Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to Non-Sequiturs from the Tree of Irony RSS feed or get each post delivered to your e-mail account. Thanks for visiting!
If you are a fan of true crime books and/or books about the Cleveland area, you’ve probably read books by John Stark Bellamy II. John used to work at the Fairview Park branch of the Cuyahoga County Library as their local history specialist. I’ve read John’s books and enjoyed them. I knew him personally at one time–we attended the same church for awhile. I’d heard that he’d retired and moved to Vermont, but I’d been wondering if he might have done anything recently. I did a Google search and found that he has, indeed, been busy having authored his first e-book for the Cleveland Digital Library of Cleveland State Univerity Library’s Special Collections of the Cleveland Memory Project (it’s their first e-book as well).
It’s titled By the Neck Until Dead and it is a history of hangings that have taken place in Cuyahoga County–fare that we have come to expect from John. If you click on the title, you will find yourself at the beginning of the book which you may read online. It will not be published in paper form. It is the seventh in a series of books on murder and mayhem in Cleveland. In case you are not familiar with the others, they are:
They Died Crawling and Other Tales of Cleveland Woe.
The Maniac in the Bushes and More Tales of Cleveland Woe
The Corpse in the Cellar and Further Tales of Cleveland Woe
Just click on any title above to reserve a copy for yourself.
Lest you think that Mr. Bellamy only explores true cases of murder and mystery in his hometown, let me point to a book he produced about his new home in 2007:
Vintage Vermont Villainies: True Tales of Murder & Mystery from the 19th and 20th Centuries.
I think it will be a long time before John retires his pen.
If you have some time on your hands, take a few moments to explore the other e-books in the collection of the Cleveland Memory Project. It’s a great source of interesting facts, pictures and information about Cleveland, not all of it criminal.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Becky,
Thanks for the plug, which I just discovered whilst browsing the web. A minor detail: I wrote “By the Neck Until Dead” in 2000 and it has been featured on the CSU Library website since then. All of its contents, except for Chapters I, II and VII have since appeared in my subsequent Cleveland crime volumes.
John Stark Bellamy II
John—It’s great to hear from you. I’m sorry if I got any details wrong–I was so excited to find your work! I hope you will continue to entertain us for a very long time. Have you anything new in the works currently? Keep us posted so we can look for your new work.
Becky
Thanks, Becky. I loved reading all of John Stark Bellamy II’s books & was glad to see your link here to the e-book & the book about Vermont. It is so interesting to read about all of the history (& crimes) of Cleveland.
I heard John Stark Bellamy II is doing a book on the 1944 East Ohio Gas explosion, I have never before seen pictures that are pretty great…would like to contact him.