In 1857, convicts began breaking rock to build the walls of the Illinois State penitentiary at Joliet, the prison that would later confine them. For a century and a half, thousands of men and women were sentenced to do time in this historic, castle-like fortress on Collins Street. Its bakery fed victims of the Great Chicago Fire, and its locks frustrated pickpockets from the world's fair. Even newspaper-selling sensations like the Lambeth Poisoner, the Haymarket Anarchists, the Marcus Train Robbers and Fainting Bertha became numbers once they passed through the gates. Author Amy Steidinger recovers stories of lunatics and lawmen, counterfeiters and call girls, grave robbers and politicians.

The iron bars of Joliet Prison might once have held John Wayne Gacy, Baby Face Nelson and other notorious inmates as unwilling guests, but their stories now desperately cling to the limestone walls. After 160 years spent crammed with victims of misfortune and agents of mayhem, the grim landmark immortalized in movies like The Blues Brothers is now entirely given over to the ghosts of its past. Follow a singing ghost to the convict cemetery where thousands of unclaimed bodies are said to lie. Listen for the tread of Odette Allen, the warden's wife who was brutally murdered in her bedroom on the second floor. Unlock the gates of Joliet Prison's haunted heritage with Wendy Moxley Roe.

Chicago Tribune editor Bill O'Connell O'Connell explores one of the most heinous but least publicized crimes in Illinois history: the 1968 abduction, sexual assault, and murder of fourteen-year-old David Stukel by fourteen-year-old bullies Billy Rose Sprinkle and James Perruquet. O'Connell-David Stukel's Little League teammate-recalls the victim's idyllic childhood and takes readers into the minds of the murderers and inside the homes, hearts, and photo albums of the victim's family, whose grief is palpable a generation after the crime. His research includes parole interviews, inmate psychological reports and conversations with the families of the murderers and the family of the victim. Fourteen is a masterfully crafted, thoroughly insightful account of the years leading up to, and the four decades since, the unconscionable and unprovoked slaying of an innocent ninety-five-pound high school freshman.

Stateville penitentiary in Illinois has housed some of Chicago's most infamous criminals and was proclaimed to be "the world's toughest prison" by Joseph Ragen, Stateville's powerful warden from 1936 to 1961. It shares with Attica, San Quentin, and Jackson the notoriety of being one of the maximum security prisons that has shaped the public's conception of imprisonment. In Stateville James B. Jacobs, a sociologist and legal scholar, presents the first historical examination of a total prison organization—administrators, guards, prisoners, and special interest groups. Jacobs applies Edward Shils's interpretation of the dynamics of mass society in order to explain the dramatic events of the past quarter century that have permanently altered Stateville's structure. With the extension of civil rights to previously marginal groups such as racial minorities, the poor, and, ultimately, the incarcerated, prisons have moved from society's periphery toward its center. Accordingly Stateville's control mechanisms became less authoritarian and more legalistic and bureaucratic. As prisoners' rights increased, the preogatives of the staff were sharply curtailed. By the early 1970s the administration proved incapable of dealing with politicized gangs, proliferating interest groups, unionized guards, and interventionist courts. In addition to extensive archival research, Jacobs spent many months freely interacting with the prisoners, guards, and administrators at Stateville. His lucid presentation of Stateville's troubled history will provide fascinating reading for a wide audience of concerned readers. ". . . [an] impressive study of a complex social system."—Isidore Silver, Library Journal

From Chicago Public Library Foundation award-winner Ursula Bielski comes the first, shocking look at the ghosts of Old Joliet Prison. In the fall of 2018 Ursula gathered together a team of veteran paranormal researchers to host the first ever paranormal investigations and ghost tours at one of the world's most notorious penitentiaries: the Old Joliet Prison. Illinois' second state penitentiary, the prison was constructed in the mid 1850s, and hosted thousands of murderers, rapists, thieves and confidence men during its nearly 150 years of operation. In addition to the crimes these men--and women--perpetrated before their incarcerations, once inside the chaos continued. Countless numbers of stabbings, shootings, rapes and suicides occurred inside the prison walls, along with hundreds of deaths from disease and illness. Now, step inside the abandoned cell blocks and darkened prison yard, the old prison hospital and the lost convict cemetery on the hill. The ghosts of Old Joliet Prison will hold you captive indeed.

Named warden of the Illinois State Penitentiary in 1913, Edmund Allen arrived with a glamorous new wife and ambitious plans of reform that did away with years of striped uniforms and humiliating practices. Two years later, his wife was found murdered in her bed, shocking the country and throwing the prison into chaos. Over the past century, life behind bars at Joliet has often been a national spectacle. Infamous inmates like Leopold and Loeb, John Wayne Gacy, Baby Face Nelson and James Earl Ray drew headlines, and iconic scenes in movies like The Blues Brothers ensured that the prison walls themselves were instantly recognizable. From overlooked prisoner profiles to the kind of dramatic incidents that incited riots or inspired Hollywood, Amy Steidinger's stories cover the modern era of Old Joliet Prison.

The hunting accident -- Little Italy -- A young man's trouble with the law -- Code of silence -- The truth -- Nathan Leopold -- The darkness -- Plato's cave -- The inferno -- The übermensch -- Principles of sound -- The woods of the suicides -- Final exam -- The sins of the fathers -- The glim box -- The letter -- Purgatorio -- Paradiso.