Deaths On Pleasant Street (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
A very entertaining and easy to read account of the 1909 murder case surrounding the wealthy Swope family of Independence, Missouri. If you live in Kansas City, Missouri, you know of Swope Park and the many attractions that it contains. Colonel Thomas Swope was a multi-millionaire who donated the land for the park. In 1909, there were a series of mysterious deaths in the Swope mansion, including his own. The suspected cause of the deaths was Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde, the son-in-law of the Colonel's sister. The author lays out the events as told by court transcripts, newspaper accounts,and personal memoirs and allows the readers to draw their own conclusion. The actual trial itself was a national event and the unsatisfactory results of the initial trial and subsequent appeals leaves the reader without a conclusion. Was there a murder or not? If there was, who did it? Historical true crime story from 1909: the appropriately-named Dr. Hyde is accused of murdering his wife's rich elderly uncle and then infecting the rest of the extended family household with typhoid in order to increase his own inheritance. Fowler, who used to be a journalism professor at Iowa State, has recreated the scene as best he could from contemporary reports and primary sources. He spends a wee bit too much time commenting on the journalism of the day (those of us who are not journalists do not really care), but he weaves an intriguing, if horrifying, story.
What do You think about Deaths On Pleasant Street (2009)?
Interesting story, but I was not a fan of the author's writing style.
—jennimbaegbu
Murder, mystery, true-crime and KC history rolled into one book.
—1735
This was fun to read, knowing the area it took place in.
—shherrera
