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Wicked Wichita
Early Wichita earned a wicked reputation from newspapers across Kansas thanks to a bevy of madams and murderers, bootleggers and bank robbers, con men and crooked cops. Gambler and saloonkeeper "Rowdy Joe" Lowe was the toast of the town before shooting down his rival, "Red" Beard, and skipping town. Robber and cop killer "Clever Eddie" Adams spread a wave of terror until the police evened the score. Dixie Lee ran the city's classiest brothel with little interference from authorities. Notorious quack "Professor" H. Samuels made a fortune selling worthless eye drops. And county attorney Willard Boone was chased out of town when he was caught with his hand in the bootlegger's cookie jar. Local author Joe Stumpe tells the real stories of the city's best-known and least-known criminals and misfits.
160 pages, Paperback
First published October 8, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 15, 2018
Originally reviewed on the book blog Creature From the Book Lagoon.
"Early Wichita earned a wicked reputation from newspapers across Kansas thanks to a bevy of madams and murderers, bootleggers and bank robbers, con men and crooked cops. Gambler and saloonkeeper "Rowdy Joe" Lowe was the toast of the town before shooting down his rival, "Red" Beard, and skipping town. Robber and cop killer "Clever Eddie" Adams spread a wave of terror until the police evened the score. Dixie Lee ran the city's classiest brothel with little interference from authorities. Notorious quack "Professor" H. Samuels made a fortune selling worthless eye drops. And county attorney Willard Boone was chased out of town when he was caught with his hand in the bootlegger's cookie jar. Local author Joe Stumpe tells the real stories of the city's best-known and least-known criminals and misfits."
Now, I'm not a huge fan of American history, especially the basic stuff you'd find in your average school textbook. And while I don't like an over all American history lesson, I do find histories of individual cities interesting. I enjoy hearing about how those cities were founded and their early life (I also like hearing about their haunted sides but that is a whole separate story). So when I heard about Wicked Wichita, I was pretty eager to start reading it. It's a city I have been to many times and I didn't really know anything about it's history. And who doesn't like to read about the bad guys?
It is a pretty thin book, but packed with a lot of information about early Wichita, and surrounding Kansas locations. A very quick read. And so fascinating! Wichita was founded in 1870s as part of a cattle drive, and quickly grew in to the largest city in the state of Kansas. Even if you had never been to Wichita or don't care about Kansas history, just hearing what life was like back at that time was absolutely crazy. I don't read western genre- fiction or non fiction. I just know about old time-y west from movies and tv. I never really put much thought in to how lawless the lawless west really was. Holy crap... we think violence is out of control now?? The stories in this book... I mean... GEEEEZ. This stuff actually happened. People just started having gun fights in the middle of a crowded dance hall, shooting patrons and dancers, with shotguns to the face or stomach, just because, you know... they were there and they didn't like the way you looked at them. Just your Joe and Jane average... shooting people. Or drugging then strangling people. Or shoving a pipe through someone's head. I just kept going "........WHAT??" And it wasn't just the criminals that were messed up. The people there to up hold the law- the police, judges, lawyers, soldiers- didn't care, or were apart of the crime, or were bribed. It is all absolutely bananas!!
There are 19 entertaining chapters in Wicked Wichita. My favorite was titled The Rotary and the Wobblies. It was my favorite because I got to learn about a type of building I had never heard of before. It is called a Rotary Jail. Only around 18 of them were ever built and it seems like it was a midwest thing only, but I'm not positive. Basically, you have cells that are wedge shaped, the they form a rotary wheel that can rotate on an axis via a hand crank. There is only one door and you have to crank the wheel in order to let the prisoners out. There were problems almost immediately. It was supposed to have state of the art plumbing, but it almost never worked and it didn't get flushed or changed for weeks at a time. The gears that rotated the cells had issues and would become stuck. Guards got their hands crushed with trying to repair gears. Drunk prisoners would fall asleep with their arms through the bars, and when the cells rotated, the wall would come up and crush or amputate their arm. Unhygienic and rat infested. Not to mention an extreme fire safety hazard.
