Deaths on Pleasant Street

The 1909 murder case surrounding the wealthy Swope family of Independence, Missouri, gripped newspaper readers throughout the nation. This book gathers the facts behind the suspicious fates of three Swope family members: the eccentric Colonel, millionaire donor of Kansas City, Missouri s Swope Park, his affable cousin, and a young nephew and heir. The mystery pits the Swope matriarch against her disfavored son-in-law, Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde. Charged with poisoning the Colonel and suspected of multiple other attempted murders, Dr. Hyde endures national media attention for this crime of the century. The series of trials and appeals that followed explores the question: Was he a diabolical villain bent on inheriting Swope s millions or the unfortunate victim of a family grudge? This account of gothic-era America follows streetcar tracks from the courtrooms of Kansas City to the typhoid-plagued Swope mansion in nearby Independence. The author delivers an engaging and accurate retelling of these 100-year-old events in the literary journalism tradition by analyzing court transcripts, newspaper coverage, and personal memoirs. Readers also get a new scenario based on modern science for what may have happened in the dark hallways of the mansion on Pleasant Street. It has been 100 years since multiple tragedies befell members of the prominent Swope family in Independence, Missouri. But Deaths on Pleasant Street gives those shadowy events and the ensuing scandal the immediacy of today's headlines. I began the book in early afternoon, and was unable to sleep until I'd turned the last page. Rarely does historical nonfiction deliver so effective a combination of exhaustive research and inspired storytelling. -Charles Gusewelle The trail of western Missouri's crime of the twentieth century may be stone cold, but Giles Fowler's master sleuthing and briskly paced narrative restore this still-unsolved country-house mystery to vivid life. Deaths on Pleasant Street will captivate history buffs and whodunnit fans alike. -Harry Haskell With a creeping sense of dread reminiscent of Gaslight and the immersive reporting that recalls In Cold Blood, Deaths on Pleasant Street elevates a sensational case of Victorian intrigue, skullduggery, ruinous accusations and black horror to the exalted realm of literature. Poring through a trove of historic manuscripts, legal records and the delicious yellow journalism of the era, Fowler has done graceful service to the dead by telling the tale with a consistent and unfailing writerly flair more fully and fairly than it was ever told, or could possibly have been told, at the time. -Patrick Beach