The Mad Sculptor: The Maniac, the Model, and the Murder that Shook the Nation

by Schechter, Harold

  7. New York Daily News, April 12, 1937, p. 3; New York Evening Journal, April 12, 1937, pp. 1 and 3; Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 7–71. For an entertaining biography of Bernard, see Robert Love, The Great Oom: The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America (New York: Viking, 2010).

  8. Trent, “Murder of the Model,” July 1, 1937, p. 46.

  9. Ibid., p. 47; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 120.

  10. William R. Taylor, ed., Inventing Times Square: Commerce and Culture at the Crossroads of the World (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 332. The work that best captures Hubert’s ineffably sleazy ambience is Morty Bushmaster, Hubert’s Dime Museum & Flea Circus: An Underground History (New York: Book Whisperer Press, 2008).

  11. After its initial newspaper publication, Bob’s confession appeared in many publications. This and other quotes are taken from Lewis J. Valentine, Night Stick: The Autobiography of Lewis J. Valentine, Former Police Commissioner of New York (New York: The Dial Press, 1947), p. 175.

  12. Gathje, A Model Crime, p.119.

  13. See Stage, March 1935, p. 5.

  14. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 120.

  15. Hinsie, “The Psychopathology of Murder,” pp. 4–7.

  16. Wertham, The Show of Violence, p. 134; report of B. G. Dodge, p. 8.

  Chapter 16. Bloody Sunday

  1. New York Sun, March 29, 1937, p. 2.

  2. See “Murder for Easter,” Time, April 12, 1937, pp. 67–68.

  3. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 11; New York Evening Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 3.

  4. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 11; New York Evening Journal, March 31, 1937, p. 4.

  5. New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1937, p. 2.

  6. Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 11–13; Francis C. Preston, “Unpublished Facts in New York’s Artist Model Murders,” True Detective Mysteries, September 1937, p. 6; New York Daily Mirror, April 1, 1937, p. 7.

  7. Frederick L. Collins, Homicide Squad: Adventures of a Headquarters Old Timer (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1944), p. 207; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 6; Report of Death on (Mrs.) Mary Gedeon by Thomas A. Gonzales, M.D., Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, Case No. 1898, March 29, 1937, pp. 1–3.

  8. Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, pp. 4–5.

  9. New York Daily News, March 29, 1937, p. 3; Report on Death of Frank Byrnes by Thomas A. Gonzales, M.D., Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, Case No. 1897, March 29, 1937.

  10. Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 8.

  11. New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 12.

  12. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (New York: Dover, 2010), p. 17.

  13. New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 13; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 9.

  14. Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, p. 20.

  15. New York Sun, March 29, 1937, p. 2; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 8.

  16. Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 8.

  17. Ibid., p. 7.

  18. New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 12.

  19. Jack Alexander, “Independent Cop—Part I,” The New Yorker, October 3, 1936, p. 23, and “Independent Cop—Part II,” The New Yorker, October 10, 1936, p. 30.

  20. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 14; Collins, Homicide Squad, p. 210.

  21. Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 7–8, 14; New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 13.

  22. New York Sun, March 29, 1937, p. 2; New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 13.

  23. New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1937, p. 3.

  24. New York Evening Journal, March 31, 1937, p. 5; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 23.

  25. New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1937, p. 3.

  Chapter 17. The Party Girl

  1. Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 1–2. In the same week that Newsweek covered the Easter Sunday Massacre, both Time and Life magazines also ran pieces on the case. See Time, April 12, 1937, p. 68, and Life, April 12, 1937, p. 31.

  2. New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1927, pp. 1 and 15; New York Daily News, March 29, 1937, p. 3; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 6.

  3. New York Daily News, March 29, 1937, p. 3.

  4. New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1937, p. 3; Collins, Homicide Squad, pp. 207–208.

  5. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 14; Leo E. McGivens, The News: The First Fifty Years of New York’s Picture Newspaper (New York News Syndicate Co., 1969), p. 215; “Murder for Easter,” pp. 67–68.

  6. New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily News, March 31, 1937, p. 33; Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 59–60. One nationally distributed newsstand magazine published several photographs of the fully nude Ronnie. See Real Detective, September 1937, pp. 23, 25.

  7. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 33; New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1937, p. 3; Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for Inside Detective,” p. 8.

  8. Collins, Homicide Squad, p. 213; Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for Inside Detective,” p. 8; Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 63–65; Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for Inside Detective,” pp. 77–78; Neal Gabler, Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), p. 71.

  9. Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 29–30; New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1937, p. 3.

