Cleveland's Creepiest Author Delivers Again

John Stark Bellamy will pay a visit to the Coventry branch of the Cleveland Heights/University Heights Library today at 3 p.m., bringing true tales of crime, scandal, mystery, and the macabre — and all of it drawn from the region's past. The creator of such memorably named tomes as They Died Crawling, The Maniac in the Bushes, and The Corpse in the Cellar, Bellamy has been mining the vein of local murders, misdeeds, and misanthropy for 16 years in a series of six books and two anthologies published by Gray & Company. A former history specialist for the Cuyahoga County Library system, the master of disaster will be telling tales today from his newest text, The Last Days of Cleveland. Among other stories, expect to hear about the Rowenites, a cultish crew whose members spent the night of February 6, 1925, on their Garfield Heights rooftops, waiting for the apocalypse. And you thought your neighbors were weird. Bellamy's talk is free and open to the public; register at heightslibrary.org. The library is at 1925 Coventry Rd. in Cleveland Heights; call 216-321-3400 or visit heightslibrary.org to learn more. — Cicora