Susan Blackhall

Oversized book with wonderful pics that accompany each story. The author takes to various locations around NYC. Ghost stories about an actor who's head is removed from his body and used in performances of Hamlet. A midget grafter who lays a curse on someone who betrayed her. A former Ziegfield girl who now haunts his theater. A spinster woman who haunts the house which she had occupied for over 90 years that she kept just like Daddy wanted. Is easy and kind of fun to read. The pictures are great and frequently actually show the place in question.… (mehr)

Meh. I couldn't finish this. I got as far as Jesse Pomeroy (the book lists the killers alphabetically). As I read I noticed some typos and also some inaccuracies, but none of them serious -- until I got to Jesse, where the account said they found "12 corpses in the rubbish heap" in his basement and he "confessed to torturing to death 27 youngsters." Wrong, wrong, wrong. Jesse killed exactly two people. The most cursory research would have shown that. I don't understand why the authors messed this book up so badly.

The only reason I'm giving it more than one star is because it has a lot of excellent photographs, many of which I've never seen before.… (mehr)

This is a large (about 9X12) and handsome book, nicely formatted and filled with wonderful sepia-toned photographs, drawings, and portraits. The sheer beauty of the book (to me) is enough for me to forgive some sloppy writing/editing.

And there are errors! There are problems with dates: Peter Stuyvessant obviously didn't die in 1880, which would have made him over 200 years old. And it's unlikely that a crown-appointed colonial governer held that post between 1802-1808 -- especially if he died in 1723. (Or that would really be quite a ghost story!) Also, one story about side-by-side buildings kept me totally confused about what happened in which building.

Given the errors that were easy to spot without knowledge of the material, I wonder how many other errors there were which I'd have no way of recognizing. Nontheless, it was a fun book with a lot of local history and flavor to go with the ghosts.… (mehr)