On a cold February morning in 1908, the ground under Coal Valley, Illinois, trembled as an earthquake opened the earth, collapsed mining tunnels, and created chasms and fissures as deep as five hundred feet below the rolling hills. It would forever be known as Coal Valley's "great cave-in." Thirteen men lay trapped for three months as tensions rose among the townspeople, rescuers, and families of the trapped miners. One rescue attempt after another failed due to aftershocks, weather, and just plain bad luck. The dangers were great below ground, but the twisted minds of some of the town's...