Book of the Year Award, 2009 ForeWord Magazine, True Crime category ; Jackson County Historical Society's 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award for the Historic Book of the Year The 1909 murder case surrounding the wealthy Swope family of Independence, Missouri, gripped newspaper readers throughout the nation. This book gathers the facts behind the suspicious fates of three Swope family members: the eccentric Colonel, millionaire donor of Kansas City, Missouri's Swope Park, his affable cousin, and a young nephew and heir. The mystery pits the Swope matriarch against her disfavored son-in-law, Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde. Charged with poisoning the Colonel and suspected of multiple other attempted murders, Dr. Hyde endures national media attention for this crime of the century. The series of trials and appeals that followed explores the question: Was he a diabolical villain bent on inheriting Swope's millions or the unfortunate victim of a family grudge? This account of gothic-era America follows streetcar tracks from the courtrooms of Kansas City to the typhoid-plagued Swope mansion in nearby Independence. The author delivers an engaging and accurate retelling of these 100-year-old events in the literary journalism tradition by analyzing court transcripts, newspaper coverage, and personal memoirs. Readers also get a new scenario based on modern science for what may have happened in the dark hallways of the mansion on Pleasant Street.

This is a biography of little-known Missouri senator James A. Reed, who was in the running for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination in 1928 and 1932. While in the United States Senate, Reed was the leading opponent to president Woodrow Wilsons effort to have the United States join the League of Nations. During the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt, Reed was a critic of Roosevelts Neal Deal policies and gave his support to Republican presidential candidates in 1936 and 1940. The book also presents the story of Reed, the outstanding trial lawyer in cases where he obtains remarkable results in civil damage claims, as well as various criminal cases in which he acted as prosecuting attorney or defense counsel.