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This award-winning writer recounts the stories of Ohio’s most notorious vixens, viragoes, and villainesses.
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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Welcome to PLS J's podcast with the public library of Steubenville in Jefferson county, shares with you. Our favorite quirky questions finds out with leaders in our community are reading interviews, local authors, and so much more.
Speaker 2 00:00:28 We would like to welcome everyone to our podcast with Jane and Trilla, who is a full time author and speaker who concentrates on true crime and history. Jane is a double aha war nominee for two of her books, wicked women of Ohio 2018 and unsolved murders and disappearances in Northeast, Ohio 2016. Today we're gonna focus, um, on one of her latest published books, the Ohio HES historic bank, holdups train robberies, jewel stings, and more welcome. Thank you. I'm glad to be here since you have eight books. Um, and they're all related to Ohio history. I wonder if you could just give us like a brief overview of your book cuz they're they seem to be topic oriented trains and heist and toward crime for prime
Speaker 1 00:01:15 That too.
Speaker 2 00:01:16 Yes. Yes. I don't know. I, uh, well I started out, uh, with a, uh, book by Arcadia bath township, which is where I, I lived and was raised for a good part of my life. Uh, and then it just kind of went from there. I just looked for topics that interest me. I was a, uh, a police reporter for the fair long village views for a while. And then a bunch of us broke away and we started the west side leader and I was getting a degree in criminal justice. So I did all the police and fire news. I saved some of the cases that I wrote about, uh, not knowing what I was gonna do in the future. I just have always liked to read about true crime and I've always liked the railroad and trains just kind of, you know, came about that way.
Speaker 2 00:02:01 <laugh> let me just read through the list of your books, um, or you can, um, the bath township, those two I and, and, uh, and Hudson, Ohio, um, Hudson, uh, is, you know, not too far from bath township. It's north up here, Northeast, Ohio. And I particularly liked Hudson because it's a, um, uh, it had the underground railroad there. Oh. And it's got some beautiful old buildings, old, uh, houses. And, uh, so that was my, that was my second book. My third book, uh, was after I had retired, actually I worked at the Akron art museum for a while and I retired from there and I was babysitting my grandsons. And so while they were down napping, I started to think, well, you know, I haven't done a project in quite a while. Mm-hmm so let me just look around. I, you know, and I knew I wanted to write about history mm-hmm <affirmative> and I just said, let me look around and see, who might publish like local histories.
Speaker 2 00:02:59 And I came across, uh, uh, the history press. I saw that they, they published history and crime and I thought, oh boy, that's for me <laugh> you know, so it wasn't, this was really serendipitous. It was like 15 minutes later, uh, an acquisitions editor from the history press emailed me and asked if I would do an, another book on Hudson for the history press. And I said, well, I didn't think that the Arcadia cuz at the time there were two different publishers. I thought that they possibly Arcadia possibly would not like me doing another book on Hudson. So I said, but I said to him, I would like to do a book for you. I said is, and I told him I had been looking at the, uh, at the website and he said, well, why don't you shoot me three or four ideas? Well, I didn't really have three or four ideas crystallized, you know, so, but I thought I gotta get back to him in the next five minutes.
Speaker 2 00:03:54 <laugh> they pass? Yes, I'm gonna lose it. You know? And so I said, uh, how about pioneer women of the Western reserve history of the Akron police department? Uh, there was an old time counterfeiter that lived in the valley and I knew quite a bit about them and I live in a place called shady hollow and there's ladies, we go out to lunch and we call ourselves the shady ladies <laugh>. So I said, shady ladies, you know? And he came right back to me and he said, well, I like shady ladies, but let's make it wicked women. Oh. So that's how that's actually what got the history press started for me. And then I, I, uh, you know, I branched out into a couple books on, uh, trains. I have always liked, uh, trained robberies <laugh> and that was a murder in mayhem and Ohio's rails mm-hmm <affirmative> and then I got real interested in the asbu train disaster.
