The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars (48 page)

  1
A tall, long-haired artist
“Mrs. Nack Set Free, Met Here by Mob,”
NYT
, July 20, 1907.

  2
CUT HIS THROAT BY ACCIDENT and SHE HEARD VOICES NYJ
, July 19, 1907.

  3
story of a Civil War vet in Central Park
“Talks War to Tots and Kills Self,”
New York Evening Mail
, July 19, 1907.

  4
MRS. NACK SET FREE NYEJ
, July 19, 1907.

  5
a train crewman stopped
“Mrs. Nack, Free, Centre of Mob on Arrival Here,”
NYW
, July 20, 1907.

  6
“I am glad to be out”
“Mrs. Nack Free, Denies Identity as Murderess,”
NYH
, July 20, 1907.

  7
the platform boiled over with hundreds of people
“Great Crowd to See Mrs. Nack,”
NYS
, July 20, 1907.

  8
“Get away from me!”
“Mrs. Nack Free, Denies Identity as Murderess,”
NYH
, July 20, 1907.

  9
“We are friends of yours” NYW
, July 20, 1907.

10
Ranks of tripod cameras lying in wait on Lexington Avenue NYS
, July 20, 1907.

11
“Keb?”
NYW
, July 20, 1907.

12
police station where she’d been interrogated was gone
“The Passing of No. 300 Mulberry St,”
NYT
, September 21, 1902.

13
the courthouse and the jury’s hotel were both burnt out
“Garden City Hotel Burned,”
NYTR
, September 8, 1899.

14
she’d had to pay the driver six dollars
“Mrs. Nack, Unwelcome Patron at Hotel, Leaves,”
NYET
, July 20, 1907.

15
“I suppose I shall find things a great deal different” NYH
, July 20, 1907.

16
Manny Friend, had been gone for three years now
“Emanuel M. Friend, Lawyer, Dead,”
NYT
, November 2, 1904.

17
English child of a brothel keeper
“Central Criminal Court, Sept. 20,”
Times
(London), September 21, 1854.

18
forging admission tickets
“Bow Street,”
Times
(London), November 4, 1848.

19
clerk in Blackfriars
“Central Criminal Court, June 17,”
Times
(London), June 19, 1854.

20
convicted in 1854 of impersonating Proceedings of the Old Bailey, Eleventh Session 1853–4
, September 20, 1854, Case No. 997, 1193. NB: While it has been suspected since at least Rovere’s biography that William F. Howe had a criminal record in the United Kingdom, I am the first to discover the specific offenses and records. They seem to have also remained quite unknown in Howe’s own lifetime. The revelation that Howe was the child of an accused madam, noted in the
Times
of London account of September 21, 1854, has also been previously unknown to biographers.

21
emerged to reinvent himself across the ocean
Rovere,
Howe & Hummel
, 21.

22
Hotel Markwell, where the manager recognized her
“Mrs. Nack Confesses!”
NYEJ
, April 20, 1907.

23
Wilson Mizner … whose lobby sign read CARRY OUT YOUR OWN DEAD
Johnston and Marsh,
Legendary Mizners
, 66.

24
“I got those knocking down dames”
Ibid., 113.

25
signed in as “Mrs. A. Ross, Buffalo” NYEJ
, July 20, 1907.

26
“I have had enough misery for one woman” NYW
, July 20, 1907.

27
“I am selling this story”
“Mrs. Nack Tells of Life in Prison,”
NYT
, July 21, 1907.

28
“Remarkable Photograph” NYEJ
, July 18, 1907.

29
Hearst’s paper was now more squat and squarish NYEJ
, January 5, 1898, and
July 22, 1907. NB: Although most newspaper histories cite the 1920s as the beginning of the tabloid (along with some brief nineteenth-century forays), in reading issues of the
Journal
, it struck me that the paper was already moving in that direction years earlier. Measuring them shows that indeed it was: The height/width ratio on an 1898 issue is roughly 1.4, while on the 1907 issue it is 1.25. 258
an outright tabloid format would be “the 20th Century newspaper”
Lee,
American Journalism, 1690–1940
, vol. 3, 274.

