The Murder of the Century
Page 34
60 a novel, Three Men and a Woman “A Strong Book by an Iowa Author,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Daily Republican, June 10, 1901.
61 “The death of Guldensuppe preyed” “Nack Brooded,” Lowell (Massachusetts) Sun, June 23, 1903.
62 346 Second Street sat vacant “For Use as a Wine-Shop,” BE, March 19, 1899.
63 thrown the Bualas’ baseboards into a bonfire “Relics of Murder Burned,” NYTR, March 24, 1899.
64 turning them into a jaunty pair of scarf pins “Personal Chats,” Muncie (Indiana) Morning Post, May 4, 1898.
65 “We have already put one haunted house” “Join to Rout Ghosts,” NYTR, May 21, 1904.
66 only to die of rabies “Dog Dealer Dies of Rabies,” NYT, February 12, 1910.
67 preserving the bathroom upstairs BE, March 19, 1899.
68 Piernot ran half-naked and screaming “Saw Guldensuppe’s Ghost,” NYT, December 1, 1900.
25. CARRY OUT YOUR OWN DEAD
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 L
ove 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.
EPILOGUE: THE LAST MAN STANDING
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.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It was years ago that I first chanced upon an 1897 article about some faked murder relics found in a sleepy neighborhood of Queens. From that peculiar beginning came this book—but it couldn’t have been written without the love, patience, and encouragement of my wife, Jennifer, or the inspiration of my sons, Morgan and Bramwell. My great thanks also go to Marc Thomas for all his help in the twenty-first century while I was off traveling in the nineteenth.
I am especially grateful to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; the generous support of a Guggenheim Fellowship was vital in the creation of this book.
My many thanks as well to my agent, Michelle Tessler, and my editor, John Glusman; their wise guidance in the book’s early stages led to my pursuing New York’s newspaper wars as a key part of this story.
Finally, this book is deeply indebted to many librarians. My particular thanks go to the staffs of the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, Portland State University, and the Multnomah County Library. The soul of this book is probably in room 100 of the NYPL, where I found many of the thousands of newspaper articles I used from the case, and where many more stories slumber and wait to be found. When I first stopped by to see the famed NYPL “Librarian to the Stars,” David Smith, he had a surprise for me: “You just got me in time,” he said. “I’m retiring in a couple of days.” And so he was. I suppose I was his last new author and new book in a four-decade career of assisting everyone from Jimmy Breslin to Colson Whitehead. I hope that this book does his old library proud, and that he gets some good beach weather for reading it.
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
col2.1 Is Any One You Know Missing?: NYJ, June 29, 1897. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
p1.1: Body diagram: NYJ, June 28, 1897. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
p2.1: Martin Thorn and Anna Held: NYW, November 12, 1897. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
p3.1: “Mrs. Nack, Murderess!”: NYEJ, June 30, 1897. Reproduced by permission of the New York Public Library.
15.1: Mrs. Nack’s letter: NYJA, October 6, 1897. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
15.2: Thorn’s letter: NYJA, October 7, 1897. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
p4.1: “Thorn Denies That He Shot Guldensuppe”: NYJ, November 30, 1897. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
p5.1: “Interior View of the Woodside Cottage”: NYEJ, November 30, 1897. Reproduced by permission of the New York Public Library.
bm1.1: “Mrs. Nack Tells Her Own Story of the Amazing Guldensuppe Tragedy”: NYEJ, July 20, 1907. Reproduced by permission of the New York Public Library.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Collins is an assistant professor of English at Portland State University and the author of six previous books. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, New Scientist, and Slate. He edits the Collins Library imprint of McSweeney’s Books and appears regularly on NPR’s Weekend Edition as the show’s resident literary detective.