Dave Shampine Knihy

Uncover the story of the vicious and confounding killing of Pennsylvania School Teacher, Irene Izak, that has remained unsolved for four decades. It was the summer of 1968, and she had been driving for days. Irene Izak, a young French teacher from Scranton, Pennsylvania, was headed toward a new job and the promise of a new life in Quebec. She never reached the border that early June morning. Savagely bludgeoned, her face and head pummeled with rocks, Irene's body was discovered in a ravine by a state trooper patrolling Route 81 in Jefferson County, New York. Blending suspense with true-crime reporting, author Dave Shampine investigates the brutal murder that shook the communities of northeast Pennsylvania and New York's North Country. Join Shampine as he tells the story of this vicious and confounding killing that has remained unsolved for four decades.

Although Northern New York did not host any Civil War battles, it did not come out unscathed in the War Between the States. Brave soldiers fought in many major clashes, such as those of Jefferson County's Thirty-fifth New York Volunteer Regiment. Civilians struggled for the cause in their own way, with many active Underground Railroad stops across the region. The war's legacy lived on decades beyond the conflict through the many members of the Grand Army of the Republic, Harriet Tubman's home in Auburn and John Brown's burial place in North Elba. Author Dave Shampine compiles his most fascinating columns from the Watertown Daily Times to chronicle the role that New York's North Country played in the Civil War.