Wicked Decatur

In 1854, Decatur was nicknamed "Hell's Half-Acre." By the 1910s and 1920s, the town was referred to as the "Second Most Corrupt City in Illinois," gaining notoriety as a place where murder, bootlegging, prostitution, kidnapping, gambling and political corruption were common. Members of the Decatur police force, like Troy Taylor's great-grandfather, were hard pressed to bar the door against crime in a town that seemed determined to remain "wide-open." Wicked Decatur presents a rogue's gallery of those who have slipped through the cracks of legality over the past century and a half.

Acknowledgements	p. 9
Carved Out of the Prairie: Decatur's Early Years	p. 11
Death Rides the Rails: Murder, Crime and Decatur's Railroads	p. 23
Law and Disorder: History of the Decatur Police Department	p. 33
ôIf You Can't Find a Drink, You're Not Trying Hard Enough!ö: Prohibition in Decatur	p. 41
Rolling the Bones: Gambling in Decatur	p. 49
Decatur: Kidnapping Central	p. 55
Decatur's Vice Districts	p. 57
Red Lights on the Prairie: Prostitution in Decatur	p. 77
The End of the Crime Era	p. 83
Death by Another's Hand: A Collection of Decatur's Most Infamous Murders	p. 89
Bibliography	p. 123
About the Author	p. 125
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