Death Ride at Euclid Beach: And More True Tales of Crime & Disaster from Cleveland's Past

Death Ride at Euclid Beach: And More True Tales of Crime & Disaster from Cleveland's Past

“Has more than its fair share of violence, sex, debauchery and reversals of fortune . . . But what emerges between the lines are stories of human suffering, stories of class struggle, stories that speak as much to the criminal mind as to the crime itself.” — Sun Newspapers More true tales of woe from Cleveland’s crime and disaster expert. The fifth book in John Stark Bellamy’s popular series delivers 26 accounts of Cleveland-area crimes and disasters from 1900 through 1950, including: The depression-era “Blue Book Murder,” in which a swank Shaker Heights society party was interrupted by low-class thugs with deadly intentions; - Truculent barkeep Thomas Martin, whose idea of a good time was shooting the lunch buckets out of unsuspecting laborers’ hands as they came off their Whiskey Island shifts; - A strange international photo hoax in which Lakewood lad John May Warren became “The boy with Hitler’s face” ; - Sleepwalking Harry Krause, who dreamt one night of battling a gigantic snake but awoke to the real nightmare: he had strangled his own beloved mother in her bed; - The shocking murder of sweet 16-year-old Beverly Jarosz in her Garfield Heights bedroom—one of Cleveland’s most baffling murder mysteries ever; - And 20 more local true stories of courage, fear, deception, treachery, tragedy, violence, and guilt . Sometimes gruesome, often surprising, Bellamy’s tales are meticulously researched and delivered in a literate and entertaining style. Has more than its fair share of violence, sex, debauchery and reversals of fortune . . . But what emerges between the lines are stories of human suffering, stories of class struggle, stories that speak as much to the criminal mind as to the crime itself . . . And Bellamy clearly relishes his criminals. Sometimes he pokes fun. Sometimes he wonders at the humanity of it all. But always he tells his tales with sympathy, compassion and a good old-fashioned, if not antiquated, flair for storytelling. -- Jarrod Zickefoose ― Sun Press Published On: 2004-04-08 As with all the books in his Cleveland crime series, Bellamy writes with razor-edged wit and his own particular brand of charm. -- Sandra Fahning ― Medina County Gazette Published On: 2004-06-26 To look at John Stark Bellamy, you wouldn’t think this that friendly-faced guy in a sportcoat and tie was the keeper of the Cleveland Crypt, as author of five volumes of what he likes to call “Cleveland dismalia.” But then, many a dark, roiling inner life is concealed behind a mild façade. -- Mark Satola ― Free Times Published On: 2004-04-07 Take the titles of his past books and you get the idea. “The Maniac in the Bushes,” “They Died Crawling” and “Corpse in the Cellar and Killer in the Attic” probably reside in half the residential book cases on northern Ohio. Certainly in mine. They are a guilty pleasure if your mind works that way . . . The best writer and historian to come out of Cleveland since George Condon, whose “Best Kept Secret” is a marvelous book on the city’s story. -- Ron Simon ― News-Journal Published On: 2004-03-31 Interesting how murder and mayhem can prod one’s historical curiosity. Bellamy even makes it fun by including many familiar places―no matter where you’re driving, you’ll take the occasional detour to check out some of the book’s ghoulish crime scenes. -- Thomas Mulloy ― Call & Post Published On: 2004-12-09 Bellamy tells these and other tales with his usual flamboyant yet sympathetic panache, once again creating a volume that just isn’t easy to put down, especially for local history or crime buffs. -- S.T . S.T ― Maple Heights Press Published On: 2004-12-16 John Stark Bellamy II is the author of six books and two anthologies about Cleveland crime and disaster. The former history specialist for the Cuyahoga County Public Library, he comes by his taste for the sensational honestly, having grown up reading stories about Cleveland crime and disaster written by his grandfather, Paul, who was editor of the Plain Dealer, and his father, Peter, who wrote for the Cleveland News and the Plain Dealer. “He’s Got a Gun!” The Tina LaMont Story (1956) Heroes just happen; they are not born or made. Prolonged study of Cleveland murders and disasters has convinced me of at least that: there is simply no knowing who will become a hero. A building catches on fire. One man, to the horror of his friends and even himself, stomps over his own grandmother in his panic to flee; another risks his own life to save others, almost as if he had been rehearsing for such an act all of his life. There’s no predicting it: all you can be sure of is that heroes and heroines will arrive in the most improbable places, at the most unlikely times, and with the most unpredictable personalities. Consider, for example, the case of Tina LaMont. We don’t know much about Tina LaMont. Yes, she was a dancer, and she danced at the kind of establishment that “decent” middle-class folk of the 1950s didn’t have much respect f