When the police caught up with Johann Hoch, he'd already proposed to what they believed would have been wife number fifty-five.

For a decade, he traveled the country, marrying and deserting desperate women--and five of his wives were lying in their graves. He married Marie Walcker in Chicago in 1904, and when Marie died five weeks later, he proposed to her sister while the corpse lay on the bed. The sister agreed, only to be swindled out of her savings. Adam Selzer trails jovial, big-talking Hoch through a twisting tale of Chicago journalism, Chicago justice and the coming together of some of most daring and corrupt characters the city had to offer.