The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (57 page)

Due to the fact that Stanford White was a well-regarded architect and that his murderer was from one of the most wealthy families in America, the trial was dubbed the “trial of the
century”, no mean feat, considering that the year was still only 1906.

The trial was recorded and covered by all the news agencies. Reporters were at court every day throughout the trial, making sure that they got photographs of all the witnesses before they
entered the building. Many character witnesses came forward to tell the press that in their opinion Stanford White was a pillar of the community and in their eyes had done no wrong. Surprisingly
Mrs Nesbit (now married and known as Mrs Charles Holman) also gave a statement to the press and confirmed that she knew Mr White to be an honourable, decent man. She went on to describe her
daughter as “head-strong, self-willed and beautiful and that led to all her trouble”.

The main witness in the court proceedings was surely Evelyn. She was rarely seen during the course of the trial, preferring to keep out of the public eye. Reported to have struck a deal with
Mother Thaw, whereby she agreed to support her husband, in return for financial security after the trial, she was granted the opportunity to quietly divorce him after the interest in them had died
down.

Thaw had the best defence team that money could buy, headed by eminent defence attorney, Delphin Delmas, who decided that the best way to get a good result in this case was to plead not guilty
by way of insanity.

The head of the team for the prosecution was District Attorney William Travers Jerome, who did not share the opinion of Delmas; he considered the case to be a clear example of premeditated
murder.

Numerous witnesses were brought before the court who had been in the room at the time of the murder, all of them able to identify Thaw as the killer. The doctor who had performed the autopsy
confirmed that White had died as a result of gunshot wounds to the head.

Other doctors were brought to give their opinion of Thaw’s mental health which, taking into account his previous tantrums and uncontrollable rages, provided the jury with a fair indication
of his mental instability.

Evelyn was eventually called to give her testimony; as requested by her mother-in-law she dressed very demurely, not wanting to spoil her chances of getting the money at the end of the
trial.

She fulfilled Mother Thaw’s wishes to the tee. She told of her initial friendship with White and that she found him to be a kind man. She then broke down in tears when she described to the
court the terrible night when she was attacked by him when only 16. The reporters took down every word and hurriedly relayed their stories to news hungry readers. This trial was turning out to be
the biggest story for years and the news presses were quite literally working overtime to meet their demands.

Delmas took his opportunity to emphasize to the court that his client had been told the same harrowing story by Evelyn, still loved her and wanted to marry her.

The prosecution team took their chance to try and sully Evelyn’s name by bringing up her former employment as an artist’s model and more recently as a girl on a chorus line. He also
implied that Evelyn was well aware of White’s reason for asking her back to his apartment and stated that she was a willing guest into his bedroom.

He then asked her why she had continued a relationship with him after he had apparently attacked her. She confessed that her family had come to rely on the financial security which White offered
and that it was for this reason alone that she carried on seeing him. He asked her why she had visited the lawyer Abe Hummel with a deposition against Thaw; she told him that she had made the
deposition whilst under great emotional strain. The prosecution had attempted to dishonour Evelyn, but this had proved a mistake, public opinion warmed towards her and she was much pitied in the
press.

The first time the jury provided a verdict, it was inconclusive – seven believed that Thaw was guilty of first-degree murder and the remaining five found him not guilty as charged.

It was nine months before the second jury managed to conclude that Thaw was not guilty by reason of insanity and he was duly incarcerated at an asylum in Matteawan. Several attempts were made to
have him released, or at least transferred to a private hospital, but these requests were denied. Eventually Thaw had taken enough, escaped from the asylum and made his way to Canada; he was duly
apprehended and returned to continue his incarceration. However, as a result of the well-publicized court case, Thaw was seen as a Robin Hood character and had won the admiration of the public.
Massive public debates managed to sway the ruling and Thaw found himself a free man. This was indeed a very unusual case and there were still many who considered Thaw to be guilty of first-degree
murder, but it has to be said that he definitely suffered from some form of mental illness. In this day and age he would surely have been diagnosed and offered the correct type of drug therapy to
enable him to control his violent outbursts.

