The Devil's Gentleman (51 page)

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Authors: Harold Schechter

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CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

1.
New York World,
April 1, 1899, p. 3.

2.
Brooklyn Eagle,
April 13, 1899, p. 6.

3.
New York World,
April 13, 1899, pp. 1 and 3.

4.
New York World,
April 9, 1899, p. 1;
Brooklyn Eagle,
April 10, 1899, p. 1.

5.
New York World,
April 12, 1899, p. 2, and April 13, 1899, p. 2;
New York Journal,
April 12, 1899, p. 1.

6.
New York Evening Journal,
April 25, 1899, p. 2;
New York Journal,
April 26, 1899, p. 5;
New York World,
April 26, 1889, p. 3.

7.
New York Times,
April 14, 1899, p. 3.

8.
Brooklyn Eagle,
April 13, 1899, p. 1;
New York Journal,
April 14, 1899, pp. 1 and 5;
New York Sun,
April 14, 1899, p. 1;
New York World,
April 14, 1899, p. 1.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

1.
New York World,
May 2, 1899, p. 2.

2.
New York World,
May 10, 1899, pp. 1 and 2;
New York Journal,
May 10, 1899, pp. 1 and 2;
New York Times,
May 10, 1899, p. 1.

3.
New York Sun,
May 11, 1899, p. 2.

4.
New York Journal,
May 11, 1899, p. 1, and May 10, 1899, p. 5.

5.
Brooklyn Eagle,
June 9, 1899, p. 1;
New York Journal,
June 10, 1899, p. 5;
New York Times,
June 10, 1899, p. 3.

6.
New York World,
July 21, 1899, p. 1;
New York Times,
July 21, 1899, p. 12.

7.
New York Journal,
July 21, 1899, p. 1.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

1.
New York Journal,
July 15, 1899, p. 3;
New York Sun,
July 16, 1899, p. 5;
New York Journal,
July 1, 1899, p. 1;
New York World,
July 10, 1899, p. 7.

2.
New York World,
July 21, 1899, p. 5;
New York Sun,
July 19, 1899, p. 5.

3.
New York Journal,
August 16, 1899, p. 3.

4. See all issues of
New York World,
May 23, 1899, through June 17, 1899, p. 1.

5.
New York World,
July 30, 1899, fifth section, p. 1;
New York Journal,
August 13, 1899, p. 1;
New York Sun,
July 4, 1899, p. 1;
New York World,
July 7, 1899, p. 1.

6.
New York World,
July 28, 1899, p. 12, August 27, 1899, p. 7, August 28, 1899, p. 10.

7.
New York World,
July 28, 1899, p. 5;
New York Journal,
August 24, 1899, p. 3;
Brooklyn Eagle,
September 14, 1899, p. 7.

8. Scott, pp. 137–38.

9.
New York World,
August 2, 1899, p. 3.

10.
New York World,
November 2, 1899, p. 2.

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

1. Klaus, p. 23.

2.
New York World,
November 15, 1899, p. 2.

3. Ibid.

4. Author’s telephone interview with G. Gordon Liddy, May 19, 2004. See also G. Gordon Liddy,
Will
(New York: St. Martin’s, 1980), pp. 18–21.

5.
New York World,
November 15, 1899, p. 2.

6.
New York Journal,
November 15, 1899, pp. 1–2.

7.
Brooklyn Eagle,
November 16, 1899, p. 2.

8.
New York Times,
November 21, 1899, p. 6.

9.
New York Sun,
November 20, 1899, p. 3.

10.
Brooklyn Eagle,
November 20, 1899, p. 1.

11.
New York Evening Journal,
November 22, 1899, p. 1.

12.
New York World,
November 30, 1899, p. 2.

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.

15. Pejsa, p. 183. Adding to the charade was the fact that November 29, 1899, was
not
their wedding anniversary. Roland and Blanche had been married on November 19 of the previous year.

16.
New York Evening Journal,
November 29, 1899, p. 1.

17.
New York World,
November 30, 1899, p. 2.

18.
New York Evening Journal,
December 2, 1899, p. 1.

CHAPTER SIXTY

1. Judy Crichton,
America 1900: The Turning Point
(New York: Henry Holt, 1998), p. 3.

2.
Life,
Vol. 28, No. 1 (January 2, 1950), p. 3.

3. Just as the period we call the sixties did not begin until roughly 1963, with the advent of the Beatles, and ended, arguably, on December 6, 1969, with the debacle of Altamont.

