The Wall Lake Mystery

Historical Notes

While this novel is a work of fiction, I thought I would include a few notes about the real, historical people and places I included.

● Pat Crowe - Crowe was a truly famous American criminal. He was a skilled burglar, and after the time this story takes place, went on to pull off the first successful kidnapping with a ransom in America, went into hiding, then turned up years later in Montana asking to be arrested. Despite the prosecution's 40 witnesses, a firsthand account of a confession to a priest, and no testimony by his defense, Crowe was acquitted by a jury. He went on to become a lecturer and writer, and ultimately died, impoverished, in Harlem. He saw himself as a sort of Robin Hood figure, and according to his autobiography, one of his nicknames when he was a young criminal was Kid Shivers. Read his Wikipedia page for more, or check out his autobiography (of dubious accuracy, but quite a read).

○ Wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Crowe

○ Catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006659285

● Patrick Lawler - Lawler was a real Wall Lake resident, and he invented the corn-picking machine in 1885. He got the patent for it in 1890, and refused to sell it to a large Chicago company. Unfortunately, the idea was about sixty years ahead of its time, and Lawler lost his farm after putting too much of his funds towards getting his invention to go mainstream. The original machine was sold for scrap in 1932, but his idea really did revolutionize farming. He's fallen into obscurity, so I hope this tale gives his legacy a little new life. If you'd like to read a bit more about him, there's a PDF on the University of Iowa's website I'll link you to.

○ ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7941&context=annals-of-iowa

● The Kelly Family - William and Mary Kelly and their four children really lived on the edge of Wall Lake during this time. According to old family records, "Road agent, outlaw Pat Crowe was discovered spending the night in the barn by Jack. He reportedly pulled a gun and threatened Jack to leave and not to report his whereabouts to the law for fear of reprisal." That's all there is to the true story, but I thought it begged to be embellished into a Holmes novel.

● Everyone else is fictional. For the people of Wall Lake and the surrounding region, I used old census records to choose surnames that would likely have been used in the region at this time, but any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.

● The obituary quotes in Chapter 19 were unabashedly stolen from a real obituary, from 1904, which can be found here

○ findagrave.com/memorial/95174428/jobe-r_-randall

● Wall Lake and Surrounding Area - Wall Lake, Fletcher (now known as Lake View), Sac City, and all the cities and towns included or mentioned in this story are real places, and the railroads used to travel between them were actually there, to the best of my researching ability. I even managed to visit Wall Lake once. If you shoot me a message or an email, I'll share a picture of me grinning like a silly tourist in front of an unremarkable sign reading "North Wall Lake". Wall Lake is now best known as the birthplace of singer Andy Williams.

● I really wanted to include the Statue of Liberty in Chapter Two, even wrote it in, and then discovered it wasn't installed until October of that year. So just imagine it in all its original shiny, coppery glory.

● And lastly: I realized while editing that a handful of scenes were heavily influenced by Back to the Future III. If you've never seen those movies, or it's been a while, you should totally go watch them.

Thanks for sticking with me till the end. As always, I notice and appreciate every single comment, review, follower, favorite, like, message, etc. Thank you, thank you, thank you!