30
crude wooden-type letters that were seven inches tall
Winkler,
Hearst: A New Appraisal
, 107.

31
BUILDING FALLS; 40 KILLED NYEJ
, July 18, 1907.

32
WOMAN KILLS MAN IN UNION SQUARE NYEJ
, July 22, 1907.

33
fascinated by the notion of sending armed zeppelins
editorial,
NYEJ
, July 20, 1907.

34
MRS. NACK CONFESSES! NYEJ
, July 20, 1907.

35
money to move back to Germany
“Mrs. Nack Will Go to Live with Old Mother,”
NYW
, July 21, 1907.

36
she wasn’t sure where to start looking NYT
, July 21, 1907.

37
“This … is worse than prison” NYW
, July 21, 1907.

38
One year later, a call came
“Mrs. Nack Calls at the Tombs,”
Syracuse Herald
, September 6, 1908.

39
“brutal” place of “wanton waste”
“Finds Gross Cruelty in Auburn Prison,”
NYT
, April 28, 1913.

40
“You do not have enough to eat” NYET
, July 20, 1907.

41
“I would like to get a place” Syracuse Herald
, September 6, 1908. 261
Judge Smith
“Justice Smith’s Funeral,”
NYT
, April 1, 1906.

42
Judge Maddox went on to state supreme court
“Judge Maddox Buried,”
NYT
, March 16, 1916.

43
Youngs, the case was followed by a plum promotion
“Col. Wm. J. Youngs Dies,”
NYT
, April 2, 1916.

44
urge the adoption of an alternate-juror rule
“Change in the Jury System,”
NYT
, January 30, 1900.

45
only took another thirty-three years
“Extra Jurors Bill Signed by Governors,”
NYT
, May 2, 1933.

46
testifying in major murder cases
“Dr. R. A. Witthaus, Poison Expert, Dies,”
NYT
, December 21, 1915.

47
view stomach membrane … dazzling crystals of arsenic poisoning
Blum,
Poisoner’s Handbook
, 84.

48
“inheritance powder,” as it was dubbed
Ibid., 79.

49
under an ultraviolet light, that was chloroform poisoning
Ibid., 23.

50
it would also turn yellow for mercury poisoning
Ibid., 110.

51
charged the city a dizzying $18,550
“Molineux Experts’ Charges Over $50,000,”
NYT
, August 10, 1900.

52
his heirs would later claim
“Dr. Witthaus’s Will Attacked in Court,”
NYT
, September 22, 1916.

53
evidence ruined by drunk and incompetent coroners
Blum,
Poisoner’s Handbook
, 5.

54
bribed with, say, a nice gold watch
“Admits Trying to Bribe Juror,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 29, 1908.

55
the coroner’s job was abolished altogether
“What Coroners’ Exit Means,”
NYT
, December 9, 1917.

56
promptly dubbed “Guldensuppe’s head”
“Guldensuppe’s Head?”
NYT
, October 30, 1910.

57
Price, rose to become one of the most recognizable detectives
“Police Capt. Price Dead,”
NYT
, January 9, 1914.

58
O’Brien … went on to address the bewildering rise of automobiles
“Ex-Inspector O’Brien Dead,”
NYT
, July 3, 1913.

59
first head of the NYPD’s newly formed Homicide Bureau
“Arthur Carey, 87, Ex-Inspector, Dies,”
NYT
, December 14, 1952.

60
teaching the homicide course
“Detective School Faculty Announced,”
NYT
, February 24, 1923.

61
had become a standard procedure
Cole,
Suspect Identities
, 152. 263
“In a murder case there is no one obvious clue”
Carey,
Memoirs
, 51.

62
It was a warm June evening
“Bundled Up Body, Dismembered, Found in Street,”
NYW
, June 11, 1909.

63
head was discovered under the Brooklyn Bridge
“Murdered Man, Found Mutilated, Had Love Affair,”
NYW
, June 12, 1909.

