Rising Stars: Meet Jane Simon Ammeson

Jane, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I first started writing when I was about eight years old, publishing a little newspaper full of neighborhood gossip such as who got a new puppy, what Mrs. Cohen served to her Wednesday mahjong group, etc. Unfortunately for my neighbors and relatives they had no choice but to buy it or look like they didn‘t support entrepreneurial children. I also spent a lot of time reading Nancy Drew mysteries and even requested a magnifying glass for Christmas so I could look for clues. Alas, there were no clues to find, and I diverged from those early career choices and earned a bachelor and master/specialist degree in psychology. from Indiana University. While working as a psychologist, I was offered the opportunity to write for magazines and newspapers and later websites and apps.

Currently, I write about travel, food, lifestyles, books, lifestyle, and do personality profiles. I also have authored or co-authored 16 books. My latest, “America’s Femme Fatale: The Story of Serial Killer Belle Gunness.” It’s a true-crime story about a Norwegian immigrant who murdered somewhere around 50 or so people–men, women, and children, performed illegal abortions (back then they called it “restoring menses”) for showgirls, mob molls, etc.

She was quite the entrepreneur–burning down her homes and candy store, murdering her two husbands, taking in children, and then getting rid of them–all to collect insurance except for the occassional murder when someone just irritated her. She most likely started her murderous spree in the early 1890s in Chicago and continued on, as far as we know, until 1908 and maybe beyond. At the time she started, there were two other serial killers operating in the Chicagoland area including Northern Indiana. One, H.H. Holmes is pretty well-known, particularly after “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson was published. The other, lesser-known, was Johan Hoch, a German immigrant who went by many names. He and Belle operated in pretty much the same way. He courted and sometimes married mostly vulnerable German women and then murdered them for their money. Belle advertised in Scandinavian newspapers for a Norwegian spouse and then when the men arrived at her farm, she took their money and then killed and butchered them and buried the pieces on her farm.

It’s thought that she buried some of Johann’s victims on her farm but since she used a lot of quicklime, their relatives were never to find peace but identifying their corpses. She also most likely accepted shipments of bodies from underworld characters in her Chicago (for a price of course) to bury on her farm. After all, one of the difficulties of murdering someone in the city is where to hide your victim. The solution was to send them to Belle’s farm.

Both Holmes and Hoch were caught and hanged. But Belle’s house mysteriously burned as her crimes were about to be revealed and it remains a mystery whether that was her body discovered, without a head, in the basement, burned beyond recognition. I think she got away. But how far she got with all the jewels and money she had taken from victims is another question.

Several of my other books have been historic true crime but I also won a national award for my travel book, “Lincoln Road Trip: America’s Back-Roads Guide to America’s Favorite President” which bypasses the big Lincoln sites such as Springfield and highlights places still in existence in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois where Lincoln stayed, ate, etc. For example, Lincoln stayed with his parents and sister in Bardstown, Kentucky, an adorable town with a big bourbon heritage, at the Old Talbot Inn in the early 1800s which is still in business. There’s an old stagecoach stop in Warrenton, Indiana where Lincoln ate in 1844 when he came back to campaign for Henry Clay. The room where he dined—with its thick log walls and low ceilings is still in existence. It opened in 1826 and is the longest continuing restaurant in operation in the state. The concept of the book is that you can visit these places and, as much as possible, experience what Lincoln experienced.

This is rather long-winded, but I think my interest in Nancy Drew and early publishing experiences have brought me to where I am today.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Omigoodness–writing in today’s world is full of struggles. I used to write for many airline magazines–Northwest. Midway, Braniff, TWA, and a couple others–all gone. It’s just a different world. That said, I have steady assignments and am always working on a book. So far so good. I love to write, I love to research, so I hope there’s always someone who wants me to write for them and others who want to read what I’ve written. I guess we’ll see.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a writer and photographer. My stories run in newspapers and magazines and online including on my own personal food and travel blog janeammeson.com which currently gets about 104,000 views. I also blog about books on my shelflife.blog which is all about author interviews about their books. I write a weekly book column for the third-largest newspaper in the Chicagoland area and the second-largest in the state. I have interviewed Kirk Herbstreit about his new autobiography, John Grisham, Harlan Coben, Chris Bohjalian, Perez Hilton, Reggie Brooks, Merrill Markoe, Michael Ian Black, Pete Buttigieg, Ginger Zee, Scott Turow, Alexandra Petri, Lisa Gardner, Anthony Horowitz, Chuck Hogan, Mark Bittman, Kristen Doute, Ruth Ware, Louise Candlish, Reagan Pasternak, David Baldacci, Lee Child, and a ton more.

For my food and travel blog as well as my food column, Edible magazines, and other newspapers and magazines, I have interviewed such chefs/cookbook authors/ restaurateurs as Ina Garten, Tara Bench, Jerrelle Guy, Janet Fletcher, Katie Parla, Anne Willans, Paul Saginaw, Abra Berens, Dorie Greenspan, Valerie Bertinelli, Tiffani Thiessen, Danielle Walker, Lisa Ludwinski, Emeril, Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich, Marcella Hazan, Lorenza D’Medici, Geoffrey Zacharian, Carla Hall, Ree Drummond, Nigella, Judson Todd Allen, Fabio, Jose Pizarro, John Besh, Kristin Cavallari, and Mindy Segal among others.

Though historic true crime and food and travel seem somewhat an odd interest, I have several other true crime books out including How to Murder Your Wealthy Lovers and Get Away With It; Money & Mayhem in the Gilded Age; Hauntings of the Underground Railroad; and Murders That Made the Headlines. She also writes the Touchscreen Travel app Indiana’s Bes and  A Jazz Age Murder in Northwest Indiana. This one is really personal because it took place in my hometown and peripherally involves my family and the more I researched it the more I found other connections to those I knew including my fourth grade teacher who I dearly love.

So those are my specializations and what I am known for. I really like when people tell me they liked something I’ve written and when reviewers comment upon how well-researched my books are. If someone points out an error–like my fourth grade teacher who I keep in touch with on Facebook (she’s like 89) mentioned I used the wrong tense in one of my sentences or something like that–I obsess about that.

What sets me apart from others? Probably an odd interest in murders. It makes my husband, a judge, rather nervous.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
A fantastic meal, a wonderful road trip, my family and friends, a great book (I love mysteries, true crime, history, and cookbooks), long walks, finding a great out-of-the-way place, swimming, gardening, making up recipes (the real truth is I can’t follow recipes as I’m always substituting ingredients and so I’d rather reframe it as making us recipes), hot weather, sunshine, places like the Sonoran Desert, quirky little towns–I’m enjoying discovering the ghost towns dotting Arizona and Nevada–Michigan, Indiana (yes, it really has some lovely places) Mexico, Canada, Europe, Spain, Germany, New York, New Orleans, Savannah, Chicago, boat trips on rivers, kayaking, being lazy, cooking, laughing, good wine, good bourbon, and discoveries. As a serious research geek, I also am happy in old dusty archives, the back rooms of libraries and historical societies, and perusing old newspaper articles.

Contact Info:

• Email: janeammeson@gmail.com
• Website: https://janeammeson.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janeammeson/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janesimonammeson
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/janeammeson1
• Other: https://shelflife.blog/