Local Roots: June

Lots has changed in the years the Berryville Library has been in our current building. We expect lots will change in the years the library will be housed in the new building we are hoping to break ground on soon. That’s why we think it is so important as we move towards this bigger, better future to remember our roots. To that end, we have created the Berryville Library Legacy Project, which lets donors highlight a piece of local history of their choice by selecting photographs to be displayed on the end of a shelving unit at the new library. We also remain committed to helping create a sense of place through our collection, so we are going to highlight our Arkansas section this year.  Each month, we’ll look at some of the different books and resources in that collection that feature unique parts of the history and culture of Berryville, Carroll County, the Ozarks, and Arkansas. There’s lots to explore about this place we call home! For June, we’re looking at true crime.

For truly local true crime, we have Edwin Tolle and Kevin Hatfield’s The Great Eureka Springs Bank Robbery booklet, which covers the infamous 1920s bank robbery that was thwarted in Carroll County at Eureka Springs. The robbers synchronized their watches with each other but not the town and walked in on a bustling bank and Spring Street when they expected everyone to be home for lunch. Complications ensued.

For crimes closer to home but not in Carroll County, we also have two books previously profiled on this blog–Brooks Blevins’ Ghost of the Ozarks: Murder and Memory in the Upland South about a bizarre 1930s “murder” in Stone County and Molly May’s Witnesses for the Lamb: The True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and Suicide in the Ozarks about a strange cult and hostage standoff in the 1980s in Jasper County.

We also have two of Anita Paddock’s books about true crime in Van Buren. Blind Rage: A True Story of Sin, Sex, and Murder in a Small Arkansas Town chronicles the sordid family drama that led to the brutal murder of Ruie Ann Park, a prominent local journalist and newspaper owner, while Closing Time: A True Story of Robbery and Ruthless Double Murder That Shook A Small Town covers the robbery of a jewelry store that took a deadly turn.

To round out the true crime in our Arkansas section, we also have a couple of books about crimes in the Little Rock area. Mara Leveritt’s The Boys on the Tracks: Death, Denial, and A Mother’s Crusade to Bring Her Son’s Killers to Justice follows the mysterious deaths of two teenage boys. Their deaths were initially reported as an accident on the tracks before a second autopsy revealed they were actually murdered. Meanwhile, Gene Lyons’ Widow’s Web: The True Story of a Little Rock Beauty whose Deadly Wiles Led to Two Murders and Scandalized the Entire State of Arkansas outlines the bizarre life and crimes of Mary Lee Orsini, who murdered her husband and then her own attorney’s wife.

By the way, if you like true crime, please be sure to mark your calendar for October 19. We’ll be holding our next author talk then with Molly May, author of the aforementioned Witnesses for the Lamb, and Sean Fitzgibbons, who’s written about the dark history of the Crescent Hotel in What Follows Is True. We’ll have more information as we get closer to October, but we’d love to see you there!

Are you a frequenter of our Arkansas section? Did you even know we had an Arkansas section? What’s your favorite Arkansas true crime book? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of our items or to place them on hold.