Chicago author and historian Richard Lindberg will talk about his new book, Heartland Serial Killers: Belle Gunness, Johann Hoch and Murder for Profit in Gaslight Era America.
Gunness and Hoch, two early 20th Century serial killers, placed advertisements in the lonely hearts columns of ethnic newspapers advertising for desperately lonely men and women to marry, ¦swindle, and ultimately murder. Belle Gunness carried out her bloody work in a rural farm house outside of LaPorte, Indiana from 1900-1908. Hoch, the lesser known fiend, was an apprentice to Dr. H.H. Holmes, the "master of murder castle" (more famously known as the "Devil in the White City") in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair. Hoch struck off on his own after his mentor, H.H. Holmes, was captured and hanged. Hoch, this squat, balding killer married 35 women in his time - about ten of them ended up in graves once their dowry and insurance policies were safely in his hand. Hoch and Gunness were contemporaries but they did not work together, nor did they know each other, but if they had, one would have cancelled out the other.
Registration is required for this author event. Sign up online at www.frankfortlibrary.org in the programs and events calendar or call 815-534-6173.
