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Find Out About His Newest Book
POSTED: 7:20 p.m. EST February 20, 2002
CLEVELAND -- Today's outrageous crime might become tomorrow's legend.
In Wednesday night's Crime Stoppers, NewsChannel5's Adam Shapiro walked the beat with a man who chronicles Cleveland's criminal past.
They sound like old friends when John Bellamy (pictured, left) talks about them -- fiends, swindlers and thugs whose criminal capers earn them spots in Bellamy's popular books about Cleveland crimes.
He's about to publish his fourth book, called "The Killer in the Attic."
"I grew up in a family where it was considered perfectly acceptable at the dinner table to talk about the latest torso killing of the day," Bellamy said.
But it's the sometimes forgotten crimes that really get his attention, like the one of Velma West, who called herself "a 12 o'clock girl in a 9 o'clock town."
"(That) means she liked to smoke and party and keep late hours," he said.
She was a party girl until she married Eddie West, a country boy who moved her from Cleveland to Painesville, Ohio.
The Wests fought a lot until, Bellamy said, "Velma decided to have the last word with a claw hammer."
"People will always be killing people," Bellamy said. "There are only seven deadly sins, and there are only so many variations that you can do on them."
Another person in Bellamy's book, Martha Wise, was a not-so-merry Medina, Ohio, widow who killed members of her family with arsenic. Bellamy said that Wise might have been the first in Medina to use the "devil" defense.
"All she would say is 'The devil made me do it; the devil made me do it,'" he said. "She said the devil would come and sit at the foot of her bed and tell her to do these terrible things."
His books feature fiendish plots that Clevelanders can still explore as if they happened yesterday.
"They drive by them, they walk by (them), they may even live in places where history -- violent, melodramatic Cleveland history -- has happened," Bellamy said.
Bellamy writes about old crimes, but you can help solve new ones by calling Crime Stoppers at (216) 252-7463. Any information that leads to the arrest or indictment of someone who broke the law could earn a caller up to $2,000.
To learn more about Bellamy, click here.
In Wednesday night's Crime Stoppers, NewsChannel5's Adam Shapiro walked the beat with a man who chronicles Cleveland's criminal past.
They sound like old friends when John Bellamy (pictured, left) talks about them -- fiends, swindlers and thugs whose criminal capers earn them spots in Bellamy's popular books about Cleveland crimes.
He's about to publish his fourth book, called "The Killer in the Attic."
"I grew up in a family where it was considered perfectly acceptable at the dinner table to talk about the latest torso killing of the day," Bellamy said.
But it's the sometimes forgotten crimes that really get his attention, like the one of Velma West, who called herself "a 12 o'clock girl in a 9 o'clock town."
"(That) means she liked to smoke and party and keep late hours," he said.
She was a party girl until she married Eddie West, a country boy who moved her from Cleveland to Painesville, Ohio.
The Wests fought a lot until, Bellamy said, "Velma decided to have the last word with a claw hammer."
"People will always be killing people," Bellamy said. "There are only seven deadly sins, and there are only so many variations that you can do on them."
Another person in Bellamy's book, Martha Wise, was a not-so-merry Medina, Ohio, widow who killed members of her family with arsenic. Bellamy said that Wise might have been the first in Medina to use the "devil" defense.
"All she would say is 'The devil made me do it; the devil made me do it,'" he said. "She said the devil would come and sit at the foot of her bed and tell her to do these terrible things."
His books feature fiendish plots that Clevelanders can still explore as if they happened yesterday.
"They drive by them, they walk by (them), they may even live in places where history -- violent, melodramatic Cleveland history -- has happened," Bellamy said.
Bellamy writes about old crimes, but you can help solve new ones by calling Crime Stoppers at (216) 252-7463. Any information that leads to the arrest or indictment of someone who broke the law could earn a caller up to $2,000.
To learn more about Bellamy, click here.
Copyright 2002 by NewsNet5. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
