On a 6,000-mile train trip across the North American continent from New York City to the West Coast, then back to New York over a southern route, prizewinning English crime historian Jonathan Goodman visited a number of sites where notorious murders occurred--the Kingsbury Run torso murders in Cleveland; the murder by "thrill-killers" Leopold and Loeb, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and the escapades of Al Capone in Chicago; the Henwood-VonPhul-Springer affair in Denver; the murders of Marian Williams and...

One of the nation's first highly publicized missing child cases

Ten-year-old Beverly Potts was last seen at 9:00 p.m. the evening of August 24, 1951, at Halloran Park on Cleveland's West Side. She and her neighbor and friend Patricia Swing had gone to see the Showagon--a troupe of singers, dancers, magicians, and other performers that traveled around Cleveland's neighborhood parks during the summer, giving free performances. Patricia had to be home before dark, but Beverly's parents told her she could stay until the show was over. When she was still not home by 9:30, her...