I will giving a talk and signing copies of my books tomorrow at Forever Books in downtown St. Joseph at 6:30 EST.
Among the books I’ll be talking about is Classic Restaurants of Michiana. Here is what my publisher wrote about it:
“Once a stagecoach stop, The Old Tavern Inn has been open since the time of President Andrew Jackson. Tosi’s is known for its gorgeous starlit garden and gastronomic traditions stretching back almost a century, and The Volcano was amongst the first pizzerias in the country. These restaurants and other classic eateries remain part of the thriving local food scene. But the doors of others have long been closed. Some like Mead’s Chicken Nook and Robertson’s Tea Room linger in memories while The Owl Saloon, O. A. Clark’s Lunch Rooms, and Lobster Lounge are long lost to time.
“Award-winning author Jane Simon Ammeson leads a culinary road trip through Northern Indiana and Southwestern Michigan.”
I’ll also be discussing America’s Femme Fatale: The Story of Serial Killer Belle Gunness, a true crime story that took place in LaPorte, Indiana back around the turn of the last century.
Michigan is home to more lighthouses than any other state and about 40 of those are rumored to be haunted by the spirits of former keepers, mariners and others with ties to these historic beacons.
Inside the pages of Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses, long-time researcher, writer and promoter of all things Michigan, Dianna Stampfler, shares stories of those who dedicated their lives — and afterlives — to protecting the Great Lakes’ shoreline. Her second book, Death & Lighthouse on the Great Lakes, Stampfler delves into the historic true crime cold case files that have baffled lighthouse lovers for as many as two centuries.
Throughout the fall season, Stampfler will be speaking at libraries around the state, sharing her lively and upbeat presentation about these lights. Copies of her books will be available for purchase and signing at every program.
For the complete schedule of upcoming events (including other topics beyond lighthouses), visit the Promote Michigan Speaker’s Bureau online.
About Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses
Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state, with more than 120 dotting its expansive Great Lakes shoreline. Many of these lighthouses lay claim to haunted happenings. Former keepers like the cigar-smoking Captain Townshend at Seul Choix Point and prankster John Herman at Waugoshance Shoal near Mackinaw City maintain their watch long after death ended their duties. At White River Light Station in Whitehall, Sarah Robinson still keeps a clean and tidy house, and a mysterious young girl at the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse seeks out other children and female companions. Countless spirits remain between Whitefish Point and Point Iroquois in an area well known for its many tragic shipwrecks.
About Death & Lighthouses on the Great Lakes
Losing one’s life while tending to a Great Lakes lighthouse — or any navigational beacon anywhere in the world for that matter — sadly wasn’t such an unusual occurrence. The likelihood of drowning while at sea or becoming injured while on the job ultimately leading to death were somewhat common back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Death by murder, suicide or other unnatural and tragic causes, while rare, are not unheard of. In fact, more than dozen lighthouse keepers around the Great Lakes met their maker at the hands of others – by fire, poisoning, bludgeoning and other unknown means. A handful of these keepers, either because of depression or sheer loneliness, took their own lives. A few we may never know the true story, as the deaths now 100 or more years ago, weren’t subjected to the forensic scrutiny that such crimes are given today.
In the pages of Death & Lighthouses of the Great Lakes: A History of Misfortune & Murder, you’ll find an amalgamation of true crime details, media coverage and historical research which brings the stories to life…despite the deaths of those featured.
Get ready for a new kind of food show. VICE TV announced today the premiere of Devoured, the first television series to merge true crime and food. Narrated by Emmy® Award winning actor Jon Cryer (CBS’ Two and a Half Men, The CW’s Supergirl, and the iconic John Hughes’ film Pretty in Pink), Devoured explores the foods Americans love while uncovering the sordid secrets and criminal pasts that restauranteurs, chefs, and foodies have tried to hide- recipe thefts, mob beatdowns, family betrayals, and murder. The six-episode series premieres on VICE TV February 21st @ 10 PM ET/PT.
Each one-hour episode of Devoured will be a deep dive into a single true crime story that centers on one American city or region’s food specialty. Viewers will be taken through a thrill-ride of twists and turns as narrator Jon Cryer uncovers the unbelievable stories of how food fuels criminal enterprises, both large and small. Along the way, the series dishes up the food’s origin story and impact on the culinary landscape — while revealing how our passion for eating well can become a recipe for doing wrong.
“Just when I thought there couldn’t be a genuinely new twist on true crime, I got Devoured.” said narrator Jon Cryer. “While I can only aspire to the greatness of, say, Bill Kurtis or Keith Morrison, it’s an honor to lend my voice to this.”
Upcoming Episodes
The series will kick off with an episode dedicated to exploring how the mafia took justice into their own hands after a secret family recipe was stolen from Brooklyn’s L&B Spumoni Gardens & Pizzeria. Other instalments in the series will cover “The Codfather”, who ran one of the largest fishing operations in the United States until he was taken down by the IRS for fishy business practices, the 2015 Blue Bell Ice Cream listeria outbreak, and how infidelity and a stolen recipe led to the end of New York’s world famous Carnegie Deli.
“By combining the popularity of food culture with the intrigue of true crime, Devoured presents a series of riveting stories that underscore the passion that people have for food and how it can bring out a person’s darkest side” said Morgan Hertzan, Executive Vice President & GM, VICE TV. “Having as immense a talent as Jon Cryer narrate VICE TV’s latest true crime premiere is really exciting for us.“
“The series really offers up a buffet of the best ingredients – compelling stories and complex characters set at the intersection of the true crime and food genres,” said Christopher G Cowen, President and Founder of Station 10 Media. “We’re so fortunate to have the chance to make this series with the team at VICE TV.”
