On Saturday, November 14, at 11:00am, there will be a book signing in historic Trinity Church for the newly released book Law and Order for Hire in Virginia, by Phillip Andrew Gibbs.
This event is free and open to the public.
The book explores murder investigations in the Richmond/Chesterfield County area by the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency in the early 1900s. This agency investigated and solved some of the most infamous crimes in Virginia, including the tragic murder of Louise Beattie which took place on Midlothian Turnpike in 1911. Mother of a 4-months old child, she was killed by a shotgun blast while motoring with her husband Henry C. Beattie, a Richmond playboy. He reported having been held up by a bearded highwayman. Nationwide interest in the case resulted in such a heavy demand for wire services that the Western Union Telegraph Company took over an entire store building adjoining the Chesterfield Court square for its operations.
A native of Franklin County, Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Phillip Andrew Gibbs holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history and English from East Tennessee State University. He received his Ph.D. in American history from Mississippi State University in 1988. Now retired, he taught American, European and Georgia history at Middle Georgia State College (now university) from 1987 to 2015. This is his fourth book with The History Press.
During the book signing event on November 14th copies of Law and Order for Hire in Virginia will be available for purchase in hard cover and paperback editions. For more information, please call the Society Research Library in historic Trinity Church: (804)796-7152. Please mark your calendars and join us!
Book description:
“Violence and lawlessness plagued late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Virginia, and with no bureau of investigation or state police force, the Old Dominion relied on the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to solve a multitude of crimes.
Formed by William G. Baldwin and Thomas L. Felts, the agency, headquartered in Roanoke, was charged with investigating some of the state’s most sensational murder cases. Among these were the brutal killing of Fannie McCue, wife of the former mayor of Charlottesville; the slaughter of a mountain family in Buchanan County; the shotgunning of Louise Beattie, the young wife of a wealthy Richmond playboy; and the unprecedented shootout in the Carroll County courthouse that left five dead.
Author and historian Phillip Andrew Gibbs recounts how the Agency’s detectives who worked these cases succeeded in bringing some of the state’s most heinous criminals to justice.”