In 2014 Charleston was named the #1 City in America by Conde Nast Traveler for the 4th year in a row!

Being FIRST is not unusual for this extraordinary city. Charleston has a long list of revolutionary events and pioneering accomplishments. If you’ve ever wondered why Charleston is called “America’s Most Historic City,” here is a fun and fast-paced look at some of the most compelling reasons. 

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FROM RAGS TO RAGTIME – THEY CREATED THE SOUNDTRACK OF THE 20TH CENTURY!

For the first time, here is the stirring story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band and its role in American popular music. From slavery to freedom, follow the inspirational rags-to-riches story of some of America’s greatest jazz musicians brought together by the determination of one man, a freed black slave named Rev. Daniel Jenkins. His Jazz Nursery revolutionized the musical world!

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In 1827 Pvt. Edgar Perry arrived at Ft. Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island near Charleston and served for 14 months. The haunted, turbulent atmosphere of the South Carolina Lowcountry was a perfect environment to feed Pvt. Perry’s poetic despair and dark sensitivity. Twenty years later he was internationally known as Edgar Allan Poe. His tortured literary genius is perfectly reflected in these four Charleston-based tales from the Master of Melancholy.

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This was the first book that opened the door to the dark alleys and seedy characters not often associated with the Charleston of today. From the sexual escapades of an original Lord Proprietor and the comings and goings of the most notorious pirates, to secret brothels and nightclubs, Jones leads the reader back to a time when drinking, eating and whoring with more than fifty wenches was more common in the Holy City than one may imagine.

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Beneath the gleaming surface of Charleston, there has always been a darker side — a second history that has been hidden and denied by those who retell the city’s story, and by those who have lived it. Charleston has played host to a wide variety of unsavory characters, and has seen scores of sordid deeds played out on its cobbled streets, beneath flickering gaslights.From drinking and prostitution to murder and crooked politics — this offers a rarely seen glimpse at a sinister side of Charleston’s past.

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• In 1903, the lieutenant governor of South Carolina shot dead a local newspaper editor, in full view of witnesses.
• In 1944, George Stinney was marched to the electric chair at age fourteen.
• In 1994, a mother made national news pleading for the return of her kidnapped sons, when in truth she had driven them to a watery grave herself.

Jones spares no chilling detail in describing each of these crimes; all make for fascinating and terrifying reading.

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Jones presents the stories and criminal minds of nine serial offenders who terrorized South Carolina during the latter part of the twentieth century.

• The Super Christian who turned a small beach community into a terrified town.
• The Gaffney Strangler who taunted police with the message, “Stop me or I will kill again.”
• The schoolteacher turned- rapist who eluded authorities for more than thirty years.
• And of course, the horrifying and tragic life of South Carolina’s most successful serial killer, Pee Wee Gaskins.

All are revealed here in chilling detail.

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