The author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester takes us on a journey into the past, investigating thirteen true stories of the dark side of local history. Drawing upon years of original research, often uncovering new clues, we learn of some of Western New York's most shocking crimes. Was Joseph Smith of Palmyra, the founder of the Mormon Church, murdered to prevent him from running for the presidency of the United States? What terrible event occurred in the village of Caledonia that led to a man being hanged twice? Who was Anna Schumacher and why did her mysterious murder in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery go unsolved-until now? Who was the Batavia woman who poisoned her entire family only to eventually be set free? What stories lie behind Rochester's first murder and the unusual execution of the killer? True crimes of passion, insanity, and greed are woven into these and other tales as we explore 150 years of Murder, Mayhem and Madness.

Murder, Mayhem & Madness: 150 Years of Crime and Punishment in Western New York

Biographies & Memoirs

Keene, Michael T.

True Crime

Willow Manor Publishing

In 1848 Ireland was gripped by famine. Nearly a million people died of starvation. Desperate, a million more abandoned their homeland and immigrated to America. Many settled in Five Points, an area of Lower Manhattan infamous for its squalor, gang violence and disease. By the mid-nineteenth century, an estimated 30,000 orphaned and homeless children roamed New York City. They survived by resorting to petty crime, by begging and by selling newspapers for a nickel a piece. They slept in alleyways, in cellars and even sewers. For protection, they joined the violent gangs of the Bowery Boys, the Dead Rabbits and the Roach Guards. In response to this crisis, the age of orphan asylums began, culminating in one of the most improbable and audacious episodes in American history. Called the Orphan Train Movement, it endeavored to rescue these children lost to the streets and our institutions, by heroes who fought for their liberation.

Abandoned: The Untold Story of Orphan Asylums

History

Americas

It's Snowing in Hawaii

"Oh me, Oh my!  It's Snowing in Hawaii!"A magical journey through the snow-filled beaches of Honolulu... "Blending Hawaiian highlights with blizzardy fun, Mike Guardia's light tale is both amusing and rhythmic.Melanie Stephens' illustrations are rich in color and life, bringing extra joy to the text with subzero tropical flare...an interesting twist to a sightseeing journey through one of Hawaii's most popular areas."       - The Children's Book Review The state of Hawaii is famous for its tropical weather and white-sand beaches. Get ready to say "Aloha" to the first snowstorm Hawaii's ever had!! Written in verse, It's Snowing in Hawaii takes you on a magical journey through snow-filled beaches of Honolulu. With Hawaiian flannel shirts, bearskin hula skirts, and figure skating on Pearl Harbor, young readers will enjoy the silly rhymes of a Hawaiian snow day.A portion of this book's proceeds will go to benefit the Children's Literacy Foundation.

Mike Guardia

The women who serve as the subjects for this book all share compelling stories. To be considered a serial killer one must kill at least three people, all within proximity to each other in terms of time. The motive is generally the same, from one murder to the next, as is the means by which death is brought about. Most are from North Central New York, living along the Erie Canal in small, isolated, rural communities. A majority of these women were dubbed 'Black Widows', women who murdered multiple husbands-often for profit. Some were called 'Baby Farmers', a title given to women accused of murdering infants. Others were known as 'Angels of Death', those who kill beneath the guise of providing care to the ill and infirmed. There were a few titled 'Avengers', women motivated by revenge and greed. And finally, those whose sanity is questioned, impelled to kill by delusions and paranoia. This is their story...

Question of Sanity: The True Story of Female Serial Killers in 19th Century New York

The Erie Canal delivered people to important places for important reasons, like Susan Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott to Seneca Falls for history's first women's convention, to Rochester to meet and support abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, to witness the Fox Sisters summon spirits and their eerie knockings, or maybe people on the temperance bandwagon hurrying to the Burned Over District so Charles Finney could save their souls. It was a time of intense individual focus and enlightened change in the ways in which people communicated. It was as if a bolt of electricity struck western New York, lighting it up as fertile ground for ideas and lifestyles that had never been expressed or attempted before. It was a time of religious re-birth, ongoing social reform, and making one's life the best it could be in the present, in the future... and even the great beyond.

The Psychic Highway: How the Erie Canal Changed America

Worst Seat in the House: Henry Rathbone's Front Row View of the Lincoln Assassination

On April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth changed the world with a single bullet. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln had many repercussions and for Henry Rathbone they were profound. Henry was the only man to confront Booth and attempt to apprehend the assassin. Henry was also the man that let Booth escape. While Henry wasn't officially blamed for allowing John Wilkes Booth to kill Abraham Lincoln, he blamed himself. After the assassination the vivid memories of Lincoln's death and failure to capture Booth caused Henry's mind to unravel. He traveled the world with his young family looking for an escape from his past. In 1883, eighteen years after the assassination, Henry's tortured mind reached its limit. In the early hours of Christmas Eve Henry murdered his wife, shooting and stabbing her multiple times in a fashion reminiscent of Lincoln's assassination. In Worst Seat in the House follow the life of Henry Rathbone from his childhood through the Civil War, the assassination and his final years in a German insane asylum. In this biography and case study of a man dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, see how the events of Henry's life created the man he finally became. Place yourself into the mind of Henry Rathbone and ask yourself how you would cope with failing the world?

Stephens, Caleb Jenner

Historical

On April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth changed the world with a single bullet. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln had many repercussions and for Henry Rathbone they were profound. Henry was the only man to confront Booth and attempt to apprehend the assassin. Henry was also the man that let Booth escape. While Henry wasn't officially blamed for allowing John Wilkes Booth to kill Abraham Lincoln, he blamed himself. After the assassination the vivid memories of Lincoln’s death and failure to capture Booth caused Henry’s mind to unravel. He traveled the world with his young family looking for an escape from his past. In 1883, eighteen years after the assassination, Henry's tortured mind reached its limit. In the early hours of Christmas Eve Henry murdered his wife, shooting and stabbing her multiple times in a fashion reminiscent of Lincoln's assassination. In "Worst Seat in the House" follow the life of Henry Rathbone from his childhood through the Civil War, the assassination and his final years in a German insane asylum.In this biography and case study of a man dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, see how the events of Henry’s life created the man he finally became. Place yourself into the mind of Henry Rathbone and ask yourself how you would cope with failing the world?

On April 14, 1865 America suffered the loss of one of it's greatest leaders. After General's Lee's surrender at Appomattox a few days earlier, the Civil War was coming to an end and Washington D.C. was in a celebratory mood. The city's jovial spirit would soon be changed by the actions of John Wilkes Booth, a man driven by ambition and a desire to avenge the South. In an elaborate plot devised to take place at Ford's Theatre, Booth became the first man to murder a President of the United States. This brief examination of Lincoln's assassination highlights every major detail from John Wilkes Booth's plot, to his escape through Maryland and Virginia, and the eventual fates of the other involved conspirators. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln provides a concise retelling of this American tragedy with the assistance of images, illustrations and trivia sidebars.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: An Illustrated Account of America's First Murdered President

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

Books by Willow Manor Publishing

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

Murder, Mayhem & Madness: 150 Years of Crime and Punishment in Western New York

Abandoned: The Untold Story of Orphan Asylums

It's Snowing in Hawaii

Question of Sanity: The True Story of Female Serial Killers in 19th Century New York

The Psychic Highway: How the Erie Canal Changed America

Worst Seat in the House: Henry Rathbone's Front Row View of the Lincoln Assassination

Worst Seat in the House: Henry Rathbone's Front Row View of the Lincoln Assassination

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: An Illustrated Account of America's First Murdered President