Ann Arbor is known as a center of culture and education, but that hasn't prevented various tyrants and scoundrels from sullying the sophistication with base and murderous deeds. Revisit the case of "Jacke the Hugger," a turn-of-the-century deviant who routinely accosted and squeezed the women of Ann Arbor. In an effort to lure him from hiding, young men dressed as women and walked city streets. In 1903, UM student Albert Patterson disappeared in what was compared to a dime novel manner. Was he kidnapped by the Mexican Mafia? Carried off in a flying machine? Or did he flee because he was promised to marry two women at the same time? The first panty raid is said to have been carried out at the University of Michigan in March of 1952, starting the fad of the 1950's. It even made the cover of Life magazine. This is only a hint of the wickedness to be found in the history of Ann Arbor.
Washtenaw County has enjoyed low crime rates, but extraordinary criminal acts occasionally pierced its calm and quiet. A strange bank robbery at Dexter in 1894 and the 1897 murder of James Richards raised concerns. In 1937, the McHenry family suffered a terrible tragedy but found room in their hearts to forgive. After the murder of Eleanor Farver in 1970, detectives searching for suspect John Edward Burns probed his background, seeking clues to where he fled. They discovered John Edward Burns never existed. Attorney Peter Kensler was shockingly murdered in front of his home near Manchester with two shotgun blasts to the face. The case has never been solved. Local historian James Thomas Mann leads a tour into some of the darkest corners of Washtenaw County's past.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the city of Ypsilanti went through a rapid transition from a small farming community to a center of education and business. By 1900, Ypsilanti was nationally known for three things: the Michigan Central Gardens, the mineral wells, and underwear. The gardens were designed by famed landscape gardener John Laidlaw, who studied gardening in his native Scotland before coming to the United States. Beginning in the 1880s, people came from miles away to bathe in Ypsilanti's mineral waters, which were said to cure just about anything. And for many years, Ypsilanti was the home of the Underwear Factory, where the finest full body union suits were made.Dr. Helen McAndrew was the first woman doctor in Ypsilanti, opening her practice in 1854. She and her husband were active in the Underground Railroad, which Ypsilanti played a very active role in. Ypsilanti is also the home of Eastern Michigan University, founded in 1848, becoming the first normal school west of the Alleghenies.
Washtenaw County has a dark and sordid history, filled with unexplained murders and vicious crimes. Venture into the dead of night with medical students from the University of Michigan as they snatch bodies from fresh graves. Discover how Irene Walling Smith, born and raised in Ypsilanti, became known as the "Bandit Queen" of the despicable Kozak Gang. Head back to Ann Arbor in 1878, when Howard Williams was found dead in his home with an empty bottle of morphine by his sidewas it murder, suicide or overdose? Revisit the puzzling details of the unsolved 1913 murder of seventy-three-year-old Elizabeth Stapish, something of an eccentric in Chelsea, who was strangled and buried under a pile of cornhusks in her barn. Join local history author and columnist James Mann as he reveals the enigmatic history of this Michigan county.
When Peter Russell finally meets the woman of his dreams he falls as madly in love as you can on a flight from New York to LA. Her name is Holly. She's achingly pretty with strawberry-blonde hair, and reads Thomas Mann for pleasure. She gives Peter her phone number on a page of The Magic Mountain, but in his room that night Peter finds the page is inexplicably, impossibly, enragingly...gone. So begins the immensely entertaining story of Peter and his unrequited love for his best friend's girl; of Charlotte and her less-than-perfect marriage to a man in love with someone else; of Jonathan and his wicked and fateful debauchery; and of Holly, the impetus for it all. Along the way, there's the evil boss, the desirable temptress, miscommunications, misrepresentations, fiendish behavior, letters gone astray, and ultimately, an ending in which every character gets his due. Both incisive and wonderfully funny, this is a brilliantly understated comedy of manners in which love lost is found again. "James Collins has written a romantic, funny and insightful page turner about love in modern times, missed opportunities and the wheel of fate (with a blow-out!) that is so engaging and real, you will find it impossible to put down. Peter Russell is an everyman filled with longing, lust and good sense. I promise you will root for him as fate throws him curves aplenty on his path to true love. Beginner's Greek and Peter Russell are keepers." -Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of Lucia, Lucia and Big Stone Gap
Containing more than 100 original essays organized by quotations, James illuminates, rescues, or occasionally destroys the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the 20th century. 110 photographs.
James Thomas Flexner has been a professional writer most of his adult life. After several year spent at the City desk at the New York Herald Tribune after graduating from Harvard University , Flexner went on to become one of America's foremost historians. He has written with great distinction in a unique style accessible to and enjoyed by the scholar and general reader, twenty-six books in the fields of American history and art. Although he is principally known for his historical books, notably his four -volume biography of George Washington, Flexner has written in many forms and for many outlets. He has written for print and television; he has been a lecturer, columnist, reviewer, and even a fiction writer.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.