Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
The Killing of John Sharpless - The Pursuit of Justice in Delaware County - cover

The Killing of John Sharpless - The Pursuit of Justice in Delaware County

Stephanie Hoover

Publisher: The History Press

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

The Pennsylvania historian “deftly investigates turn-of-the-century law (such as it was) to find fresh answers” in a controversial 19th century murder (Main Line Today).   On a stormy November evening in 1885, John Sharpless answered a knock on his door. Less than an hour later, he was found dead in his barn from a blow to the back of the head; his bloodstained hat lay next to him on the ground. A three thousand dollar reward for the killer sparked an overzealous bounty hunt across southeastern Pennsylvania, and numerous innocent men were arrested. Samuel Johnson—a local African American man with a criminal record—was charged. Despite the Widow Sharpless’s insistence that Johnson was not the man who had come to their door, he was tried and sentenced to hang. Author Stephanie Hoover offers an in-depth investigation of the crime. From the events of that night and the mishandling of the investigation by a corrupt police force to the trial and conviction of Johnson and the efforts of the Quaker community to appeal the sentence, Hoover profiles a miscarriage of justice in Delaware County.   Includes photos
Available since: 04/09/2013.
Print length: 131 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Ghoul of Gray's Harbor - Murder & Mayhem in the Pacific Northwest - cover

    Ghoul of Gray's Harbor - Murder...

    C.J. March

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Sailors trusted him with their money and their lives. That was a mistake. The lucky ones woke up with headaches in the holds of ships headed to China. The others never took another breath. 
 
Billy Gohl robbed, 'shanghaied,' and killed sailors across the Pacific Northwest. Grays Harbor in Aberdeen, Washington was so full of bodies that newspapers dubbed it a 'floaters fleet.' His trapdoor of death was famous. In his time, Gohl murdered over 100 people, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.
    Show book
  • Early Graves - A True Story of Murder and Passion - cover

    Early Graves - A True Story of...

    Thomas H. Cook

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Shocking true crime from the Edgar Award–winning author. "Powerful . . . A frightening close-up of sociopathic personalities at their most deadly" (Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter).Evil has a way of finding itself. How else could you explain the bond between Alvin and Judith Ann Neelley, who consecrated their marriage in blood? Before the killings started, they restricted themselves to simple mischief: prank calls, vandalism, firing guns at strangers' houses. Gradually their ambition grew, until one day at the Riverbend Mall in Rome, Georgia, they spotted Lisa Ann Millican. Three days after Lisa Ann disappeared, the thirteen-year-old girl was found shot and pumped full of liquid drain cleaner. In between her abduction and her death, she was subjected to innumerable horrors. And she was only the first to die. Drawing on police records and extensive interviews, Thomas H. Cook recounts the story of Judith Ann Neelley, who at nineteen became the youngest woman ever sentenced to death row.
    Show book
  • Suburban Legends - True Tales of Murder Mayhem and Minivans - cover

    Suburban Legends - True Tales of...

    Sam Stall

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    They told you the suburbs were a great place to live. They said nothing bad could ever happen here.But they were wrong. This collection of terrifying true stories exposes the dark side of life in the 'burbs—from corpses buried in backyards and ghosts lurking in fast food restaurants to UFOs, vanishing persons, bizarre apparitions, and worse. Consider: ● "The Soccer Mom's Secret"—Meet Melinda Raisch of Columbus, Ohio. She's the wife of a dentist. A mother of three. A PTA member. And she has enough murderous secrets to fill a minivan.● "Noise Pollution"—More than 100 residents of Kokomo, Indiana, claim their small town is under attack by a low-pitched humming sound that erodes health and sanity. Too bad they're the only ones who can hear it.● "Death Takes a Holiday Inn"—There's nothing more reassuring than a big chain hotel in a quaint small town—unless it's the Holiday Inn of Grand Island, New York, where you'll spend the night with the spirit of a mischievous little girl. So lock your doors, dim the lights, and prepare to stay up all night with this creepy collection of true tales. We promise you'll never look at white picket fences the same way again!
    Show book
  • Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in & Around Durham - cover

    Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths...

    Maureen Anderson

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and Around Durham spans four centuries, with over fifty terrible tales of man's inhumanity to man, which are related in the pages of this book. In the early centuries superstition and ignorance were often the means by which justice was meted out. If it was believed that a crime had taken place, a person could be tried, condemned and hanged by the side of the road on nothing more than the statement of a neighbor. The nineteenth century saw the development of the coal industry. This brought thousands of impoverished men looking for work. Sadly , the wages were often spent on alcohol and women were often nothing more than punching bags for the drunken abusive husbands as is the case of Dorothy Wilthew who was murdered at Jarrow by her husband after years of abuse. Other cases include; Joseph Hutchinson who murdered his brother and father at Sedgefield later he was found to be insane, a child was kidnapped and later murdered by Isabella Thompson at Bishop Auckland and Maria Fitzmmons was found stabbed to death in Sunderland in 1869 it was to be 13 years before her killer, Thomas Fury, was convicted of the crime . Take a journey into the darker and unknown side of your area as you read Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and Around Durham.
    Show book
  • Fatal North - Murder and Survival on the First North Pole Expedition - cover

    Fatal North - Murder and...

    Bruce Henderson

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    It began as President Ulysses S. Grant's bid for international glory after the Civil War-America's first attempt to reach the North Pole. It ended with Captain Charles Hall's death under suspicious circumstances, dissension among sailors, scientists, and explorers, and the ship's evacuation and eventual sinking. Then came a brutal struggle for survival by thirty-three men, women, and children, stranded on the polar ice. When news of the disastrous expedition and accusations of murder reached Washington D.C., it led to a nationwide scandal, an official investigation, and a government cover-up.The mystery of the captain's death remained unsolved for nearly 100 years. But when Charles Hall's frozen grave in northern Greenland was opened, forensic scientists were finally able to reach a shocking conclusion.Now, telling the complete story for the first time, bestselling author Bruce Henderson has researched original transcripts of the U.S. Navy inquests, personal papers of Captain Hall, autopsy and forensic reports relating to the century-old crime, the ship's original log, and personal journals kept by crewmen to bring to life one of the most mysterious tragedies of American exploration.
    Show book
  • Lady Killer - cover

    Lady Killer

    Johnny Quick

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    From Johnny Quick, a glimpse into the mind of a real lady killer.
    Show book