Mysterious Chicago: History at Its Coolest

by Adam Selzer

From Chicago historian Adam Selzer, expert on all of the Windy City’s quirks and oddities, comes a compelling heavily researched anthology of the stories behind its most fascinating unsolved mysteries.

To create this unique volume, Selzer has collected forty unsolved mysteries from the 1800s to modern day. He has poured through all newspaper, magazine, and book references to them, and consulted expert historians. Topics covered include who really started the great Chicago fire, who was the first “automobile murderer,” and even if there was actually a vampire slaying at Rose Hill cemetery.

The result is both a colorful read to get lost in, a window to a world of curiosity and wonder, as well as a volume that separates fact from fiction—true crime from urban legend.

Complementing the gripping stories Selzer presents are original images of the crime and its suspects as developed by its original investigators. Readers will marvel at how each character and crime were presented, and happily journey with Selzer as he presents all facts and theories presented at the time of the “crime” and uses modern hindsight to assemble the pieces.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Mystery, Audiobook

276 pages, Paperback

Published October 25, 2016

About the author

Adam Selzer blocked Goodreads on his computer for years but now he's on here, so let him have it. His first book was HOW TO GET SUSPENDED AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE (now available in a "Now With More Swearing") edition, his next one is PLAY ME BACKWARDS (for satanic young adults), and his best known is probably I KISSED A ZOMBIE AND I LIKED IT, a Twilight satire that was not marketed as a satire.

He also writes the SMART ALECK'S GUIDE series and has published a bunch of Chicago history/ghostlore books.

You can also find him under the name SJ Adams, the name he used for SPARKS: THE EPIC, COMPLETELY TRUE BLUE (ALMOST) HOLY QUEST OF DEBBIE, which won a Stonewall honor and made the YALSA popular paperback list.

Reviews

[Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cut above any other "weird history"-style book that I've read. Hugely entertaining, visibly well-researched and balances respect with just enough wise-assery. A really fun read, and I learned a lot too.

[Maddie Stapulionis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so. good. for getting a feel of some of the mysteries in Chicago history. All the stories were well researched, digestible and very entertaining!

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

It was ok. It got boring in the middle. I can't really recommend it to anyone other than die hard Chicago crime fans.

[Lisa Kizer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Coolest? Driest stories ever! The mystery about this book is why a lot of these stories are thought of as mysterious.

[David Fulmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adam Selzer is a tour guide in Chicago who began putting his tours online during the pandemic, making his fascinating and entertaining tours of the streets and cemeteries of Chicago available to a much wider audience than just in-person tourists. That is how I first came across him and what led me to read this book which shares the name of his tour guide company. The book consists of a few dozen short chapters about mysteries of Chicago Selzer has come across when reading old newspapers at the library. Their only link is geographic-they are all Chicago mysteries. The subject matter varies widely with a lot of true crime-type stories involving Black Widows and Black Widowers, mob killings, and unsolved murder mysteries. There’s also stories about the Great Chicago Fire, Al Capone, and the history of executions in Chicago. This is just such an entertaining collection of tales of eccentrics and odd things that made the newspapers over the past hundred plus years. It’s basically a local history book about Chicago which touches on some of the most famous walking tour topics but also covers a lot of oddball forgotten tales. As Selzer writes: “There’s a near-endless supply of fantastic stories that occupied a lot of space in newspapers in their time, but somehow never made it into our collective history.” By revisiting these stories, Seltzer is writing a new kind of history.

[Rex Libris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read about mysterious events happening throughout the history of the city. Very few of them are supernatural/ghost stories, but rather unsolved murders and missing persons stories. Chapters include who actually started the Fire, who committed the St. Valentines Day massacre, why was a sub found at the bottom of the river, and how a police detective exhumed a body in hoping to scare a suspect into confessing.

This is a must read for anyone who wants a little bit of the less than often told history of Chicago.

[KayDee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Selzer is a Chicago historian and he tackles some of the most challenging unsolved mysteries in the city's history. Who exactly was H.H. Holmes and was he the first serial killer? What was the first automobile crime committed? Was there really a vampire slaying in Rose Hill Cemetary? Combining known facts about the cases, Chicago history, and founded and unfounded theories, the result is a fast-paced read.