Devoured is produced by Station 10 Media. Executive Producers are Christopher G. Cowen, Tony Lord, Matthew Weaver, Josh Stone, Jonathan Goldman and Brent Henderson. Narrated by Jon Cryer. Lee Hoffman serves as Executive Producer for VICE TV, along with Catherine Whyte, EVP, Head of Production for VICE TV, Liz Cowie, Senior Manager, Development & Alternative Programming for VICE TV and VICE TV EVP & GM Morgan Hertzan. The series is distributed worldwide by VICE Distribution.
VICE TV is available via all major satellite and cable providers and the VICE TV app via iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast. For more information about VICE TV, go to VICETV.com
ABOUT VICE TV
VICE TV is the Emmy®-winning international television network from VICE Media Group. Since its inception in 2016, the channel has ushered new audiences to cable with its compelling and provocative programming. Boldly redefining news and current affairs, VICE TV produces hundreds of hours of original content for over 150 million homes worldwide. Built around a mission to tell courageous stories you won’t see anywhere else, told by the people you won’t hear from anywhere else, VICE TV showcases the best in informative and entertaining original series, documentaries and movies, and is the destination for content that challenges popular knowledge and opinion.
ABOUT VICE MEDIA GROUP
VICE Media Group is the world’s largest independent youth media company. Launched in 1994, VICE has offices in 35 cities across the globe with a focus on five key businesses: VICE.com, an award-winning international network of digital content; VICE STUDIOS, a feature film and television production studio; VICE TV, an Emmy-winning international television network; a Peabody award-winning NEWS division with the most Emmy-awarded nightly news broadcast; and VIRTUE, a global, full-service creative agency with 25 offices around the world. VICE Media Group’s portfolio includes Refinery29, the leading global media and entertainment company focused on women; PULSE Films, a London-based next-generation production studio with outposts in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Berlin; and i-D, a global digital and quarterly magazine defining fashion and contemporary culture.
ABOUT STATION 10 MEDIA
STATION 10 Media was founded in 2018 by Emmy award-winning producer Christopher G. Cowen who has garnered four Emmy Award nominations and won once. Station 10 is in post production on the feature documentary Broadway Rising, and in production on several unannounced premium series and specials. Prior to founding Station 10, Cowen served as an Executive Producer on the hit true crime scripted series Dirty John; CNN’s acclaimed “Decades Series“; ESPN’s College Football 150; History’s The Cola Wars; The History of Comedy at CNN; National Geographic’s record-breaking special Killing Lincoln and the feature-length, Emmy-Award winning special Gettysburg for History. Cowen also spent ten years at Tom Hanks’ and Gary Goetzman’s Company Playtone, where he helped develop Band of Brothers, The Polar Express and Where the Wild Things Are. Cowen is a National Member of The Explorer’s Club, a native Californian, and a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University.
Terri Schlichenmeyer, a book reviewer who works with more than 220 newspapers and magazines around the U.S. and Canada and is a contributor to WebbWeekly, had this to say about my book:
“Speaking of wild women, you’ll be riveted by “America’s Femme Fatale: The Story of Serial Killer Belle Gunness” by Jane Simon Ammeson (Red Lightning Books, $20.00). More than a century has gone since Belle Gunness killed her first victim and she didn’t stop there. Belle went on to kill at least thirteen more people over the course of just over twenty years. Money was involved, of course, and she had a little bit of help now and then, but what’s creepiest about Belle are the circumstances of her death. And now you’ve gotta read the book…”
A Norwegian farm girl, her family so poor, they often went hungry, is seduced by a rich landowner’s son. But despite her dreams, he has no plans to make her his wife. Abandoned, she sees only one path forward or she’ll sink into the black hole of her family’s poverty. But her first goal is revenge and after the landowner’s son dies a horrid death amidst whispers of poison, she boards a boat and sails to America. Norway’s gain is America’s loss.
Her name changed many times through the years but after the mysterious deaths of two husbands, numerous men, women, and children, she goes down in history as Belle Gunness. An entrepreneur whose business was murder, Gunness felt no qualms seducing men for their money and dispatching them with her axe—filling her farmland with her victims.
As her crimes were about to be discovered, her solid brick home burnt to the ground and workers battling the smoke and flames discovered the bodies of her three children and a woman without a head. Was it Belle or did she get away with one more murder, absconding with close to a million dollars. It’s a question the world has been asking since 1908.
What people are saying about America’s Femme Fatale.
“Ammeson uses astute research and punchy prose to chronicle Belle’s transformation from destitute farm girl to one of history’s most egregious female serial killers. . . . Compact and captivating, this salacious tale of murderous greed during the early twentieth century will be devoured quickly by true-crime fans.”– Michelle Ross ― BOOKLIST / Amer Library Assn
America’s Femme Fatale is the detailed story of Belle Gunness, one of the nation’s most prolific mass murderers. Ammeson recounts the horrific events with dry wit and corrects many errors found in previous accounts. Gunness stands out in an infamous crowd because she was a woman; she killed men, women and children rather than choosing from among one narrow section of victimology; and her murders seem to have been rooted in greed rather than lust, the serial killer’s usual motive.– Keven McQueen, author of Murderous Acts: 100 Years of Crime in the Midwest
Tune into Hoosier History Live on October 23rd to hear host Nelson Price discuss Femme Fatale with author Jane Simon Ammeson. The show airs live from noon to 1 p.m. ET each Saturday on WICR 88.7 FM in Indianapolis. Or stream audio live from anywhere during the show.
