The Sleepwalking Slasher

Early one winter morning in 1903, Sam Keelor of Hamilton, Ohio, awoke with a cooper's hammer in his hand dripping blood and his pretty young wife Bertha dead in their marriage bed next to him. This "novelette" length true crime story details the family quarrel that led to the mess and the delivery of turn-of-the-century justice.

Early one winter morning in 1903, Sam Keelor of Hamilton, Ohio, awoke with a cooper's hammer in his hand dripping blood and his pretty young wife Bertha dead in their marriage bed next to him. When getting rid of the body proved more work than he bargained for, he decided the only noble thing to do was to take his own life, so with a sharp razor, he slit his own throat. Before he could bleed out, however, his family discovered the bloody, bloody scene, and rescued the beleaguered coal man. This "novelette" length true crime story details the family quarrel that led to the mess and the delivery of turn-of-the-century justice.

After 25 years writing the first draft of history as a writer and editor for his hometown newspaper, the Hamilton Journal-News, Richard O Jones left the grind of daily journalism in the fall of 2013 to embark on a second career writing the second draft of history, focusing on stories of true crime. Mr. Jones, a creative writing graduate of Miami University, Ohio, spent most of his career as an arts journalist and has won numerous awards for his reviews and profiles. In 2004, he was named a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts Theatre and Musical Theatre program at the Annenberg School of Journalism. The Ohio Associated Press named him Feature Writer of the Year in 2011. Since leaving the newspaper world, Mr. Jones has become an active member of his local history community as a board member of the Butler County Historical Society, a member of the History Speakers Bureau and a regular presenter at Miami University in a program titled “Yesterday’s News.” The Michael J. Colligan History Project of Miami University presented Mr. Jones with a Special Recognition for Contributions to Public History for his coverage of the Centennial Commemoration of the Great Flood of 1913.