The Murder of John Shakespeare

Authors Cary O’Dell and Richard L. Sprehe lead a literary investigation of a brutal cold-case murder.

In May 1975, in the small Southern Illinois town of Centralia, the body of one of its best-known residents, John Shakespeare, was found nearly nude, bound, and shot, execution-style, in the basement of his home. Shakespeare, sixty-nine, was a wealthy bachelor, an eccentric, an heir to the Shakespeare fishing fortune, a world-renowned collector of vintage cars, and, maybe, a possessor of a few secrets.

Despite the victim being well liked in the community, state and local police, and eventually even the FBI and Interpol, found a plethora of suspects while investigating the crime. Could it have been his longtime business associate? Or the mysterious hitchhiker seen in town just days before his body was found? Or a long-ago name from his past?

Author Biography

Cary O’Dell is a native of southern Illinois and is the author of the books Bucky’s Dome and Johnny Bob: The Life and Times of Johnny Bob Harrell of Louisville, IL, as well as five other. A graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, he works for the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and lives in Culpeper, Virginia.

On May 5, 1975, Richard L. Sprehe headed back to his home in Centralia to prepare for his pharmacy boards and resume his part-time position working as an EMT. Just three days later, the bound body of John Shakespeare was found in his own basement. In 2014, as Richard approached retirement, his interest is this case was rekindled and he began researching Shakespeare’s cold case murder.