Adam Selzer

Vivid and intriguing, Murder Maps USA plots the most remarkable American homicides between the Civil War and WWII onto maps and plans, alongside haunting crime scene photographs and compelling expert analysis.

The most sensational and intriguing murders from across the United States are reexamined in this disquieting volume, which introduces readers to the most lethal killers from every state. Uncovering homicides from a seminal period of American criminal history, this compendium covers from show more the end of the Civil War to the beginning of WWII, the era that saw the first murderer convicted using fingerprints and the birth of the FBI laboratory.

Every murder case is accompanied by a contemporary map or bespoke floorplan on which the precise movements of both killer and victim are meticulously plotted, revealing the vital components of each crime. The gruesome scene is completed with early mugshots and unnerving crime scene photographs, bringing to life blood-soaked Wild West bars, inner city ganglands, and the deadly plots behind famous assassinations.

The killers featured range from the black widow Belle Gunness, who lured numerous victims to her Illinois farm, to Cleveland’s “Mad Butcher,” and from the infamous Texan bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde to the devious Petrillo cousins in Philadelphia and their contract killing service.

Crime expert Adam Selzer illuminates the details of each case, recounting the shocking details of the crimes themselves, and the ingenious detective work and breakthrough forensics that solved them. His bloodthirsty tour of America’s criminal underworld uncovers the ruthless scheming of murderers both infamous and little-known, providing a hair-raising anthology that will appeal to anyone with a taste for murder. show less

I saw this book on Bibliosaurus Text, and knew I absolutely had to read it. I read these true ghost story books a lot, ever since I was a kid and would scare the hell out of myself with the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. (Which by the way, is still scaring kids all these years later.)

Selzer takes us on a journey through Chicago, stop by stop, and the stories are told in such a way that I feel like I am walking through the neighborhoods and streets of Chicago with Selzer on his show more tour. The beginning of each legend or tale begins with the area the story is in, including the cross streets, so that a reader who aspires to be a ghost hunter can check the area out for themselves. Selzer includes what you can do and where you can go at the end of each chapter, and considerately leaves out details if there are privacy issues, so that these wanna be ghost hunters do not disturb private residences.

I loved the legend of Resurrection Mary. It is the legend of the ghostly passenger ; I think this a story everyone is familiar with, and seems to be in every city and everywhere. A driver will pick up a hitchiker, and then as they pass a graveyard, the passenger mysteriously disappears. Chicago has its own ghostly passenger, known as Resurrection Mary, which stretches back all the way to the 1930s, when the first story was told. That is another thing I loved about this book - all the historical research that Selzer put into the stories. Some of the evidence he unearthed goes all the back to the 1800s, including a vampire scare in the late 1800s!

This book made me realize I know practically nothing about Chicago's history. I know about the Haymarket Square Riot, the great Chicago Fire, the mob connections, and thanks to Devil in the White City, I know a little bit about the World's Fair and the killer H.H.Holmes. Selzer's book taught me about the Iroquois Theater Fire, about Abraham Lincoln's funeral train and that Lincoln had to be re-embalmed numerous times along the way, and the Eastland disaster, which I had never even heard about, among other events.

This book was interesting for the supernatural histories, and for the actual history of the city. I want to go back to Chicago now, to see where some of these histories and legends occurred. I also of course want to take Selzer's tour. I think next time I visit, I will. Maybe I will see a ghost... show less

The Good: This was a quick, easy read. Well written, with nothing too graphic (romance or horror related) for its target audience. There were some cute and witty things said and going on throughout the book and other than the gaping holes in Ali's logic, I found this to be a fairly decent read.

The Bad: Ali lives in a world where the paranormal are out of the coffin, yet she fails to notice Doug is a zombie, rather assuming he's just super good at dressing up all goth-like. When he wears the show more same clothes every time she sees him, it isn't a turn off. And when he describes his "illness" to her, she just never gets it. They date for like a week, and Ali seriously considers becoming undead for him. After a week. Because she loves him. After a week. Did I mention it was like a week? Because, yeah, I hate that. show less

There's this myth that gifted kids are always quiet academic types with good grades, but this depicts gifted kids the way I've always known them: troublemakers with more than enough brains to figure out how to skirt the rules creatively. From the moment Leon decides that his class project is going to be a sex-ed video, you know this will be funny, unusual, and cause havoc at his high school!

This book is a hilarious quick read even for adults, though it's obviously aimed at teens. This would show more probably make a great present for gifted kids who haven't quite figured out how that label fits into their lives yet, though beware the results of such a gift! show less