Speaker 2 00:04:46 Oh. Uh, so that got me into Ohio trained disasters. And then I'm trying to think what it was that got me into the unsolved. There was a couple of a couple of things that I, I really kind of liked about, uh, the unsolved, other, other, uh, books that I had read. And I thought why that I could find some chapters on that and I had a good time with that. And um, then I laid low for a little while and then I decided, well, I may as do another wicked women because by then I had saved, you know, a whole bunch of, um, oh, articles and newspaper articles and things like that, that I had, uh, that I had found then the Ohio heist mm-hmm <affirmative> that came from, uh, watching a, uh, a court TV thing on a jewel thief. Oh. And I saved that probably for oh four or five years thinking I, I wanna do a heist book and I started out with him and then that just kind of went on from there.
Speaker 2 00:05:48 So that's it. And, and I have as well, which will be coming out in, uh, June, uh, 27th and that's wicked Cleveland. And, uh, that was a whole lot of fun, uh, was it to write. Yeah. And, uh, actually my editor had, had offered that to me, so I said yes, right away. And so I just turned that in. It'll be out, um, June 27th. Wow. I did see it on Amazon. I think it was it's gonna be available. So you've told us a little bit about how you got started in writing and how about writing and publishing books? I know that's a whole different ball game than just writing. Well, I'll tell you, I, um, when my son was born, I needed to do something while he was napping, you know, during the day. And so I just, I don't know. I just decided I was gonna write a book <laugh>, you know, what else are you going?
Speaker 2 00:06:41 Do you know? And of course that book, y'all never see the light a day <laugh> uh, and I, uh, then I, I joined a, uh, writer's group from the university of Akron and, uh, we kept up for quite a few years until a couple of people died and then some other people moved away and I just kept writing after that. And I, I wrote a lot of, uh, articles and of course I wrote for the, uh, for the newspaper. And then, um, my, I guess you call her a beta reader. She was one of my teachers at Akron. She said, why don't you do one of the Arcadia books? You could do one on bath. And she had done one for Chicago falls. And so she encouraged me to do the bath one. So I thought, sure, why not? You know, what's wow. And so that was kind of the, you know, the beginning history press people have really enjoyed these books.
Speaker 2 00:07:29 We have a wide variety in our system. I think they do. Yes. And they're so nice because they follow a standard structure. Yes. So you can know where to look for things or how yes. You know, you can Patriot and the photography is excellent. Yes. Well, of course they're, you know, they're old photographs, the, um, Ohio heist, most of the photographs came from the Cleveland public library and they were Brian MIGS is the, um, guy there that I usually deal with. And he is just great. He gets 'em to me, if I email and I say, I want a picture of this, this, this, and this, you know, by a week later, I've got the pictures. If they have it in their collection. Wow. That's pretty amazing. That's nice. So, and other places are, you know, other places are good too. Uh, but uh, I think he likes these books and I think he likes, uh, you know, how, how they turn out.
Speaker 2 00:08:19 So that's why he, we have a lot of patrons who have really enjoyed the different topics on, um, the they've done and it's really a photograph, you know? Yeah. It's just, yeah. Helps in you figure in your, you know yeah, yeah. Helps you see the character in your mind. Yes. And a lot of people, you know, maybe have heard the stories, but they've never seen a picture of right. The, you know, pretty boy flow away. Well, pretty boy that's, you know, that is he's from our, you know, he was, he died from around here, you know, he died up in, uh, east Flipp, east Liverpool. Yeah. And, uh, that, you know, that, that story is, is in the book. I'll talk a little bit about him tonight if anybody wants to, but although that's not gonna be the, the thrust of my, of my presentation cuz I figure pretty much everybody knows about him.