  10. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 30; New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 12.

  11. New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 13.

  12. New York Evening Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 5.

  13. New York Evening Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 5; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” June 1, 1937, p. 12.

  14. New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 13.

  15. New York Evening Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 5; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, pp. 9, 40.

  16. Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 76; Collins, Homicide Squad, p. 211.

  17. New York Post, March 30, 1937, p. 3; New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1937, p. 1.

  18. Benj. Morgan Vance, M.D., Acting Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, City of New York, “Examination of Fingernail Scrapings from Left Hand of Mary Gedeon Taken March 29, 1937,” attached to autopsy report; New York Evening Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 3; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 50.

  19. Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 77; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 41.

  20. New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 12.

  21. New York Evening Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 2, and March 31, 1937, p. 1; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 77.

  22. New York Evening Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 2; Collins, Homicide Squad, p. 214.

  23. New York Post, March 29, 1937, pp. 1 and 12; Collins, Homicide Squad, p. 214; New York Evening Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 3.

  24. New York Evening Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 2; Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 35, 67.

  25. New York Post, March 29, 1937, p. 1.

  26. New York Post, March 30, 1937, p. 3; New York Times, April 16, 1976, p. 27. The best book-length study of Smith is Glen Jeansonne, Gerald L. K. Smith: Minister of Hate (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997).

  27. Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 78.

  Chapter 18. Murder Sells

  1. New York Daily News, April 4, 1937, p. 5.

  2. New York Daily News, March 31, 1937, p. 31. See Time, April 12, 1937, p. 68.

  3. New York Daily News, April 2, 1937, p. 37.

  4. New York Daily Mirror, April 1, 1937, pp. 3 and 8; April 2, 1937, pp. 20 and 21; and April 4, 1937, p. 20.

  5. New York Post, March 30, 1937, p. 3.

  6. New York Daily News, March 31, 1937, p. 3; New York Times, March 31, 1937, p. 1.

  7. New York Journal, March 30, 1937, p. 2; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” June 1, 1937, p. 12; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 78; Collins, Homicide Squad, p. 215.

  8. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 52.

  9. Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 67–70; New York Evening Journal, March 31, 1937, pp. 3 and 4; New York Post, Mar
ch 31, 1937, p. 3; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 79.

  10. New York Evening Journal, April 1, 1937, p. 2; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 77.

  11. Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 79.

  12. Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 47–48; Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for Inside Detective,” pp. 9, 52; New York Daily News, April 1, 1937, p. 10, and April 2, 1937, p. 6.

  13. New York Daily News, April 2, 1937, p. 6; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 79; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 77.

  14. Reynolds, Courtroom, p. 109.

  15. Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for Inside Detective,” p. 52.

  16. New York Daily News, April 2, 1937, pp. 3 and 6; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 80.

  17. New York Daily News, April 1, 1937, pp. 1 and 2; New York Evening Journal, April 1, 1937, p. 3; New York Daily Mirror, April 1, 1937, pp. 1 and 39. See also Ted Collins, ed., New York Murders (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1944), pp. 237–238.

  18. New York Daily News, April 2, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily Mirror, April 2, 1937, p. 18.

  19. New York Evening Journal, April 1, 1937, pp. 1–2; New York Daily Mirror, April 2, 1937, p. 5.

  20. Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 93–94; New York Post, April 1, 1937, p. 1.

  21. New York Post, April 1, 1937, p. 5.

  22. New York Daily News, April 1, 1937, p. 6, and April 2, 1937, p. 36.

  23. Ibid.; New York Evening Journal, April 2, 1937, p. 1; New York Post, April 1, 1937, p. 5.

  24. New York Evening Journal, April 2, 1937, pp. 1 and 3; New York Post, April 2, 1927, pp. 1, 2, and 3; New York Sun, April 2, 1937, pp. 1 and 21; New York Mirror, April 3, 1937, pp. 1 and 3, and April 4, 1937, p. 14.

  25. Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 80.

  26. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 95; New York Daily Mirror, April 3, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily News, April 3, 1937, p. 1; New York Journal, April 3, 1937, p. 1.

  27. New York Daily Mirror, April 4, 1937, p. 8; New York Daily News, April 4, 1937, pp. 6 and 8.

  28. New York Post, April 3, 1937, p. 1; New York Sun, April 3, 1937, p. 1; New York Evening Journal, April 3, 1937, pp. 1 and 2; New York Mirror, April 4, 1937, p. 3; New York Times, April 5, 1937, p. 40; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 80; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 128; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 8.