A pitfall a lot of history books suffer from is being a little too dry and boring. Sometimes the author just goes in to professor lecture mode and it just isn't a lot of fun reading that kind of writing. Mr. Stumpe had a very lively writing style that made the stories anything but boring. His style was filled with a lot of passion and excitement and you could tell he really loves to research this sort of thing and then re-tell the stories to a captivated audience.
I really enjoyed Wicked Wichita. I just wish it had been a little bit thicker of a book. It mostly focused on 1870 -1923. It would have been great if the author had continued with the history lesson up to the last few decades at least. I doubt Wichita just stopped being totally rowdy at 1923. I seem to recall hearing a story once about a sniper on one of the downtown skyscrapers in the 80s or 70s. I seem to remember some sort of odd rabbit scheme / con job back in the late 1920s also. Maybe the author just wanted to focus on the early decades of the city instead?
This was a very entertaining book that was well researched and fun to read. There were a couple of pictures for each chapter, although you rarely got to see the "bad guy" that the chapter was about. A very thin book, making it a quick read. It wouldn't have hurt to have a little bit more content, maybe leading up to a more present day Wichita. All in all, this was a great book about the crazy early days of Kansas' biggest city.
"Early Wichita earned a wicked reputation from newspapers across Kansas thanks to a bevy of madams and murderers, bootleggers and bank robbers, con men and crooked cops. Gambler and saloonkeeper "Rowdy Joe" Lowe was the toast of the town before shooting down his rival, "Red" Beard, and skipping town. Robber and cop killer "Clever Eddie" Adams spread a wave of terror until the police evened the score. Dixie Lee ran the city's classiest brothel with little interference from authorities. Notorious quack "Professor" H. Samuels made a fortune selling worthless eye drops. And county attorney Willard Boone was chased out of town when he was caught with his hand in the bootlegger's cookie jar. Local author Joe Stumpe tells the real stories of the city's best-known and least-known criminals and misfits."
Now, I'm not a huge fan of American history, especially the basic stuff you'd find in your average school textbook. And while I don't like an over all American history lesson, I do find histories of individual cities interesting. I enjoy hearing about how those cities were founded and their early life (I also like hearing about their haunted sides but that is a whole separate story). So when I heard about Wicked Wichita, I was pretty eager to start reading it. It's a city I have been to many times and I didn't really know anything about it's history. And who doesn't like to read about the bad guys?
It is a pretty thin book, but packed with a lot of information about early Wichita, and surrounding Kansas locations. A very quick read. And so fascinating! Wichita was founded in 1870s as part of a cattle drive, and quickly grew in to the largest city in the state of Kansas. Even if you had never been to Wichita or don't care about Kansas history, just hearing what life was like back at that time was absolutely crazy. I don't read western genre- fiction or non fiction. I just know about old time-y west from movies and tv. I never really put much thought in to how lawless the lawless west really was. Holy crap... we think violence is out of control now?? The stories in this book... I mean... GEEEEZ. This stuff actually happened. People just started having gun fights in the middle of a crowded dance hall, shooting patrons and dancers, with shotguns to the face or stomach, just because, you know... they were there and they didn't like the way you looked at them. Just your Joe and Jane average... shooting people. Or drugging then strangling people. Or shoving a pipe through someone's head. I just kept going "........WHAT??" And it wasn't just the criminals that were messed up. The people there to up hold the law- the police, judges, lawyers, soldiers- didn't care, or were apart of the crime, or were bribed. It is all absolutely bananas!!