64
VICTIM CARVED UP LIKE GULDENSUPPE Hartford Courant
, June 12, 1909.

65
CASE MOST PUZZLING SINCE GULDENSUPPE NYEJ
, June 11, 1909.

66
Scores of detectives tracked the distinctive oilcloth
“Beheaded and Dismembered Victim of Murder Was Samuel Bersin, a Decorator,”
NYH
, June 12, 1909.

67
murdered by a jealous husband.… robbed for his diamond rings … rivals for the hand
“Murdered Man Found Mutilated, Had Love Affair,”
NYW
, June 12, 1909.

68
Sammy was a Russian Jewish anarchist
“Jean Pouren Case Now Figures in Bersin Murder,”
NYW
, June 15, 1909. NB: Despite all the attention that it drew, the Bersin case remained unsolved.

69
“Mrs. Nack has taken the name of Augusta Huber”
“Murder Case Recalled,”
Oshkosh
(Wisconsin)
Daily Northwestern
, March 4, 1909.

70
she was in bankruptcy court
“Mrs. Nack in Trouble Again,”
NYT
, July 13, 1909.

71
Still working the streets of New York
“Old Morgue Inadequate,”
Pittsburgh Press
, August 8, 1915.

72
empty cabernet bottle
“Mrs. Nack May Be Indicted,”
NYT
, July 6, 1897.

73
stabbed while naked NYT
, June 28, 1897.

74
“I last saw her”
Van Wagner,
New York Detective
, 15.

  1
“the first of the great newspaper trials”
“Winchell on Broadway,”
Mansfield
(Ohio)
News Journal
, September 12, 1946.

  2
a venture into writing novelty songs Catalogue of Copyright Entries, part III: Musical Compositions
(Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1915), 930.

  3
Ike White, went on to expose dozens
“Isaac White Dies, Noted Reporter, 79,”
NYT
, September 25, 1943.

  4
Hawthorne landed in prison
“Julian Hawthorne, Dead on Coast, 88,”
NYT
, July 15, 1934.

  5
Journal
had burned through about $4 million
Morris,
Pulitzer
, 344.

  6
He and Hearst met … and negotiated a deal
Ibid., 355.

  7
their resulting agreement went unsigned
Ibid., 359.

  8
came to admire the sober reliability of the
New York Times Ibid., 418.

  9
World
’s proprietor was rehabilitated
Bleyer,
Main Currents
, 351.

10
“a Coney Island of ink and wood pulp”
Palmer,
Hearst and Hearstism
, 120.

11
Patterson’s founding in 1919 of the New York
Daily News Nasaw,
The Chief
, 321.

12
runs for mayor, then governor
Winkler,
Hearst: An American Phenomenon
, 191.

13
inevitably for president
Bleyer,
Main Currents
, 384. NB: He never made it to the White House, but a few suspected Hearst of depriving a previous holder of the office. In 1901 his penchant for brash content backfired spectacularly when a poem by Ambrose Bierce that wished William McKinley dead ran right before the president’s actual assassination. Hearst had to patriotically tack “American” to the
Journal’
s name—making it the
New York Journal American
—to set that one right.

14
“a lark and a triumph”
“The Hearst Boom,”
Nelson
(New Zealand)
Evening Mail
, November 15, 1906.

15
“Ah well, we were young”
Procter,
William Randolph Hearst
, 97.

16
That man was Ned Brown
“Ned Brown Dead; Writer on Boxing,”
NYT
, April 26, 1976.

17
“Being a newspaperman gave you stature then”
Liebling,
Liebling at
The New Yorker, 166.

18
evicted from his apartment
“Most Important Possession,”
Sarasota Herald Tribune
, May 22, 1973.

19
the case files had been destroyed years earlier
“Queens to Destroy Noted Crime Files,”
NYT
, December 7, 1949.

20
reporter picked out a yellowed evidence envelope
Edward Radin column (no surviving headline),
St. Petersburg Times
, July 13, 1949.