Joseph David Cress

Wicked Carlisle: the Dark Side of the Cumberland Valley Joseph David Cress

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, never hosted a more endearing rogue than David Lewis, who, in the nineteenth century, robbed the rich and gave to the poor. And then there was the town drunk and famed woodcarver who was a favorite of the local children. The mischief-makers of Carlisle have disturbed the peace in the Cumberland Valley for nearly two hundred years. Their rollicking tales are the subjects of thirteen scandalous chapters in Wicked Carlisle: The Dark Side of the Cumberland Valley. Some misdeeds were mild, such as a series of pranks at Dickinson College in 1849 that ended in the president's erroneous commitment to a mental asylum. Others were far more dastardly, like an act of arson that in 1972 that destroyed the Strand Theatre. From colonial counterfeiting rings to a family-owned brothel, local author Joseph Cress uncovers the deliciously sinful side of Carlisle.