There are 19 entertaining chapters in Wicked Wichita. My favorite was titled The Rotary and the Wobblies. It was my favorite because I got to learn about a type of building I had never heard of before. It is called a Rotary Jail. Only around 18 of them were ever built and it seems like it was a midwest thing only, but I'm not positive. Basically, you have cells that are wedge shaped, the they form a rotary wheel that can rotate on an axis via a hand crank. There is only one door and you have to crank the wheel in order to let the prisoners out. There were problems almost immediately. It was supposed to have state of the art plumbing, but it almost never worked and it didn't get flushed or changed for weeks at a time. The gears that rotated the cells had issues and would become stuck. Guards got their hands crushed with trying to repair gears. Drunk prisoners would fall asleep with their arms through the bars, and when the cells rotated, the wall would come up and crush or amputate their arm. Unhygienic and rat infested. Not to mention an extreme fire safety hazard.
A pitfall a lot of history books suffer from is being a little too dry and boring. Sometimes the author just goes in to professor lecture mode and it just isn't a lot of fun reading that kind of writing. Mr. Stumpe had a very lively writing style that made the stories anything but boring. His style was filled with a lot of passion and excitement and you could tell he really loves to research this sort of thing and then re-tell the stories to a captivated audience.
I really enjoyed Wicked Wichita. I just wish it had been a little bit thicker of a book. It mostly focused on 1870 -1923. It would have been great if the author had continued with the history lesson up to the last few decades at least. I doubt Wichita just stopped being totally rowdy at 1923. I seem to recall hearing a story once about a sniper on one of the downtown skyscrapers in the 80s or 70s. I seem to remember some sort of odd rabbit scheme / con job back in the late 1920s also. Maybe the author just wanted to focus on the early decades of the city instead?
This was a very entertaining book that was well researched and fun to read. There were a couple of pictures for each chapter, although you rarely got to see the "bad guy" that the chapter was about. A very thin book, making it a quick read. It wouldn't have hurt to have a little bit more content, maybe leading up to a more present day Wichita. All in all, this was a great book about the crazy early days of Kansas' biggest city.
June 8, 2021
This was a fun collection of tales about Wichita's early underworld. As the great-granddaughter of the bootleg king of Sedgwick County, I found it especially interesting that Kansas was supposedly a dry state from 1880 to 1948, but it most certainly was not. Bootleggers, gamblers, and sex workers paid monthly "fines" which sound more like bribes to the corrupt boodlers in the city and county government. It seems that criminals were pretty welcome in Wichita as long as their crimes were considered victimless or committed outside the city.
A couple annoyances:
1. This book needed more thorough editing. There were multiple instances of incorrect word usage or missing words. Many of them seemed like the type of errors that come when you're editing for flow and don't remove all the remnants of the previous phrasing.
2. The scholarly referencing falls short of the standard I've become accustomed to in other historical true crime books. There is a list of sources at the end, but no real footnoting or precise references.
Overall, it was a fun read. Some of the stories had so many absurd elements that I couldn't help but laugh, then read the section aloud to my husband. If you're from (or live in) Wichita and enjoy local history and/or true crime, this book is worth a read.
A couple annoyances:
1. This book needed more thorough editing. There were multiple instances of incorrect word usage or missing words. Many of them seemed like the type of errors that come when you're editing for flow and don't remove all the remnants of the previous phrasing.
2. The scholarly referencing falls short of the standard I've become accustomed to in other historical true crime books. There is a list of sources at the end, but no real footnoting or precise references.
Overall, it was a fun read. Some of the stories had so many absurd elements that I couldn't help but laugh, then read the section aloud to my husband. If you're from (or live in) Wichita and enjoy local history and/or true crime, this book is worth a read.
December 15, 2021
I was so excited to read this history book about the bad guys that made Wichita famous. Literally from it’s founding, Wichita has been full of liars, cheats, thieves, corruption, and sexual intrigue. Some of these stories were really interesting to read.
I can really appreciate the author’s research. First, he is a local citizen. Second, he relied and on and used a lot of newspaper articles and records from county court and police department records. But, it was a bit boring to read because they were all individual history essay more than a historical narrative.
