Books published by publisher The Natural History Press

Few realize what a vital role World War II and Florida played in each other's history. The war helped Florida move past its southern conservative mentality and emerge as a sophisticated society, and thousands of military men were trained under Florida's sunny skies. Here are stories from some of the one hundred military bases, including Tyndall Field, where Clark Gable trained, and Eglin Air Force Base, where Doolittle planned his raid on Tokyo. Read about Camp Gordon Johnston, referred to as "Hell by the Sea," built in a swampy, snake-infested subtropical jungle, and uncover the secrets of "Station J," a base that monitored the transmissions of German U-boats prowling off the coast. This fascinating collaboration between historians Nick Wynne and Richard Moorhead reveals the lasting impact of World War II on Florida as the United States heads into the seventieth anniversary of its entry into the war.

Stories abound about legendary New York City gangsters like "Lucky" Luciano, but Buffalo has housed its fair share of thugs and mobsters too. While many were nothing more than common criminals or bank robbers, a powerful crime family headed by local boss Stefano Magaddino emerged in the 1920s. Close to Canada, Niagara Falls and Buffalo were perfect avenues through which to transport booze, and Magaddino and his Mafiosi maintained a stranglehold on the city until his death in 1974. Local mob expert Michael Rizzo takes a tour of Buffalo's mafia exploits everything from these brutal gangsters' favorite hangouts to secret underground tunnels to murder.

The author of the Civil War Explorer series unearths the ghostly legends and lore that haunt Georgia’s capital city since the War Between the States. The Atlanta metropolis is one of America’s most modern and progressive cities, it’s easy to forget that 150 years ago it was the scene of a long and deadly campaign. Union general William T. Sherman hammered relentlessly against Atlanta at Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Ezra Church, and Jonesboro. Months later, as he began his infamous March to the Sea, much of Atlanta was destroyed by fire. Thousands died in the fighting, and thousands more succumbed to wounds and disease in large hospitals constructed around the city. Today, ghosts of Atlanta’s Civil War haunt battlefields, hospital sites, cemeteries, homes, and commercial structures, all a testament to the tragic history of the city. Join author Jim Miles as he details the Civil War spirits that still haunt Atlanta. Includes photos! “He’s a connoisseur of Georgia’s paranormal related activity, having both visited nearly every site discussed in his series of Civil War Ghost titles . . . Miles has covered a lot of ground so far from the bustling cities to the small towns seemingly in the middle of nowhere. This daunting task takes an inside look to the culture and stories that those born in Georgia grow up hearing about and connect with.” —The Red & Black

Starting in Kansas, Fred Harvey's iconic Harvey House was the first to set the standard for fine dining and hospitality across the rugged Southwest. In 1876, the first of Harvey's depot restaurants opened in Topeka, followed just a few years later by the first combination hotel and restaurant in Florence. Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls introduced good food and manners to the land of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and raucous cattle drives. In her third book on the Harvey House legacy, author Rosa Walston Latimer goes back to where it all began in this history of hospitality from the Sunflower State.

The creation of heroes where they did not exist offers us insights, in throwing off the blanket of boasting a century later, that bring history's most famous shipwreck back into sharper focus. We see into the nature of prejudice, social values, and the overriding political and national considerations of the time. This book also looks at the offered sacrificial victims of the time, in particular the character of Captain Stanley Lord of the Californian, the man charged with abandoning 1,500 people to their fate. Backed up with a new photographic archives and bolstered by a series of contemporary extracts to support its arguments, this is Titanic history presented in an entirely new and authentic light.

The city of Madison is no stranger to odd goings-on and events that just don't add up. Plunge into murky waters in search of the Lake Mendota monster or briefly part the clouds of the Great Airship Mystery of 1897, which was witnessed by such credible sources as "Wisconsin judges, good church-going folk and those not predisposed to drink whiskey." Please don't stare for too long at Myrtle Downing's shoes, which were said to be made from human skin. Revisit some of the murders that earned the intersection of Murray Street and Desmond Court the epithet "Death's Corner." And that is just a portion of the unsolved crimes, strange creatures and bizarre happenstance that make up Mysterious Madison.

