It's a common complaint in New Jersey: We're not taken seriously. New York City is the place of skyscrapers, glitz, and glamour; New Jersey gets mocked as the land of swamps and malls. But there is one area in which our often-overlooked state deserves to be recognized for total supremacy. It is second to no place for spectacular corruption and crime.

Notorious New Jersey is the definitive guide to murder, mayhem, the mob, and corruption in the Garden State. With tabloid punch, Jon Blackwell tells riveting accounts of Alexander Hamilton falling mortally wounded on the dueling grounds of Weehawken; Dutch Schultz getting pumped full of lead in the men's room of the Palace Chop House in Newark; and a gang of Islamic terrorists in Jersey City mixing the witch's brew of explosives that became the first bomb to rock the World Trade Center. Along with these dramatic stories are tales of lesser-known oddities, such as the nineteenth-century murderer whose skin was turned into leather souvenirs, and the state senator from Jersey City--David Friedland--who faked his death in a scuba accident in the 1970s in an effort to avoid prison. Blackwell also sheds light on some historical whodunits--was Bruno Hauptmann really guilty of kidnapping the Lindbergh baby? Who was behind the anthrax attacks of 2001? And could Jimmy Hoffa's body really be under the end zone at Giants Stadium? Not forgotten either are notorious characters who may actually be innocent, including Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, and those who have never been convicted of wrongdoing although they left office in scandal, including Robert Torricelli and James McGreevey. Through 100 historic true-crime tales that span over 300 years of history, Blackwell shows readers a side of New Jersey that would make even the Sopranos shudder.

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