But I’m still glad I was able to learn more about my current town’s history.
I can really appreciate the author’s research. First, he is a local citizen. Second, he relied and on and used a lot of newspaper articles and records from county court and police department records. But, it was a bit boring to read because they were all individual history essay more than a historical narrative.
But I’m still glad I was able to learn more about my current town’s history.
December 11, 2019
Relying on newspaper articles from that era, Stumpe paints a colorful picture of Wichita's violent early years. The style creates almost a patina of romanticism about the violence. I could imagine the author telling these stories over drinks at a local bar. Some of the stories I had heard over the course of my years living in the city. Most I had not.
People interested in local history - and particularly Wichita's history - will likely enjoy this book. What I liked most was the description of what the city looked like then and how people lived their lives.
People interested in local history - and particularly Wichita's history - will likely enjoy this book. What I liked most was the description of what the city looked like then and how people lived their lives.
October 24, 2023
This is a fascinating collection of short stories about the criminals, gamblers, conmen, prostitutes, and unfortunate souls that gained notoriety in Wichita in the late 1800s- early 1900s. It gives readers a rare sneak peak into a time quite unimaginable given the advancements in modern medicine and technology we enjoy today. I was given this read by my MIL (get you a MIL that buys you books) and it’s a nice and easy read appropriate for the Halloween season. Anyone who is fascinated by history and is a local Wichitan will enjoy the deeply researched stories of our city’s sordid past.
March 6, 2019
I enjoyed learning more about some of Wichita’s characters - Rowdy Joe, Red Beard, Dixie Lee, Sam Amidon and others - and it was fun to read about familiar places. But try as I might, I just can’t convince myself to be a fan of history, so ...
June 16, 2019
Interesting book on the more notorious citizens of Wichita in the late 1800's and early 1900's. When talking about the locations of houses or events from that time, the author provided street names or buildings that are currently in those locations. It really tied in the past to the present.
January 12, 2020
Book was kinda interesting. I don't feel that Wichita was any more wicked than any other town in the early West. None of these towns had any law and order and they ran as such. I was born in Wichita so for me it was a fun read.
November 10, 2018
Entertaining book broken into bite size chapters. I learned lots of interesting facts about Wichita and its early inhabitants. I wanted more details about several of the events, people and places so this is a good starting point.
January 7, 2019
Interesting read. Love being able recognize street names from subjects in the short history of unsavory characters of Wichita!
March 29, 2021
A book for locals who want to know some selected Wichita history.
January 24, 2022
Interesting story of early Wichita history of crime.
January 13, 2024
This was enjoyable and wild to read. Brothels and gangsters and corrupt cops. It was a great transport to a time I’ll never see. I learned many things.
February 16, 2022
I read this book as part of a Library Challenge to read 12 books in a year. The category was 'Local History' When checking out this book from the library I was actually dreading reading it; it is 'non-fiction' one of the categories I definitely do not read often. I thought that the book would be boring and uninteresting and was glad that it was only 160 pages long. However, this book had well written and compelling stories about bank robbers and ladies of the night among other types of criminals and I learned more about the town of Wichita which was actually pretty exciting! I wish that this book was longer and told about crimes after the 1920s even as I am a fan of true crimes and thoroughly enjoyed this book.
May 17, 2019
Fun reading about the darker side of Wichita, Kansas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of the information seems to come from news articles; however, there are no footnotes to allow readers to easily track down the information. A bibliography includes the names of newspapers used, in addition to other sources, including books, theses, articles, etc.
My husband and I could easily imagine a movie based on Eddie Adams, his crimes, escapes, and his audacity at times.
I did find it helpful that the author often explains where a certain building was located related to today's locations, including changes in street names.
My husband and I could easily imagine a movie based on Eddie Adams, his crimes, escapes, and his audacity at times.
I did find it helpful that the author often explains where a certain building was located related to today's locations, including changes in street names.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews