Author: Karen L. Cox
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469635046
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
In 1932, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, reckoned with an unexpected influx of journalists and tourists as the lurid story of a local murder was splashed across headlines nationwide. Two eccentrics, Richard Dana and Octavia Dockery—known in the press as the "Wild Man" and the "Goat Woman"—enlisted an African American man named George Pearls to rob their reclusive neighbor, Jennie Merrill, at her estate. During the attempted robbery, Merrill was shot and killed. The crime drew national coverage when it came to light that Dana and Dockery, the alleged murderers, shared their huge, decaying antebellum mansion with their goats and other livestock, which prompted journalists to call the estate "Goat Castle." Pearls was killed by an Arkansas policeman in an unrelated incident before he could face trial. However, as was all too typical in the Jim Crow South, the white community demanded "justice," and an innocent black woman named Emily Burns was ultimately sent to prison for the murder of Merrill. Dana and Dockery not only avoided punishment but also lived to profit from the notoriety of the murder by opening their derelict home to tourists. Strange, fascinating, and sobering, Goat Castle tells the story of this local feud, killing, investigation, and trial, showing how a true crime tale of fallen southern grandeur and murder obscured an all too familiar story of racial injustice.
Goat Castle
Author: Karen L. Cox
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469635046
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
In 1932, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, reckoned with an unexpected influx of journalists and tourists as the lurid story of a local murder was splashed across headlines nationwide. Two eccentrics, Richard Dana and Octavia Dockery—known in the press as the "Wild Man" and the "Goat Woman"—enlisted an African American man named George Pearls to rob their reclusive neighbor, Jennie Merrill, at her estate. During the attempted robbery, Merrill was shot and killed. The crime drew national coverage when it came to light that Dana and Dockery, the alleged murderers, shared their huge, decaying antebellum mansion with their goats and other livestock, which prompted journalists to call the estate "Goat Castle." Pearls was killed by an Arkansas policeman in an unrelated incident before he could face trial. However, as was all too typical in the Jim Crow South, the white community demanded "justice," and an innocent black woman named Emily Burns was ultimately sent to prison for the murder of Merrill. Dana and Dockery not only avoided punishment but also lived to profit from the notoriety of the murder by opening their derelict home to tourists. Strange, fascinating, and sobering, Goat Castle tells the story of this local feud, killing, investigation, and trial, showing how a true crime tale of fallen southern grandeur and murder obscured an all too familiar story of racial injustice.
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469635046
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
In 1932, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, reckoned with an unexpected influx of journalists and tourists as the lurid story of a local murder was splashed across headlines nationwide. Two eccentrics, Richard Dana and Octavia Dockery—known in the press as the "Wild Man" and the "Goat Woman"—enlisted an African American man named George Pearls to rob their reclusive neighbor, Jennie Merrill, at her estate. During the attempted robbery, Merrill was shot and killed. The crime drew national coverage when it came to light that Dana and Dockery, the alleged murderers, shared their huge, decaying antebellum mansion with their goats and other livestock, which prompted journalists to call the estate "Goat Castle." Pearls was killed by an Arkansas policeman in an unrelated incident before he could face trial. However, as was all too typical in the Jim Crow South, the white community demanded "justice," and an innocent black woman named Emily Burns was ultimately sent to prison for the murder of Merrill. Dana and Dockery not only avoided punishment but also lived to profit from the notoriety of the murder by opening their derelict home to tourists. Strange, fascinating, and sobering, Goat Castle tells the story of this local feud, killing, investigation, and trial, showing how a true crime tale of fallen southern grandeur and murder obscured an all too familiar story of racial injustice.
Weird Wild West
Author: Keven McQueen
Publisher: Quarry Books
ISBN: 0253043689
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 185
Book Description
The Wild West is infamous for its outrageous stories, cowboys, and gun battles. But the region is also known for its ghost stories, unexplained deaths, bizarre murders, and peculiar burials. In Weird Wild West, author Keven McQueen brings together a fabulous collection of tales of the darker and stranger side of Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington. Exploring mysterious deaths, true crime stories, and paranormal activity, this eerie collection uncovers long buried and disturbing stories of the region. Included are the unforgettable tales of the body-snatching of Billy the Kid, the revenge curse of a former deputy district attorney in Colorado, and the weird tale of Mr. Moon, who couldn't keep his dearly departed wife in the ground despite his best efforts. An intriguing, frightful, and entertaining exploration of the strange and gothic side of the Western states, Weird Wild West promises to send chills down your spine.
