The Murder of John Shakespeare: A Centralia Cold Case

Authors Cary O'Dell and Richard L. Sprehe lead a literary investigation of a brutal cold-case murder.

In May 1975, in the small Southern Illinois town of Centralia, the body of one of its best-known residents, John Shakespeare, was found nearly nude, bound, and shot, execution-style, in the basement of his home. Shakespeare, sixty-nine, was a wealthy bachelor, an eccentric, an heir to the Shakespeare fishing fortune, a world-renowned collector of vintage cars, and, maybe, a possessor of a few secrets.

Despite the victim being well liked in the community, state and local police, and eventually even the FBI and Interpol, found a plethora of suspects while investigating the crime. Could it have been his longtime business associate? Or the mysterious hitchhiker seen in town just days before his body was found? Or a long-ago name from his past?

Author: Cary O'Dell,Richard L. Sprehe
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: History Press
Published: 12/30/2025
Series: True Crime
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.6lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9781467170192