Mysterious Persons in History: Baffling Cases of Unsolved Mysteries (Books By Fred Neff) [Library Binding]

Fred Neff (Author)

Book Description

Series: Books By Fred Neff | Publication Date: June 1997

Discusses eight unsolved cases of mysterious death, from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, involving Napoleon Bonaparte, Sir Harry Oaks, the Black Dahlia, William Taylor, Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper, Dr. Sam Sheppard, and John Dillinger.

Product Details

• Library Binding: 112 pages
• Publisher: Runestone Pr (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822539322
• ISBN-13: 978-0822539322
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,579,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Treat for Detective Fans, May 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mysterious Persons in History: Baffling Cases of Unsolved Mysteries (Books By Fred Neff) (Library Binding)

Fans of detective stories will love Mysterious Persons in History that explores controversial unsolved mysteries such as Jack the Ripper, Harry Oaks, Lizzie Borden, Napoleon and others. Each person is covered in a separate chapter where fascinating facts and questions related to this person are explored. The reader gets a chance to ponder and resolve each of these cases. It is great fun to work with the facts supplied to solve these time tested mysteries. Mysterious Persons is a terrific way to learn history and practice problem solving at the same time as enjoying true life mystery cases.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book-really captures the imagination, May 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mysterious Persons in History: Baffling Cases of Unsolved Mysteries (Books By Fred Neff) (Library Binding)

Take a look back in time and examine eight of the greater unsolved mysteries by reading Mysterious Persons in History by Fred Neff. There are stories on Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper, Sir Harry Oaks, Napoleon Bonaparte, Dr. Sam Shepard, William Taylor, The Black Dahlia and John Dillenger. Each of these stories is simply put a gem. This book really captures the readers attention with its well written and interesting approach to not only learning the facts that are involved in each mystery, but the questions that remain unanswered. The reader really gets involved in each of the eight mysteries just as though he was a detective solving the mystery. The book is wonderful!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A historical review of famous unsolved cases, March 28, 2007

By 

An Eclectic Scholar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mysterious Persons in History: Baffling Cases of Unsolved Mysteries (Books By Fred Neff) (Library Binding)

Mysterious Persons in History is more than just a review of the facts of famous unsolved cases, it is a book that stretches the capacity of the reader to think critcically. I like the Mysterious Persons book's way of simply stating facts, while building into the narration challenging issues of credibility, bias, incongruity and accuracy. Author Fred Neff's book does not take traditional versions of history as true, but rather gives little known facts and alternative explanations for the reader to ponder and factor in to making their own decision. Obviously no author can give a simple formula to use to solve a mystery; if that was so these cases would not be unsolved mysteries because there would be a clear concensus of opinion as to their solution based upon a common method of resolution. What Minnesota lawyer Fred Neff has done is to use his book as an instrument to challenge the reader's mind to bring out the best of their individual thinking processes to find a solution. The mysteries selected by lawyer Fred Neff involve Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper, Sir Harry Oaks, Napoleon Bonaparte, Dr. Sam Sheppard, William Taylor, The Black Dahlia and John Dillenger. The chapter on Jack the Ripper was particularly intriguing to me since I have had an interest in Jack The Ripper for many years. Although I have read several books on the subject before reading the chapter devoted to the Ripper in lawyer Fred Neff's book, no other writing made me want to explore the forensic aspects of the case to find a personal solution to the crime. For example, Mysterious Persons in History gives the best narration of the Jack the Ripper murders I have ever read; unlike writings by other authors who supplied spoon-fed answers that left me dissatisfied with their conclusions, attorney Fred Neff provided both commonly known and little known facts along with challenging questions that prompted me to try to come up with my own personal solution to the mystery. The writing style employed in Mysterious Persons is unique in that author Fred Neff, who is a lawyer in Minnesota, uses a blend of the socratic method with good old fashioned common sense to explore the mysteries. That the book is written by Fred Neff, an experienced trial lawyer in Minnesota who has received many awards for his outstanding contributions such as the city of St. Paul Citizen of the Month award, commendation from the Sibley County Attorney's Office, WCCO Good Neighbor Award, the HLS Justice Award, Lamp of Knowledge Award from the Twin Cities Lawyers Guild and Presidential Medal of Merit Award, is a definite bonus. Lawyer Fred Neff provides a presentation of historical facts in an intriguingly different manner that is different from the ordinary recitation of facts so often seen. The Mysterious Persons In History book is not only interesting to adults like me, but has the potential to be a very useful tool to help develop young peoples' critical thinking skills. From my perspective Mysterious Persons is truly a great book.