Books by Robert Wilhelm

More Tales of Murder in 19th Century America

The Bloody Century 2 long-awaited sequel to The Bloody Century takes the reader back to nineteenth-century America in all its gory glory.

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The Bloody Century(Volume 1) retells the stories of Americans, driven by desperation, greed, jealousy, or an irrational bloodlust, to take the life of someone around them. It presents 50 of the most intriguing murder cases from the archives of American crime including Richly illustrated with scenes and portraits from the time of the murders, and including songs and poems written to commemorate the crimes, The Bloody Century invokes a fitting atmosphere for Victorian homicide.

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So Far from Home: The Pearl Bryan Murder The headless corpse of a young woman,discovered in the woods of Northern Kentucky in February 1896, disrupted communities in three states. The woman was Pearl Bryan, daughter of a wealthy farmer in Greencastle, Indiana, and her suspected killers, Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, were dental students in Cincinnati, Ohio. How Pearl Bryan died so far from home is an enduring mystery.

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Wicked Victorian Boston. Victorian Boston was more than just stately brownstones and elite society that graced neighborhoods like Beacon Hill. As the population grew, the city developed a seedy underbelly just below its surface. Illegal saloons, prostitution and sports gambling challenged the image of the Puritan City. Daughters of the Boston Brahmins posed for nude photographs. The grandson of President John Adams was roped into an elaborate confidence game. Reverend William Downs, a local Baptist pastor, was caught in bed with a married parishioner. Author Robert Wilhelm reveals the sinful history behind Boston’s Victorian grandeur.
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Murder and Mayhem in Essex County The idea of a criminal record originated in the early seventeenth century when the magistrates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony began recording dates, places, victims and criminals. Despite, or perhaps because of, the strict code of the Puritans, some early settlers earned quite the rap sheet that landed them either in the stocks or at the end of a noose. With biting wit and an eye for the macabre, local author Robert Wilhelm traces the first documented cases of murder and mayhem in Essex County, Massachusetts.
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The Confessions of Jonathan Pratt
Robert Wilhelm's first work of fiction. In the shadow of the scaffold, young Jonathan Pratt confesses to a multitude of sins committed while traversing the strange and dangerous terrain of 1848 New York. Set upon by prophets and seers, conmen and politicians, street gangs and private armies, prostitutes, thieves and ne’er-do-wells of every kind he falls prey to the traps and snares of temptation. Through New York’s darkest valleys and vilest urban landscapes, Jonathan fights a losing battle for his soul, following a path destined to end at the gallows.

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