Silas Jayne: Chicago's Suburban Gangster

by Bryan W. Alaspa

His name might not have the same notoriety that belonged to Al Capone or John Wayne Gacy, but Silas Jayne's life carved a similarly brutal arc through the Windy City's history. Even the mob was reluctant to compete with a man who burned his own horses alive for insurance money and ordered the assassination of his own brother in the same unhesitating fashion that he reportedly axed a flock of geese when he was six. Protected by bribery and intimidation, Jayne preyed on the innocence of the girls who took riding lessons in his stables and remained perversely untouched in the background of infamous Chicago crimes like the Schuessler-Peterson murders and the disappearance of candy heiress Helen Brach.

115 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 23, 2010

About the author

I was born in the fine year of 1971 in Park Ridge, IL. I am a life long Chicago resident and I love the city. I spent a few years in St. Louis, as well. I knew I wanted to write from the time I sat down at my mom's electric typewriter in the 3rd grade. Now I do write. I write freelance and articles for online news sources. I write horror, thrillers and detective novels. I also write non-fiction in true crime and history genres. I publish my fiction myself as an indie publisher and write and have found an audience for my work among ebook fans. I publish for Kindle, Nook and other tablets and devices at Smashwords.com. My non-fiction is usually published in print, but that may soon change as ebooks become more and more of the norm.

Reviews

[Anita V. Scherer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

I loved this book I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I recommend it to anyone interested in reading true crime.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking to learn more about Silas Jayne, this isn't really the book for you. "Silas Jayne: Chicago's Suburban Gangster" isn't really a biography but a summary of some of the infamous crimes connected to Silas. The writing is really mediocre, clunky, and repetitive. There are things that author Bryan Alpasa does, like starting consecutive sentences with the same word and addressing readers by saying "you" while writing in the third person, which we were taught not to do in my high school writing class. Also, because the book summarizes each of the crimes to around 25 pages a piece, there is a lot of missing information. For example, in the chapter on the Peterson-Schuessler murders, Kenneth Hansen's brother Curt, an alleged mob hitman, gets only one mention, despite the fact that it is believed that Curt played a role in both the murders and the cover up and that at least one of the people that Kenneth Hansen allegedly confessed to refused to come forward until he was shown Curt's death certificate. The book Unbridled Rage, which author cites in his acknowledgements, is a much better and much more well-written offering on the Peterson-Schuessler murders and contains pretty much all the information on Silas' deadly feud with his younger brother, George, that is found here. Also, if you're looking for more information on Richard Bailey and the Helen Brach disappearance, check out Ken Englade's Hot Blood. If you've already checked out those books, there's nothing new for you here.