[Greg Koontz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light reading with historical facts mixed in. Over 40 stories in 247 pages with some old pictures mixed in. Some are interesting and some, not so much. The H.H. Holmes story I jumped to first as I had read The Devil in the White City a few years back and wanted his take.
Adam succeeded on two fronts:
1. I will take his tour when I am in Chicago
2. I will read his book on H.H. Holmes.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only recommended for people who are really interested in Chicago criminal history. Some interesting stories - some more interesting than others. Not really much of a narrative - more just individual, short stories of morbid, gruseome, or bizarre aspects of usually late 19C/early20C Chicago history.

I appreciate the author's admitted agnosis on a lot of details about the stories of the fine points involved in the stories presented.

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read, especially if you live in Chicago and know the locations. However, I almost took away a star because of the ridiculous number of typos on almost every page -- misspelled words, words missing, words in the wrong order or duplicated. It became annoying. (I read the Kindle version.)

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anybody remember Ripley's Believe It or Not? How about those sensationalism books of the 1960s and 70s - The Strangest Things in the World was one (I think) - about the odd and unexplained and often involving ghosts or psychic phenomena or extraterrestrials or ...? That's this book specific to Chicago, based on a blog, and not well written, not useful, not amusing, not...

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Think of all the little moments we experience in the news. Murders. Hoaxes. Far-fetched stories. Think of how many of them we never really see through to the end. Who was the real killer? Is the oral history of a place verifiable factually What happened to the scandalous when the scandal died away? Selzer gives a heaping tablespoon of Chicagoland lore and leaves us with a lot to puzzle over.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, great read. The stories seemed to be well researched and engaging. However, my Kindle version had a good number of typos in it.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Adam Selzer talks as well as he writes, his tours of Chicago must be terrific. Many great stories in this book.

[Phil Priest · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the stories in this book but they also creeped me out a bit. There have been a lot of very bad people over the history of this city!

[Katie F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining and well written.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read with fascinating tidbits about Chicago history. The author’s voice is strong throughout.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting little vignettes in a conversational style. A little choppy but easy to pick up for short bit and put back down again to return later.

[Sheri Hanrahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at incidents in Chicago’s history.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

No thanks. He couldn’t have made the stories anymore boring. Book was not proofread very well either. Kept finding words repeated, missing etc. I did not even finish it. Gone to the junkyard.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories of historical events in Chicago. Funny and informative.

[Vincent Gagnepain · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, though I imagine the tour Selzer offers may yield better results. Some of the stories seem a bit samey, and much of the writing can be a bit meandering.

[SamWitch Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s fine. A few stories were interesting but it’s not really for me.

[Rich Larson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just okay.

For the most part these stories were not really very interesting. I did find that some of the later incidents were better and were worth reading though.

[Andy White · Rating 4 out of 5]

An honest, humorous look at Chicago history. It is hard to put down.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of unsolved mysteries regarding Chicago.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is a well-known historian around Chicago who does great research and is a pretty good writer, but nothing holds the book together. It's just a list book.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun read about Chicago's lingering mysteries (read deaths, murders, and other oddities) from an expert on the Chicago tour circuit. Very heavy on the older mysteries rather than more recent events--this seems very intentional on the part of the author. Of course, many might be drawn to this title to learn a bit more on H. H. Holmes, Chicago's most notorious serial killer. Unfortunately, because the author wrote a separate book about Holmes, this volume is a bit light on Holmes related details and stories.

If you love Chicago and it's strange and disturbing tales, you will enjoy this jaunty ride through the macabre and bizarre.

[Amanda Vandervort · Rating 5 out of 5]

As in everything Adam Selzer does, the wit and humor in this book is amazing. He has a way of making history come alive. Everything from first hand accounts rigorously researched and finding the "7th grade humor" in gravestones makes you understand the material and retain ideas.

[Hew La France · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen to our review on our podcast:

https://anchor.fm/hew-j-la-france/epi...

Or read our review on our website:

https://pagesinthecorner.com/f/myster...