  29. New York Herald Tribune, April 5, 1937, p. 1.

  30. New York Times, April 5, 1937, p. 40; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 80; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 128; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 8; Reynolds, Courtroom, pp. 112–113.

  Chapter 19. Prime Suspect

  1. New York Sun, April 5, 1937, p. 2.

  2. See New York Post, April 5, 1937, pp. 1–2; New York Herald Tribune, April 5, 1937, pp. 1–2; New York Sun, April 5, 1937, pp. 1–2.

  3. New York Post, April 6, 1937, p. 2; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” June 15, 1937, p. 12.

  4. New York Times, April 6, 1937, p. 1, and April 9, 1937, p. 9; Jennifer Jane Marshall, “Clean Cuts: Procter & Gamble’s Depression-Era Soap-Carving Contests,” Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Spring 2008), pp. 51–52; Candice Jacobson Fuhrman, Publicity Stunt!: Great Staged Events that Made the News (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1989), p. 131. Fuhrman’s book illustrates how readily truth gets inflated into legend. In her telling, “A New York City soap carver took a turn at practicing his art on a young woman and her mother. Hiding in the home of his victims while they were out, he gathered a number of cakes of soap from around the house and started carving, and by the time the women returned home he had finished a number of pieces. He then killed them both and fled the scene of the crime, leaving the bodies and the completed soap sculptures. Police brought in Henry Bern, the public relations counsel for the contest, who after many years of judging contests was an expert on carving style. He instantly recognized the work of the previous year’s winner.”

  5. New York Post, April 6, 1937, p. 2; New York Times, April 6, 1937, p. 6.

  6. New York Daily Mirror, April 6, 1937, p. 13; New York Evening Journal, April 6, 1937, p. 3; New York Sun, April 6, 1937, p. 1.

  7. New York Daily Mirror, April 6, 1937, p. 3.

  8. New York Post, April 5, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily Mirror, April 6, 1937, p. 3; New York Evening Journal, April 6, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily News, April 6, 1937, p. 3.

  Chapter 20. Manhunt

  1. New York Post, April 5, 1937, p. 15, and April 6, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily News, April 7, 1937, pp. 3 and 10; New York Evening Journal, April 6, 1937, pp. 1 and 3; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 120; New York Sun, April 6, 1937, pp. 1 and 19. On March 22, 1938, Joseph Gedeon would receive a suspended sentence of his possession of an unlicensed pistol. See New York Times, March 23, 1938, p. 46.

  2. New York Herald Tribune, April 5, 1937, p. 2; New York Post, April 5, 1937, p. 2; New York Sun, April 5, 1937, p. 2.

  3. New York Post, April 6, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily News, April 7, 1937, pp. 6 and 8.

  4. New York Evening Journal, April 6, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily Mirror, April 9, 1937, p. 3.

  5. New York Evening Journal, April 6, 1937, pp. 1 and 2.

  6. New York Daily News, April 9, 1937, p. 3.

  7. New York Daily Mirror, April 7, 1937, p. 4.

  8. New York Daily News, April 7, 1937, p. 6; New York Daily Mirror, April 7, 1937, p. 3; New York Evening Journal, April 7, 1937, p. 1.

  9. New York Daily News, April 9, 1937, pp. 3 and 6; New York Journal, April 12, 1937, p. 1.

  10. New York Evening Journal, April 7, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily News, April 7, 1937, p. 3.

  11. New York Evening Journal, April 7, 1937, p. 3.

  12. New York Daily News, April 9, 1937, p. 3, and April 10, 1937, p. 1; New York Times, April 9, 1937, p. 9.

  13. New York Daily News, April 9, 1937, p. 3; New York Times, April 11, 1937, p. 33; New York Daily Mirror, April 13, 1937, p. 3.

  14. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 121.

  15. New York Evening Journal, April 8, 1937, p. 4.

  16. New York Daily News, April 10, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily Mirror, April 11, 1937, p. 3.

  17. “Robert Irwin’s Own Life Story,” New York Daily News, April 12, 1937, pp. 3 and 8; April 13, 1937, pp. 2 and 17; April 14, 1937, pp. 3 and 6; April 15, 1937, pp. 3 and 6; and April 16, 1937, p. 6.

  18. New York Evening Journal, April 13, 1937, pp. 1 and 10; New York Herald Tribune, April 14, 1937, p. 4; New York Sun, April 13, 1937, p. 1; New York Daily Mirror, April 14, 1937, p. 3.

