MONTICELLO — The Monticello Area Historical Society will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26 in the Zwingli UCC Lounge, 416 E. Lake Ave., Monticello. 

Following a short meeting, Tom Mitchell will hold a program on three true crime books he has written. Tom is a native of Monroe who lived away for 30 years before returning to his home town in 2007 and began researching and writing about true crime events. 

His books include:

“1919 Triple Homicide,” which is a true crime story of a day in May, 1919, when a farmhand killed his boss, the Green County Sheriff and a war veteran on a farm near the Illinois Central railroad between Monroe and Monticello.

Another book, “Vengeance in the Afternoon” is the first murder in the history of Monroe and took place in a hotel off the courthouse Square in 1869, when an unmarried mother shot dead the man who fathered her child but wouldn’t marry her.

“A Murder in Monroe” is a shocking shotgun shooting of a local cattle dealer in 1942 that became an unsolved crime for three weeks until a private detective got a confession.

This is a free presentation and will start about 7:15 p.m. Books will be available for purchase. Open to the public.