4. Neal Gabler,
Life: The Movie
(New York: Vintage Books, 2000), pp. 7 and 4.

5. Until then, it was common for critics to wait a few days after the first night before publishing reviews to give the production a chance to iron out any wrinkles—a function subsequently served, in the wake of Scott’s innovation, by out-of-town tryouts and previews.

6.
Brooklyn Eagle,
December 5, 1899, p. 4.

7.
New York Sun,
December 5, 1899, p. 4.

8.
New York Journal,
December 5, 1899, p. 5.

9. Klaus, pp. 24–25.

10.
New York Herald,
December 5, 1899, p. 1.

11. Klaus, p. 23.

12. This account of Osborne’s speech is drawn from the following sources:
New York World,
December 5, 1899, pp. 1–2;
New York Times,
December 5, 1899, p. 14;
New York Journal,
December 5, 1899, p. 16;
Brooklyn Eagle,
December 5, 1899, p. 4.

13.
New York Herald,
December 5, 1899, p. 1.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

1.
New York World,
December 5, 1899. At the end of the first week of testimony, Osborne’s conduct of the case already seemed so incoherent that, according to the
New York Sun,
“if the entire testimony…were put together in a book and given to the cleverest man that ever lived to read…he might read it from end to end and never suspect that he was reading the evidence in a murder trial” (December 9, 1899, p. 1).

2. Though often misunderstood as a literal corpse—the actual body of the victim without which, supposedly, no crime can be proved—the term
corpus delicti
actually means “the body or substance of the offense.” In homicide cases, this means the evidence which shows “that a human being was killed, that the death was the result of a criminal act, and that the killing occurred within the jurisdiction of the court.” These basic facts must be established before the trial can proceed. See Michael Kurland,
How to Try a Murder
(Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2002), p. 68.

3. Klaus, pp. 51–58.

4. The letter was actually penned by Heiles, though dictated by Roland. It was sent, under a pseudonym, to Frederick Stearns & Company of Detroit, and—like the earlier letter mailed to the same company—sought confidential information about Harpster, a former salesman for Stearns who had subsequently gone to work for J. Herbert Ballantine. According to Heiles’s testimony, Roland—who hated Harpster because of the latter’s friendship with Cornish—was hoping to obtain compromising information about Harpster’s employment record “with a view to getting him dismissed from his place in Ballantine’s brewery office.” See
New York Journal,
December 6, 1899, p. 1.

5.
Brooklyn Eagle,
December 7, 1899, p. 2;
New York Journal,
December 8, 1899, p. 2;
New York Sun,
December 8, 1899, p. 2.

6.
Brooklyn Eagle,
December 5, 1899, p. 2.

7. Carey, p. 92.

8.
New York World
and
New York Sun,
December 9, 1899, p. 1.

9.
New York Sun,
December 11, 1899, p. 1.

10.
New York Times, New York Journal, New York World,
December 12, 1899, pp. 1–2;
Brooklyn Eagle,
December 11, 1899, p. 1.

11.
New York Journal Sunday Supplement,
December 17, 1899, p. 18.

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

1.
New York World,
December 16, 1899, p. 1.

2.
Brooklyn Eagle,
December 12, 1899, p. 1.

3.
New York World,
December 27, 1899, p. 2.

4.
Brooklyn Eagle,
December 12, 1899, p. 1.

5.
New York Journal,
December 14, 1899.

6.
New York World,
December 19, 1899, p. 2.

7.
New York Journal,
December 19, 1899, p. 1.

8.
New York World,
December 19, 1899, p. 2.

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

1. See Bradford and Bradford, p. 8.

2.
New York Sun,
December 27, 1899, p. 1.

3.
New York World
and
New York Journal,
December 28, 1899, pp. 1–2.

4.
New York World,
December 26, 1899, p. 5;
New York Times,
December 26, 1899, p. 8;
New York Journal,
December 26, 1899, p. 14.