Once he had been declared a free man he went on to divorce his wife and his life continued in much the same vein until his death at the age of 76 in 1947.

Evelyn had carried a child through the court case and when the baby was born she named him Russell Thaw, although her husband never recognized the baby as his own. She was never paid a penny by
Mother Thaw, despite carrying out her part of the bargain to the letter, and lived out her days trying to make ends meet. She found it difficult to return to her old profession after the trial as
she was now a single parent and her infamous past didn’t help her situation – the chorus line was usually a place in those days where you found innocent young women, not divorced single
mothers, no matter how pretty they were.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was arguably one of the world’s most influential state leaders. For Americans in particular he stood for a new dynamic phase of American history.
Leading them to post-war wealth and prosperity he also presided over a period epitomized by the cold war, the communist eastern bloc contrasting heavily with the democratic freedoms enjoyed by
those living in the West. Kennedy initiated the space race when he declared America’s intention to put man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. In 1962 he held firm as the world watched a
superpower stand-off, with Kennedy threatening to blow Russian ships out of the water if they attempted to deliver nuclear weapons to Cuba, the small communist country lying just 90 miles off the
American coast. History records Russian vessels turning around and heading back across the Atlantic, and with that the threat of an all-out nuclear exchange receded and the world breathed a mighty
sigh of relief. Kennedy was a hero and was now more popular than ever – even his countless extramarital indiscretions could not mar his public image, although when rumours began of an affair
with another icon of the times, Marilyn Monroe, his gloss finish did lose some of its otherwise brilliant shine. His wife and the USA’s first lady, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, became somewhat of
a style icon herself, as together they cut a charismatic swathe through the world of international politics.

But not all Americans were impressed with the Kennedy administration. The Mafia were being heavily targeted by JFK’s brother Robert, who had assumed the office of Attorney General, while
JFK himself tackled the “tax concessions” enjoyed by Texas oil tycoons. Dallas in particular was a hotbed of right-wing extremism, the town least likely to offer a warm welcome to a
liberal democratic president. Here in particular, Kennedy’s approach to the Cuban missile crisis was considered a missed opportunity to demonstrate America’s might against the
communists. The nuclear test ban treaty signed with the eastern bloc and the decision to sell American grain to them looked like a climbdown to those living in the South; and to top it all the
withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam would for many right-wingers be the ultimate humiliation. The President’s visit to Dallas was therefore brave – even if one excludes the
possibility of an assassination, he could at the very least expect a frosty welcome.

This unique period of American history ended just under one hour after Air Force One, the President’s personal aircraft, touched down at Love Field airport, Dallas, at 11.38 a.m. central
time, on Friday, 22 November 1963. As the door to Air Force One swung open, the Kennedys were struck by the crowds who had gathered from all over Texas to give them a warm welcome. It was to be a
brief visit – an open-topped motorcade would deliver the President to the Trade Mart where he was due to give a speech and then he would be whisked back to the airport from where he was due
to visit Lyndon Johnson, the Vice President, at home on his ranch.

Security was heavy on this particular visit – Texas, and Dallas in particular, was hardly a hot-bed of Kennedy support. The local police chief, Jesse E. Curry, had deployed over 300 police
officers at the airport and a further 60 were stationed at the Trade Mart, considered an area most likely to be a potential trouble spot. Along the route the motorcade would travel, Curry had
scattered a number of other officers, a precaution against overzealous, anti-Kennedy demonstrators. Earlier that morning officers had already removed a number of individuals whose placards were too
graphic for public display, but apart from this the visit was expected to pass without further incident.

