Categories: Open to the Public, Speakers
Calendar: Office of Community Engagement Calendar
Start: October 15, 2025 6 p.m.
End: October 15, 2025 7 p.m.
Location: E.B. and Bertha C. Ball Center
No cost, but registration is required
Contact Details
Diane Watters
765-285-8975

Book signing and reception to follow program

In early 1900s Indiana, John Terrell was the wealthiest man in Wells County, thanks to oil discovered on his farm. But when his youngest daughter, Lucy, became pregnant and was forced into marriage with the abusive Melvin Wolfe, Terrell’s life and fortune began to unravel in a tumultuous spiral of murder, a dramatic trial, and madness.

Presenter: Stephen Terrell, novelist and retired attorney, shares the story of his great-uncle, John Terrell. A graduate of Muncie Central and Ball State University, Stephen now writes in his hometown of Muncie. He is the author of The Madness of John Terrell: Revenge and Insanity on Trial in the Heartland (Kent State University Press, 2024),  as well as three novels, including two legal thrillers and Last Train to Stratton, an excerpt of which will appear in the 2025 edition of So It Goes, the Kurt Vonnegut Library’s literary journal.