Speaker 2 00:09:03 <laugh> so I'd like to write more about him, to be honest with you. Have you ever met Susan Guy? She's the local author here? Yes. Uh, I, I know the name that I I'm sure. I probably have met her at Ohio Anna or Buckeye or something. I think she is. She did. Um, she may, well monsters, madams and murder. Oh, that's right. She did. Um, she did a Moonlight mill murders. That's right. Okay. Yes. And we, um, we had a little, we did a, uh, interview and we did a video interview and that's how we kind of found out some of the problems we had with our room in here. Yeah. But um, so she, I wondered if you had, because you kind of, I think, I, I think I met her maybe at Ohio, Anna, I wanna say or Buckeye one of, one of the two and uh, I think it was Ohio, Anna and I, you know, and as I, I was sitting here and you were talking about the books.
Speaker 2 00:09:54 I, I was gonna say, you know, I know you have an author here and I couldn't think of her name, but that one, you said Susan Guy, and then it kind of fell together. Yeah. She may be there tonight. I don't know. She's oh, I hope so. She, yeah, we, our Ohio history room and we have all of our resources up there. So all the genealogy resources and books and stuff. So people do a lot of work up there. The librarian who's in charge of that Erica grub. She has digitized many, many photographs and put on, um, our digital shoebox. Oh yeah. And you can do research on that. Yeah. Is, uh, where's the pretty boy Floyd stuff. Erica grubs. She can answer that question. She can find a needle and a haystack. So I'm sure you've probably found that with, uh, librarians and historical oh, experts.
Speaker 2 00:10:38 I couldn't do what I do without librarians. You ask 'em a question they don't stop until they have the answer. No, and I love that <laugh> oh, I really it's. It's like going on a wild goose chase, you know? Oh yeah. It's just, yeah. Yeah. Some people research is the best. <laugh> all kindred spirits here. Yes, it is. Um, so I wanna know, um, how did you decide which characters to focus on his book for Ohio HES? Well, okay. So I told you the jewel thief. I had heard about the guy who, um, no, David, uh Bryk I guess you pronounce it. And he was the, uh, rare book thief. Okay. And I heard about him and then con boy hill, I think I saw his picture on a website and uh, and of course, pretty boy Floyd. I knew I had to do him.
Speaker 2 00:11:28 I knew I had to do dinger mm-hmm <affirmative> and Ted Conrad is, uh, and I'm gonna talk about him tonight and there's a lot about him and I, I read a little bit about him and just, um, uh, he was an embezzler. He actually embezzled, uh, money from the bank. I just knew I had to, you know, research and, and write more about him. Tell me a little bit about the jewel thief, if you can, without giving away anything. Oh, that's bill Mason. Now he's the one that I saw on court TV. He's a jewel thief and he's a con man. I don't know whether he is still alive or not. I tried to track him down. I tracked him down to, um, to New York, but I couldn't tell whether he was still alive, but he was a con man and, and a jewel thief.
Speaker 2 00:12:11 And he, he worked in Florida and he worked in Ohio. And what he would do is he would go through the newspapers, the society sections, and to see what, you know, parties were being thrown or what, uh, big events mm-hmm <affirmative> that would draw the people that had money and, and so on. And, um, so then he would look through the magazines like O town and country and oh, vanity fair, you know, mm-hmm <affirmative> to look at pictures of, of the women to see, you know, what kind of jewelry they had on, well, that's pretty smart. And he got so that he could look at a piece of jewelry and he knew who made it, he was that good. Oh my. And then he in Florida, he then he'd find out where the people lived. And he found out where they lived through the library <laugh> he was all, you know, he hung out at libraries and he would case their, you know, their home or, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 00:13:07 You know, their condo or whatever. Um, he stole from movie stars. He tried to steal from Elizabeth Taylor, but was always, he never could quite get a good time to do it because the most important thing to him was to make sure that he could get away. He planned very carefully, whatever he did, he always made sure that he had an out and apparently he couldn't, uh, put it together with Liz. Yeah. He was, you know, quite a character, quite a char and good looking and charming and well-dressed and well educated and just, you know, just like you, you know, just like the movies, just like to catch a theme. Yeah. Just like catch a theme, right? Yeah. With Carrie grant and it was princess. Great. Was it Grace Kelly? Yes. Yes. That's what, yes. We had to author, we had her daughter come in and she did a meeting on bridesmaid's daughter is the book she wrote.
