Hub City Press to publish Bety Teter's book A CARNIVAL OF CRIME

Hub City Press is pleased to announce it will publish Betsy Wakefield Teter’s new local history book A Carnival of Crime: Murder, Mischief, and Malice in 1890s Spartanburg in fall 2026.

Through ten interconnected true-crime stories, this historical account captures a South Carolina county’s most violent decade—a time when bullets felled a mayor, a police chief, and a beloved bookseller, each in separate shocking incidents. Illustrated with dozens of photographs, the book also delves into the exploits of a crooked local attorney who became one of nation’s most slippery con men, the controversial hanging of a teenaged girl, and the bedlam unleashed when a governor tried to crush the moonshine trade. All this chaos and more unfolds amid Spartanburg’s first economic boom, as cotton mills multiply across the county, the community becomes one of the South’s rising industrial powers, and many great fortunes are generated.

Teter says, “Hub City Press has been telling Spartanburg’s stories for over 30 years. I have loved being a part of that. And I’ve always been fascinated with this tumultuous period of history in my hometown. Who knew I would enjoy telling true crime so much?"

Betsy Teter is a native of Spartanburg, a one-time journalist and, for 22 years, the executive director of the Hub City Writers Project. Her previous projects with Hub City include Textile Town, North of Main, Hub City Christmas and many others. Now retired, she enjoys travel and writing community history.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, you can support the publication of A Carnival of Crime and be acknowledged in the book and receive a copy with a donation of $150 or more: hubcity.org/support.