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Hello everyone,
I've been in a funk in terms of writing anything since 2007, except an obituary on Jonathan Goodman. This has been compounded recently by the loss (in April) of my mother. In fact, since March I had not bought any books at all, but I have just resumed it because of the subject matter of the following work:
Paul Collins, THE MURDER OF THE CENTURY: THE GILDED AGE CRIME THAT SCANDALIZED A CITY & SPARKED THE TABLOID WARS (New York: Crown Publishers, 2011) 326 pages, illustrated. ICBN 978-0-307-59220-0.
I imagine a paperback will come out shortly. Trade paperback most likely.
The use of the title "The Murder of the Century" for the 19th Century strikes a sort of note of indignation here (as with the readers of this review) as WE know that Whitechapel is "The Murder (s) of the 19th Century", but Mr. Collins is concentrating on the murder of a masseuse, Willie Guldensuppe, by his so-called lover Augusta Nack, and his rival Martin Thorne. Although all lived in Manhattan Island (still short of becoming "the city of greater New York") the guilty couple lured Willie to a house in the Woodside area of Queens (then the countryside) and disposed of him. However, in many cases murder is discovered, and the guilty pair were arrested and indicted.
However, although both were punished, Augusta sacrificed Martin to save herself, and onlly he ended up in the Sing Sing electric chair.
Collins looks at the developement of the "yellow press" of Hearst and Pulitzer, who used this crime as a weapon in their personal rivalry. Hearst came out the more devious and successful here. Also there are glimpses at the state of the New York Police Department in the wake of the disgrace and retirement of their great but corrupt detective, Thomas Byrnes, and the three year reform of the department by Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (in 1897 he was now Assistant Secretary of the Navy). One name pops up that had a recognition by me - Dr. Rudolf Witthaus - the coroner of the city who appeared in most of the homicide trials. Last I saw mention of him was in Ms Jenny Ward's CRIMEBUSTING a few years ago.
The case has always intrigued me - it actually was a New York based mutilation murder in the 1890s, and the killers included a Polish barber (Thorne - actually Tornowski - he too like another domestic murderer who was Polish and a barber got a new name!). Since Guldensuppe was a man, not a woman (and certainly not a prostitute) there was no reason for any of us to look into his fate as we did "Old Shakespeare", but I wonder if Thorne, originally from Posen, could have been on somebody's minde when stories of Chapman and the so-called Russian suspect Pedechenko came up, as Chapman was supposed to have been the Russian's twin, and to have murdered people near New York in the early 1890s. Well anyway it is a feeble guess.
But the book is good, and I recomend it highly. Also it does a little to rebuild the tarnished reputation of William Howe, the attorney who is usually considered one of the great shysters of all time, but was in reality the "F. Lee Bailey" of his period (representing Thome and other transgressors). His cross examination of Mrs. Nack is a real masterpiece of effectiveness.
Jeff Bloomfield.
I've been in a funk in terms of writing anything since 2007, except an obituary on Jonathan Goodman. This has been compounded recently by the loss (in April) of my mother. In fact, since March I had not bought any books at all, but I have just resumed it because of the subject matter of the following work:
Paul Collins, THE MURDER OF THE CENTURY: THE GILDED AGE CRIME THAT SCANDALIZED A CITY & SPARKED THE TABLOID WARS (New York: Crown Publishers, 2011) 326 pages, illustrated. ICBN 978-0-307-59220-0.
I imagine a paperback will come out shortly. Trade paperback most likely.
The use of the title "The Murder of the Century" for the 19th Century strikes a sort of note of indignation here (as with the readers of this review) as WE know that Whitechapel is "The Murder (s) of the 19th Century", but Mr. Collins is concentrating on the murder of a masseuse, Willie Guldensuppe, by his so-called lover Augusta Nack, and his rival Martin Thorne. Although all lived in Manhattan Island (still short of becoming "the city of greater New York") the guilty couple lured Willie to a house in the Woodside area of Queens (then the countryside) and disposed of him. However, in many cases murder is discovered, and the guilty pair were arrested and indicted.
However, although both were punished, Augusta sacrificed Martin to save herself, and onlly he ended up in the Sing Sing electric chair.
Collins looks at the developement of the "yellow press" of Hearst and Pulitzer, who used this crime as a weapon in their personal rivalry. Hearst came out the more devious and successful here. Also there are glimpses at the state of the New York Police Department in the wake of the disgrace and retirement of their great but corrupt detective, Thomas Byrnes, and the three year reform of the department by Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (in 1897 he was now Assistant Secretary of the Navy). One name pops up that had a recognition by me - Dr. Rudolf Witthaus - the coroner of the city who appeared in most of the homicide trials. Last I saw mention of him was in Ms Jenny Ward's CRIMEBUSTING a few years ago.
The case has always intrigued me - it actually was a New York based mutilation murder in the 1890s, and the killers included a Polish barber (Thorne - actually Tornowski - he too like another domestic murderer who was Polish and a barber got a new name!). Since Guldensuppe was a man, not a woman (and certainly not a prostitute) there was no reason for any of us to look into his fate as we did "Old Shakespeare", but I wonder if Thorne, originally from Posen, could have been on somebody's minde when stories of Chapman and the so-called Russian suspect Pedechenko came up, as Chapman was supposed to have been the Russian's twin, and to have murdered people near New York in the early 1890s. Well anyway it is a feeble guess.
But the book is good, and I recomend it highly. Also it does a little to rebuild the tarnished reputation of William Howe, the attorney who is usually considered one of the great shysters of all time, but was in reality the "F. Lee Bailey" of his period (representing Thome and other transgressors). His cross examination of Mrs. Nack is a real masterpiece of effectiveness.
Jeff Bloomfield.
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