The Murder of the Century
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37 willing to testify that the body was not his “The Identification Upset,” NYW, July 2, 1897.
38 Mrs. Clark, it turned out, had been caught up in a divorce “Police Seeking Thorn,” NYT, July 2, 1897.
39 “always mixed up in several affairs” “Mrs. Nack Spends Hours on Detective Chief O’Brien’s Rack,” NYEJ, July 2, 1897.
40 Journal reporters sat down with Frank Ibid. NB: The remainder of this chapter’s dialogue is drawn from this account.
41 the illicit service that some midwives quietly provided Brodie, Contraception and Abortion, 54.
8. THE WIDOW’S FRIEND
1 finally been promoted to acting inspector “More Murder Clues,” NYME, July 1, 1897.
2 a composer of novelty tunes “Ex-Inspector O’Brien Dead,” NYT, July 3, 1913.
3 on the table and chairs … O’Brien had arranged the tools NYET, July 2, 1897.
4 “the most cold blooded woman” “Trying to Trace Thorn,” BE, July 3, 1897.
5 alienists wandered in and out “An Expert Alienist Studies Mrs. Nack,” NYH, July 4, 1897.
6 readers were treated to close-ups NYEJ, July 1, 1897.
7 “I made an especial study” NYH, July 4, 1897.
8 “masturbatic insanity” Spitzka, Cases of Masturbation, 238.
9 presiding over the electric chair’s rather messy debut Moran, Executioner’s Current, 19.
10 “Did you know … she has never reported a live birth” NYH, July 4, 1897.
11 “I cannot understand how detectives could expect such a clumsy trick” “World-Wide Hunt for Martin Thorn,” NYEJ, July 3, 1897.
12 “She is a decided liar.… Streuning buried a child of hers” “Looks Black for the Midwife,” NYH, July 2, 1897.
13 lost their own five-year-old daughter to diphtheria NYP, July 1, 1897.
14 a servant girl who let burglars “A Servant’s Intelligence Suspected,” NYEP, July 1, 1897.
15 a would-be parachute inventor “Hung by One Foot in Midair,” NYH, July 1, 1897.
16 a severed black-stockinged leg “Found a Woman’s Leg,” NYEJ, July 1, 1897.
17 the druggist who hanged himself “Rope His Last Resort,” Ibid.
18 “My name … is Sophie Miller” “Mrs. Nack at the Bar of Justice,” NYH, July 2, 1897.
19 Hearst’s print room hastily jammed the two crucial words “Mrs. Nack Will Be Charged with Murdering Guldensuppe,” NYEJ, July 1, 1897.
20 spent the afternoon working barbershops … over a shave Collins, Homicide Squad, 61.
21 he’d quit on the spot last week NYH, July 2, 1897.
22 “As soon as I saw … I thought right away of Thorn” NYW, July 2, 1897.
23 a particular fondness, Keehn said, for widows NYH, July 2, 1897.
24 “He used to laugh at Guldensuppe” NYW, July 2, 1897. NB: The dialogue in the remainder of this section is all drawn from this World account.
25 his face prickling painfully Collins, Homicide Squad, 61.
9. THE DISAPPEARING SHOEMAKER
1 THE IDENTIFICATION UPSET NYW, July 2, 1897.
2 World reporters in turn humiliated Mrs. Riger NYW, July 2, 1897.
3 THE WORLD DESPERATE NYEJ, July 2, 1897.
4 One of Nack’s neighbors signed … that Pulitzer had a $10,000 slush fund Ibid.
5 STILL TWENTY FOUR HOURS BEHIND THE NEWS Ibid.
6 reporters hired Mrs. Nack’s surrey and horse “Murder Will Out,” NYW, July 3, 1897.
