The Ceely Rose Murders at Malabar Farm

by Mark Sebastian Jordan

The people of mid-Ohio's Pleasant Valley went on with their normal lives that cold and rainy spring of 1896, not knowing that young Ceely Rose was brooding. She'd been told to forget her obsession with handsome Guy Berry. She'd been told about the danger of Rough-on-Rats poison. She'd heard about murdering those who stand in the way of love. By the time she was done, her family would be dead and others threatened. Later, the place where these crimes took place became Malabar Farm, the estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning author and conservationist Louis Bromfield. Historian, playwright and storyteller Mark Sebastian Jordan examines the story of the Poisoner of Pleasant Valley, Ceely Rose, and how it has resonated throughout the years.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History, Crime

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 28, 2021

About the author

Mark Sebastian Jordan has worn many hats in his day: radio DJ, businessman, actor, innkeeper, playwright, museum docent, theatrical director, improv comedian, reporter, composer, convenience store clerk, music critic, TV ghost expert, historian, and storyteller. But before all these things, the thread running through his life has always been poetry. He knew for sure that he was a poet when he read Walt Whitman's Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking at age 14 and found himself at one with the boy in the poem, the "singer of a thousand songs" abruptly thrust into a life of creativity by his first understanding of sorrow and loss. Despite a few tries, he has not been able to stop writing poetry ever since. He lives in the rural central highlands of Ohio, where he operates the Malabar Farm Hostel for Hostelling International, a not-for-profit organization which promotes world peace and understanding through affordable travel.

Reviews

[Leah Schwechheimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cool to read about a murder case that took place 10 minutes from where I grew up, and has been a local spooky story since it occurred in 1896. Ceely went to school in a one room school-house later owned by one of my best friends, where I've spent many nights. Ceely's teacher was my great-great-grandmother, who also was called to testify in her murder trial. Many surnames in the book are familiar, as the same families still live in the area today. I wanna say small world, but really just small town!
I wish this book had delved into more of the ghost stories surrounding Ceely and Malabar Farm. But all in all it was fascinating to have an in-depth look at a local case I've heard about my whole life.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never heard of this story prior to this book, but I was especially interested since it took place close to a place I've been and at the home of an author whose books I collect.
The book was okay, but it wasn't told in a really professional way. It was definitely amateurish. Quick read.

2025 update
I listened to it this time, not realizing that I had already read it. Evidently I liked it better this time than the first time.

[A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a salacious telling of a tale you might not have heard before: this isn't it. Nor is it a story with a tidy and satisfying ending. Instead, this book is an honest, meticulously researched -- and yet still, at times, shocking -- look into a historical murder wrenched back from the alternately bloated and simplified realm of urban legend. It grapples with the messiness of life, the complexity of motive, and what happens when a triple murder soaks into the fabric of a small community and those stains spread over generations. This book grounds a true crime in the idyllic harshness of its inextricably rural setting, and leads to a place of astonishing continued discovery and fresh inquiry. A true work of passion and conviction, The Ceely Rose Murders At Malabar Farm shies away from blood-and-guts and moves into something far scarier: the long-term effects of moral ambiguity and baffling human strangeness.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok . . .

I personally, didn't find the story that fascinating. I was a little disappointed. Some may find it more interesting than me.

[Jimmy]

I was attracted to this book because of its setting, what later became Malabar Farm in Ohio. But the writing is not the best, and the book needed to be edited. The story was a bit hard to follow.

[Boyd Addlesperger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was Ceely Rose mentally ill....or was she a cunning murderer? Author/researcher Mark Sebastian Jordan looks in all the dark corners and dusty drawers to uncover all the truths that can be found about this sensational 1896 crime. Ceely Rose poisoned her parents and older brother, allegedly because her parents wouldn't allow her to have a relationship with a neighborhood boy in their rural Ohio community. The fact that she committed the crime could not be disputed, but the state of her mental health at the time would determine if she would live out life in a mental institution or take a seat in Ohio's electric chair. Sebastian reports on the Rose family background, the crime, the trickery involved in eliciting a confession and the ensuing murder trial in detail. The crime was sensational, but Jordan's workmanlike approach covers all bases in a dignified and respectful manner. An entertaining and informative read.

