Robert Reynolds: 504 books

Joe "Socks" Lanza was a Genovese capo who was closely aligned to mobster Charles "Lucky" Luciano. In 1942 Socks visited Luciano in prison to recruit him on a government sponsored program to stop Nazi espionage in the United States. The effort received the backing of New York City District Attorney...

The 1955 Ford Crown Victoria was a popular car in an era when power brakes were an optional feature. The Crown Victoria wasn't the only auto of the era that experienced brake problems. The 1953 Pontiac was another. General Motors began issuing kits to alert Buick dealers and owners. My e-book looks...

A Lockheed Super Constellation L-1049E crash landed at Montego Bay Airport in Jamaica in the early morning hours of January 21, 1960. Of 37 Americans who died on board the airliner, 17 were from the United States. The plane was making a scheduled nonstop flight from New York to Jamaica. It made an...

The Strato-Freight airliner that crashed off the coast of Puerto Rico in June 1949 was a converted army transport C-46. It had once been used to carry fully armed troops. The airline company, based in Connecticut, had added room in the plane to seat more passengers. Four minutes after takeoff the...

Buffalo nightclub owner/restaurateur Roy Carlisi was one of fifty-eight men who attended the notorious Apalachin meeting of November 14, 1957. Held at the home of businessman Joseph Barbara Sr., it is a legendary incident in the annals of U.S. mob history. Carlisi was closely associated with the Stefano...

Vincent Coll was originally from County Donegal in Ireland. During his early life he was institutionalized in Catholic institutions for the indigent and truant youths in New York City. His first criminal offenses involved citations for juvenile delinquency. He lived for a time with his half-sister...

Indigo buntings are a fascinating songbird of the eastern United States, much of the midwest, and part of the western U.S. The male indigo is a beautiful indigo, azure, ultramarine hue with ample sunlight on him. He molts in the fall and loses much of his brilliance. The female is a brown color, which...

I believe that the successful plot to murder President John F. Kennedy took shape in New Orleans during the summer of 1963. It was then that W. Guy Banister ran a detective office where malcontents, right wingers and perhaps left wing radicals also frequented. Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged Presidential...

Whooping cough has been around since the 15th Century, with the first epidemic having occurred in the Paris in the 1500s. It is a complex illness, which is often taken lightly, especially in its earliest stage. A child often comes down with what is thought to be a cold. He/she has a runny nose, red...

Fritz Gebhardt was murdered by his jealous lover in the early morning hours of November 12, 1935. Vera Stretz was only one of numerous lover s the German academic was involved with in New York City. A married man, the 43-year-old had a wife and two daughters in Karlsruhe, Germany. Gebhardt met Stretz...

Max Sasanoff was caught up in a counterfeiting ring that operated from New York City's Putnam Building in 1922. After being arrested with multiple co-defendants he was confined to Atlanta Federal Prison. In his own words Max got into trouble when he used his artistic ability to create designs...

Principal Keeper George Adam Durnford was murdered during a prison riot at Auburn State Prison in Upstate New York in December 1929. Beginning in February 1930 convict Max Becker was tried for Durnford's slaying. Becker was a habitual criminal who came to Auburn following a stint in Elmira Reformatory....

Nurse Robina Lyttle was murdered and dismembered by her lover, Patrick McClafferty, in the basement of an apartment they shared in Flushing, Queens, New York City. The Irish Catholic woman met the Scottish Protestant man in February 1926. McClafferty, a janitor's helper, was encouraged to immigrate...

Henry Orne Rider was a painter from Salem, Massachusetts who made a name for himself as a landscape artist. His work is available from galleries and is avidly auctioned on ebay today. Among his most recurring subjects is the Charles River in Boston. Rider maintained an art/photography studio in Auburndale,...