Bedside Book of Bad Girls : Outlaw Women of the Midwest

Take a step back in time with the Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Outlaw women of the Midwest . Join author Chris Enss as she digs up and reveals startling facts about some of the most fascinating renegade women of the Midwest. Meet Flora Mundis, the horse thief who disguised herself as a man; Victoria Woodhull, out-spoken activist for free love, con artist, and the first female candidate for president; Ma Barker, mother of the notorious Barker Gang; Opal Long and Patricia Cherrington, trusted sisters of the Dillinger Gang; and many more. Experience history as if you were actually there. Stand witness to the trial and hanging of Elizabeth Reed, and ride the rails with Fannie and Jennie Freeman, the mother-daughter team who bilked railroad companies out of more than $150,000. In eleven captivating profiles, Enss brings to life the stories of these fascinating pistol-packing, horse-thieving, poker-swindling outlaws.

Outlaw tales of the Wild West are well known. Less so are the lives of the wicked women and deadly damsels of the Macabre Midwest.

Award-winning author Chris Enss goes behind the lipstick and petticoats to reveal the real women who outran the law and upended gender stereotypes across America's Heartland. Meet Flora Mundis, expert horse thief and jailbreaker; murderess Elizabeth Reed, the first and only woman hanged in Illinois; Belle Black and Jennie Freeman, who shot their way through holdups alongside the men of the Wyatt-Black Gang; and Anne Cook, bootlegger and madam, who killed her own daughter in cold blood. See the muzzle flash as Poker Alice guns down a gambler gone mad, and hide out after a bank heist with Patricia Cherrington and the Dillinger Gang.

Illustrated with historical photographs, Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Outlaw Women of the Midwest uncovers the true lives long veiled by the glamor of dime novels and sensational tabloid accounts. Cozy up (if you dare) with these women, both sensuous and sinister, as they rampage across the Midwest.