A murder syndicate's heinous crimes ignited bold newspaper headlines across West Virginia. The quickly spreading stories covered not only Mountain State journalism, but splashed nationwide. The brutal murder of the young Bella Lemons from Fairmont in the summer of 1922 was predicted to go unsolved. County sheriffs, police detectives, and state prosecutors, however, caught those involved. Criminals operating in Marion and Harrison Counties of West Virginia as well as Pennsylvania and Maryland were in custody by February 1923. Papers and their reporters told the details of the early 1923 raids, arrests, trials, and convictions. By the end of April, three members of a notorious Black Hand gang would make state history in the first triple hanging at the West Virginia Penitentiary. With their deaths, law enforcement believed Bella's murder and continual vendetta killings that spanned years halted the nefarious gangs operating in the mountain Panhandle. John Pistole, former Deputy Director of the FBI, writes, "Neidert has penned a masterful and rich history of a little known organized crime group operating in the early 1900s not in New York or Chicago, but in West Virginia's Panhandle. His deep research and analysis coupled with his compelling prose bring the gang members to life, and in three instances, to death. The tale is worth one's time and energy for understanding this criminal enterprise during Prohibition." Extortion, bootlegging, prostitution, turf wars, vendetta murders, and other crimes came to an end with the gangs' identification, capture, arrests, and trials. Two decades of their criminal enterprise came to a resounding finish even as Prohibition boomed.