Murder on the Ohio Belle

In March 1856, the drowned body of J.B. Jones, the son of a prominent Southern planter, was found floating near a sandbar in the Mississippi River. Normally, Jones's demise would not have garnered much attention, for dead men were fished from the water with alarming frequency. This case, however, was different. Jones's waterlogged corpse was tied to a chair. He had been a passenger on the Ohio Belle, a luxurious steamboat that ferried people and goods between Cincinnati and New Orleans. The Belle had an interesting history in its own right, having plied the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers at the height of the steamboat era. The tale of the drowned man lashed to a chair and pitched from the Belle only added to the boat's notoriety. As the story of Jones's death spread, one newspaper concluded that, The details are truly awful, and well calculated to cause a thrill of horror." In The Ohio Belle, author Stuart Sanders explores the mysterious and untold circumstances surrounding the death of J.B. Jones and the events that occurred onboard the Ohio Belle that caused him to end up floating down the Ohio River. Sanders uses the setting of the steamboat as the narrative's main character in order to uncover the complex twists that make this story so compelling. Double murders, false identities, getaways, and a cast of questionable characters fill the pages of this exploration of Southern culture and violence at the height of the 1800s. Through the eyes of the Ohio Belle steamboat, Sanders examines a crime that is "woven into the fabric" of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers as it captures the period's honor culture, classism, mob rule, vigilante justice, the failures of the judicial system, and the changing tides of public opinion. In doing so, The Ohio Belle will not only appeal to those with an interest in historical true crime but also civil war scholars, nineteenth century American historians, and steamboat enthusiasts"--

• | Author: Stuart W. Sanders
• | Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• | Publication Date: March 17, 2020
• | Number of Pages: 160 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 0813178711
• | ISBN-13: 9780813178714