7 His name was Henry Wahle, and he lived in Woodside “Mrs. Nack’s Confession,” NYW, July 4, 1897.
8 Mrs. DeBeuchelare’s dairy Gregory, Woodside, 77.
9 Mr. Jacobs kept that greenhouse Ibid., 75.
10 Four Manhattan detectives marched NYW, July 4, 1897. 73 A general store by the trolley stop Gregory, Woodside, 84.
11 Greenpoint Avenue Hall … rube entertainments Gregory, Woodside, 89.
12 fire chief and a coroner were convenient neighbors “Murder Traced in Duck Tracks,” NYH, July 4, 1897.
13 “Mrs. Hafftner,” she introduced herself NYW, July 4, 1897.
14 near one end of the block was the stop for the NY & Queens County trolley Copquin, Neighborhoods of Queens, 207.
15 a dreary little house, coated in cheap brown paint NYH, July 4, 1897. NB: Second Street has since been renamed Fifty-Fifth Street; its northern intersection of “Anderson Avenue” is now Thirty-Seventh Avenue. The location of the cottage, based on a graphic from the September 20, 1897, NYEJ (which pinpoints the cottage), as well as a 1909 Bromley map of Queens (plate 13), would place the crime scene on the west side of Fifty-Fifth Street, roughly a quarter of a block south of the intersection with Thirty-Seventh Avenue. This side of Fifty-Fifth is now completely covered by warehouses; a single old house wedged in across the street is the sole indication that it was once a residential block.
16 the remains of a man’s shoe “Murder Still a Mystery,” NYT, July 5, 1897.
17 The bathroom … shaved samples off the floor NYW, July 4, 1897.
18 scooped up a bucket of the mud NYT, July 4, 1897.
19 Reporters were pouring over on the East River ferries Edwarde, Guldensuppe Mystery, 87.
20 Something like—“Help! Help! Murder!” “Is Thorn in New York?” BE, July 4, 1897.
21 “I clean my windows every Friday afternoon” Edwarde, Guldensuppe Mystery, 89.
22 She’d only seen one come out “Dying Screams Heard by Three,” NYH, July 5, 1897.
23 WORLD WIDE HUNT NYEJ, July 3, 1897.
24 WANTED—For the murder “Heard Murder Cried,” NYT, July 4, 1897.
25 NYU maintained its newly built Loomis Laboratory Researches of the Loomis Laboratory, 7.
26 first guide to preserving crime-scene evidence Bell, Crime and Circumstance, 192.
27 the first book on cadaver fauna Ibid., 216. NB: Specifically, the two books are Hans Gross’s Handbuch für Untersuchungsrichter als System der Kriminalistik (1893) and Jean Pierre Mégnin’s La faune des cadavres (1894).
28 match the microscopic shells on a dead man’s muddy boot Witthaus and Becker, Medical Jurisprudence, 353.
29 A careful practitioner might even extract Ibid., 354.
30 featured asphalt floors for easy hosing down Researchers of the Loomis Laboratory, 70.
31 “Witthaus looks like a sea-lion” “Dr. Witthaus Found Deadly Poison,” NYW, January 11, 1900.
32 Carey had collared a physician.… Witthaus who’d gotten the goods Carey, Memoirs, 42.
33 original handwritten manuscript “Witthaus Bought Copies as Real Art,” NYT, July 16, 1916.
34 Witthaus was battling an allegation of attempted murder NYT, January 24, 1898.
35 There wasn’t a speck of blood “Mrs. Nack’s Oilcloth,” NYME, July 2, 1897.
36 saw and knife weren’t even the right fit NYME, July 2, 1897.
37 strategy had secured a conviction NYET, July 2, 1897.
38 Byrnes had publicly dared Jack the Ripper Lardner and Reppetto, NYPD, 88.
39 telltale viscera of dismemberment Flint, Collected Essays, vol. 2, 516.
40 Buala was bustling around his wine shop NYW, July 4, 1897.
41 “I do not remember these people” NYW, July 4, 1897. NB: The remainder of the dialogue in this section is drawn from this World account.
42 same as in the “Fred” letters Ibid.
