SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE It was the worst two-week killing spree in Ohio's history. On the night of July 21, 1948, Robert Daniels and John West entered John and Nolena Niebel's house with loaded guns. They forced the family including the Niebel's 21-year-old daughter, Phyllis, into their car and drove them to a cornfield just off Fleming Falls Road in Mansfield. The two men instructed the Niebels to remove all of their clothing, and then Robert Daniels shot each of them in the head. The brutal murders caught national attention in the media, but the killing spree didn't stop there. Three more innocent people would lose their lives at the hands of Daniels and West in the coming week. Scott Fields tirelessly researched the killings, the capture and trial of Daniels and even interviewed a surviving member of the Niebel family to weave this tragic story into a must-read novel bringing the reader back to those dark days in the summer of 1948. What led to these brutal killings, and why was the Niebel family singled-out to be savagely murdered? It has been more than sixty years since the tragedy, and, yet, this question still remains unanswered. The killing spree is not only remembered to this day, but is an important and dark part of Mansfield lore.

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It was the worse two-week killing spree in Ohio's history. On the night of July 21, 1948, Robert Daniels and John West entered John and Nolena Niebel's house with loaded guns. They forced the family including the Niebel's 21-year-old daughter, Phyllis, into their car and drove them to a cornfield just off Fleming Falls Road in Mansfield. The two men instructed the Niebels to remove all of their clothing, and then Robert Daniels shot each of them in the head. The brutal murders caught national attention in the media, but the killing spree didn't stop there. Three more innocent people would lose their lives at the hands of Daniels and West in the coming week. Scott Fields tirelessly researched the killings, the capture and trial of Daniels and even interviewed a surviving member of the Niebel family to weave this tragic story into a must-read novel bringing the reader back to those dark days in the summer of 1948. What led to these brutal killings, and why was the Niebel family singled-out to be savagely murdered? It has been more than sixty years since the tragedy, and, yet, this question still remains unanswered. The killing spree is not only remembered to this day, but is an important and dark part of Mansfield lore.

"The truth can set you free or cut you down to size-still better it be known than to live a life of lies"It's 1940, and the Mansfield Supper Club's swanky Gala is the event of the year. But when the celebration ends in murder, one of the Mansfield's own stands accused, sending shockwaves throughout the city. The scene is set for an epic whodunnit mystery that twists its way through the seedy side of Hollywood and the perils of love, changing the lives of those touched by the investigation forever.Who will be left standing when the case is closed?Murder at the Mansfield is a fast, fun, page turner and the first in the Express Investigations Mystery series.

Midlands murders take center stage in a “gripping” book that “chronicles some of Mansfield’s most gruesome deaths over the past two centuries” (Mansfield Chad). A young girl waylaid and battered with a hedge stake while returning home from Mansfield on a warm summer evening. Four family members butchered in a blazing house just off Commercial Street. An old farmer repeatedly speared by a hayfork in the mire of a rural farmyard. A drunken housewife found murdered in a haystack at Worksop, a razor killing and suicide on Nottingham Road, and the mysterious woman’s skeleton discovered in the spoil of Sherwood Colliery tip. These, and other cases detailed here, show how often violent death has visited Mansfield and North Nottinghamshire in the past. Drawing on two hundred years of reported crime in Mansfield and the surrounding area, this account reveals the grim catalog of foul deeds, the variety of lethal weapons used—from a hedge stake to a mohair bootlace—and the age-old motives of greed, jealousy, forbidden desires, and thwarted love that have so often led men and women to murder.

Was journalist Dorothy Kilgallen murdered for writing a tell-all book about the JFK assassination? Or was her death from an overdose of barbiturates combined with alcohol, as reported? Shaw believes Kilgallen's death has always been suspect, and unfolds a list of suspects ranging from Frank Sinatra to a Mafia don, while speculating on the possibilities of reopening the case.

"The truth can set you free or cut you down to size-still better it be known than to live a life of lies" Hollywood, 1940. When the swanky Mansfield Gala ends in murder, Hollywood's sweetheart and singing sensation Rose Donovan is arrested in a seemingly open and shut case. With the Express Investigations team by his side, reluctant attorney Beau Hartwell is lured into action?and love with mysterious songstress Ruby Rae Frances. In their search for the true killer, the team encounters a new crime boss terrorizing the city, a formidable DA who forces Beau to deal with the ghosts of his past, and a race against the clock. As the trial date nears, what Beau and the EI gang uncover can save Rose, but at what price? The scene is set for an epic whodunnit mystery which twists its way through the seedy side of Hollywood and the perils of love, changing the lives of those touched by the investigation forever. Who will be left standing when the case is closed?