Thea Lewis is best known for leading ghost tours of Burlington and writing books about the supernatural, from Haunted Inns and Ghostly Getaways of Vermont to the children’s book There’s a Witch in My Sock Drawer! But history can sometimes be scarier than legend. So Lewis has been expanding upon her paranormal portfolio to tackle an even eerier subject: true crime. Her new book, True Crime Stories of Burlington, Vermont, covers offenses spanning 1871 to 2011, ranging from horrific murders to the bizarre theft of garden potatoes. Published by the History Press, the book is more “factually based” than her colorful Queen City Ghostwalk tours, Lewis said. Still, Lewis’ playful commentary makes the collection of crimes more than just the facts. For example, the 19th-century serial killer H.H. Holmes, who briefly enrolled at the University of Vermont, “was absolutely a loner, and his friend died from a fall,” Lewis writes. “(Are you suspicious? It would be hard not to be).” Local readers will come across familiar places as the book explores the sordid side of Burlington: brothels in the Old North End, a murder at the Champlain Farms convenience store downtown and filicide at the Shalom Shuk parking lot behind Ohavi Zedek Synagogue. In the third case, a woman named Marilyn Dietl shot and killed her daughter, Judy, in 1977 after learning she was dating a Black man who was an alleged pimp. In court, Marilyn’s defense was that she had to kill her daughter to save her from a life of prostitution. To get the full context surrounding stories such as Dietl’s, Lewis conducted extensive research. She dug through special collections at the University of Vermont, as well as newspaper clippings and court records. She interviewed former Chittenden County state’s attorney Mark Keller and victims’ family members when she could. Lewis, a Burlington native, also pulled from her memories in a few cases. She knew convicted murderers Ellen Ducharme and Samuel Wright Jr. Those personal connections made the research process especially fascinating, Lewis said. She discussed the book with Seven Days over coffee at Speeder & Earl’s. What draws you to true crime? True crime is such a big thing these days. It’s kind of inescapable now. But I’ve always had an interest in that kind of darker side of the way humans function. I grew up in the Old North End of Burlington, where you are…