Gruesome Illinois
Murder, Madness, and the Macabre in the Prairie State
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Narrated by:
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Peter Kenyon
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By:
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Nick Vulich
About this listen
The first room they searched was 13-year-old Georgia Dawson’s. “She was lying on her back with her head turned to the right and the entire left side of her skull crushed,” reported one of the men. Her body was lying in the center of the bed, below her blood-spattered pillows. The girl’s head was so badly mutilated that recognition was impossible.
For some unexplained reason, the girl had decided to sleep in her sister’s bedroom. She got undressed in her room, dropped her clothes in the middle of the floor, then walked into her sister’s bedroom. Detectives found an open book on the dresser, so they assumed she read for a while before going to sleep.
After viewing the body, the men pulled the bed covers back over her and moved onto the next room.
William and Charity Dawson appeared to have died not knowing what happened to them. The work of the murderer had been so well done that the wife did not awaken when the blow that killed her husband was struck. Her hands were folded across her bosom as though in peaceful repose. William Dawson’s hands were also folded across his chest, and his pocket watch was still in his pajama pocket - helping to rule out robbery as a motive. And yet, “their heads were almost mashed to a pulp.”
The Chicago Tribune named the ax murderer the “Sunday Night Murderer,” because he killed every other Sunday. Fourteen murders were attributed to the maniac, and more were expected unless he was captured before October 29th.
On Sunday night, September 20th, he butchered two families in Colorado Springs - the Wayne and Burnham families.
William E. Dawson, his wife Charity, and 13-year-old daughter Georgia died at Monmouth, Illinois, on September 30th.
Two weeks later, on Sunday, October 15, the Sunday Night Murderer killed Will Showman and his family at Ellsworth, Kansas.
Gruesome Illinois is a collection of true-life stories, most of them rescued from old newspaper accounts published over 100 years ago. Only a few of the events in this book - such as the Monmouth ax murders - have ever made it into print, except maybe in musky, old county histories. Even then, they are lucky to rate a paragraph.
Listen to them now, if you dare.
This is the second book in the Gruesome Series.
©2019 Nick Vulich (P)2019 Nick VulichListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
This is the first truly comprehensive book examining the life and career of the murderer who has become one of America's great supervillains. It reveals not only the true story but how the legend evolved, taking advantage of hundreds of primary sources that have never been examined before, including legal documents, letters, articles, and records that have been buried in archives for more than a century.
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The truth
- By Anna Fluellen on 09-08-17
By: Adam Selzer
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Butcher's Work
- True Crime Tales of American Murder and Madness
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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A Civil War veteran who perpetrated one of the most ghastly mass slaughters in the annals of U.S. crime. A nineteenth-century female serial killer whose victims included three husbands and six of her own children. A Gilded Age “Bluebeard” who did away with as many as fifty wives throughout the country. A decorated World War I hero who orchestrated a murder that stunned Jazz Age America.
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Another necessary work by Schector
- By Brandon on 12-27-22
By: Harold Schechter
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Undisclosed Files of the Police
- Cases from the Archives of the NYPD from 1831 to the Present
- By: Bernard Whalen, Philip Messing, Robert Mladinich
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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More than 175 years of true crimes culled from the city's police blotter, told through an insightful text by two NYPD officers and a NYC crime reporter. From atrocities that occurred before the establishment of New York's police force in 1845 through the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 to the present day, this audio is an insider's look at more than 80 real-life crimes that shocked the nation, from arson to gangland murders, robberies, serial killers, bombings, and kidnappings.
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Good History of Crime in NYC
- By Bob Shinders on 03-10-17
By: Bernard Whalen, and others
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The Wrong Man
- The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case
- By: James Neff
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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At 5:40 a.m. on July 4, 1954, the mayor of Bay Village, a small suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, received a frantic phone call from his neighbor Dr. Sam Sheppard. The news was too terrible to comprehend: Marilyn, Sam's lovely wife, was dead, her face and torso beaten beyond recognition by an unknown assailant who had knocked Sam unconscious and escaped just before dawn. In the adjacent bedroom, Chip, the Sheppards' seven-year-old son, had slept through the entire ordeal. Almost immediately, the police began to suspect Sam Sheppard.
