Historic Crimes of Long Island

Book excerpt: This true crime collection reveals centuries of rogues, murderers, spurned lovers and accused witches who called Long Island home. Author and historian Kerriann Flanagan Brosky uncovers some of the most ghastly and fascinating historical crimes committed on Long Island. Hidden just beneath the idyllic countryside and picturesque towns, there is a long and murky history of murder and mayhem. A Victorian romance went awry in Huntington when wealthy farmer Charles Kelsey was tarred, feathered and murdered in 1872. Thirty-five years before the famous witch trials of Salem, East Hampton had its own Puritan hysteria among charges of witchcraft. The 1937 kidnapping of wealthy heiress Alice Parsons shook the quiet town of Stony Brook and remains a mystery to this day. These and other tales are revealed in chilling volume.