, there's no shortage of bone-chilling tales to keep you up at night. It's even rumored that the devil himself came to St. Louis in 1949, but nobody knows for sure if he ever left. Around the campfire or tucked away on a dark and stormy night, this big book of ghost stories is a hauntingly good read.

Hauntings lurk and spirits linger in the Prairie State Reader, beware! Turn these pages and enter the world of the paranormal, where ghosts and ghouls alike creep just out of sight. Author Troy Taylor shines a light in the dark corners of Illinois and scares those spirits out of hiding in this thrilling collection. From a gallows tree in Greene County where an apparition can still be seen hanging, to the lingering spirits of warring mobsters at the site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, these stories of strange occurrences will keep you glued to the edge of your seat. Around the campfire or tucked away on a dark and stormy night, this big book of ghost stories is a hauntingly good read.

Do places where violent deaths occur somehow absorb the horror, only to conjure up images that haunt the living for generations to come? Many people believe that this can indeed happen; above all, in the context of that manmade phenomenon that reaps so great a toll in so short a time: War. Haunted U.S. Battlefields takes us on a spine-tingling tour of America's most legendary spectral scenes of human struggle-from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, from the Indian Wars to World War II and beyond. As America's bloodiest conflict, the Civil War has yielded the greatest number of ghostly sightings. Hence, most of the twenty-five battlefield legends this book relates are from this era-whether the myriad strange spectral happenings associated with Gettysburg, or this war's lesser known but equally tragic events. Summing up the eerie essence of wartime scenes across America-many of which today host popular ghost tours-Haunted U.S. Battlefields is a must for students of the paranormal, Civil War buffs, and all others interested in a spine-chilling realm of military history that the history books don't dare tell.

Frightening stories of hauntings throughout the state, including . . .

• The tragic specters of the Lemp family of brewers in St. Louis
• Spooky Zombie Road in Wildwood
• Phantoms of Mark Twain Cave
• The haunted Elms Resort Hotel in Excelsior Springs
• Spirits of the Civil War battle of Wilson's Creek

Journey back in time to the opulent days of St. Louis in the Gilded Age and discover the true story of the Lemp family and its rise to power, wealth and extravagance. It's a story that has become legend over the years but one that few people truly know. Despite the fact that the Lemps, and their legendary mansion, have inspired books, ghost stories and television shows, the true story of their tragic lives has become a confusing and convoluted mess of myths, misconceptions, legends and outright lies, making it nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction - until now. For the first time, the story of the rise and fall of the Lemp empire can truly be told. This is the first book that has been written with cooperation from Lemp family descendants and features private stories and details, as well as rare photographs, that have never been told or seen before. The history of the Lemp family is a true American tragedy, one of triumph over opposition, hard work, perseverance, genius and madness, eccentricity and passion, horror, death, suicide and ghosts. It's a story that is played out against the backdrop of America's changing landscape of the late 1800s and early 1900s and is enhanced by the history of the beer industry in St. Louis, the German immigrant experience in America and takes a riveting look at the lives and deaths of those for whom money truly was no object. This is a tale that is purely American - of a haunted family and a haunted house - told as only Troy Taylor can tell it

The mysterious and often violent history of Illinois has made the state a haven for restless spirits. This volume explores the supernatural side of the Prairie State, with stories on the horrors of an old slave house, the numerous spirits of Alton's McPike Mansion, the cemetery where the dead walk, the Spring Valley Vampire, the ghosts of the Bartonville Asylum, Chicago's famous Resurrection Mary, and the spirit world of Abraham Lincoln.

Illinois was in many ways born in blood. From the early days of piracy to twentieth-century mob massacres, the state has been plagued with some of the worst crimes in history. This book begins with a general overview of crime in the state and then focuses on its headline stories. Included are the cases of the "Murder Castle" of H. H. Holmes, the intellectual thrill killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, the bloody St. Valentine's Day Massacre involving Al Capone's South Side mob and Bugs Morans North Side gang, the eight nurses brutally butchered by Richard Speck, and the horrifying rape and slaughter of 33 young men by "Killer Clown" John Wayne Gacy.

According to legend, one of the strangest possessions in American history occurred in the small Illinois town of Watseka in 1878, creating a mystery that endures to this day. But what really happened in this enigmatic case and how much of the mysterious story that has been told over the years --- about the spirit of one dead girl invading the body of a living one - is truth and how much is fiction? Author Troy Taylor, one of the leading researchers into the supernatural in the country, has spent years delving into the facts behind this chilling story - searching through dusty records, wandering through old graveyards and visiting the sites associated with the case. This book, which is the first full-length, non-fiction title to be written about the case since 1879, unveils the true facts behind what occurred in Watseka in the 1870s and allows the reader to judge for himself whether Lurancy Vennum was truly possessed by the spirit of Mary Roff. This eye-opening, and sometimes terrifying book, is a must-have title for anyone with an interest in the mysterious and a taste for the unknown

Ever wonder what happens "behind the scenes" of paranormal investigations, ghost tours and haunted overnights? Ever wonder what happens when ghost hunters visit places that are so haunted that even they get scared? If so, then delve into the further adventures, and misadventures, of author Troy Taylor and the American Ghost Society's Len Adams as they recount their own personal experiences with ghosts, hauntings, haunted places, ghost tours and more. Discover these fascinating, often humorous and usually chilling first-hand accounts of some of the most haunted places in America, including the Villisca Ax Murder House, Eastern State Penitentiary, the Illinois town of Alton - one of the most haunted small towns in America, Lemp Mansion, Bell Witch Cave, Myrtles Plantation, Waverly Hills Sanatorium and many others! It's another look at the "confessions" of ghost hunters and the perfect addition to your library!

In the early 1800s, the Bell family of Robertson County, Tennessee, was preyed upon by a strange creature that also terrorized the community, tortured the Bells' youngest daughter, and eventually took the life of the family patriarch, John Bell. Taylor delves into the mysterious happenings surrounding this famous case, exploring the many myths and misconceptions regarding the Bell Witch.