Mary Jane's ghost : the legacy of a murder in small town America /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Gregory, Ted, author.
Imprint:Iowa City : University Of Iowa Press, ©2017.
Description:203 pages ; 24 cm
Language:English
Subject:Reed, Mary Jane, -- 1930-1948
Skridla, Stanley.
TRUE CRIME / Murder / General.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Journalism.
Murder victims -- Illinois -- Oregon -- History -- 20th century.
Murder -- Illinois -- Oregon -- History -- 20th century.
Murder.
Murder victims.
Illinois -- Oregon.
History.
True crime stories.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11341223
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781609385231
1609385233
Notes:Includes bibliographical references.
Summary:"Summer 1948. In the scenic, remote river town of Oregon, Illinois, a young couple visiting the local lovers' lane is murdered. The shocking crime garners headlines from Portland, Maine, to Long Beach, California. But after a sweeping manhunt, no one is arrested and the violent deaths of Mary Jane Reed and Stanley Skridla fade into time's indifference. Fast forward fifty years. Eccentric entrepreneur Michael Arians moves to Oregon, opens a roadhouse, gets elected mayor, and becomes obsessed with the crime. He comes up with a scandalous conspiracy theory and starts to believe that Mary Jane's ghost is haunting his establishment. He also reaches out to the Chicago Tribune for help. Arians's letter falls on the desk of general assignment reporter Ted Gregory. For the next thirteen years, while he ricochets from story to story and his newspaper is deconstructed around him, Gregory remains beguiled by the case of the teenaged telephone operator Mary Jane and twenty-eight-year-old Navy vet Stanley--and equally fascinated by Arians's seemingly hopeless pursuit of whoever murdered them. Mary Jane's Ghost is the story of these two odysseys"--
Table of Contents:
  • Acknowledgments
  • Author's Note
  • Chapter 1. Death of a Butterfly, Lost in the Weeds
  • Chapter 2. Field Trips Downstate
  • Chapter 3. In Memoriam
  • Chapter 4. Origins
  • Chapter 5. "I Don't Believe in Chasing Demons"
  • Chapter 6. Distraction, Obsession
  • Chapter 7. Heinous Abe and a Break in the Case
  • Chapter 8. The Opposite of Forgetting
  • Chapter 9. The Earnest Grave-Finders Exhume Reconciliation
  • Chapter 10. Rivers of Fate
  • Chapter 11. Send in the Ghosts
  • Chapter 12. Memory and Silence
  • Chapter 13. Our Shared History, Revised
  • Chapter 14. George, Doug, Jerry, Greg, and Mark
  • Chapter 15. The Perilous Line between Truth and Loyalty
  • Chapter 16. The Messy, Noble Pursuit
  • Notes