A Treasury of XXth Century Murder Compendium I: Including The Lindbergh Child, The Axe-Man of New Orleans, and Madison Square Tragedy

Rick Geary specializes in bringing to life the curious crimes and mysteries of old. Whether he’s exploring the murder of the Black Dahlia, the story of Lizzie Borden, or the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti, his graphic novels are steeped in the macabre but true stories of mayhem in the twentieth century.

A Treasury of XXth Century Murder, Compendium I collects three such novels in one place, offering an excellent sampler of Geary’s trademark style. The stories are meticulously researched and painstakingly realized in pen-and-ink drawings, and Geary never delves into reckless supposition but only reports the facts. These stories are bound to reveal something new and unexpected for even well-read devotees of the sinister and unexplained.

The collection opens with the unfortunate tale of the Lindbergh baby, then leaps to the Jazz Age to ponder the identity of the axe-wielding man who terrorized New Orleans, before closing out the trilogy with a lesser-known story: the murder of architect Stanford White in Madison Square Garden. (Curiously enough, the third story is the only one where we know for sure the identity of the culprit, making it a rarity among Geary’s works.)

This is a fantastic glimpse at the dark side of history, executed with great style and careful craftsmanship.