Publisher: Quarry Books
ISBN: 0253043689
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 185
Book Description
The Wild West is infamous for its outrageous stories, cowboys, and gun battles. But the region is also known for its ghost stories, unexplained deaths, bizarre murders, and peculiar burials. In Weird Wild West, author Keven McQueen brings together a fabulous collection of tales of the darker and stranger side of Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington. Exploring mysterious deaths, true crime stories, and paranormal activity, this eerie collection uncovers long buried and disturbing stories of the region. Included are the unforgettable tales of the body-snatching of Billy the Kid, the revenge curse of a former deputy district attorney in Colorado, and the weird tale of Mr. Moon, who couldn't keep his dearly departed wife in the ground despite his best efforts. An intriguing, frightful, and entertaining exploration of the strange and gothic side of the Western states, Weird Wild West promises to send chills down your spine.
Black Flowers
Author: Jesse Muchmore
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781733894708
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Many people think they know the South; the genteel hospitality, old-fashioned values, and life lived at a slower pace. But there is another South, a stranger one unknown to outsiders, brimming just beneath the surface.These stories explore that hidden world-within-a-world. A bizarre, distorted, funhouse mirror reflection of the culture you thought you knew.A young biracial boy in the 1950s deals with cultural hostilities, a punk rocker faces down a two-thousand-year-old cult, a widowed man has an unusual identity crisis, and a Native American girl discovers enchanted woods through a doorway in her grandmother's garden.Welcome to the Weird South.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781733894708
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Many people think they know the South; the genteel hospitality, old-fashioned values, and life lived at a slower pace. But there is another South, a stranger one unknown to outsiders, brimming just beneath the surface.These stories explore that hidden world-within-a-world. A bizarre, distorted, funhouse mirror reflection of the culture you thought you knew.A young biracial boy in the 1950s deals with cultural hostilities, a punk rocker faces down a two-thousand-year-old cult, a widowed man has an unusual identity crisis, and a Native American girl discovers enchanted woods through a doorway in her grandmother's garden.Welcome to the Weird South.
Gothic and Strange True Tales of the South
Author: Keven McQueen
Publisher: Pelican Publishing
ISBN: 9781455620159
Category : Curiosities and wonders
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Based on newspaper accounts from the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, many from the Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal, the bizarre incidents of the South prove that death can be both surprising and macabre. Inspired by articles from the late 1800s to the 1930s, these true tales retain their accuracy but still aim to tell a good story. The stories vary in theme from Graveyard Gossip and Murders of Egregious Atrocity to Gore Galore and Tales of the Hangman. From body snatchings and grave robberies to disturbing murders and suicides, these happenings have the potential to inspire horror and humor equally. The ridiculous and apt final sayings attributed to the dead in the section Last Words remind you that joking about death can be a serious offense. Stealing bodies in the nineteenth century became so prevalent, because of the money that could be earned, that relatives of the deceased would spent days in cemeteries guarding their loved ones. One ingenious man from Tennessee even suggested that people fill graves with cement to prevent body snatching. The medical expertise of physicians at the time did not include knowledge of the subtleties of supposed lifelessness; many times the presumed dead were buried alive only to wake later and attempt to claw their way out of the ground. Mourners in South Carolina had the interesting habit of decorating graves with common items, such as soap dishes, coffee cups, and cigar boxes. Some people did not respect the solemn and timely nature of memorial services: Rev. Dr. Nathanial Pridgeon of Georgia insisted on preaching his at his own funeral, and a woman in West Virginia turned her husband�s tragic death date into her new wedding anniversary. Covering occurrences from Virginia to Louisiana, North Carolina to Mississippi, these ghastly and sometimes ghostly tales are grossly entertaining and historically unique in that the collection is focused solely on unusual instances of death and dying down South. The book also includes a section listing incidents of the unbelievable phenomenon of black crowds lynching black criminals from the 1870s to the 1940s.
