Looking For Lizzie: The True Story of an Ohio Madam, Her Sporting Life and Hidden Legacy

A closely-held family secret hinted at long ago, leads an amateur genealogist to uncover an end-of-the-19th-century scandal centered on her 2nd great-grandmother. Rural Ohio is the unexpected setting for a 30-year crime spree, where Madam Lizzie Rogers-Lape-Huffman-Larzelere-DeWitt-DeWitt-Veon-Shetler-France lived life large. Born in pre-Civil War Kentucky, she retired from the sporting life in Chicago; resurfacing with executive zeal in Ohio cities and towns such as Columbus, Dayton, Lima, Akron, Cuyahoga Falls, Canton, Norwalk, Shelby, Stow and Marion. In Marion, her disreputable establishment, The White Pigeon saloon and adjacent house of ill repute, were frequented by a young Warren G. Harding. She may not have changed the course of Presidential history, but Lizzie set the train careening. A simple tale of a woman franchiser in a man's market, Lizzie's story of con, cunning and charm upends preconceptions about exploitation, entrepreneurship and powerful women in early America. Lizzie was full of surprises. And the newspapers were there to sell it.