Speaker 2 00:13:59 And so, um, I don't know that she wrote in, yeah. Her mother was misdiagnosed with postpartum depression. She really had psychosis mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so it goes through, she ended up in a homeless shelter and she found her there and her mother was the one who was in brace Kelly's wedding. And, um, so she was the bridesmaid's daughter. Oh. And so she did go over there and, and, oh, you probably love to talk with her. She did go, they actually let her tour where they had the wedding and, and to meet the family. Yeah. And it just was amazing story. And, and she's quite the advocate for mental health Uhhuh and diagnosing properly people. Um, and so she's spoken everywhere and she's in New York, but she was very interesting, but that reminded Grace Kelly. So yes, her book, um, you can get it here or anywhere.
Speaker 2 00:14:49 I mean, it's um, uh, Nina Giles. Yeah. So you would probably enjoy that. Um, okay. How did you get to start writing about trains? Because I see that you have several books that you wrote related to Ohio train disasters. I love stories of the old west. Okay. And you know, all the train robberies and stuff like that. And I've always loved trains because my grandma, my dad's mother, grandma, Jenny, she lived in, um, my dad was born in cherry Creek, New York and she lived in a shotgun style house and it was on, um, Depot street. So right across the street was the Depot. And I've forgotten now what railroad it was, but you could hear these huge things coming down the, you know, from miles. And so if I was at grandma's house and I heard this I'd run right out to the front stoop and sit there.
Speaker 2 00:15:44 Oh. So I could see. And you could almost feel the heat coming from, from the engines. And I don't know, they were just these big black bam, I'm sorry. However you pronounce it. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And it just, I, I was just fascinated with it. And dad, uh, my dad, uh, owned a construction company and they built, um, Dans and bridges. And most of the bridges that they built were for, for the railroads, for the ATS and Topeka, the Santa Fe railroad. And so, you know, he told stories all the time about that. So, you know, I kind of came by that just, you know, you grow up with things that, you know, interest you and you know, what a great story though, how to get that exposure. Yeah. But I, you know, I just always loved, um, the old west and in fact, my beagle's name is whiter, but my German Shepherd's name is doc holiday.
Speaker 2 00:16:36 I was gonna ask you about that. But you know, Billy, the kid and the first, uh, peace time train robbery was in down south of, uh, Cincinnati was in, you know, was in Ohio. Oh. And the last great train robbery, which is in this book was in Garrettsville. So Ohio has, you know, a, a history. That's how I wrote about those. That's fascinating. I had no exposure to trains at all. You know, it's just where you are at the time in your life, or, or if you have connections somehow with family members or whatever, same thing. When, um, Susan wrote about the mill murders. I mean, many of us had family that worked in the mill and would never imagine that there was a murder happening there, you know, multiple murders over a certain period of time. And you can't even just Fama, but her father was the police.
Speaker 2 00:17:25 Yeah. The sheriff and she's officer too. Wasn't she? I believe so. Well either that or a parole officer, one of the two. Yeah. I can't remember which one. Yeah, I don't remember, but she, she had some amazing stories too as well. I just wanted to let everyone know too that they can look up all your information on your books, on your website. It's www.janeannturzillo.com. And, um, there's more information about you as well. And you write a blog as well. Yes. Yes. Tell us I to, I try to keep up with it. <laugh> the blog is dark hearted women, dark hearted women. Yes. Great. So, and it's more women. Whereas my books I concentrate on on Ohio women, um, my dark hearted blog is about women all over the United States. I'll have to take a look at that more in depth. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you so much here today. And, um, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 00:18:25 Thanks for listening to PLS J's podcast. Visit us in person at your library, branch or [email protected].
