Cleveland's Greatest Disasters!: 16 Tragic True Tales of Death and Destruction [Paperback]

John Stark Bellamy II (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2009

This collection of the 16 best true disaster stories from the popular books of John Stark Bellamy II retell the most terrible tragedies in Cleveland history, including:
The apocalyptic East Ohio Gas Company explosion and fire of 1944, which destroyed an entire east side neighborhood;
Genius inventor Garrett A. Morgan s daring underground rescue efforts using his recently invented gas mask during the gruesome 1916 waterworks collapse;
The unspeakably horrible Collinwood school fire of 1908, in which 172 schoolchildren perished in panic because of obstructed exits;
The shocking Ashtabula Bridge disaster, in which more than 80 holiday travelers plunged 82 feet to their death on the snow-covered ground;
The Cleveland Clinic disaster of 1929, in which thousands of pounds of X-ray film exploded in flames, causing 123 deaths;
The grisly drama of two doomed workmen buried alive in the very concrete that became Cleveland s celebrated landmark the Terminal Tower.
And other true local stories Includes 65 photos!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Stark Bellamy II is the author of five books about Cleveland crime and disaster. The former history specialist for the Cuyahoga County Public Library, he comes by his taste for the sensational honestly, having grown up reading stories about Cleveland crime and disaster written by his grandfather, Paul, who was editor of The Plain Dealer, and his father, Peter, who wrote for the Cleveland News and The Plain Dealer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: Gray & Co., Publishers (October 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598510584
• ISBN-13: 978-1598510584
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,041,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The son, grandson and great-grandson of journalists, I grew up in a family saturated with glorious, if often shocking memories and tales of bygone Cleveland. Reading was the most intense obsession of my childhood, and it remains so. A tormented and mortifying puberty added rambling amid graveyards and pondering human tragedies to my preoccupations. At the tail end of a much prolonged adolescence and too many wasted years in academia, I decided to become a librarian, for lack of a better alternative and because it was the best opportunity to be around books and the people who love them-- without having to put up with intellectuals as a class. Some twenty years ago, arriving at the sere and yellow leaf of middle age, I realized I had not yet become the celebrated Cleveland writer I'd always yearned to be, and so I decided to get cracking. I knew nothing about writing, save the clichéd caveat to "write about what you know," so I decided to recreate the crimes and calamities of my beloved hometown. Six books containing over 140 stories ensued, not to mention sidelines as a lecturer and tour guide to scenes of Cleveland misfortune. A few years ago I moved to Vermont and soon after produced "Vintage Vermont Villainies," a collection of Green Mountain State slayings and disappearances. But my heart remains smitten with the romance of Cleveland dismalia, and I probably couldn't stop writing about it even if I tried. Indeed, I still possess an archive of Cleveland murders and disasters totaling some 15,000 items, so my stock of Forest City woe is unlikely to deplete any time soon. In the winter of 2011 I published "A Woman Scorned: The Murder of George Saxton - An American Melodrama," a full-length narrative of the mysterious murder of President William McKinley's playboy brother-in-law. It remains my all-time favorite murder tale. And in August, 2011, I published "One Man's Mirror" (a collection of the columns of Samuel Jewett Kelly,a virtual history of Cleveland as told in the incomparable personal reminisences of a veteran newspaper reporter who knew everybody and saw everything during the city's most vibrant era.) In the works is a history of Cleveland's most violent civil disorder--suprisingly not either of its traumatic 1960s racial upheavals--and "Wasted on the Young," a memoir of my tumultuous youth. If nothing else the latter will furnish a perfect illustration of a remark uttered by the late British comedian, Peter Cook. Famously alcoholic and frenetically self-destructive, Cook was asked towards the end of his life, during a radio interview, whether he had learned anything from his innumerable mistakes. "Why, yes," he replied without hesitation, "I could repeat them all exactly."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great read but..., April 19, 2010

By 

John (Perry, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cleveland's Greatest Disasters!: 16 Tragic True Tales of Death and Destruction (Paperback)

I love Mr Bellamy's books, but this one doesn't have too much new in it if you have read his other books. If this is your first book by Mr Bellamy, you will love it. If you have his other books, you will love this too, but many of the stories you will remember from his previous writings.