Outlaw Pennsylvania

From America’s first school shooting in the 1700s to modern-day serial killers, a new book from a bestselling crime-writer and a local historian covers the fascinating gamut of mayhem in the Keystone State’s past. And it’s all there: Pennsylvania sites tied to the Sundance Kid, Doc Holliday, Ted Bundy, Al Capone, and Elliot Ness, among others … the Molly Maguires … high-profile mob hits … a serial killer dubbed Gorilla Man … a murderous hippie guru known as The Unicorn … groundhog skullduggery … torture-killer Gary Heidnik … sites of America’s first bank robbery, armored car heist, and child kidnapping for ransom … and dozens of other true-crime tales. This book will cause even the buffest PA crime buff to say, “I didn’t know that!”

In 1791, Philadelphia was the capital of the United States and the fledgling nation’s largest city, boasting nearly forty thousand people. And where there are people, there is crime. For every Daniel Boone, Margaret Mead, and Robert Fulton born in Pennsylvania, there was a cannibalizing Alfred Packer, a child-killing Darlie Routier, and a mass murdering George Hennard close behind.

From the congested streets in the City of Brotherly Love to a lonely field near Shanksville, grab your GPS and venture with us to the scenes of some of America’s most historic crimes, from the spot where America’s first bank robber struck … to the park where the first school shooting in America happened … to the birthplaces of legendary Old West outlaws … to the childhood homes of the innocent and the guilty.

Bestselling crime author Ron Franscell and researcher Karen Valentine are your expert guides as OUTLAW PENNSYLVANIA continues your journey across the American crime landscape!

Praise for CRIME BUFF’S GUIDES™

“Little-known details peppered throughout the book are what readers of true crime long for. Now, tourists and adventurers alike can also take this new brand of D.C. tour. Whatever their interests, they’re in for a real treat — and they’re bound to learn something new.” — Publishers Marketplace

“:A 200-page book which documents 145 crimes spanning the Keystone State, from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Not all are gruesome. Some are just plain weird or strangely humorous.”  —Allentown (PA) Morning Call

“The Crime Buff’s Guide™ to The Outlaw Rockies is a fascinating and macabre tour of crime locations and criminal acts where the body count is as high as the altitude. Readers will be reminded that the Wild West was really wild — and that it still is. Ron Franscell is a thorough and unflinching guide. This book is hard to put down and voyeurs with GPS units should be both thrilled … and weirded out at times.” — C.J. BOX, New York Times bestselling author of COLD WIND and BACK OF BEYOND

“Ron Franscell knows where the bodies are buried!” — BUFFALO (WY) BULLETIN

“As a crime writer, Ron Franscell knows the feeling well … to understand a crime, you have to do more than just read about it in a book or hear about it in a history class. You have to go there.” — AURORA (CO) SENTINEL

“One of the best true crime writers going today, Ron Franscell has provided in OUTLAW ROCKIES a fascinating guide to help true crime buffs locate the crime scenes that made the Old Wild West wild, as well as those of the most notorious of modern day homicides. In a lengthy series of well-written ‘mini-stories’ that also provides the GPS coordinates and addresses, OUTLAW ROCKIES takes the adventurous reader on a historical tour from the haunts of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch to the Denver home of a radio shock jock gunned down by white supremacists. I can imagine legions of true crime fans with Franscell’s book in hand standing in these places, contemplating in real life what the characters of history saw and experienced.” — STEVE JACKSON, bestselling author of MONSTER

“Truly orginal in style by combining short stories for crime lovers with a easy-to-follow travel guide, Ron Franscell’s [CRIME BUFF’S GUIDE™] books just can’t be topped.” — TrueCrimeBookReviews.com

“Imagine a place bound by isolation, where an unforgiving landscape surrounds you at all points of the compass, and sometimes the only thing between you and death is how fast you can draw your gun. Imagine that, and you’ve got a picture of what life may have been like in the Old West that Ron Franscell chronicles in OUTLAW ROCKIES.” — Craig (CO) Daily Press

“The ultimate guilty pleasure book.” —SAN ANTONIO (TX) EXPRESS-NEWS