When an emotionally abused housewife in 1940's Virginia learns that her infant son is disabled, she begins a life-altering journey that changes the way her community, and the rest of the country, views the limitations of those with disabilities. Casting off her marriage, friendships and even her religion, she sets out to do the unthinkable so that her son may achieve the impossible.
The true story of a heartbreaking crime at a nineteenth-century amusement park. On a summer day in 1893, against a backdrop of laughter and barrel organ music at Rocky Point Amusement Park, little Maggie Sheffield was murdered—by her own father. But the tragedy aroused a strange reaction from the peaceable community of Warwick, Rhode Island, as many seemed to be more concerned for the murderer, Frank Sheffield, than for his young victim. Frank was rumored to be insane or addicted to drugs, and after a trial, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The murder did not tarnish Rocky Point’s reputation as a premier destination, and the park operated until 1995. Now, investigating official records and newspaper archives, author Kelly Sullivan Pezza uncovers the facts and oddities behind a grim crime in Rhode Island’s summer paradise.
Rhode Island's Washington County hides a dark past riddled with macabre crimes and despicable deeds. In 1890, an argument over wages turned deadly when former hotelier George Kenyon shot and killed his carpenter on the grounds of the Gilbert Stuart House in Saunderstown. Senator Charles Burdick was shot and left for dead at his Charlestown home in 1930. Even the peaceful village of Woodville has a veritable rap sheet of thieving maids, speakeasies and murderously jealous wives. From chilling acts by the KKK to physicians practicing under the influence of narcotics, author Kelly Sullivan Pezza's collection of articles from the Chariho Times uncovers the violence and vices of Washington County.
In June of 1920, in the quiet village of Pawcatuck, Connecticut, Mrs. Mabel Kenyon shot and killed her lover, Dr. Herbert Tetlow. Almost exactly twenty years later, the offspring allegedly produced by that affair bludgeoned and strangled his girlfriend Rita Wheaton of Westerly, Rhode Island. The killings within the family would finally come to end in 1966 with two more murders." --
On her eighty-fifth birthday, Meta Boone invites police officers and reporters into her home. She has a confession to make. When she was eleven years old, she accidentally killed her father and hid his body in the woods. Meta takes her guests, and the reader, on a tragic journey through a childhood darkened by alcoholism, mental illness and abuse. After a life filled with lies and fear, the time has come to let go of the secret she doesn't want to take to the grave." --
In 1908, in Exeter, Rhode Island, a facility opened for the supposed purpose of training mentally challenged men in a variety of trades. There was room for eight inmates. Soon there would be hundreds, including women and children deemed to be feeble-minded. It was all part of an experiment in eugenics; cleansing the state of what was decided to be inferior DNA. --
The true story of a heartbreaking crime at a nineteenth-century amusement park. On a summer day in 1893, against a backdrop of laughter and barrel organ music at Rocky Point Amusement Park, little Maggie Sheffield was murdered—by her own father. But the tragedy aroused a strange reaction from the peaceable community of Warwick, Rhode Island, as many seemed to be more concerned for the murderer, Frank Sheffield, than for his young victim. Frank was rumored to be insane or addicted to drugs, and after a trial, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The murder did not tarnish Rocky Point’s reputation as a premier destination, and the park operated until 1995. Now, investigating official records and newspaper archives, author Kelly Sullivan Pezza uncovers the facts and oddities behind a grim crime in Rhode Island’s summer paradise.
Rhode Island's Washington County hides a dark past riddled with macabre crimes and despicable deeds. In 1890, an argument over wages turned deadly when former hotelier George Kenyon shot and killed his carpenter on the grounds of the Gilbert Stuart House in Saunderstown. Senator Charles Burdick was shot and left for dead at his Charlestown home in 1930. Even the peaceful village of Woodville has a veritable rap sheet of thieving maids, speakeasies and murderously jealous wives. From chilling acts by the KKK to physicians practicing under the influence of narcotics, author Kelly Sullivan Pezza's collection of articles from the Chariho Times uncovers the violence and vices of Washington County.
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