Murder in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

by Ernest Sonny Longtine

This collection of twenty-four legendary murders spans 160 years of Upper Michigan's history and dispels the notion that murder in the Upper Peninsula is an anomaly.
Residents of the idyllic villages scattered throughout the Upper Peninsula's richly forested paradise live in quiet comfort for the most part, believing that murder rarely happens in their secluded sanctuary3/4but it does, and more often than they realize. From the bank robber who killed the warden and deputy warden of the Marquette Branch Prison to the unknown assailant who gunned down James Schoolcraft in Sault Ste. Marie, Sonny Longtine explores the tragic events that turned peaceful communities into fear-ridden crime scenes.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 2014

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read. Learned about the crazy murder down the road from where I grew up. The crazy bastard shot the guy and then blew him up with 70 sticks of dynomite.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting collection of UP crime cases, though typos and other errors get distracting (a person born in 1882 is described as being nineteen years old in 1899, a game of shuffleboard becomes a game of pool several pages later, etc.). Things like that always make me wonder what else the author got wrong. Also, be aware that the introductory sentences and photo captions often contain spoilers.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of brief write-ups of murders that have occurred in the U.P. The writing is not very good, and you can tell on the occasions when Longtine could interview someone still alive about one of the murders, because they get quoted extensively whether particularly relevant or not. There are also digressions about things like the Beaux Arts courthouse in Marquette, Michigan. It's the sort of book that correctly gets labeled "local interest."

[Deanna Staser Westenbarger · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 stars. There was quite a number of editorial errors, and those got quite annoying over time. Very basic look into some murders that occurred in the UP over the last 175 years or so. There’s nothing *wrong* with the way he does it, but I found myself cringing at some of the things he said and his word choice. Easy read though.

[Dana Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I found the stories and information very interesting, the flow of the author's writing was not my favorite. I felt at times that it was choppy and distracting. But I would still recommend this book. It's cool to hear about your state's history.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting.....

[Emmalynn Herbstritt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the stories of the crimes committed in the UP. However, the writing style made it difficult to have a desire to read the stories.

[Carrie Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for small town publishing when reading where you have history and grew up. The writing was choppy and didn’t flow at times bit overall quick, fun read about the UP

[Jodell Quamme]

Not smooth writing, gave up

[Kristiina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. A little bit of information about a lot of different murders.

[Joey Zilka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very well written, I feel like I could look up news paper articles and get a better understanding of each incident, or that these were just copied and pasted from such resources.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect reading material for my UP vacation.

[J.D. Holman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.33 stars. This collection of vignettes is interesting and informative, spanning the entire history of the territory and state of Michigan. It is greatly limited, though. This is understandable, though, as some older cases were unsolved or simply didn't have as much information available about them. And other books have covered some of the more recent murders - Anatomy of a Murder is the fictionalized version of the Chenoweth murder; The Sweater Letter is the true crime saga of the Moilanen case.

My one major quibble is that it had some typos, and a few odd turns of phrase.

This is a good book for trivia or whetting one's appetite for more information.

[Patricia Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to read about the murders and tragedies that have happened where I live over the years. It's such a quiet part of the state, I was shocked at how many there were. Each tale had a little background information on the people and the details of the murders were enough to paint the picture without being too NSFW. My only complaint was the full page image of a guy who had been lynched. That was unexpected and shook me. An image like that isn't a huge surprise in a book like this, but full page was a bit much. I had to go do something happy and cheerful after that chapter as well as scan through the rest of the images to make sure there were no more.

[Kathyanngallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonny Longtine writes a great read about murders long ago and recent. The stories are located in the sleepy parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Mr. Longtine writes many factual short stories accompanied by archived pictures that are interesting, especially for Michigan history buffs. "Anatomy of a Murder" starring Jimmy Stewart was filmed in Big Bay portraying court events/proceedings that is based on actual events. Some of the stories will probably remain cold cases forever.

[James Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting set of crimes that were set in Michigan's U.P. but with a limited amount of information probably due to the fact that they were taken from newspaper clippings, some of which were almost a hundred years old.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murders in the 1800s up until present! Very interesting in a sparcely populated region.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good true crime collection for anyone familiar with Michigan's upper pennisula.