Queen City Gothic: Cincinnati's Most Infamous Murder Mysteries

by J.T. Townsend

Cold cases fascinate us because of the relentless  
See what happens as JT Townsend takes us on a sinister journey through thirteen notorious Cincinnati murder mysteries in his cult classic,  Queen City Gothic . Among others, you'll
Townsend's riveting chapters include previously unpublished details from police files and stunning images of the crime scenes then and now. This book is must reading for all citizen sleuths who believe in the cold case   "Let no victim's ghost say we did not try..."

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Book Club, Crime

482 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2009

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I am an inveterate and unashamed—well, maybe just a little ashamed—viewer of the ID Network, it can be no surprise that I am also a lover of True Crime books, and, of all True Crime books, my favorites are those dedicated to a city whose streets I have walked, a city which I know well. So you can imagine the excitement with which I approached Queen City Gothic, an account of unsolved murders in the city of my birth, Cincinnati, Ohio.

It is to J.T. Townsend’s credit that I was in no way disappointed. He’s no great shakes as a stylist, but he possesses the skills needed to build a narrative that keeps his reader's interest. Since the reader knows going in that each crime remains officially unsolved, this is an achievement in itself.

I would suggest, however, that you skip the first seventy pages or so. These first two chapters—sex murders of women in squalid circumstances, more than a hundred years ago—lack the compelling details which allow a murder to rise above the status of a mere police report. But with “Chapter 3: The Bride in the Casket” (the account of a bride-to-be gunned down at her front door in a middle-class Covington, Kentucky neighborhood in 1936), the book begin to get interesting.

My three personal favorites are the fourth, sixth and twelfth chapters, but my principal reason for this favoritism is peculiar to myself: the fourth and twelfth concern murders which took place less than a block away from where my upwardly mobile uncle and aunt lived at the time (working class Norwood 1939, upper middle class Mount Lookout 1969), and the sixth happened a block away from the high school I attended (Purcell on Hackberry Street). These murders are, however, interesting in themselves, particularly the sixth (“TO BE OR NOT TO BE: the Lonely Death of William Armstrong: 1939”), which involves the supposed suicide (!) of a man found trussed up in a giant “moth bag” (designed for the protection of clothes) with a gas hose (connected to the stove) placed near his mouth.

The most compelling of these narratives—particularly for those readers who are not me—are the ninth, eleventh and twelfth chapters. The ninth tells the tale of Patty Rebholz, a Greenhills high school teenager bludgeoned to death not far from her home in 1963. (The boyfriend, strongly suspected at the time, was brought to trial 36 years later.) The eleventh and twelfth chapters tell the stories of what I believe are still Cincinnati’s two most legendary unsolved murder cases, both from 1966: the slaughter of the Bricca family in Bridgetown, and the string of murders and rapes—primarily of older women—perpetrated in or near Walnut Hills by the man who came to be known as “The Cincinnati Strangler.”

J.T. Townsend does an excellent job with both cases, and I highly recommend these two chapters to two kinds of people (of which I happen to be both): 1) anyone who loves a good murder, and 2) anyone who is interest in exploring the proximate causes of racial and social unrest.

Cincinnati, in the fall of ‘66, already gripped with the fear of “The Cincinnati Strangler”—an unknown black man who had killed four white women in Cincinnati’s urban core neighborhoods—was further shocked and terrified by the news of the bloody slaying of the middle-class Bricca family on September 25 on the far West Side. Then “The Strangler” struck again. Alice Hochhausler—his fifth victim--was murdered on October 11, only this time the attack took place in the affluent “Gaslight District” just northwest of the University of Cincinnnati campus. The police intensified their already aggressive “stop and frisk” policy in the black urban neighborhoods, enlisting hundreds of firemen, cabdrivers and meter readers as an auxiliary force of informants. Eventually Posteal Laskey was arrested and convicted of a similar murder—not one of the five—but the hostility generated in the black community by the police’s civil rights violations persisted, intensifying during Posteal Laskey's murder trial. The atmosphere was tense on the street; Martin Luther King spoke at a local event, urging patience. But King's efforts failed: the rioting began in June of 1967.

I found this book thoroughly enjoyable, and would recommend it anyone who knows Cincinnati, cares about its history, and is fascinated by true crimes.

[Mary Mathes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. The writing was so bad I just couldn’t. At first I thought if I just read the supposedly factual parts and skipped the “I Spy” nonsense I could get through it but the writing is just as cheesy and overwrought in the rest of it.

[Hazen Master · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally, finally finished this thing. I love my town and I love true crime, so I bought this book as soon as I heard of it (a few years ago). Unfortunately, it has been quite a slog to get through. Poor, banal writing with lame contextual anecdotes and peculiar conjectures by the author, I just did not dig this one. Each true crime being investigated is broken down into several parts, the worst of which is always the "I Witness" section in which the author creates a narrative summary of "what really happened." A cool idea, to be sure, but very poor execution (puns!). The lack of detective work on the part of the author is quite apparent. Anyway, I think the haunting tales of unsolved murders in the Cincinnati area deserve a better book than this.

[LaurReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book -- which outlines in great detail the facts, photos, suspects, rumors, and theories of the infamous, unsolved murders in Cincinnati -- left me horrified, shaken, creeped-out, frustrated, and....curious. So much so that my husband and I found ourselves trolling the locations of some of the actual murder sites (notably the Bricca murder on the West side -- shamelessly gawking at the house where a mother, father, and their four-year-old were knifed to death). "That happened right here...," we kept repeating amidst shivers.



While the facts of these true stories of grisly homicides in recognized areas of town and times were riveting, I was reminded why I am not a fan of non-fiction -- where the stories are often just about the actual facts, not the writing or story-telling itself. This was no exception. As an editor myself, I was horribly distracted throughout the book by numerous, egregious typos and misspellings (which included my favorite "pubic/public" mistake, missing words/parts of sentences, and paragraphs inadvertantly repeated in whole). I really have to wonder if it was copyedited or reviewed by an editor at all. It was just sloppy, which is a shame since the victims, the stories, and the uncaught murderers will be with me a long time, on dark nights, knowing these horrible things can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. That said, I would still recommend the book to any Cincinnatian interested in true crime.

[Devin Copes · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a while to get through this book. It seemed like the author Focus too much on some details and did not give us enough of the others. Found the case this I had to look up and do research on because I did not feel like I had enough information. One of the things that bothers me the most, outside of the typos I found, was his Iwitness segments. Save the what-ifs for the actual investigators.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book

True crime fascinates me and this book is so well written, I had a hard time putting it down! Very interesting cases here. I was surprised to read about familiar places and recognize some names!

[Mattie Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im certainly glad I read Queen City Notorious before this one. This one's style was a little weird for me, but still interesting.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read many more Cincinnati crime books than most people probably know exist. It's been one way for me to understand my adopted home town. The frustrating thing about many of them (and other true crime books) is that the evidence is given but you can't always form an opinion as to who actually did the crime. Townsend has done something different here. He attempts to "solve" the crime after he has given you the facts and what happened around the time. This is an interesting twist to true crime books that I have never seen before (and I thought it was a very nice touch here).

The book could have used more editing, I think. Also, I do not think that all of the gory pictures were necessary. Mostly they just made me sad that those victims cannot catch a break even all these decades later. I would still recommend this to anyone who likes the genre or maybe wants to learn a little different sort of information about Cincinnati.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok. The stories were interesting and well researched. They are all unsolved crimes, and therefore leave a lot to speculate about. I did not care for the "I witness" nonsense at the end of each chapter and some of the overly dramatic prose. Also the constant use of the term "Negro" was jarring, and while it may have been fitting for the era of these stories and many times was in the context of quotes, it really took me out of the story every time I had to see it, which was frequent. This was a decent book if you're interested in Cincinnati crime history.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very evocative of the times and culture of Cincinnati in the first half of the 20th century. It also does a decent job of tying Cincinnati events to the larger culture of the United States at the time. The crimes and investigations are well described. However, each chapter ends with a "Witness" section which offers a more or less fictionalized imagining of the crime. The book would be better without this. The book also suffers from erratic editing; paragraphs are repeated, misspellings, etc. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this boo, I am not sure if it would be as interesting if the reader was not from the area. Each chapter covers one of Queen City's unsolved crimes. It is a book that is good to read while you are reading another book. Of course some chapters were more interesting than others. I could have done with out all the"narrative" that was at the end of each chapter and told what I guess was what the author really thought took place. I just skipped it most of the time. Still it was an enjoyable read.

[Mary Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love, love, love this book! Seriously, I love historical true crime and this book is fantastic. The cases in the book are all unsolved (so to speak) but the author gives his view of what might have happened at the end of each. Very well done and riveting book. I read this when I broke my kneecap and had to have surgery and it helped take my mind off of the pain. I look forward to anything Mr. J T Townsend writes in future

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The content was interesting in this book because I live in Cincinnati and love to read about these kind of things. I did however, find many errors in the book such as misspellings, punctuation errors, etc. Not that it's a make it or break it situation, but it does make me question some things. Hire a new proof reader!

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has some very interesting unsolved crimes. There is especially the murders of two different families, unrelated, in separate years. Its a shame that this book and other information cannot bring to justice those that committed these crimes and others.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing. Although I am way too young to have heard about any of the murders in the book, I found it very interesting. J.T. was a very thorough detective with the cases and included his own insight into them, which only made the book that much better.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

great concept but most cases were from early 1900's so didn't recognize any names & places changed so much. it really seemed like keystone cops were investigating. didn't finish it, too painful. didn't keep my attention.

[Sarah Knapschaefer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would call this more of a history of cincinnati with a little information on ghosts. While interesting many stories have already been told on ghost hunter shows

[Karen Seal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely read

This was a very interesting read. If you are interested in Cincinnati true crime, this is a must. I definitely recommend this book!

[Beth Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

very interesting, good at holding the attention of the reader

[Bridget Fry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book!

The author really brought the memory of these victims to life. Very informative. Great read! I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys true crime mysteries.

[Janis · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. ID channel come to life...with amateur writing. I did enjoy the photos placed throughout the book however.

[Michelle]

I couldn’t get past the writing.