Publisher: Pelican Publishing
ISBN: 9781455620159
Category : Curiosities and wonders
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Based on newspaper accounts from the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, many from the Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal, the bizarre incidents of the South prove that death can be both surprising and macabre. Inspired by articles from the late 1800s to the 1930s, these true tales retain their accuracy but still aim to tell a good story. The stories vary in theme from Graveyard Gossip and Murders of Egregious Atrocity to Gore Galore and Tales of the Hangman. From body snatchings and grave robberies to disturbing murders and suicides, these happenings have the potential to inspire horror and humor equally. The ridiculous and apt final sayings attributed to the dead in the section Last Words remind you that joking about death can be a serious offense. Stealing bodies in the nineteenth century became so prevalent, because of the money that could be earned, that relatives of the deceased would spent days in cemeteries guarding their loved ones. One ingenious man from Tennessee even suggested that people fill graves with cement to prevent body snatching. The medical expertise of physicians at the time did not include knowledge of the subtleties of supposed lifelessness; many times the presumed dead were buried alive only to wake later and attempt to claw their way out of the ground. Mourners in South Carolina had the interesting habit of decorating graves with common items, such as soap dishes, coffee cups, and cigar boxes. Some people did not respect the solemn and timely nature of memorial services: Rev. Dr. Nathanial Pridgeon of Georgia insisted on preaching his at his own funeral, and a woman in West Virginia turned her husband�s tragic death date into her new wedding anniversary. Covering occurrences from Virginia to Louisiana, North Carolina to Mississippi, these ghastly and sometimes ghostly tales are grossly entertaining and historically unique in that the collection is focused solely on unusual instances of death and dying down South. The book also includes a section listing incidents of the unbelievable phenomenon of black crowds lynching black criminals from the 1870s to the 1940s.
Texas Gothic
Author: Rosemary Clement-Moore
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0375898107
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
Amy Goodnight knows that the world isn't as simple as it seems. She also understands that "normal" doesn't mix with magic, and she's worked hard to build a wall between the two worlds. Not only to protect her family, who are all practicing witches, but to protect any hope of ever having a normal life herself. Ranch-sitting for her aunt in Texas should be exactly that: good old ordinary, uneventful hard work. Only, Amy and her sister, Phin, aren't alone. There's someone else in the house with them--and it's not the living, breathing, amazingly hot cowboy from the ranch next door. It's a ghost, and it's more powerful than the Goodnights and all their protective spells combined. It wants something from Amy, and none of her carefully built defenses can hold it back. This is the summer when the wall between Amy's worlds is going to come crashing down. A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year An ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults Praise for Texas Gothic: [Star] "You can't get much more Nancy Drew. . . . This engaging mystery has plenty of both paranormal and romance, spiced with loving families and satisfyingly packed with self-sufficient, competent girls."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred [Star] "Teens looking for a rollicking adventure filled with paranormal events, dastardly evildoers, and laugh-out-loud moments as Amy and Ben argue and snipe their way to love will adore this book."--School Library Journal, Starred "The author mixes suspense, humor, and lots of local flavor. . . . The enjoyable sum is a lively teen ghost story with sex appeal."--The Horn Book "A deeply affectionate rendering of Texas landscapes and legends combines with an appealing cast of well-developed characters to give texture to this well-plotted mystery; truly scary moments are balanced by the humorous bumbles of the awkwardly developing romance between Amy and Ben, as well as Phin's sublime cluelessness about the way her eccentricities appear to other people."--The Bulletin
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0375898107
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
Amy Goodnight knows that the world isn't as simple as it seems. She also understands that "normal" doesn't mix with magic, and she's worked hard to build a wall between the two worlds. Not only to protect her family, who are all practicing witches, but to protect any hope of ever having a normal life herself. Ranch-sitting for her aunt in Texas should be exactly that: good old ordinary, uneventful hard work. Only, Amy and her sister, Phin, aren't alone. There's someone else in the house with them--and it's not the living, breathing, amazingly hot cowboy from the ranch next door. It's a ghost, and it's more powerful than the Goodnights and all their protective spells combined. It wants something from Amy, and none of her carefully built defenses can hold it back. This is the summer when the wall between Amy's worlds is going to come crashing down. A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year An ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults Praise for Texas Gothic: [Star] "You can't get much more Nancy Drew. . . . This engaging mystery has plenty of both paranormal and romance, spiced with loving families and satisfyingly packed with self-sufficient, competent girls."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred [Star] "Teens looking for a rollicking adventure filled with paranormal events, dastardly evildoers, and laugh-out-loud moments as Amy and Ben argue and snipe their way to love will adore this book."--School Library Journal, Starred "The author mixes suspense, humor, and lots of local flavor. . . . The enjoyable sum is a lively teen ghost story with sex appeal."--The Horn Book "A deeply affectionate rendering of Texas landscapes and legends combines with an appealing cast of well-developed characters to give texture to this well-plotted mystery; truly scary moments are balanced by the humorous bumbles of the awkwardly developing romance between Amy and Ben, as well as Phin's sublime cluelessness about the way her eccentricities appear to other people."--The Bulletin