  19. New York Daily Mirror, April 16, 1937, and April 11, 1937, p. 3; New York Post, April 15, 1937, p. 3; New York Daily News, April 15, 1937, p. 6; New York Evening Journal, April 15, 1937, p. 1.

  20. New York Evening Journal, April 15, 1937, p. 1.

  21. New York Sun, June 28, 1937, p. 3

  Chapter 21. Murder in Times Square

  1. New York Daily News, April 19, 1937, pp. 3 and 8; April 20, 1937, pp. 3 and 6; and April 21, 1937, pp. 3 and 6. New York Times, April 19, 1937, p. 1; April 20, 1937, p. 1; and April 21, 1937, p. 48. New York Evening Journal, April 19, 1937, pp. 1 and 3; April 20, 1937, pp. 1 and 2; and April 21, 1937, p. 4. New York Post, April 19, 1937, pp. 1 and 2, and April 20, 1937, p. 3. New York Sun, April 19, 1937, pp. 1 and 15.

  2. New York Daily News, April 22, 1937, pp. 1 and 6; June 8, 1937, p. 2; and June 22, 1937, p. 4. New York Times, April 22, 1937, p. 48; June 8, 1937, p. 21; and June 22, 1937, p. 9. New York Evening Journal, June 7, 1937, p. 1, and June 21, 1937, p. 1.

  Chapter 22. Henrietta

  1. Ted Schwarz, Shocking Stories of the Cleveland Mob (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2010), pp. 10, 12, 35, 36.

  2. See Inside Detective, October 1937, p. 6; New York Daily News, June 27, 1937, p. 4.

  3. Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for Inside Detective,” pp. 8–9.

  4. Inside Detective, October 1937, p. 9; New York Sun, June 26, 1937, p. 24; Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 145–146.

  5. Inside Detective, October 1937, p. 40.<
br />
  6. New York Daily News, June 27, 1937, p. 4.

  Chapter 23. The Front Page

  1. All details of Irwin’s flight are taken from his confession as reprinted in Valentine, Night Stick, pp. 172–182.

  2. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 148.

  3. Robert Casey, Such Interesting People (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1943), p. 273.

  4. New York Post, June 28, 1937, p. 2.

  5. For a lively account of the Wanderer case, see Michael Lesy, Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007), pp. 9–27.

  6. See Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, The Front Page: From Theater and Reality, ed. George W. Hilton (Hanover, NH: Smith and Kraus, 2002).

  7. George Johanssen, “What Manner of Man Is This?,” Inside Detective, October 1937, p. 10; Gathje, A Model Crime, pp. 149–150; Reynolds, Courtroom, pp. 121–122.

  Chapter 24. Confession

  1. Report of B. G. Dodge, p. 8.

  2. Valentine, Night Stick, pp. 172–182; Robert Irwin, “Why I Killed the Beautiful Artist’s Model,” Real Detective, September 1937, pp. 20–25, 67–68.

  Chapter 25. Celebrities

  1. Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 153; Reynolds, Courtroom, p. 122.

  2. New York Post, June 28, 1937, p. 1; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 159.

  3. Leibowitz, The Defender, Casebook II, p. 324; Charleston Gazette, June 28, 1937, p. 1.

  4. New York Daily News, June 28, 1937, p. 6.

  5. Ibid.; Leibowitz, The Defender, Casebook II, p. 324.

  6. New York Daily News, June 28, 1937, p. 3; New York Herald Tribune, June 28, 1937, pp. 3 and 7; Gathje, A Model Crime, p. 160.

  7. New York Daily Mirror, June 28, 1937, p.14; New York Post, June 28, 1937, p. 3; Reynolds, Courtroom, p. 158.

  8. New York Post, June 28, 1937, p. 2.

  9. Valentine, Night Stick, p. 183; Reynolds, Courtroom, pp. 123–124.

  10. Wertham, The Show of Violence, pp. 101–106; “Statement of Robert Irwin, at Police Headquarters, June 28, 1937,” Box 21, Folder 10, Papers of Fredric Wertham; Reynolds, Courtroom, p. 128.

  11. New York Post, June 30, 1937, p. 6.

  12. All citations are from the following newspapers: New York Sun, June 28, 1937, pp. 1, 2, and 3; New York Post, June 28, 1937, pp. 1, 2, and 3; New York Daily News, June 28, 1937, pp. 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 22, 24, and 25; New York Herald Tribune, June 28, 1937, pp. 1 and 3; New York Daily Mirror, June 28, 1937, pp. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, and 14.