Mary Jane's Ghost
The Legacy of a Murder in Small Town America
by Ted Gregory
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Pub Date Oct 01 2017 | Archive Date Oct 01 2017
University of Iowa Press | University Of Iowa Press
Description
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.
Advance Praise
“Mary Jane’s Ghost is a wonderful book, fast-paced and incisive, about two mysterious deaths—that of a young couple in a small Illinois town nearly seventy years ago, and also of American investigative journalism in recent times.”—Scott Turow, author, Testimony
“One of our most talented newspaper reporters and writers, Ted Gregory gives us his first book and it is a winner in every conceivable way. Powerful and personal, it is true crime storytelling at its most compelling and expansive, filled with intimate details, historical substance, and memorable characters.”—Rick Kogan
“Ted Gregory’s fascinating reinvestigation of an unsolved lovers’ lane double murder—a rural Illinois Black Dahlia case—not only brings texture and insight to an intriguing mystery, but serves as a tribute to the pleasures of a threatened occupation, the newspaper reporter.”—Richard Babcock, former editor, Chicago magazine
“Mary Jane’s Ghost is part detective story, part road trip, and part rumination on the nature of modern newspapers. I loved Ted Gregory’s witty, graceful writing, his quest to figure out who killed Mary Jane, and the way he makes us ponder the big mystery: Why do we need stories anyway?”—Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune columnist, author, Even the Terrible Things Seem Beautiful to Me Now
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781609385231 |
| PRICE | $18.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 194 |
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Featured Reviews
Librarian 226140
Two stories, one book. Mary Jane and her beau are murdered when visiting a common lover's lane. After an investigation, no one was found to 've charged for the murder.
50 years later the story is investigated by a reporter. There are many stories that he investigates and writes about while Mary Jane's murder is still on his mind. Many years later he finds what may have happened. Will Mary Jane's ghost be finally laid to rest?
Interesting, a must read!
5 Stars
Jill A, Educator
I really enjoyed this book. As the teacher in charge of stocking the senior school library, I like to ensure that the books are diverse and the students are exposed to both excellent fiction and excellent modern non-fiction. I think that this is both a fascinating and well-written book that has much to recommend it and will keep the students interests. It is good to stretch their reading interests by providing them with books about subjects they might never have considered before and this definitely does the job well. It is also good to find books that I know the teaching staff might enjoy as well as the students and I definitely think that this applies in both cases. Absolutely recommend wholeheartedly; a fantastic read.
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