Non-Fiction Books
St. Louis is a modern metropolis still rich with legends dating back to the early Native Americans, and a history that lives on through many spirits that refuse to die. • Visit the infamous Lemp Mansion and discover its scandalous history; a tragic tale of a wealthy family plagued by multiple suicides, madness, depression, and public ridicule. • Read about the Gehm House, if you dare, where footsteps fall where no man walks and visitors are attacked as they sleep. • Learn about Building 28 at the haunted Jefferson Barracks. • See spirits of children floating on the lawn of the haunted Rock House. • And don’t forget to peer back into the past to see the ghost-infested McDowell Medical College! A ghost-lovers paradise, these and other tales will haunt you.
Discover the most notorious criminals and crimes in Chicago's history. Meet psychopath and criminal mastermind Silas Jayne, a stone-cold killer even the mob seemed to fear. Read about the "Trial of the Century," the case that made the names Leopold and Loeb famous, and legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow a household name. Explore the mind of the Tylenol Terrorist who paralyzed the country with fear. You've heard about Capone, Gacy, and Speck; now learn about the rest of Chicago's worst.
Dig up the men who tried to dig up Lincoln. Mull over the Mad Gasser of Mattoon and the 1977 thunderbird infestation, from a safe distance. Watch in horror as one of the greatest maritime disasters in U.S. history occurs twenty feet from the banks of the Chicago River or follow the course of the blimp crash that convinced a downtown bank employee that it was raining hell. Try not to blink as towns washed away by floods and shrines covered over by condominiums are dragged back from the margins of history into the center of the page, where they belong. After all, reasons author Bryan Alaspa, if the pope was eager to stop by the House of Crosses during his visit to Chicago, surely it is worth a look. Just beware: a quick glance into this book and you might not look up until you've read the whole gripping and grin-inspiring collection.
Whether the disasters came from the earth itself, from fire, air, or water, Chicago has paid its dues in blood, sweat, and tears. Discover events that led up to one of the greatest sea disasters in U.S. history. Learn about a tragic school blaze that changed fire codes across the country. Read about the Great Chicago Fire and the myths that surround it, and how, without it, the city may not have achieved new levels of greatness. Feel the terror and shock that gripped the city and the nation during an airline disaster that took the lives of over 200 people, just minutes after takeoff from O'Hare Airport. You will be amazed at the courage, senselessness, shock, and horror of Chicago's disasters.
Does hockey suck? If so, why? What was the late Jerry Falwell’s first day in heaven like? Are people getting more rude? What’s it like to live in Chicago? All of these questions, and more, are answered within this book. Well, OK, maybe not really answered, but at least discussed. Of course, all of it comes from the potentially insane mind of Bryan W. Alaspa. Bryan spent time as a self-proclaimed “self-syndicated” columnist. Almost daily he would write a column and post it around the internet. At times the columns were funny. Other times they were insightful. Many times they were angry. Always, they were interesting and cynical. From his blog “The Church of Cynicism” as well as his time as a featured writer on the website “Xomba” this is a collection of some of his best work. So, even if you don’t think hockey sucks, you may be interested to find out exactly why this nut job thinks it does.
His name might not have the same notoriety that belonged to Al Capone or John Wayne Gacy, but Silas Jayne's life carved a similarly brutal arc through the Windy City's history. Even the mob was reluctant to compete with a man who burned his own horses alive for insurance money and ordered the assassination of his own brother in the same unhesitating fashion that he reportedly axed a flock of geese when he was six. Protected by bribery and intimidation, Jayne preyed on the innocence of the girls who took riding lessons in his stables and remained perversely untouched in the background of infamous Chicago crimes like the Schuessler-Peterson murders and the disappearance of candy heiress Helen Brach.
In October of 1933 a plane carrying seven people exploded and crashed over Chesterton, Indiana, on its way to Chicago, killing all on board. The crash shocked the small community of Chesterton, but what really shocked the country was the revelation that it was a bomb that brought the plane down. The airline industry was new, and the news of a bomb was potentially disastrous to an industry that was still trying to prove itself safe to a skeptical public and that was also experiencing labor problems with its pilots and mechanics. The man in charge of the investigation as none other than Melvin Purvis, the G-man in charge of the Chicago FBI office and the man who would become a superstar for bringing down John Dillinger. However, what no one knew was that pressure from J. Edgar Hoover to capture bank robbers and gangsters, plus Hoover’s petty jealousy over the increasing popularity of Purvis, made life in the Chicago FBI office a living hell as Purvis and his men juggled dozens of cases while also trying to find a culprit in the Chesterton plane bombing. It is a mystery that remains to this day, but hardly anyone knows about it. For the first time, author Bryan Alaspa explores the FBI files, presents the evidence the investigators found, and presents the story of what was happening behind-the-scenes at the FBI. For the first time, the story of the Chesterton Crash is told. Today, we would say that the incident was the first case of terrorism against a commercial airliner. Back then, they just called it SABOTAGE.
A compendium of Chicago's unsolved crime and mystery stories, including the never-published tales of the Toynbee Tiles and the Max Headroom incidents. Chicago, Illinois, is a historic city filled with mystery. In these pages, you will learn about some of the most famous Chicago mysteries that, to this day, still have no answer. Who caused the Great Chicago Fire of 1871? Read about Al Capone and the Valentine's Day Massacre, the Smiley Face Murders, and the many people who have gone missing. From the very beginnings of the city to today, mysteries abound within the Windy City. People disappear, UFOs are spotted over O’Hare International Airport, pranksters interrupt television broadcasts, and the bodies of a notorious serial killer’s victims are still being sought. All of these tales, and more, are here to tantalize your mind, haunt your dreams, and keep you guessing.
A True Crime story of 50 pages and 12,000 words It's one of the most baffling murder cases in St. Louis history. In February 1983, a headless body was discovered in the basement of an abandoned apartment building. It was one of the most horrific and brutal murders police detectives had ever seen. However, since the victim was a child, the police thought they would have an identity and find the murderer quickly. They never did. Author, and true crime fan, Bryan Alaspa, returns to this non-fiction genre for the first time in years to look at this case. In HOPE, he looks at the suspects, the detectives, the murder scene and presents the information available. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is the story which will inspire someone else to finally provide the evidence which will crack the case. This is the story of a missing girl. A girl who has since been given the name HOPE.
Are you either a self-published author or an author who has to do a lot of the marketing on your own? Do you know how to make your website the best tool in your marketing arsenal? Combined with social media and an email marketing campaign, an author's website can be doing the work for you when Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is implemented. If you need help in making sure your author site is putting you at the top of searches on the biggest search engines, then this is the book for you. Bryan Alaspa and Melanie Parker have more than 10 years of SEO and marketing experience to help you understand what SEO is, how to use it, and how to make your website get noticed. What is SEO? How do you optimize a website? What are website titles? Meta descriptions? What do the search engines look for? How are your readers searching for new books? All of these questions and more are answered in this primer for optimizing your author site.