5.
New York Sun,
December 27, 1899, p. 3.

6.
New York World,
December 31, 1899, p. 16.

7.
Brooklyn Eagle,
December 28, 1899, p. 1;
New York Times,
December 29, 1899, p. 1;
New York World,
December 29, 1899, p. 1; Klaus, pp. 148 ff.

8.
New York World,
December 29, 1899, p. 1.

9. Ibid., p. 2.

10.
New York World,
December 30, 1899, p. 1.

11.
New York Journal,
December 30, 1899, p. 1.

12.
Brooklyn Eagle,
December 29, 1899, p. 1.

13. Klaus, pp. 159–60.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

1.
New York World,
January 1, 1900, p. 1.

2. Ibid.

3.
New York Sun,
January 1, 1900, p. 1.

4.
New York Times,
January 2, 1900, p. 8.

5.
New York Sun,
January 3, 1900, p. 3.

6. Koch “positively connected” Molineux to the private letter box by identifying him as the man who had come to his store in the third week of December 1898 and inquired about the price of a rental. According to Koch, however, it was another man who had appeared a few days later and rented the box under Cornish’s name, suggesting that Roland may have had an accomplice. See
New York Journal,
January 17, 1900, p. 5, and
New York World,
January 17, 1900, p. 14.

7. See
New York World,
January 24, 1900, p. 3.

8. All details about the testimony of Rachel Greene and Minnie Betts come from the following sources:
Brooklyn Eagle,
January 15, 1900;
New York Journal,
January 16, 1900, pp. 1–2;
New York World,
January 16, 1900, p. 4; Klaus, pp. 277–82.

9. Even before the joint appearance of Rachel Greene and Minnie Betts, Osborne had been allowed to introduce evidence related to the death of Barnet. On January 4, for instance, both Barnet’s doctor and valet described the sufferings he had endured after taking some of the sample Kutnow’s Powder. Their testimony occupied such a significant chunk of the day that the
New York Sun
was led to remark that “the title of the case seemed to have changed to the People Against Roland Molineux for the Murder of Henry Crossman Barnet” (January 5, 1900, p. 4).

10.
Brooklyn Eagle,
January 17, 1900, p. 8.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

1.
New York Sun,
January 19, 1900, p. 3.

2.
Brooklyn Eagle,
January 19, 1900, p. 2.

3.
Brooklyn Eagle,
January 24, 1900, p. 1.

4.
New York Journal,
January 29, 1900, p. 5.

5.
New York Journal,
February 6, 1900, p. 16.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

1.
New York World,
January 28, 1900, p. 5.

2.
New York World,
February 7, 1900, p. 1.

3.
Brooklyn Eagle,
February 6, 1900, p. 1;
New York Journal,
February 7, 1900, p. 1;
New York World,
February 7, 1900, p. 1;
New York Times,
February 7, 1900, p. 4.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

1. Klaus, p. 26;
Brooklyn Eagle,
February 7, 1900, p. 1;
New York World,
February 8, 1900, p. 1.

2.
Brooklyn Eagle,
February 6, 1900, p. 1;
New York Journal,
February 7, 1900, pp. 1–2;
New York World,
February 7, 1900, pp. 1–2.

3.
New York World,
February 7, 1900, p. 2.

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

1.
Brooklyn Eagle,
February 7, 1900, p. 1.

2.
New York World,
February 8, 1900, pp. 1–2.

3. Ibid., p. 2.

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

1.
New York Times,
September 29, 1899, p. 1, September 30, 1899, p. 1, October 1, 1899, p. 6;
New York World,
September 30, 1899, pp. 1–2, and October 1, 1899, pp. 1–2.

2.
New York Times,
October 3, 1899, p. 2.

3.
New York Times,
September 29, 1899, p. 4.

4.
New York Journal,
February 8, 1900, p. 1.

5.
Brooklyn Eagle,
February 8, 1900, p. 2;
New York Journal,
February 9, 1900, p. 16.

6.
New York Journal,
February 9, 1900, p. 16.

7.
Brooklyn Eagle,
February 8, 1900, p. 2;
New York World,
February 9, 1900, p. 1;
New York Sun,
February 9, 1900, p. 1.

8.
New York Journal,
February 9, 1900, p. 16.

CHAPTER SEVENTY

1.
Brooklyn Eagle,
February 9, 1900, p. 2;
New York Sun,
February 10, 1900, p. 1.

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