Big Book of St. Louis & Southern Illinois Crime

While most of us, fortunately, do not have mass murderers or gangsters in our family tree, some people do count criminals as cousins, and some families, unhappily, contain victims. This “big book” focuses on notorious cases from the St. Louis and Southern Illinois metro areas.

What will you find inside?

Like its companion book on St. Louis nostalgia, the Table of Contents here reveals three columns of short essays, this time concentrating on notorious crimes and biographies of famous (and infamous) people. These incidents and the people in them cover the past 200 years or so and include all kinds of criminal actions. There is also an “exciting full-length illustrated war/romance novel” included at the end.

How is the book formatted?

Almost 200 short sections, arranged on two-column pages, do not appear to be in any particular order but run the gamut from “the Kerry Patch Gangsters” to “Ballroom Queen Murdered.” Important people, places, and events are often placed in bold within in the text so they stand out a bit better. There are many mug shots, photos, and other illustrations interspersed on the pages. Facts are not sourced, so there is no way to tell what is accurate or where information came from, and there is no index.