The Murder of John Shakespeare: A Centralia Cold Case

By Richard L Sprehe and Cary O'Dell

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?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1467170194
• ISBN13: 9781467170192
• Release Date: December 2025
• Publisher: History Press
• Length: 160 Pages