Michigan Author Pens ‘The Cereal Killer Chronicles of Battle Creek’

A local author dives into the darker side of history connected to the Kellogg's in a just-released book.

Lansing resident, podcast host, and published author Jenn Carpenter has many things to keep her busy. Her latest project is an eight-part podcast series featuring tales of mayhem and murder from Cereal City, USA. A.K.A. Tales of mayhem and murder from Battle Creek, Michigan.

The series is now a book focused on the lesser-known stories connected to both Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his brother W.K. Kellogg. Both men are often credited with putting the City of Battle Creek on the map. Many across the country are familiar with 'battling' brothers and how the breakfast food invented at the world-renowned Battle Creek Sanitarium revolutionized mornings.

Carpenter digs below the surface taking a closer look at the more controversial aspects of John Harvey Kellogg's life, the stranger and more dangerous treatments at the sanitarium, and deaths at the sanitarium. Were the deadly "West End Fires" a result of Dr. Kellog's feud with the SDA church or worse yet, his brother?

With companies that employed so many, it's no surprise some met untimely deaths. Carpenter delves several area murders; Daisy Zick, Ricky Goddard, Maggie Hume, Karry Lynn Evans, Patti Rosansky, the Liz Golyar case. All with connections to the Kelloggs.

The story of the Kelloggs has been told many times, in many ways- but the focus is always on the good. The dark side of their legacy is always either glossed over or left out altogether, but that history is important also, maybe even more so. ~ Jenn Carpenter author of The Cereal Killer Chronicles of Battle Creek