43 It had been postmarked only yesterday “Den of Murderers Located,” NYP, July 4, 1897.
10. THE SILENT CUSTOMER
1 Detective J. J. O’Connell.… and his partner, Detective Boyle, were arriving in Queens “Dying Screams Heard by Three,” NYH, July 5, 1897.
2 MURDER TRACED IN DUCK TRACKS NYH, July 4, 1897.
3 THE HOUSE OF DEATH NYW, July 4, 1897.
4 HAIR PULLING MATCH NYP, July 4, 1897.
5 Den of Murder Ibid.
6 rumor had spread of a $1,000 bounty “Blood in the House of Mystery,” NYW, July 5, 1897.
7 constable struggled to
keep the masses at bay Ibid.
8 Nobody knew where to find the caretaker NYH, July 5, 1897.
9 O’Connell and Boyle wrenched open a window Ibid.
10 “Yes, that’s the same rig” NYW, July 5, 1897.
11 “That’s the same carriage” Ibid.
12 wine bottle “Mrs. Nack May Be Indicted,” NYT, July 6, 1897.
13 small cardboard bullet box “Queens County Wants Mrs. Nack,” NYEJ, July 6, 1897.
14 he’d worked as a plumber.… exposed and disassembled the plumbing “Murder Still a Mystery,” NYT, July 5, 1897.
15 a sea of children. More than a thousand of them NYH, July 5, 1897. NB: This remarkable figure is also given in the same day’s Evening Telegram.
16 cyclists were getting drunk and crashing wildly.… “Between drinks” NYW, July 5, 1897.
17 water out from a spring in Trains Meadow Gregory, Woodside, 78.
18 meter showed a whopping 40,000-gallon spike … “The amount of water” Edwarde, Guldensuppe Mystery, 92.
19 “The legs … are not in the morgue” “Guldensuppe’s Legs Gone,” NYTR, July 6, 1897.
20 “Guldensuppe has gained more fame” NYH, July 6, 1897.
21 “One of the theories” NYT, July 6, 1897.
22 “I desire” NYP, July 4, 1897.
23 announced the recipients of his $1,000 reward “These Men Got the $1000,” NYEJ, July 5, 1897.
24 gouged a stain out of the floor NYW, July 5, 1897.
25 BLOOD IN THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY Ibid.
26 Teichmann test Wood, Chemical and Microscopical Diagnosis, 17.
27 Mrs. Nack was beginning to waver NYW, July 4, 1897.
28 Thorn, he assured the Journal “Heard Victim’s Appeal,” NYEJ, July 5, 1897.
29 and the Tribune NYTR, July 6, 1897.
30 he added to the Press “Thorn May Be Caught in Canada,” NYP, July 5, 1897.
31 and the Brooklyn Eagle “Is Thorn in New York?” BE, July 4, 1897.
32 To the Mail and Express, he was “positive” “No News of Thorn,” NYME, July 5, 1897.
33 turned up later that evening in the morgue’s pickling vat “Guldensuppe’s Legs Vanish,” NYH, July 6, 1897.
34 logging one sunstroke case after another “Heat in the City,” NYW, July 7, 1897.
35 Louisville embezzler and a Brooklyn con man “Nack Hearing Postponed,” NYT, July 7, 1897.
36 A suicide found in a Jersey City NYT, July 5, 1897.
37 body that veteran stage actor George Beane found Ibid.
38 IS THIS MARTIN THORN? NYT, July 5, 1897.
39 Pauline told a Journal reporter “Queens County Wants Mrs. Nack,” NYEJ, July 6, 1897.
40 World reporters located Thorn’s older brother “Saw Thorn on Wednesday,” NYW, July 6, 1897.
41 last confirmed sighting of Thorn was by a moving company NYW, July 6, 1897.
42 woman in the Detective Bureau’s office “Thorn Has Confessed to the Murder,” NYEJ, July 7, 1897.
43 detectives waited impatiently at the 125th Street El station NYEJ, July 7, 1897.
