New Jersey Noir: Bizarre Tales of the Garden State from 1921 to 1952 - Softcover

“In New Jersey Noir Joe Bilby uses his encyclopedic knowledge of New Jersey history, a keen eye for a good story, and a gift for telling those stories to create a book that will be an enjoyable read for those within New Jersey and beyond.” - John Zinn, Chair of the New Jersey Civil War 150th Anniversary Committee

“New Jersey may be happily known as ‘The Garden State,’ but it is a garden that also hides some very dark secrets. Historian Joseph G. Bilby has done a wonderful job scouring the records and inviting us to peer with him into the wonderfully odd, macabre, and downright bizarre corners of New Jersey history. Presented with all the requisite literary swagger, New Jersey Noir demonstrates how truth can not only be stranger than fiction, but a lot more entertaining!  - Gordon Bond, who runs the website www.GardenStateLegacy.com, is the author of Wicked Woodbridge & Crazy Carteret:  Vice in New Jersey’s Oldest Township

“New Jersey license plates have included its ‘Garden State’ nickname since 1954, but after reading these action-packed crime tales, readers may start thinking that Bruce Springsteen was closer to the truth when he referred to his home state as ‘Jungleland.’ From Civil War veteran/tabloid scandal sheet publisher William Mann ‘robbing the Robber Barons’ to twenty-two-year old Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Billy Loes, involved in a paternity suit in 1956, Joe Bilby’s solidly researched, two-fisted crime tales pull back the curtains on the ‘good old days’ to expose an amazing landscape of damaged World War I veterans, bootleggers, crime bosses, and run-of-the-mill grifters, crooks, and killers playing out their dramas on the Jersey stage. Whether you savor them one at a time or binge read a dozen at a time, these twenty-seven stories will keep you riveted. As the saying goes, ‘You can’t make this stuff up!’”  - Joe Bordonaro, USAF veteran, retired teacher, long time living history presenter and current correspondent for the “Civil War News”

“Lending a historian’s sensibility to the seamy underbelly of mid-20th century crime in the Garden State, Joe Bilby delivers the best of both worlds ‘only in Jersey’ stories that are both tantalizingly juicy and rigorously researched. New Jersey Noir reveals the fascinating stories of madmen, murderous beauty queens, and even a defenestrated congressman, just to name a few.  With so many questionable urban legends making the rounds, Noir proves definitively that the truth is indeed stranger and more interesting than fiction. - Sue Kaufmann, New Jersey historian and writer/editor of HiddenNJ.com