Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Ohio History

Book excerpt: Each volume in this series features fifteen to twenty short biographies of notorious bad guys, perpetrators of mischief, visionary if misunderstood thinkers, and other colorful antiheroes from the history of a given city, state, or region of the U.S. The villainous, the misguided, and the misunderstood all get their due in these entertaining yet informing books. Ohio has more than its fair share of stories of women who chose arsenic as the way to eliminate "problems" from their lives, along with corrupt politicians, thieves, unscrupulous gamblers, and other con artists. Read about Dr. John Cook Bennett, who made a fortunate off his belief that diplomas were better bought than earned; Olympic gold medalist James Snook, whose sordid affair took a deadly turn; and Nancy Farrar, whose culpability for one man's murder was as unclear as her mental status.