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Outstanding! But troubling
- By Tyree on 09-26-22
By: James Neff
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Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves
- Race and Ethnicity in the American West Series #1
- By: Art T. Burton
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Art T. Burton sifts through fact and legend to discover the truth about one of the most outstanding peace officers in late 19th-century America - and perhaps the greatest lawman of the Wild West era. Fluent in Creek and other Southern native languages, physically powerful, skilled with firearms, and a master of disguise, Bass Reeves was exceptionally adept at apprehending fugitives and outlaws, and his exploits were legendary in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
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inspiring story and insightful
- By Derrick on 12-17-15
By: Art T. Burton
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American Murder Houses
- A Coast-to-Coast Tour of the Most Notorious Houses of Homicide
- By: Steve Lehto
- Narrated by: Barry Press
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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From a colonial manse in New England to a small-town home in Iowa to a Beverly Hills mansion, these residences have taken on a life of their own, gaining everything from local lore and gossip to national - and even global - infamy. Here, writer Steve Lehto recounts the stories behind the houses where Lizzie Borden supposedly gave her stepmother "40 whacks", where the real Amityville Horror was first unleashed by gunfire, and where the demented acts of the Manson Family horrified a nation.
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Engaging and engrossing stories.
- By Lila Fowler on 09-14-16
By: Steve Lehto
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Lust Killer
- By: Ann Rule, Andy Stack
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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When young women begin mysteriously disappearing in Oregon, Police Lieutenant James Stovall leads a relentless search for a killer. With little evidence available, and the public screaming for answers, he must find a remorseless, brutal killer whose identity will shock them all....
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Great book on Brudos!
- By Ms.Bliss on 01-06-18
By: Ann Rule, and others
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Our Little Secret
- The True Story of a Teenage Killer and the Silence of a Small New England Town
- By: Kevin Flynn, Rebecca Lavoie
- Narrated by: Aven Shore
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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For 20 years Daniel Paquette's murder in New Hampshire went unsolved. It remained a secret between two high school friends until Eric Windhurst's arrest in 2005. What was revealed was a crime born of adolescent passion between Eric and Daniel's stepdaughter, Melanie - redefining the meaning of loyalty, justice, and revenge.
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A
- By Diana Hart 33 on 04-28-21
By: Kevin Flynn, and others
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Alias Billy the Kid
- By: C. L. Sonnichsen, William Morrison
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Was Billy the Kid really shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett on a July night in 1881? At the midpoint of the last century, an old man comes forth seeking a pardon for crimes committed. He says that he wants to die a free man - and that he is Billy the Kid. The incident leads to this examination of new facts, new interpretations, and new contradictions. It is the story of "Brushy" Bill Roberts, a man who laid claim to a legend. Originally published in 1955 by University of New Mexico Press.
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must read!
- By James A thornton on 03-27-18
By: C. L. Sonnichsen, and others
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Legally Dead
- A Father and Son Bound by Murder
- By: Kevin Flynn, Rebecca Lavoie
- Narrated by: Aven Shore
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Attorney Seth Bader and his wife, Vicki, moved to New Hampshire in 1992. Three tumultuous years later, their marriage ended and left Vicki a broken woman, driven to the edge as Seth seduced their teenage son, Joey, into a violent plot to kill her in cold blood. What followed was one of the most bizarre and harrowing crime stories in New Hampshire history.
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Everyone is good at something…
- By Vickijeanne on 06-06-21
By: Kevin Flynn, and others
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Boston Mob
- The Rise and Fall of the New England Mob and Its Most Notorious Killer
- By: Marc Songini
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The New England Mafia was a hugely powerful organization that survived by using violence to ruthlessly crush anyone that threatened it, or its lucrative gambling, loansharking, bootlegging, and other enterprises. From information based on newly declassified documents and the use of underworld sources, Boston Mob spans the gutters and alleyways of East Boston, Providence, and Charlestown to the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C., and Boston's Beacon Hill. Its players include governors and mayors, and the Mafia Commission of New York City.
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Entertaining
- By joeyg1963 on 12-07-19
By: Marc Songini
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Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
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An outstanding story, highly recommended
- By S. Blakely on 06-22-17
By: David Grann
What listeners say about Gruesome Illinois
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Grant W.
- 01-03-20
interesting stories, but lacks a theme
entertaining, but I would have liked some unifying theme or lesson. What do these stories tell us about the history of Illinois? the US? Crime in America during the period?
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