Pockets Full Awry: The Obrist Murder Case

Biographies & Memoirs

Burdette, Dick

True Crime

AuthorHouse

Seventy-five years ago, the Waterloo Wonders came frolicking out of the Lawrence County hills to become the most colorful, most exciting, most unforgettable team in the history of Ohio high school basketball. Over two seasons, they won back-to-back state championships and in the process, perhaps as many as 100 games, only a handful of them on their own court. In an era when a virtually unknown team called the Harlem Globetrotters was still playing one-night stands in small-town high school gyms and dance halls across the Middle West, the Wonders, imitating no one, astonished overflow crowds in the state's largest arenas with their whirlwind passing, deadeye shooting, lockdown defense and whimsical showmanship. Left-handed, right-handed, two-handed, behind the back, between the legs, over-handed, underhanded, bowling style, sitting down, lying down, without looking-the Wonders passed with such lightning speed, such radar accuracy, fans and opponents alike often did not know where the ball was. Now, on the 75h anniversary of their first championship season, author Dick Burdette, whose book, The Fabulous Waterloo Wonders was published in 1961, has written a revised and expanded account of their story, It is now available exclusively at authorhouse.com or at waterloowonders.com. Price: $22.95, plus shipping.

The Waterloo Wonders

Seventy-five years ago, the Waterloo Wonders came frolicking out of the Lawrence County hills to become the most colorful, most exciting, most unforgettable team in the history of Ohio high school basketball. Over two seasons, 1933-34 and 1934-35, they won back-to-back state championships and in the process, perhaps as many as 100 games, only a handful of them on their own court. The Wonders, imitating no one, astonished overflow crowds in the state’s largest arenas with their whirlwind passing, deadeye shooting, lockdown defense and whimsical showmanship. Left-handed, right-handed, two-handed, behind the back, between the legs, over-handed, underhanded, bowling style, sitting down, lying down, without looking—the Wonders passed with such lightning speed, such radar accuracy, fans and opponents alike often did not know where the ball was. Now, on the 75h anniversary of their first championship season, author Dick Burdette, whose book, The Fabulous Waterloo Wonders was published in 1961, has re-printed it as the 75th Anniversary Edition, to celebrate this amazing story.

The Fabulous Waterloo Wonders

Sports & Outdoors

Basketball

BookSurge Publishing

"The Waterloo Wonders" Nov. 2008, is a expanded and revised version of the teams story, set during the "Great Depression". One book is a companion to the other. Seventy-five years ago, the Waterloo Wonders came out of the Lawrence County hills to become the most colorful, most exciting, most unforgettable team in the history of Ohio high school basketball. Over two seasons, 1933-34 and 1934-35, they won back-to-back state championships and in the process, perhaps as many as 100 games, only a handful of them on their own court. The Wonders, imitating no one, astonished overflow crowds in the state’s largest arenas with their whirlwind passing, deadeye shooting, lockdown defense and whimsical showmanship. Left-handed, right-handed, two-handed, behind the back, between the legs, over-handed, underhanded, bowling style, sitting down, lying down, without looking—the Wonders passed with such lightning speed, such radar accuracy, fans and opponents alike often did not know where the ball was. Now, on the 75h anniversary of their first championship season, author Dick Burdette, whose book, "The Fabulous Waterloo Wonders" was published in 1961, has re-printed it as the 75th Anniversary Edition, to celebrate this amazing story.

The moment he emerged from the shadowy darkness into the glow of the dimly lit back porch, the doctor was a dead man. Late on the night of Aug. 1, 1947, Dr. George E. Obrist, Sr., a Portsmouth, Ohio, physician, was shot to death at the back porch steps of his home. The case has never been solved. Author Dick Burdette, who as a boy delivered newspapers to Dr. Obrist’s office the summer he was murdered, has revisited this unsolved case. What follows is a three-year investigation of the original investigation. Including a search for confidential police files as well as those of the sheriff’s department, prosecuting attorney’s office, coroner’s office and fire department. In order to verify and reconstruct events preceeding and following Dr. Obrist’s death.

Willa Ramey Is Missing. Those words signify far more than the title of this book. They constitute a news update of a story every bit as timely, as complex, as baffling, as tragic today as it was nearly 70 years ago. It remains an unending story because when it ended, or where it ended, or how it ended, or why it ended, or if it ended, still is not known. Nor can the Willa Ramey case be characterized as an unsolved murder. No evidence has ever surfaced that a murder occurred. Nor has she ever been declared legally dead because there is no proof that she is. On the cold rainy morning of March 19, 1943, Willa Sue Ramey simply vanished.

Willa Ramey Is Missing

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

The story of Babe Parilli. Parilli had collegiate stardom at the University of Kentucky, 16 seasons of professional football at Green Bay, Cleveland, Oakland, Ottawa, Boston and finally new York. Memoir; this is the way he remembers it.

Kentucky Babe: The Babe Parilli Story

Dick Burdette is a former roving human interest columnist for The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader. As a general assignment and investigative reporter at The Sentinel, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and as a columnist, for the Ernie Pyle Award, the nation's top prize for human interest writing. he also is the author of The Fabulous Waterloo Wonders, the story of the most famous high school basketball team in Ohio history, and Pockets Full Awry, a three-year investigation of an unsolved 1947 murder. He and his wife Judy live in Wellington, Colorado, where his is completing Little House on Bull Run, a collection of 39 stories set in 33 counties chronicling the changes that swept across Kentucky between the 1930s and 1960s.

Jump, Johnny, Jump!

Portsmouth, Ohio in the 1940s and early '50s awakened each weekday to the sound of factory whistles, the rumble and clatter of freight and passenger trains. It was a place of lunch pails and coal buckets. Front porch swings and backyard clothes lines. Iceboxes and wringer washers. Neighborhood shoe repair shops and mom &amp; pop groceries. It was a time of the eagerly awaited mailman and the evening newspaper. Eight-party telephones. Of gathering around the family radio to listen to the Lone Ranger, Amos &amp; Andy, Lum &amp; Abner, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee &amp; Molly and the Great Gildersleeve. Of nickel bus fares and dime movies. When dogs ran free. When boys played touch football in the brick streets, basketball in the alley. When girls chalked hopscotch squares and jumped rope on the sidewalks and on hot summer evenings, they all ran barefooted across the front lawn catching fireflies in a jar. It was a time to remember because it was worth remembering and although they attended different schools and lived in different neighborhoods all over town, nearly 100 randomly selected residents and former residents all agree: It was a great time, a great place, to grow up.

Samples

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

The Last Lonely Eagle is the untold, inside story of a fearless, relentless investigator who devoted his life—and lost it— to doing exactly that.

The Last Lonely Eagle: the untold inside story of the 1975 Dick Cloud murder case

Campbell, Larry

Dempsey, Bernard

Cummings, Bob

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Burdette, Dick. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Burdette, Dick

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Burdette, Dick. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Pockets Full Awry: The Obrist Murder Case

The Waterloo Wonders

The Fabulous Waterloo Wonders

The Waterloo Wonders

Pockets Full Awry: The Obrist Murder Case

Willa Ramey Is Missing

Kentucky Babe: The Babe Parilli Story

Jump, Johnny, Jump!

Samples

The Last Lonely Eagle: the untold inside story of the 1975 Dick Cloud murder case