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This book will be released on July 8th, 2025!

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A Wave of Ominous Darkness…

In the nineteenth-century, heinous, bloody crimes were shameful and unexpected in Michigan’s emerging Western frontier. A farmer, intent on marriage, disappeared after leaving a Leonidas tavern in 1853, culminating in the conviction of three men even though a body was never found. A shooter fatally wounded a beloved sheriff during an 1867 Kalamazoo midnight jailbreak attempt, sparking a nationwide manhunt. In 1897, the murder of a couple shot in their Van Buren County home famously remains unsolved today. A brutal murder opposite the iconic train depot mortified Niles in 1892, and an Okemos woman in 1894 went mad after losing her husband, poisoned her son and tossed his body down a well. Author Michael Delaware unfolds these and other stories from Victorian Western Michigan...

Researcher and author Michael Delaware releases another dozen true crime stories that shocked Michigan and the nation over a century ago.

Michael Delaware is an Arizona native who left home at age eighteen. He lived fifteen years in Georgia, where he worked as a craftsman, artist, salesperson, manager and owner of a stained- and decorative glass door and window business. He moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1999 and to Battle Creek in 2001. He still lives there today. In 2022, he launched his podcast, Tales of Southwest Michigan's Past . He is passionate about researching forgotten stories from the Victorian era and is known for his video programs on local cemetery, landmark and biographical history.

• Pages: 192
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Imprint: The History Press
• Series: True Crime
• Publication Date: 8th July 2025
• State: Michigan
• ISBN: 978-1-4671-5607-3
• Format: Paperback
• BISACs:
  TRUE CRIME / General
  HISTORY / United States / 19th Century
  HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)