The Infamous Harry Hayward: A True Account of Murder and Mesmerism in Gilded Age Minneapolis

(Paperback)

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Shawn Francis Peters's spellbinding story of the "Minneapolis Monster" details the trial of Harry Haywarda serial seducer and schemer deemed a "Svengali," a "lunatic," and a "man without a soul." His life story, told in full for the first time here, unfolds a transfixing tale of one of the most notorious criminals in America during the Gilded Age.

Reviews

"The story of Harry Hayward is a portrait both of a genuinely chilling nineteenth-century killer and of a golden American cityMinneapolis in the 1800sthat provides a home to the darkness within us. Shawn Francis Peters does full justice to both light and shadow in this murderous tale."Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoners Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

"At last, a great nonfiction storyteller has given this terrifying murderer the well-researched and vividly written treatment he deserves. The Infamous Harry Haywardplaces readers inside the disordered mind of a Victorian era killerand wont let them go."Jack El-Hai, author of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist and The Lobotomist

"The Infamous Harry Hayward is a riveting account of a dark chapter in Minnesota historythe murder-for-hire of a dressmaker, Kittie Ging. The 1895 trial of Harry Hayward, a Victorian Era gambler and the murders criminal mastermind, grabbed lurid newspaper headlines in a case that pitted one brother against another."John Bessler, author of Legacy of Violence: Lynch Mobs and Executions in Minnesota

"The book unfolds as a play-by-play of the seven-week trial and reads much like the sensationalist reporting of the events at the time. The end result is an entertaining tale of crime and punishment from Minnesotas gilded age and a great episode from the annals of yellow journalism."Publishers Weekly

"Peters scholarly, yet accessible, prose takes readers into the shadowy corners of Minneapolis and the sinister mind of a man without a soul."Isthmus

"If youve never heard of Harry Hayward youll love reading about this serial seducer, con man, gambler and crook. This nonfiction evocation of a sensational life reads like a thriller."St. Paul Pioneer Press

Author Bio

Shawn Francis Peters teaches in the Integrated Liberal Studies Program at the University of WisconsinMadison. He has written five books, most recently The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era.