Horror in the Heartland
Author: Keven McQueen
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253029120
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
A spooky history of the American Midwest—from grave robbers to ghost sightings and more—by the author of Creepy California. Most people think of the American Midwest as a place of wheat fields and family farms; cozy small towns and wholesome communities. But there’s more to the story of America’s Heartland—a dark history of strange tales and unsettling facts hidden just beneath its quaint pastoral image. In Horror in the Heartland, historian Keven McQueen offers a guided tour of terrible crimes and eccentric characters; haunted houses and murder-suicides; mad doctors, body snatchers, and pranks gone comically—and tragically—wrong. From tales of the booming grave-robbing industry of late 19th-century Indiana to the story of a Michigan physician who left his estate to his pet monkeys, McQueen investigates a spooky and twisted side of Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Exploring burial customs, unexplained deaths, ghost stories, premature burials, bizarre murders, peculiar wills and much more, this creepy collection reveals the region’s untold stories and offers intriguing, if sometimes macabre, insights into human nature.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253029120
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
A spooky history of the American Midwest—from grave robbers to ghost sightings and more—by the author of Creepy California. Most people think of the American Midwest as a place of wheat fields and family farms; cozy small towns and wholesome communities. But there’s more to the story of America’s Heartland—a dark history of strange tales and unsettling facts hidden just beneath its quaint pastoral image. In Horror in the Heartland, historian Keven McQueen offers a guided tour of terrible crimes and eccentric characters; haunted houses and murder-suicides; mad doctors, body snatchers, and pranks gone comically—and tragically—wrong. From tales of the booming grave-robbing industry of late 19th-century Indiana to the story of a Michigan physician who left his estate to his pet monkeys, McQueen investigates a spooky and twisted side of Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Exploring burial customs, unexplained deaths, ghost stories, premature burials, bizarre murders, peculiar wills and much more, this creepy collection reveals the region’s untold stories and offers intriguing, if sometimes macabre, insights into human nature.
The Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic
Author: Susan Castillo Street
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137477741
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 498
Book Description
This book examines ‘Southern Gothic’ - a term that describes some of the finest works of the American Imagination. But what do ‘Southern’ and ‘Gothic’ mean, and how are they related? Traditionally seen as drawing on the tragedy of slavery and loss, ‘Southern Gothic’ is now a richer, more complex subject. Thirty-five distinguished scholars explore the Southern Gothic, under the categories of Poe and his Legacy; Space and Place; Race; Gender and Sexuality; and Monsters and Voodoo. The essays examine slavery and the laws that supported it, and stories of slaves who rebelled and those who escaped. Also present are the often-neglected issues of the Native American presence in the South, socioeconomic class, the distinctions among the several regions of the South, same-sex relationships, and norms of gendered behaviour. This handbook covers not only iconic figures of Southern literature but also other less well-known writers, and examines gothic imagery in film and in contemporary television programmes such as True Blood and True Detective.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137477741
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 498
Book Description
This book examines ‘Southern Gothic’ - a term that describes some of the finest works of the American Imagination. But what do ‘Southern’ and ‘Gothic’ mean, and how are they related? Traditionally seen as drawing on the tragedy of slavery and loss, ‘Southern Gothic’ is now a richer, more complex subject. Thirty-five distinguished scholars explore the Southern Gothic, under the categories of Poe and his Legacy; Space and Place; Race; Gender and Sexuality; and Monsters and Voodoo. The essays examine slavery and the laws that supported it, and stories of slaves who rebelled and those who escaped. Also present are the often-neglected issues of the Native American presence in the South, socioeconomic class, the distinctions among the several regions of the South, same-sex relationships, and norms of gendered behaviour. This handbook covers not only iconic figures of Southern literature but also other less well-known writers, and examines gothic imagery in film and in contemporary television programmes such as True Blood and True Detective.
Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror
Author: Eden Royce
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 9781326269890
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 172
Book Description
Pull up a rocking chair and sit a spell. Soak in these tales of Southern Gothic horror: A witchdoctor's niece tells him a life-altering secret, an investigator who keeps a 100% confession rate.... These are stories where the setting itself becomes a character-fog laced cemeteries, sulfur rich marshes-housing creatures that defy understanding and where the grotesque and macabre are celebrated. The true horror is in what you can't see...until it's sitting right next to you. Eden Royce delivers a sultry and spicy dose of Southern Gothic. The stories are rich in flavor and clever in metaphor, the horrors completely surreal or-far more unnerving-all too possible. She brings a refreshing perspective to the table that paranormal lovers are sure to enjoy. -B.D. Bruns, author ofThe Gothic Shift You can feel the warm thick air, the rich history and legends, the desperation of the impoverished, and the deep horror of the betrayed. -Roma Gray, author of Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon"
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 9781326269890
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 172
Book Description
Pull up a rocking chair and sit a spell. Soak in these tales of Southern Gothic horror: A witchdoctor's niece tells him a life-altering secret, an investigator who keeps a 100% confession rate.... These are stories where the setting itself becomes a character-fog laced cemeteries, sulfur rich marshes-housing creatures that defy understanding and where the grotesque and macabre are celebrated. The true horror is in what you can't see...until it's sitting right next to you. Eden Royce delivers a sultry and spicy dose of Southern Gothic. The stories are rich in flavor and clever in metaphor, the horrors completely surreal or-far more unnerving-all too possible. She brings a refreshing perspective to the table that paranormal lovers are sure to enjoy. -B.D. Bruns, author ofThe Gothic Shift You can feel the warm thick air, the rich history and legends, the desperation of the impoverished, and the deep horror of the betrayed. -Roma Gray, author of Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon"
Murder in Old Kentucky
Author: Keven McQueen
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253057507
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 190
Book Description
Kentucky—land of bluegrass, horse racing, bourbon, and . . . murder. In Murder in Old Kentucky: True Crime Stories from the Bluegrass, Keven McQueen recounts dark and disturbing tales from the pages of Kentucky history, including the 1825 murder of Col. Solomon Sharp—a sordid affair that inspired Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Penn Warren—and the 1881 Ashland Tragedy, a heartbreaking murder of three innocent teenagers. This revised and expanded edition includes the story of a family terrorized by an arsonist who massacred eleven of their members and burned the property of even more, the tale of a husband and wife found shot in each other's arms with a life-sized photo of another man between them, and many more deaths that made headlines. Meticulously researched and written with McQueen's trademark humor, Murder in Old Kentucky will captivate any fan of true crime or Kentucky history.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253057507
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 190
Book Description
Kentucky—land of bluegrass, horse racing, bourbon, and . . . murder. In Murder in Old Kentucky: True Crime Stories from the Bluegrass, Keven McQueen recounts dark and disturbing tales from the pages of Kentucky history, including the 1825 murder of Col. Solomon Sharp—a sordid affair that inspired Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Penn Warren—and the 1881 Ashland Tragedy, a heartbreaking murder of three innocent teenagers. This revised and expanded edition includes the story of a family terrorized by an arsonist who massacred eleven of their members and burned the property of even more, the tale of a husband and wife found shot in each other's arms with a life-sized photo of another man between them, and many more deaths that made headlines. Meticulously researched and written with McQueen's trademark humor, Murder in Old Kentucky will captivate any fan of true crime or Kentucky history.
Nineteenth-Century Southern Gothic Short Fiction
Author: Charles L. Crow
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1785273892
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
The twelve Gothic tales of this collection span the nineteenth-century South and are from some of the most famous writers of the age, such as Edgar Allan Poe, to more recently rediscovered and now celebrated writers such as Kate Chopin and Charles Chesnutt, to the completely and unfairly obscure E. Levi Brown. Companion readings—some themselves quite chilling—are by celebrated writers and well-known historical figures, such as Thomas Jefferson, Charles Brockden Brown, Jacques Dessalines, and W. E. B DuBois. These readings place the fiction in the context of the South and the Caribbean: the revolution in Haiti, Nat Turner’s rebellion, the realities of slavery and the myths spun by its apologists, the aftermath of the Civil War, and the brutalities of Jim Crow laws.
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1785273892
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
The twelve Gothic tales of this collection span the nineteenth-century South and are from some of the most famous writers of the age, such as Edgar Allan Poe, to more recently rediscovered and now celebrated writers such as Kate Chopin and Charles Chesnutt, to the completely and unfairly obscure E. Levi Brown. Companion readings—some themselves quite chilling—are by celebrated writers and well-known historical figures, such as Thomas Jefferson, Charles Brockden Brown, Jacques Dessalines, and W. E. B DuBois. These readings place the fiction in the context of the South and the Caribbean: the revolution in Haiti, Nat Turner’s rebellion, the realities of slavery and the myths spun by its apologists, the aftermath of the Civil War, and the brutalities of Jim Crow laws.