LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — For the last nearly three years, Deadtime Stories has been offering books on anything that goes bump in the night, from serial killers to local ghost stories, it pretty much has it all.
Located in Lansing’s REO Town, the store opened in 2020.
“I’m not really sure when true crime became synonymous with serial killers and big cases but we got books about orca thieves, people that sold fake dinosaur bones and true crime for kids,” said bookstore owner Jenn Carpenter.
Carpenter said she is living the dream of having her own store because since she was a kid, she had been fascinated by true crime, even going as far as becoming a published author and starting her own podcast called Violent Ends.
“It’s all Michigan-based true crime and dark history, a little bit of paranormal, but mostly the dark history and true crime,” continued Carpenter. “I love finding weird old local history that nobody’s ever heard before.”
Speaking of local history that nobody has heard of, Carpenter is currently working on her next project. She calls it the ‘Fruit Wars’ and in the 1920s Lansing had two large fruit companies and she claims they were also working with the mob.
“They were both located where the Lugnut Stadium [is] actually and the owners had ties to La Cosa Nostra, Al Capone and the Italian mob.”
But eventually, times got tough and Carpenter said the two companies turned on each other.
“At one point a big war broke out between the two fruit companies,” said Carpenter. “They were blowing up buildings shooting each other in the streets hired assassins. It’s just a wild story.”
