Contents
Prologue: The Orphans of History
MURDER
Slippers at the Cistern
“Bliss Not Long”
“Our coffins will arrive at your house today . . .”
Straight Razor
“The Great Judge”
The Marrying Brakeman
Love with a Bullet
“Don’t do that, Harry!”
A.K.A. Marian Davis
Leave the Baby
Death by Cannon
Bingo
In a Violinist’s Hands
“Suicide Mania”
Mrs. Krimmer’s Son
Odors
“Blood Ends a Feud”
“He might have known . . .”
ACCIDENTS
“A Pitiless World”
Misfire
The Fourth
The Ten O’Clock Train
Switchman
Collapse
Fire in the Sky
Fire Wild
Horror on Main Street
Death’s Alley
Hell Pit at the Davidson
The Great Horror
Death on the Queen
The Alleghany
“An Ocean Graveyard”
Launch of the William H. Wolf
In the Crib
VICE
Games of Chance
Policy
Lonely Corners
The Queen of Nights
Raids
Protection
With Bells On
V-Girls and Trouble Boys
Spoons
“Kill the Kiss”
Dirty Books
Peppy Tales
Orgy at the Workhouse
“A Speculative Mood”
Pajamas
Darkness in the Badlands
Black Jack
“Now, I don’t care.”
From Chicago
The Old Mother’s House
River Street Rivals
Mashers
SECRETS
The Vanishers
The Runaways
“Am being kidnapped . . .”
The Baby Problem
Woman with a Cut Throat
The Hermit Suicides
On the Fringe
Bad Man
Blind Date
The Woman at the Breakwater
Blood Money
Black Hand
The Missing Head
In the Attic
Not John Dwyer
“Order of the Day”
Telling
Heart Failure
The Girl Who Couldn’t Move
The Flying Machine
The Old Jarvis House
The House on the Ravine
Incendiary
Crazy Fritz
Mr. Blunt
Epilogue: They Call It Home
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author