NIAGARA FALLS — A book that showcases the exploits of criminals like the late mob boss Stefano Magaddino and killer William Shrubsall might not be everyone’s idea of the best way to interest tourists in Niagara Falls.

But the authors of “Niagara Falls Confidential: Murder, Mayhem and Madness in the Honeymoon Capital of the World” think visitors will enjoy it.

“We went for the kind of stories that you won’t find in any other history book about Niagara Falls,” said Mike Hudson, who wrote the book with his wife, Rebecca Hudson.

“There’s a big feeling in the Falls that stories like this will discourage tourism. I disagree. I think people who visit a new city like to read about things like this. I think people who live in the Falls will be interested, too.”

According to Hudson, Niagara Falls has a disturbingly rich history of crime and corruption.

Among the characters whose stories are detailed in the 120-page book:

• Magaddino, who died in 1974, by far the most powerful Mafia boss ever to operate in Western New York.

• Shrubsall, an honor student who bludgeoned his mother to death with a baseball bat in 1988 and later faked suicide and fled to Canada to avoid prosecution for rape.

• “Big Ed” Delahanty, a hard-drinking major league baseball star who went over the Horseshoe Falls and died in 1903.

• James A. “Jimmy” LiBrize, a colorful attorney whose gruesome 1969 murder remains a mystery.

• Frederick E. Toy, an Army sergeant from Niagara Falls who was decorated in 1891 for taking part in the massacre of an estimated 300 Indians at Wounded Knee, S.D.

The book, published by a small new company called Tuscarora Books, went on sale Friday for $19.95.

A Niagara Falls tourism official said she isn’t exactly thrilled about the book but isn’t upset about it, either.

“It’s not what we would focus on,” said Kate Scaglione, director of marketing and communication for the Niagara Tourism & Convention Corp. “We’d rather focus on tamer things, like our city having the oldest state park in the United States, the Maid of the Mist being the oldest tourist attraction in North America, and Niagara Falls being the northernmost stop on the Underground Railroad.

“But there are odd little tidbits that have happened over the years, and I can see people having some interest. It’s part of the folklore, like Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio coming here.”

Hudson, 51, editor of the Niagara Falls Reporter weekly newspaper, is no stranger to the concept of stirring things up. In the 1970s, he toured nationally and recorded as the lead singer of the Pagans, a punk rock band.

He later became a writer, starting the Reporter in 2000 with publisher Bruce Battaglia. The newspaper has battled publicly with politicians — notably Mayor Vince Anello — and Hudson said he was once beaten up by a group of Laborers Local 91 supporters after writing a series of articles that criticized the union.

He and Battaglia hope to publish at least nine other books, including some about local sports and one detailing decades of corruption involving Laborers Local 91

Could be a great book


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Aniello Dellacroce
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