Crime Wave: Con Men, Rogues and Scoundrels from Nova Scotia's Past

by Dean Jobb

Meet Samuel Herbert Dougal, a lady-killer if there ever was one. And say hello to Henry More Smith, an escape artist who could upstage Harry Houdini. These are just two of the shady characters who take centre stage in Crime Wave, a rogues’ gallery of pirates, swindlers, bank robbers and murderers who plied their trade in Nova Scotia.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

"Jobb's true crime stories are not to be missed" – CrimeReads

I specialize in true crime and I'm drawn to overlooked or forgotten stories. My new book, A Gentleman and a Thief, coming in June 2024, tells the incredible story of Arthur Barry, one of the world’s most successful jewel thieves, who charmed the elite of 1920s New York, brazenly swiped gems worth millions of dollars from their posh country estates, and outfoxed the police and private detectives on his trail.

My previous books include The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream , winner of the inaugural CrimeCon CLUE Award for Best True Crime Book of 2021 and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. It recreates Scotland Yard's hunt for a Victorian Era serial killer who murdered at least ten people in Britain, the U.S. and Canada. Empire of Deception, the rollicking tale of Chicago con man Leo Koretz and his amazing 1920s oil swindle, was the Chicago Writers Association's Nonfiction Book of the Year. Esquire proclaimed it one of the best biographies of all time.

I'm also the author of The Acadian Saga: A People's Story of Exile and Triumph , which chronicles the expulsion of French-speaking Acadians from Eastern Canada more than two centuries ago and the founding of Louisiana’s Cajun culture.

My books have won the Crime Writers of Canada Award for best true crime book and I have been a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize, Canada's top award for nonfiction.

My true crime column "Stranger Than Fiction" appears in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and I write book reviews and features for The Irish Times, CrimeReads, the Washington Independent Review of Books and other major publications. I'm a professor at the University of King’s College in Halifax and teach in the King's MFA in Creative Nonfiction program.

Reviews

[Karen Jean Martinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

We bought this book in a odd little bookstore in Lunenburg. Because what better way to learn about Nova Scotia than through its criminal underbelly? I'll admit, my expectations were low (chock that up to my cocky US belief that we corner the market on gory murder and mayhem - I thought quaint little Nova Scotia was out of its league), but this book surprised me and completely sucked me in. A trained journalist, Jobb offers well-researched, swiftly moving accounts of 13 of the Province's worst crimes, cons, murders, and mutinies. Did you know 28 people died when the Queen Hotel burned because the owner had cheaped out on fire safety protocols (it was 1939, a Depression was on, and fire standards were both very low and very very poorly enforced)? Did you know someone walked out of the Bank of Nova Scotia with $22,000 in 1876 while P.T. Barnum's circus parade marched by? Did you know how brutal a mutiny could be? I do! And you could, too, provided you get to Lunenburg and buy a copy of this book!