Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781540220615)

Prim and proper Philadelphia has been rocked by the clash between excessive vice and social virtue since its citizens burned the city's biggest brothel in 1800. With tales of grave robbers in South Philadelphia and harlots in Franklin Square, Wicked Philadelphia reveals the shocking underbelly of the City of Brotherly Love. In one notorious scam, a washerwoman masqueraded as the fictional Spanish countess Anita de Bettencourt for two decades, bilking millions from victims and even fooling the government of Spain. From the 1843 media frenzy that ensued after an aristocrat abducted a young girl to a churchyard transformed into a brothel (complete with a carousel), local author Thomas H. Keels unearths Philadelphia's most scintillating scandals and corrupt characters in his rollicking history.

Author: Thomas H. Keels
ISBN-10: 1540220613
ISBN-13: 9781540220615
Publisher: History Press Library Editions
Language: English
Published: 02/19/2010
Pages: 130
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.76lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.38d