Throwback Thursday: Page-turners from Kentucky’s past, New Year’s reads
As we step into a brand new year, many of us are setting resolutions—eat better, move more, slow down a little. But here’s one resolution that’s easy to keep and incredibly rewarding if you’re into these throwback segments, age-old gossip, and a good scandal or two. We’ve got three local reads based on several stories we’ve told. You won’t be able to put them down.
Bowling Green and southern Kentucky have a mid-20th-century history packed with unforgettable characters, scandals, heartbreak, and truly international-headline-making drama. First up, an all-new read from local historian and Bowling Green Daily News Managing Editor, Wes Swietek’s When the Bluegrass Ran Red.
This book takes a giant leap beyond the familiar “Little Chicago” stories we’ve told for years. Drawing deeply from newspaper archives and interviews, Swietek uncovers the people, places, and crimes that shaped Bowling Green’s darker chapters – and uses placemaking and spots you’ve probably never heard of before, but have driven right by or walked thru without realizing. It’s fast-paced, richly researched, and impossible to ignore. Copies were flying off the shelves at the Historic RailPark’s gift shop just before Christmas—proof that our appetite for local history is stronger than ever.
Next, another gripping read from Swietek: The Cemetery Road Murders. We covered this a few years ago after its release, when the Unseen Bowling Green team produced a walking tour that covered Fairview Cemetery and the murder house across the road. This book examines two Bowling Green double-murder cases from the late 1940s—both unfolding on Cemetery Road, but under dramatically different circumstances. One centers on the infamous murder mansion, which still stands today, tied to a college love affair gone terribly wrong. Many of the key figures from that case now rest just across the street in Fairview Cemetery. Then there’s the lesser-known buttermilk double murders—same road, same era, entirely different story.
Our third recommendation reaches a little farther back, but cuts just as deep. Dark Highway: love, murder, and revenge in 1930s Kentucky by Ann D’Angelo, tells the chilling story of Henry Denhardt—former Warren County Judge Executive, Brigadier General, and Lieutenant Governor of our state – and one of the most notorious figures of the 20th century. In 1936, Denhardt was accused of murdering his young fiancée, Verna Garr Taylor, on a Kentucky back road near La Grange. A“call girl” at Louisville’s Brown hotel who ended up in an elevator shaft after being seen with him was allegedly his second murder. His trial for Verna’s death became a full-blown media circus, with a mistrial. In the end, Verna’s brothers took justice into their own hands, gunning Denhardt down on Main Street in downtown Shelbyville —and they were ultimately declared innocent.
These books aren’t just history—they’re culture, community, and cautionary tales, all wrapped into unforgettable storytelling. So as you plan your New Year, take time to explore the local section of your favorite bookstore, or search for these titles online. Fair warning: once you start reading, you won’t want to stop. Throwback Thursday is brought to you by the Kentucky Museum. In Bowling Green, because local matters, Telia Butler, WNKY News 40.