At the conclusion of the Civil War, Wilkes County, North Carolina, was the site of the nation's first nationally publicized crime of passion. In the wake of a tumultuous love affair and a mysterious chain of events, Tom Dooley was tried, convicted and hanged for the murder of Laura Foster. This notorious crime became an inspiration for musicians, writers and storytellers ever since, creating a mystery of mythic proportions. Through newspaper articles, trial documents and public records, Dr. John E. Fletcher brings this dramatic case to life, providing the long-awaited factual account of the legendary murder. Join the investigation into one of the country's most enduring thrillers.

Can you call yourself a self-respecting North Carolinian if you don’t know that Babe Ruth hit his first home run in the Tar Heel State? That Annie Oakley gave shooting lessons in Pinehurst? That renowned Siamese twins Chang and Eng lived in Surry County? Or that unrepenting bootleggers hid out in Rutherford County? Father-daughter team K. Randell and Caitlin D. Jones think not, and to cure your curiosity, to supply you with clever quips at cocktail parties or to convince your teachers that you really have studied, they have gathered a wonderful collection of stories originally written by lauded North Carolina historian Dr. H.G. Jones for his long-standing “In Light of History” series.This revised and updated edition contains ten additional accounts of Tar Heel history, accompanied by archival images from the lifetime collection of Dr. Jones and a map highlighting each story’s geographic interest area.

The notorious true crime story of a sex party that ended in double murder in the woods of Chattanooga County, Georgia. On December 12th, 1982, Tony West and Avery Brock made a visit to Corpsewood Manor under the pretense of a celebration. Then they brutally murdered their hosts. Dr. Charles Scudder had been a professor of pharmacology at Chicago’s Loyola University before he and his boyfriend Joey Odom moved to Georgia and built their own home in the Chattahoochee National Forest. Scudder had absconded with twelve thousand doses of LSD and had a very particular vision for their “castle in the woods.” It included a “pleasure chamber,” and rumors of Satanism swirled around the two men. Scudder even claimed to have summoned a demon to protect the estate. But when Scudder and Odom welcomed West and Brock into their strange abode, they had no idea the men were armed and dangerous. When the evening of kinky fun turned to a scene of gruesome slaughter, the murders set the stage for a sensational trial that engulfed the sleepy Southern town of Trion in shocking revelations and lurid speculations.

Experience the history of Rhode Island and learn about the Ocean State's most fascinating and wild women. Read of Mercy Brown, a nineteen-year-old consumption victim who was thought to be a vampire and whose body was exhumed and discovered with blood in the heart. There was Goody Seager, accused of infesting her neighbor's cheese with maggots by using witchcraft, and Tall "Dutch" Kattern of Block Island, an opium-eating fortuneteller whose curse, legend says, set a ship aflame after its crew cast her ashore. Hear of the revolutionaries, like Julia Ward Howe, who invented Mother's Day and wrote the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and religious reformer Anne Hutchinson, said to be the inspiration for Hawthorne's heroine in The Scarlet Letter, in these thrilling tales from author M.E. Reilly-McGreen.

In the shadows of the quiet mountain towns of Western Maryland, strange creatures are said to lurk in the woods while phantoms wander the foothills. The Hagerstown clock tower is reportedly haunted by the ghost of a young artist killed during the Civil War, while the low summit of South Mountain was once host to a mysterious spell-caster, the Wizard Zittle. Farther west, tales of legendary hunter Meshach Browning echo among the Allegany Mountains while visitors to Deep Creek Lake may feel the chilling presence of monks who never left their former monastery. From the 1909 hoax of the monstrous Snallygaster that terrorized the Middletown Valley to the doglike Dwayyo that was spotted near Frederick in 1965, local historian Susan Fair rounds up the bizarre beasts, odd characters and unsolved mysteries that color the legends and lore of Western Maryland.

Missouri ranks third in the number of Civil War battles fought on its soil. Although some sizable actions were fought in the state, most of the battles were the result of the intense guerrilla activity. These battles are only the actions reported by Federal troops against the guerrillas. The attacks on civilians were equally as numerous. Long before the Civil War began, Missouri was deeply divided over whether slavery should be extended to neighboring Kansas. This book takes an in-depth look at the guerrilla warfare grounded in this division.