[Bettye McKee]

A triple homicide in Ohio in 1896

This is the true story of Celia Rose who poisoned her mother, father and brother who she believed stood in the way, depriving her of love and marriage. The area, the landscape, the topography, the buildings and the people are described in excruciating detail.

Celia's father, David Rose, was a miller, and his wife, Rebecca, wove rugs for additional income. Celia was intellectually deficient. She obeyed the rules that were told to her, but if a situation arose that she hadn't been told about, she was incapable of making a decision on her own.

When she became obsessed with a neighbor boy and insisted they were going to be married, her parents ordered her to stay away from him, she was angry. (The boy in question didn't even like her.) Celia remembered a story her father had told her and saw a way to remove the obstacles in her path to happiness.

The story is well-written and well-researched and has many relevant photos.

9

[Paula Corregan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating true crime!

This book details the arsenic poisoning murders of Rebecca Rose, David Rose and Walter Rose by their daughter and sister, Celia Rose (commonly called Ceely). The crimes took place in rural Richland County, Ohio in 1896. I have read many true crime books but had never heard of these particular cases. The book is well written and researched. I highly recommend this book to other true crime readers.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Jordan spends a little bit of time tooting his own horn over this case, he does do a competent job of cohesively telling the story of the Rose family murders and the nuances of the case. He also does a decent job showing the methodology and difficulties of reconstructing and drawing reasonable conclusions from incomplete rural records. I actually found that rather interesting.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting subject of a true story, especially if you are familiar with the locale. Further inquiries regarding Ceely beyond the book are interesting. She lived in insane asylums from the time of her conviction (except for a short time that she was released about 1897) in Toledo until 1915, then Lima, OH until her death in 1934.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder

This was a very interesting book, I grew up in Ohio and though I have been living in another state many years I get back often. Malabar Farm rang a bell so I picked this to read. Its not a tedious read and only took me two days. Great details of something I had not known about the area. Read it!

[Linda Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting page turner

This is the story of Celia Rose, a young woman with mental problems who became a triple murderer. The victims were her family. The story is interesting. Lots of facts to read and absorb. I enjoyed it.

[Jayme Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting tale

This story had me thinking about my own genealogy search and the unknown information I have found on my journey. What a winding and twisting story with still so much unknown.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

After visiting Malabar Farm and falling in love with the property (the trails are amazing!) and happening upon the former home Ceely Rose, I became fascinated with this case. Therefore, I was so thrilled to discover this book. And it did not disappoint!

[Donna Polston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good book about a dysfunctional family with a heaping tablespoon of crazy in the mix.

[Bakerp · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring Book

Was bored through entire book. Skimmed it all the way. Reading the back of the cereal box was more entertaining.

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very, very interesting book! True story. If it happened before it can happen again especially in today’s environment.

[Bobbi Wylezik · Rating 5 out of 5]

The creepy rose murders at Malabar farm

What a awesome book. It kept me turning the pages. I'm so glad you never gave on this story. Great

[Phebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting local history and a slice of legal practices in the late 1800s.

[Connie Hudgeons]

A Must Read Story

As a lo er of Appalachian history and legends, this was a telling of very sad story. Highly recommended read!!

[Teresa Roy -Sheppard · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent read

This is a fantastic book part true crime part history . Ceely Rose is an unsuspecting murder of her family . This story really sent a chill up my spine