44 “I can’t go back on a friend” NYEJ, July 7, 1897.
45 uttered a single word: “Haircut” “Martin Thorn Is a Prisoner,” NYH, July 7, 1897.
46 shed his usual brown derby for a white fedora and shaved Edwarde, Guldensuppe Mystery, 96.
47 quarter past nine that night NYH, July 7, 1897.
48 Spear’s Drug Store ruled the busy Harlem corner NYW, July 7, 1897.
49 Spear himself was manning the till, and his clerk Maurice “Martin Thorn Is Captured,” NYW, July 7, 1897.
50 the real profits, which lay in the slot telephone American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record 31 (1897): 113.
51 city after city on the East Coast was reporting relentless heat “The Whole Country Overheated,” NYW, July 7, 1897.
52 Laborers in soiled overalls NYH, July 7, 1897.
53 “Let’s go take a drink” NYEJ, July 7, 1897.
54 It’s a holdup, Maurice frantically signaled NYW, July 7, 1897.
55 “I am Martin Thorn.” …“And I am Inspector O’Brien” Edwarde, Guldensuppe Mystery, 109.
11. A CASE OF LIFE AND DEATH
1 “I’ve thought so for five minutes” “Thorn Indicted with Mrs. Nack,” NYP, July 9, 1897.
2 Along with the .32 revolver, a closer search “Indicted for the Murder,” NYT, July 9, 1897.
3 O’Brien, McCauley, and Price, along with NYH, July 7, 1897.
4 They reached Houston and Bowery just after ten p.m. NYH, July 7, 1897.
5 AN ELECTRICAL EXECUTION NYEP, July 6, 1897.
6 A plainclothes scrum double-marched Thorn NYH, July 7, 1897.
7 they’d been scraped by forensics “Thorn Murdered Guldensuppe,” BE, July 7, 1897.
8 Witthaus himself had come “Thorn’s Friend Betrays Him,” NYW, July 8, 1897.
9 Thorn’s body had been scrupulously measured “Thorn Says He Alone Is Guilty,” NYH, July 9, 1897.
10 Bertillon’s wondrous anthropometric system Houck, Forensic Science, 26.
11 India had adopted a new system Cole, Suspect Identities, 87.
12 inspector worked quietly at his desk, saying nothing for hours NYH, July 7, 1897.
13 Thorn’s gaze fell upon the piles of letters NYW, July 8, 1897.
14 “I at present live in a furnished room” NYH, July 9, 1897. NB: The remainder of this scene’s conversation is from this Herald account.
15 four in the morning, when O’Brien finally let his prisoner collapse NYW, July 8, 1897.
16 That’s him Ibid.
17 “Looks pretty bad.” … “I don’t fear death” Ibid.
18 “Hit him!” “Gartha [sic] Tells of the Murder,” NYH, July 8, 1897. The remainder of the description of Gotha’s ruse is drawn from the Herald account.
19 “I first met Thorn nine years ago” “Thorn Warns Mrs. Nack in Court,” NYEJ, July 9, 1897.
20 “old—prematurely old” Rheta Childe Dorr, “The Prodigal Daughter,” Hampton’s Magazine 24 (1910): 526.
21 “He had the look of a man going to the electric chair” NYH, July 9, 1897.
22 “I met him at a saloon” Edwarde, Guldensuppe Mystery, 100.
23 “He nearly severed the head” Ibid., 103.
24 “It’s done” NYH, July 8, 1897.
25 “He told her” Edwarde, Guldensuppe Mystery, 103.
26 With hot water running at full blast NYW, July 8, 1897.
27 “As the boat neared the slip” Edwarde, Guldensuppe Mystery, 105.
28 He fretted that he hadn’t shaved “Lured to His Death,” NYME, July 7, 1897.
29 “I saw by newspaper reports” “Gartha Tells of the Murder,” NYH, July 8, 1897.
30 “Mr. Gotha, I do not want to detain you” “Thorn Says He Alone Is Guilty,” NYH, July 9, 1897.
31 “ ‘I wish to God I had not told you’ ” Edwarde, Guldensuppe Mystery, 106. 102 he’d instantly understood what it meant NYEJ, July 9, 1897.
12. HEADS OR TAILS
1 “Going fishing?” “Mrs. Nack Sees Martin Thorn,” NYET, July 9, 1897.
2 These were naphtha boats NYEJ, July 8, 1897.
3 grapplers, salvagers who worked the docks “How the Grappler Earns His Bread,” NYT, May 5, 1901.
4 A couple of dozen grapplers … on six launches NYEJ, July 8, 1897.
5 “Three cheers for Guldensuppe!” “Still Seeking the Head,” NYT, July 12, 1897.
6 Captain Schultz … was in a droll mood NYET, July 9, 1897.
7 “Heads you win, tails you lose!” Ibid.
8 “These men know how to find” NYEJ, July 8, 1897.
9 Street urchins were stripping off … diving among the rakes Ibid.
10 The riverbed was a good twenty-five feet “Diver Hunts Head,” NYW, July 9, 1897.
11 “Something’s caught!” Ibid.
12 William E. Chapman … came chugging up Ibid.
13 already run an operation with hooks “Val
ise and Clothes of the Murdered Man Found,” NYJ, June 29, 1897.
14 veteran deep-sea diver Charles Olsen NYW, July 9, 1897.
15 all they were pulling up were stones and tin cans “Mrs. Nack Faces Martin Thorn,” NYP, July 10, 1897.
16 130 feet of rubber hose to Olsen’s diving suit NYW, July 9, 1897.
17 The door of the narrow three-story brick boardinghouse NYEJ, July 7, 1897. NB: The remainder of this scene is drawn from this Evening Journal account, except for the quote that follows.
18 “Do you recognize me?” NYH, July 8, 1897.
19 copy after copy of murder coverage “Lured to His Death,” NYME, July 7, 1897.
20 from the World NYW, July 7, 1897.
21 the Journal NYEJ, July 7, 1897.
22 the Herald NYH, July 8, 1897.
23 “My God!” was gleefully illustrated NYEJ, July 7, 1897.
24 witnessed them discovering a bullet hole NYEJ, July 8, 1897.
25 “Blood Spots on Martin Thorn’s Undershirt” NYEJ, July 8, 1897.
26 “the Evening Journal’s pen and pencil” Editorial, Ibid.
27 “a nail made the bullet hole” NYW, July 9, 1897.
28 Thorn did indeed resemble a man who’d walked up to Dr. O’Hanlon Ibid.
29 Herald had been the city’s colossus, with a circulation of more than 190,000 Reel, The National Police Gazette and the Making of the Modern American Man, 48.
30 1874 hoax claiming escaped circus tigers Ibid.
31 Thorn pondering aloud how one might lure NYH, July 9, 1897.
32 reduced to profiling the Woodside duck “Thorn Said to Have Confessed,” NYP, July 8, 1897.
33 detectives marched into the World offices NYW, July 9, 1897.
34 Mr. Valentine’s turnip giveaway “Turnips Free for All,” Ibid.
35 Old-timers … recalled “the Kelsey Outrage” NYEJ, July 9, 1897.
36 no jury had been able to convict NYT, “The Kelsey Murder Mystery,” November 6, 1876.
37 “as dead as Kelsey’s nuts” Carol Richards, “The Kelsey Outrage Gets More Outrageous,” Newsday, February 3, 2001.
38 assistant DA had been busy insisting … didn’t particularly need Guldensuppe’s head “Mrs. Nack Warns Thorn in Court,” NYH, July 10, 1897.
39 he couldn’t recognize Nack and Thorn … detectives grumbled, he feared a conviction “Mrs. Nack May Be Indicted,” NYT, July 6, 1897.
40 attempted to keep the coroner from touching his precious baseboards NYW, July 8, 1897.