Jon Musgrave

A native of Southern Illinois, Musgrave has long found its violent history quite dramatic and has written, co-authored, or edited eight books about the region. He's appeared on-camera as a historical expert on the area's killers for both The History Channel and the Investigation Discovery Channel. His first major book focused on the Reverse Underground Railroad at an antebellum plantation home commonly known as the Old Slave House outside Equality, Illinois. Despite it's notoriety as one of the county's most haunted houses, it came as a surprise eight months into the research when he discovered the home's original builder had married one of his great-great-great-great aunts, and allegedly one of the souls that haunt there. His research into slavery in the Land of Lincoln led to his appointment to the Illinois Amistad Commission. Established by state lawmakers in part to focus on ways schools can better include the history and achievements of African-Americans in the school curriculum, he's served both as chairman and vice-chairman of the commission. His hometown of Marion, Illinois, is the county seat of Bloody Williamson county which earned its name after a vendetta in the 1870s and the violent decade of the 1920s during Prohibition which saw a mine massacre, a war between gangsters and the Ku Klux Klan, and finally a gang war between Charlie Birger's gang on one side and the Shelton Brothers' gang on the other. In 2013, IllinoisHistory.com published his book on the Shelton Brothers co-authored by a one of the granddaughters who didn't know her family history until her father came out of surgery incoherent and talked three days about shootouts and being kidnapped before finally becoming lucid on the fourth. Musgrave's interest in films has led to uncredited roles as extras in two feature films and a one-time gig chauffeuring the star rattlesnake for a third. He hopes in the future to focus film-wise instead on mining his region's history for dramatic tales of adventure and suspense rather than the reptile kind in the backseat.