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Mary Jane's ghost : the legacy of a murder in small town America / Ted Gregory.
Van Pelt Library HV6499.O7 G74 2017
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Gregory, Ted, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Reed, Mary Jane, 1930-1948.
- Reed, Mary Jane.
- Skridla, Stanley.
- Murder victims--Illinois--Oregon--History--20th century.
- Murder victims.
- Murder--Illinois--Oregon--History--20th century.
- Murder.
- History.
- Illinois--Oregon.
- Physical Description:
- 203 pages ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Iowa City : University Of Iowa Press, [2017]
- Summary:
- "Summer 1948. In the scenic, remote river town of Oregon, Illinois, a young couple visiting the local lovers' lane is murdered. The shocking crime garners headlines from Portland, Maine, to Long Beach, California. But after a sweeping manhunt, no one is arrested and the violent deaths of Mary Jane Reed and Stanley Skridla fade into time's indifference. Fast forward fifty years. Eccentric entrepreneur Michael Arians moves to Oregon, opens a roadhouse, gets elected mayor, and becomes obsessed with the crime. He comes up with a scandalous conspiracy theory and starts to believe that Mary Jane's ghost is haunting his establishment. He also reaches out to the Chicago Tribune for help. Arians's letter falls on the desk of general assignment reporter Ted Gregory. For the next thirteen years, while he ricochets from story to story and his newspaper is deconstructed around him, Gregory remains beguiled by the case of the teenaged telephone operator Mary Jane and twenty-eight-year-old Navy vet Stanley--and equally fascinated by Arians's seemingly hopeless pursuit of whoever murdered them. Mary Jane's Ghost is the story of these two odysseys"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Chapter 1 Death of a Butterfly, Lost in the Weeds 1
- Chapter 2 Field Trips Downstate 8
- Chapter 3 In Memoriam 16
- Chapter 4 Origins 31
- Chapter 5 "I Don't Believe in Chasing Demons" 42
- Chapter 6 Distraction, Obsession 49
- Chapter 7 Heinous Abe and a Break in the Case 55
- Chapter 8 The Opposite of Forgetting 63
- Chapter 9 The Earnest Grave-Finders Exhume Reconciliation 74
- Chapter 10 Rivers of Fate 91
- Chapter 11 Send in the Ghosts 106
- Chapter 12 Memory and Silence 125
- Chapter 13 Our Shared History, Revised 146
- Chapter 14 George, Doug, Jerry, Greg, and Mark 172
- Chapter 15 The Perilous Line between Truth and Loyalty 189
- Chapter 16 The Messy, Noble Pursuit 198.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references.
- ISBN:
- 9781609385231
- 1609385233
- OCLC:
- 983824503
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