Poisoned: Chicago 1907, a Corrupt System, an Accused Killer, and the Crusade to Save Him Kindle Edition

While researching one of my ancestors I came across a newspaper article stating he might have been murdered by a hypnotist con man who was awaiting trial for poisoning a family in Chicago in 1906. I was intrigued and did a quick Google search on this man. The stories ranged from: a serial killer monster murdered an entire family to an innocent man was wrongly convicted and sentenced to hang for crimes he did not commit. As for my ancestor no other information was found. This book popped up during a search and I decided to give it a read. I'm not a fan of true crime or any sort of mysteries. My favorite type of books are science fiction and post apocalyptic fiction. So I didn't know what was in store when I began to read. Would I be bored? Would I find out more about my ancestor? The book is quite excellent. I cannot believe that the author has not published any other books on Kindle. He writes quite well and managed to hold my attention the entire time. The story is taken from many different sources but yet it still reads like a story, not like an account of events. As I was reading it I imagined the scenes that he was describing. It was easy to do that because he described it so well. But yet everything he wrote was taken from a source and I knew that it was accurate. So what happened to the hypnotist con man? Did he murder my ancestor? Thankfully this book mentioned him and I found out the answer is no. As for what happened to the con man and the family he supposedly poisoned I will not give that away. This book is totally worth buying and spending a few nights pouring over it. If you enjoy stories of true crime or early politics and crime in Chicago or just Chicago in general this is worth the read.

An excellent history of a little known but explosive story from the early twentieth century. The author has incorporated extensive research into his narrative to buttress the story with fact - a true story so head-scratching that it reads like fiction - and that’s a compliment!

This book was written with a fantastic amount of research. Interesting subject, especially for those familiar with Chicago.

very well written, the authors research shows in every chapter, a great read!!!!

Firstly, I must give you a little back ground on myself and my reason for this review of the book "Poisoned " by Steve Shukis. I am the great grandson of Herman Billik, the main character in this book. My mother was the daughter of Herman Billik Jr.. Up until four years ago, my branch of this family knew nothing about our mothers paternal side of the family history. Once I retired, six years ago, I started doing research of our family tree. Information from family members was never passed on and therefore was non-existent. In my searches, the name Herman Billik came up but after seeing that he was labeled a serial killer I ignored the information (that couldn't happen in my family), I came to a dead end and gave up my search. A few years later I resumed the search and came up the with the same results but because of information more readily available on the internet I was able to establish that indeed Herman Billik, the serial killer was my great grandfather. I found hundreds of newspaper stories about Herman and his family covering eleven years from 1906 to 1917, all of which basically proclaimed, at that time, that Herman Billik as a one of the worst serial killers in the history of this country. This new information left me with many more questions and so few answers. All things changed in April of this year. While performing another family search, I came across an announcement for a September release of a new book titled "Poisoned" by Steve Shukis. For me this was "Utopia", this could be every researcher's dream to have someone write a book about their ancestors.The books author, Steve Shukis, was able to convey a side of this story that the newspapers from that period did not tell. I have read over a hundred articles, from all over the world that only told the parts of the story that would sell their newspapers and that story was that Herman Billik was a serial killer and a monster of the worst kind. The author tells a side of this story that was not told in newspapers but through actual court documents, proceedings and inquiry's. He told of the corrupt Chicago police and legal systems and of the people whom were on a crusade to save Herman Billik. He took me to the Bohemian community in Chicago where they lived, the streets where they walked, the places where they worked, the homes they lived in, the Chicago court system and the jails they went through. He was able to place me there, at those times to feel the feeling that my family must have felt.Herman Billik was no Angel but was he a serial killer? I think not!!The descendants of Herman Billik thanks Steve Shukis for his dedication to the truth and writing this book, a story that should have been told many years ago.

This was a genuinely interesting tale of true crime. While I found myself actually hoping that Herman Billick was the killer since, despite the author's attempts to make him seem friendlier, I found him to be a rather disagreeable person. This, of course, was not the point of the story and you were supposed to be rooting for him, but I didn't.This thoroughly covers every step of the investigation as it progressed with an amazing level of detail considering the time that has lapsed since the events. The one thing I didn't quite understand was why the author was so surprised by the level of corruption in the legal system at the time and mentioned it so frequently. It was early 1900s Chicago - of course it was corrupt.If you're interested in true crime this is a well written and intriguing look into real life events which you are sure to enjoy and I definitely recommend it.