Menninger, Bonar
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Bonar Menninger
Bonar Menninger is a native of Topeka, Kansas. He is the author of Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed Kennedy, published by St. Martin’s Press in 1992. Menninger earned a degree in journalism from the University of Kansas. He has worked for a range of publications, both on staff and as a freelancer, since 1984. He's done investigative reporting for the Kansas City Business Journal and Washington, D.C. Business Journal and also has covered general business and healthcare for numerous online and print publications. Menninger lives in Kansas City with his wife and daughter.
Colossal trees snap like matchsticks. A gigantic orange fireball explodes in the funnel's black core. Horses are sucked up and spit out alive by 200-mile-per-hour winds. These were just a few of the scenes that unfolded on June 8, 1966, when a massive EF-5 tornado cut a 22-mile swath across eastern Kansas and straight through Topeka, Kansas's capital city. When it was over, 16 people were dead, more than 500 were injured, and property damage had reached $100 million, making the tornado the most destructive in U.S. history up to that time.
That fateful day comes back to life in And Hell Followed With It: Life and Death in a Kansas Tornado. Author Bonar Menninger has interviewed dozens of survivors to construct a tightly woven narrative that conveys in gut-wrenching detail what it's like when nature careens out of control and ordinary people face extraordinary, life-threatening situations. The book features dozens of remarkable photographs, as well as a series of engaging, hand-drawn maps that place readers alongside individuals in the book as the tornado approaches.