Bob Newell’s “Violence in the Valley II: The Coroner’s Table” is a sequel to “Violence in the Valley” and is his fourth book. Newell is a former mayor and chief of the Parkersburg Police Department. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — The former chief of police in Parkersburg has published his fourth book about crime in the Mid-Ohio Valley.

“Violence in the Valley II: The Coroner’s Table” by Bob Newell is about notorious murders written with information from coroners’ reports and autopsies including from Dr. Charles Barnett and Dr. Richard Corbitt and from other public documents. It is a sequel to “Violence in the Valley.”

Newell is a former mayor and chief of the Parkersburg Police Department and has first-person knowledge as an investigator of some of the crimes.

“A lot of these stories I knew about,” Newell said.

Among the investigations is the Jima Ann Dotson case, a student at the former Parkersburg Community College who was abducted on her way to class. The 50th anniversary of her murder was observed in September.

He writes about the 1992 murder of Patsy Sparks in the chapter titled “The Monster of Marietta” and the investigation into the 1992 murder of Rhonda Manley in the chapter “Murder in Oak Grove Cemetery,” a cemetery in Marietta.

“The message is for women to be vigilant when out and about,” Newell said.

Other Marietta and Washington County cases include the 1996 murder of Sheree Petry, whose body was discovered in a pipe near South Seventh Street, the 1981 murder of Washington County Chief Deputy Sheriff Ray Clark, the 1990 murder of Washington County Deputy Rod Kinzy and the 1925 murder of Harrison Boyd, a patrolman in the Marietta Police Department.

The book is composed of nearly three dozen chapters about murders committed since the 1950s: “The Nickles Bakery Shootout,” “Murder on the Delta Queen,” “Murder at the High Hat,” “The Bloody Bakery,” “Murder at Scott’s Field,” “Eaton’s Tunnel,” “Sunoco Station Shootout and Death of Clarence Goudy,” “The Murder of Constable Clyde Williams and the Jack Hart Murder Spree,” “The Brutal Murder of Sharron Prior by Local Rapist Franklin Romine,” “Grand Central Mall Shotgun Death,” “The Quik Shop Shootout at Bashor’s Market,” “The Abduction and Murder of Jima Ann Dotson by Predator John Calvin Bayles,” “Diamond Supper Club Murders,” “The Talkington Murder,” “The Hitchhiker Murder,” “Prostitution and Murder,” “Charlton Shotgun Slaying,” “Fallen Deputies,” “The Flanigan Jail Murder,” “Albert Corra Murder,” “The Silver Bullet Bar Murder,” “The Cold Cases of Anna Marie Brown, Elizabeth Burkhammer and Terri Roach,” “The Monster of Marietta,” “The Kittle Murder,” “Murder in Oak Grove Cemetery,” “The Chloroform Murder of Sheree Petry” and “The Eleventh Frame.”

Newell also includes chapters about the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

“Crime is down from what it was in those days,” he said.

Newell also described the book as good public relations for police departments.

“People don’t realize what police officers have dealt with over the decades to keep the valley safe,” he said.

Newell’s three other books are “In the Heat of the Valley,” “Violence in the Valley” and “As I Walk Through the Valley of Meth.”

Writing has become a hobby while also being a consultant, he said. A fifth book is a good possibility, although the subject yet to be determined, Newell said.

“It might be about politics,” he said.

The 325-page book is $16.99 at amazon.com. It will be available in several weeks at J&M Books and Play, Peoples’ News and the gift shop at the Parkersburg Art Center.