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HARRISBURG —
Historian and author Jon Musgrave offers an inside look of the 1920s gang war between Charlie Birger and the Shelton Brothers in his latest book "Secrets of the Herrin Gangs."
Musgrave is holding a book signing 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Book Emporium in Harrisburg located at 101 N. Gum St. behind Hardees.
Musgrave -- a former Daily Register managing editor -- says his book is a joint project of his research over the last two years of the Bloody Williamson era and a 1927 account penned by a member of the Shelton Gang who had also worked for Birger at one point.
"Ralph Johnson, my co-author, was one of the young gangsters from Benton who joined the gangs and worked as the business manager for slot machine partnership between Birger and the Sheltons," Musgrave said, in a prepared release.
"At the end of the gang war he sold his story to the papers and it went nationwide as a 10-part series."
Roughly half of the new book represents Johnson's account and the other half Musgrave's research into Johnson's true identity since he wrote under an alias, as well as the extent of his role in the gangs. Later Johnson wrote under his real name as a reporter for the Belleville News-Democrat.
"It turns out he was the 'brains' of the Herrin outfit once the Sheltons left for East St. Louis. By the 1930s, prosecutors dubbed him the most dangerous criminal of the 'Egyptian Badlands,'" Musgrave said in the release.
Four years ago Musgrave co-authored "The Bloody Vendetta of Southern Illinois." He's also edited the county history, "The Handbook of Old Gallatin County," and a collection of Lincoln stories from the Civil War era, "Lincoln: Fresh from Abraham's Bosom."
Musgrave and Herrin mystery novelist Anne-Marie Legan will also be conducting a book signing Tuesday evening in Shawneetown at Rudy's Barbecue. Legan's latest thriller, "Secrets: Shawneetown," came out earlier this year.
Legan's fictional story begins when her main character Lauren Perry comes back to Shawneetown to pursue her career as a mystery novelist and is approached by an old woman with a threat. Toss in an FBI agent pursuing threads of another case and the two soon get caught up in a web of murder they must race to untangle.
Legan's other books, "Death Shadow" and "Wolf Lake," are also set in Southern Illinois, in Hardin County and Union County respectively.
A widely published fiction and non-fiction writer Legan is also a poet.
Musgrave's books are published under his imprint, http://www.IllinoisHistory.com.
Both Legan and Musgrave are members of the Southern Illinois Writers Guild.
Historian and author Jon Musgrave offers an inside look of the 1920s gang war between Charlie Birger and the Shelton Brothers in his latest book "Secrets of the Herrin Gangs."
Musgrave is holding a book signing 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Book Emporium in Harrisburg located at 101 N. Gum St. behind Hardees.
Musgrave -- a former Daily Register managing editor -- says his book is a joint project of his research over the last two years of the Bloody Williamson era and a 1927 account penned by a member of the Shelton Gang who had also worked for Birger at one point.
"Ralph Johnson, my co-author, was one of the young gangsters from Benton who joined the gangs and worked as the business manager for slot machine partnership between Birger and the Sheltons," Musgrave said, in a prepared release.
"At the end of the gang war he sold his story to the papers and it went nationwide as a 10-part series."
Roughly half of the new book represents Johnson's account and the other half Musgrave's research into Johnson's true identity since he wrote under an alias, as well as the extent of his role in the gangs. Later Johnson wrote under his real name as a reporter for the Belleville News-Democrat.
"It turns out he was the 'brains' of the Herrin outfit once the Sheltons left for East St. Louis. By the 1930s, prosecutors dubbed him the most dangerous criminal of the 'Egyptian Badlands,'" Musgrave said in the release.
Four years ago Musgrave co-authored "The Bloody Vendetta of Southern Illinois." He's also edited the county history, "The Handbook of Old Gallatin County," and a collection of Lincoln stories from the Civil War era, "Lincoln: Fresh from Abraham's Bosom."
Musgrave and Herrin mystery novelist Anne-Marie Legan will also be conducting a book signing Tuesday evening in Shawneetown at Rudy's Barbecue. Legan's latest thriller, "Secrets: Shawneetown," came out earlier this year.
Legan's fictional story begins when her main character Lauren Perry comes back to Shawneetown to pursue her career as a mystery novelist and is approached by an old woman with a threat. Toss in an FBI agent pursuing threads of another case and the two soon get caught up in a web of murder they must race to untangle.
Legan's other books, "Death Shadow" and "Wolf Lake," are also set in Southern Illinois, in Hardin County and Union County respectively.
A widely published fiction and non-fiction writer Legan is also a poet.
Musgrave's books are published under his imprint, http://www.IllinoisHistory.com.
Both Legan and Musgrave are members of the Southern Illinois Writers Guild.