[Dan Newland · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his "The Ceely Rose Murders at Malabar Farm", Mark Jordan has managed to create not only a riveting true-crime non-fiction, but also an historical document that clears up many of the inaccuracies that have been perpetuated over the course of more than a century since the horrendous crimes described took place.
It was in 1896 in a small house on Malabar Farm in Pleasant Valley Ohio--a property that would later famously belong to bestselling author Louis Bromfield, who would create a fictionalized account of the crimes in his book, "Pleasant Valley"--that a mentally challenged young woman called Celia "Ceely" Rose would murder her entire family (father, mother and brother) by stirring arsenic rat poison into the cottage cheese with cherries that she served them for breakfast. Her father, David Rose, and brother Walter would be the first of the three to die horrible deaths, agonizing for days before giving up the ghost. Mother Rebecca would become deathly ill but would survive the first attempt on her life, and she would end up covering up for her daughter until she was almost fully recovered from the arsenic poisoning, only to have her daughter poison her again, and definitively kill her.
What was Ceely's motive for such vile multiple murders? According to her, love. Infatuated with a young man who lived next door, she entertained the insane fantasy that her family, who had forbidden her to see him, were all that was standing between her and conjugal bliss. She decided to remove the obstacle.
At first misdiagnosing the strange deaths as a contagious illness, doctors would later find it strange that the "contagion" had left Ceely unscathed. And so began the investigation and trial of one of the most chilling murder cases in Ohio history. In the process, the Malabar Farm murders would become a macabre topic of discussion in books, magazines and newspapers not only in Ohio but across the US. And Ceely Rose would become a murderess who was infamous not only in America, but in other parts of the world as well.
Jordan has meticulously sewn together the crazy-quilt of this tale of unspeakable horror, murder and mayhem and, in the process, discovered facts that have long been missed by other writers and historical investigators, which probably renders this book the definitive historical work on the Malabar Farm murders. But Jordan's consummate skill as a writer has given birth to a work that is as much crime story as history book, making it fascinatingly appealing to history buffs and true-crime fans alike. And it is a murder trial story as well, in the tradition of such towering writers as Harper Lee and Truman Capote.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with a taste for crime stories and/or superlative historical research.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read about a 1896 family poisoning/murder by a disturbed daughter who spent the rest of her life in state asylums. The historical researcher/author asks suggestive, hypothetical, suggestive questions that I felt were in appropriate, reminiscent of those inane TV shows about ghosts, mysteries, aliens and other nonsense. The publisher, Historical Press, publishes books about ghost stories, haunted places, "wicked" women and crimes so I could cynically imagine how they might be inclined to encourage sensationalism to entice readers attracted to that type of thing.

I'm not one of those, but was able to get through the 150 page book by overlooking and not falling for the manipulation.

Another reviewer complained about the end of the book, which talks about the legacy of the case, the challenges the researcher had in finding out what happened to the perpetrator after her verdict, and the life of the case through theatrical productions in the region the crimes were committed. The reviewer gave a single star to the book as a result of the inclusion of these final chapters. I on the other hand found them quite interesting. The genealogical research required for cases 130 years old in rural areas was resourceful and convincing. The dramatic production of the case for community theater provided an interesting twist and glimpse into how communities might chose to deal with more tragic elements of their past.

I picked up this book at a great book festival focused on Ohio authors and poets, along with two others by The History Press. One of them I will donate to the local library book sale along with this one but unread, because I suspect it's similar in having a bit of the sensationalism in this title. The other is not written by a regularly contributing author to the publisher and, while also true crime, a genre I rarely read, I suspect it will be different because it is written by someone whose career was within the legal system as opposed to simply profiting by writing about it.

[Jeff DeShon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read about these late 19th century murders that took place on land in Richland County that later was purchased by Louis Bromfield and became Malabar Farm. The author did an exceptional job ensuring historical accuracy and went in depth into the lives of the subject family as well as those people and neighboring families that were directly or peripherally involved with the murders and prosecution of Ceely Rose.

[Eve Markley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Jordan has written a spare, interesting narrative incorporating the known facts about this case. He has avoided unwanted emotionalism and left out any possible supernatural tales that often follow murders of this sort.

I've lived in Ohio all my life and had never heard of the Rose murders. I snapped this book up as soon as I saw it and I'm very glad I did. I'll be adding the name of Mark Sebastian Jordan to my list of preferred authors.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book very good and interesting. I’ve seen the play several times and enjoyed it. Being from this area my whole life made it even better. Reading the book made me realize I know a lot of people who had relatives involved in this story. Plus there was many things I did not know about Ceely and her family.

[Lori Shafer · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating read!
This book came up as a suggestion on my Kindle. I saw it was true crime in Ohio and I was sold. It did not disappoint. I loved how the author told how he researched the whole story.

He made the characters seem real. Often I find these type of books dry, but not this one.

It was fairly short, but a great read.

[Sarah Watkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was interesting and seemed to be well researched. I saw the author give a talk on the book in person and he was a great story teller and gave additional details on his research and the story that was entertaining.

[Suzann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tightly-written volume provides an example of how you can indeed write a true account of an event about which painfully little is known, and how to squeeze out every last bit of information that has not yet been unearthed.

[Rebecca Stilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Local history about a very unfortunate event in 1896.