Outrage in Ohio: A Rural Murder, Lynching, and Mystery - Softcover

Kimmel, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253034221 ISBN 13: 9780253034229

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2018

Synopsis

On a hot and dusty Sunday in June 1872, 13-year-old Mary Secaur set off on her two-mile walk home from church. She never arrived. The horrific death of this young girl inspired an illegal interstate pursuit-and-arrest, courtroom dramatics, conflicting confessions, and the daylight lynching of a traveling tin peddler and an intellectually disabled teenager. Who killed Mary Secaur? Were the accused actually guilty? What drove the citizens of Mercer County to lynch the suspects?

David Kimmel seeks answers to these provoking questions and deftly recounts what actually happened in the fateful summer of 1872, imagining the inner workings of the small rural community, reconstructing the personal relationships of those involved, and restoring humanity to this gripping story. Using a unique blend of historical research and contemporary accounts, Outrage in Ohio explores how a terrible crime ripped an Ohio farming community apart and asks us to question what really happened to Mary Secaur.

About this title

About the Author

David Kimmel is Professor of English at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio.

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253034221
• ISBN 13: 9780253034229
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254