\u201cDelaware may be small, but its criminal history contains multitudes,\u201d writes Tabler at the outset of his narrative of the Diamond State\u2019s seamy underbelly. \u201cThese stories span a spectrum\u2014from blood-chilling murders that haunted generations to curious capers lost in dusty archives, from soul-crushing injustices that demanded reform to schemes so preposterous they strain credulity.\u201d Tabler takes his readers through the gamut of the seediest misdeeds, from statewide scandals involving prominent politicians and other public figures to grotesque local murders, all drawn from state lore extending well over a century. He tells readers about Noah Benson, whose headless body was found in 1891 in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, sparking a sensational murder trial that filled the headlines of all the local papers (the head was never found). A more contemporary account outlines the sexual predation of pediatrician Dr. Earl Bradley, who in the 1990s abused dozens of children (a nurse claimed that he \u201cmade girls undress before routine exams, kissed and hugged them, and remarked about attractive mothers\u201d). Tabler mentions that state Attorney General Beau Biden wanted Bradley\u2019s offices \u201cwiped off the face of the earth.\u201d In most cases, Tabler offers larger lessons to be learned. For example, about bigamist clergyman Irvin Taylor, who had a deserted wife in Delaware while he was an upstanding married man in Iowa, Tabler writes, \u201cThe scandal exposed something more universal: the ease with which a man entrusted with moral and spiritual leadership could live a lie in plain sight.\u201d<\/p>\n
A less talented writer might have assumed that the salacious nature of this kind of history would do most of the heavy lifting as far as entertaining readers, but Tabler knows better. He turns the history he\u2019s researched into good stories and often contextualizes it; regarding lawyer-turned-murderer Thomas Capano, he writes: \u201cThe once-powerful attorney who had manipulated the highest echelons of Delaware politics\u2014and believed himself untouchable\u2014died alone in a prison infirmary. It was a final, ignominious chapter in his fall from grace.\u201d The author also delves deep into specifics, aided by both his vast research and his sharp ear for great quotes plucked from regional publications, as when Delaware\u2019s newspaper Every Evening\u00a0wryly commented on customers who persisted in drinking backwoods moonshine even after the state\u2019s Liquor Commission issued beer-making licenses: \u201cTell the nation that instantaneous death would result from pulling the lobe of the left ear four times in rapid succession, and the undertakers would do a big business.\u201d He\u2019s equally adept at highlighting either absurd dark humor or savage tragedy, depending on the nature of the horror he\u2019s describing, and his choices give the book a fine feeling of balance and depth. He tells the story of a constable named Brown found throttling Wilmington\u2019s mayor in 1891 (\u201cYes, I grabbed him by the throat,\u201d the constable evenly said, \u201cbut he grabbed me first\u201d) with as much storyteller commitment as he does the many con artists who\u2019ve targeted the most vulnerable throughout the state\u2019s history. It\u2019s all done with energy and detail; true crime fans and Delaware history buffs will be delighted.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cDelaware may be small, but its criminal history contains multitudes,\u201d writes Tabler at the outset of his narrative of the Diamond State\u2019s seamy underbelly. \u201cThese stories span a spectrum\u2014from blood-chilling murders that haunted generations to curious capers lost in dusty archives, from soul-crushing injustices that demanded reform to schemes so preposterous they strain credulity.\u201d Tabler […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}