Now if this back cover text isn’t jaw-dropping…

Here is the text that is planned for the back cover of my upcoming book, “Wicked in Columbus, Indiana,” due out probably late winter:

Dubbed “The Athens of the Prairie” for its array of stunning modern architecture, Columbus still endured its share of unsavory citizens, crime-ridden neighborhoods and tales of woe. Many residents avoided the infamous slums of Smoky Row and Death Valley, while others gave in to the allure of Lillian “Todie” Tull’s famed house of ill-repute on North Jackson Street. Two different father-son hoodlum partnerships, The McKinneys and Bells, terrorized the area in the 1800s. And a brutal fist fight between a newspaper editor and the mayor sparked a scandal in 1877. Author Paul J. Hoffman guides the reader on a wild ride through the city’s salacious side.

And below are some photos that have a really good shot at being included in the book:

029
Moonshining was big business in Columbus, even into the 1960s. Here, Sheriff J. Walter Johns inspects a homemade still found in a local chicken house.

147

144
Lillian “Todie” Tull was one of Columbus’ most famous madames. She, along with a couple of alleged accomplices, was accused with trying to entice a young woman to come to Columbus for employment with the intention of turning her into a prostitute.
065
Ralph Drake, a man who battled alcoholism as a young adult, killed his lover, Ida Ward, and tried to kill himself in a Columbus boarding house in 1893.
052
The first local speech on the Ku Klux Klan was held at city hall in 1922.

Published by Paul J. Hoffman

Paul J. Hoffman is a career journalist who gave up that career in September 2019 to write full-time. He has two nonfiction books published: "Murder in Wauwatosa: The Mysterious Death of Buddy Schumacher," and "Wicked Columbus, Indiana." He was born in Madison, Wisconsin, is a graduate of Wauwatosa East High School and earned a bachelors degree from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in Mass Communications. His journalism experience includes working as a sports writer at the Milwaukee Sentinel, assistant sports editor at Pioneer Press newspapers in the Chicago area, sports editor and news editor in Shelbyville, Indiana, and as a special publications editor at the Daily Journal in Franklin and Columbus, Indiana. He lives in Columbus, Indiana, with his wife, Kimberly S. Hoffman, who is also an author. He has three daughters, a son and two stepdaughters.

Buddy Schumacher book

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: