Horror in the Heartland: Strange and Gothic Tales from the Midwest

by Keven McQueen

A spooky history of the American Midwest—from grave robbers to ghost sightings and more—by the author of Creepy California.   Most people think of the American Midwest as a place of wheat fields and family farms; cozy small towns and wholesome communities. But there’s more to the story of America’s Heartland—a dark history of strange tales and unsettling facts hidden just beneath its quaint pastoral image. In Horror in the Heartland, historian Keven McQueen offers a guided tour of terrible crimes and eccentric characters; haunted houses and murder-suicides; mad doctors, body snatchers, and pranks gone comically—and tragically—wrong.   From tales of the booming grave-robbing industry of late 19th-century Indiana to the story of a Michigan physician who left his estate to his pet monkeys, McQueen investigates a spooky and twisted side of Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Exploring burial customs, unexplained deaths, ghost stories, premature burials, bizarre murders, peculiar wills and much more, this creepy collection reveals the region’s untold stories and offers intriguing, if sometimes macabre, insights into human nature.

Genres: Horror, Nonfiction, History, Short Stories

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2017

About the author

More information about Keven McQueen is available at his official website, http://www.kevenmcqueenstories.com/

Reviews

[Nikki "The Crazie Betty" V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5-2 Stars

Boring. I can’t say I technically read this whole book so I’m marking it as “skimmed” on my shelves. I thought there were going to be more fully fledged stories about different things that happened in the mid-west during the 1800s and early 1900s. What it ended up mostly being was short paragraphs, usually not more than 2 or 3 sentences, about body-snatching, grave-robbing, murder, suicide, and people being or almost being buried alive. There wasn’t any really story to any of these and instead was more like, “this person died. They were buried. Their body was exhumed and sold to a Dr.”

These were all SUPER common things for the time-period. So, if you’ve done reading and research into these types of macabre events already, in any way, there isn’t going to be anything new here. There were a handful of stories that were longer than the others at a few pages, and those were the only interesting ones in the collection. As they went into more detail about the people involved and the circumstances themselves. Those stories were more of the true-crime stories that I was looking for. Rather than short little vignettes that weren’t any longer than an obituary.

[MKF · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am rather disappointed in this book though not really surprised. I choose this book because I am from the Midwest and was interested to see what strange stories there was about my state. After three rather long chapters from other states I discovered that my home state of Kansas was only given three pages and the states after that were also rather short though not as short as the chapter about Kansas. I can't say I am very surprised especially considering the other books the author has written and an almost universal lack of interest in Kansas. The only thing that could of made this book better was to not have written. The first three states would of been better off in books like the authors previous works on different states and not placed together in one volume. By doing that the author would not have had to find a few other stories in states he has not written about before to fill this book. He either didn't do a whole lot of research of those states or he just found a few stories online and called it good. I do enjoy the authors works but he would do better to stick to states he has more interests in.

[Batsheva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gruesome and strange events ripped from the newspaper headlines of 19th and 20th century American Midwest. These little snippets are a collection of weird things the researcher came across in his historical research. These short accounts (arranged by state) piqued my interest for the first a while, but I eventually experienced human depravity fatigue and merely skimmed the rest.

[Debbi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected a lot more. No detail and reads like a kids book.

[Paula Corregan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book!

If you like the weird, the unusual and the bizarre, this is the book for you.
It contained accounts of strange events, murders and odd phenomena. I highly recommend it to others interested in these subjects.

[Ava · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish this one. I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 for taking the time to research the history of Indiana, which few rarely do. However, his anecdotes have no indication of their sources or really, any nod to where they came from; for all I know, he just made them up as quaint historical anecdotes. I also didn't know some of the states he included in this collection were part of the Midwest...it felt like kind of a stretch, especially considering Indiana University Press published it and his Indiana section was pitifully small.

[Angie (Bussen) Siedell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just... bad. As a Nebraskan and lover of the Midwest, and someone who likes to find something a little ghosty to read every October, I thought I’d found my Halloween spooky read. Ugh. Nope. Just a heartless collection of ironic deaths, not-so-clever epitaphs, a whole lot of suicide stories (What kind of sick lookie-loo wants to read story after story about suicides?), a sprinkling of grave robber stories. Almost no ghost stories. Not interesting, just gross. And you can believe I skipped anything suicidal. Come on, really?

[Clark Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Stories

“Horror in the Heartland” contains strange stories from the midwestern United States. Some stories seem too odd to be true, such as the woman who threw herself into a building’s furnace and lived, albeit with a charred face. Or the woman who drank well water and then complained of stomach pains. The doctor and other witnesses stated that abdominal surgery revealed 9 snakes were pulled from her stomach!

While some stories are only 1 paragraph long, others go on for several pages and are very detailed. All are, in their own ways, bizarre.

[Lisa Kizer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read another book by this author and I just feel like as an author KM writes more like he probably spreading gossip. Really nothing substantial in either book. What captures my interest is the titles and wanting to find out more.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quirky, weird and strange tales of the Midwest states

I found the book very strange, yet compelling because we all want to know the rest of the story. Sometimes funny,often macabre and always giving you just enough to keep going, you'll want to find out for yourself.

[Maddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought this would be more attention catching than it was. Was a very boring read that I had to try to hard to get into. Much of the book is just stories written in a few sentences, usually without detail or merit. Rather repetative as well. Made it through two states before calling it quits.

[Maggie May · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun collection of dark and bizarre stories taken from past newspapers and presented with a dash of humor.

[Ric Eberle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not horror like I had imagined, more just gruesome true tales from days gone by. More humorous than I expected.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5