The crowds along the way surged onto the road, slowing the progress of the motorcade, bringing the speed down from its expected 15 to 20 miles per hour to just seven. Finally the
President’s car swung into Dealy Plaza, a trio of parallel roads made up of Elm Street, the street which would take the President right past the crowds, Main Street and Commerce Street, which
would eventually bring him to the Trade Mart. As the President’s car slowed to make the sharp left turn into Elm Street, Jackie noticed an underpass which crossed Elm Street just ahead, whose
shadows looked inviting with the temperature soaring that day – especially as she was wearing a bright pink woollen suit and feeling distinctly uncomfortable. As the President’s car
straightened up to head down Elm Street a sharp crack rang out. Jackie thought that a motorcycle had backfired; Chief Curry thought it was the sound of a small explosion on the railway line; but
when the President lurched forward, grabbing at his neck, the unthinkable reality set in – the President had been shot; the time 12.30 p.m.

Riding in the vice-presidential car ahead of the president’s, Rufus Youngblood thought he could smell gunpowder and with the sight of the President grasping at his neck, he knew for sure
that he had been shot. Thinking faster than the President’s own secret service agents Youngblood threw himself onto Lyndon B. Johnson, forcing him lower into the footwell of the car, using
his own body as a shield. The slow rate at which the President’s driver reacted allowed a further two shots to be fired, one missing whilst the second exploded into the president’s
skull, jerking his head sharply. Amateur footage shot at the time shows the shocking images of the bullet’s impact, with pieces of the President’s skull spraying over Jackie and the
back of the car. It was now clear to most who were in, or close to the President’s car that he had been fatally hit. The motorcade now sped away, heading directly to Parkland Hospital which
had been warned of the President’s impending arrival. At the same time, the police and officers who had been amongst the crowds began searching for the would-be assassin. The feeling was that
the gunshots had been fired from a sixth-floor window overlooking Dealy Plaza.

Just six minutes later, at 12.36 p.m., the President’s car arrived at Parkland Hospital and he was rushed through to the emergency suite. No one really imagined that any amount of medical
intervention could save the President – anyone else would have been classed as dead on arrival (DOA). But this was Jack Kennedy and so the medical team went through the motions, performing a
tracheotomy to aide breathing and then providing a blood transfusion, even though his pulse was already non-existent. Finally the doctors opened his chest and massaged his heart, but it was already
too late and it probably had been since the second shot hit him. Jackie entered the emergency room with two Roman Catholic priests who had been called, determined to be in the room at the time of
the President’s officially recorded time of death, even though she too knew the actual time of death had been much earlier. Seeing the frenzied action surrounding her husband she briefly
wondered in fact if there might be a chance after all, but the hope soon faded as the doctors and nurses moved away from the operating table and began pushing the wheeled medical equipment
aside.

Unlike previous presidential assassinations, the news of Jack Kennedy’s death revolved around the news screens of the world within minutes. It is said that anyone of a certain age can
remember where they were at the time they heard the news of the assassination. In terms of a world-changing event there could have been nothing quite like it as America went into deep shock and
sought answers to how it could ever have happened. The assassination has spurned hundreds of books, movies, documentaries and above anything else, numerous conspiracy theories. For if the death of
the President shocked the world, it would be the murder of his assassin that would provoke a mixture of delight, then disbelief and finally confusion as to the question of who really lay behind the
murder of JFK.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting police officers fanned out and headed to the areas most thought to have been the gunman’s vantage point. Motorcycle police officer Marrion Baker
had heard over the police radio that the shots had appeared to come from a sixth-floor room of the Texas School Book Repository building, which overlooked the assassination zone. Baker pulled up at
the repository building and sprinted up the back staircase hoping to find the gunman. On the second floor he passed two men, Lee Harvey Oswald and his boss, Roy Trudy; both said they were employees
and Baker allowed them to pass, whilst he headed up to the sixth floor. On reaching the sixth floor, Baker found the area empty, but he did find a rifle hidden behind some old boxes. Over the
police radio he then heard a description of the gunman as provided by a member of the public who had seen the man in the window from his position opposite the repository building. The description
given matched that of Lee Oswald, the man he had passed on the second floor.