“I’m all for bridge fights”: Bridge World, June 1931, p. 15.
“Had Husband Been Good Player”: San Francisco Call-Bulletin, April 24, 1931.
“All married people”: San Francisco Chronicle, April 22, 1931.
His maid found him there, slumped: These details of Elwell’s lifestyle, and of his killing, are drawn from coverage in The New York Times, New York Sun, New York American, and New York Herald, from June 12, 1920, through July 12, 1920.
“I live in a strictly rural”: E. B. White, One Man’s Meat (New York: Harper and Row, 1944), p. 51. This quote is drawn from White’s story “Sabbath Morn.”
German air raids on Paris were so amateurish: Culbertson, The Strange Lives of One Man, p. 333.
his twenty francs had grown to more than twenty thousand: Freeman, “Culbertson: Soldier of Fortune,” Outlook, December 9, 1931, p. 461.
“He had the gray matter”: New York Sun, December 17, 1931.
each teacher spending sixty dollars for three days: Beatty, “What Is Your Wife Worth to You?” American Magazine, October 1931, p. 134.
“sensational and universal success”: Bridge World, May 1931, p. 27.
“at the unheard of rate” of four thousand copies: Ibid., p. 16.
“This new [Culbertson] Contract system has splashes: Bridge World, May 1931, p. 16.
“to preserve the game of contract bridge”: Bridge World, July 1931, p. 18.
“Elder Statesmen and Minor Luminaries”: Ibid., p. 13. 129 “This will be Mr. Lenz’s system No. 5”: Ibid.
wager $5,000 against $1,000: New York Times, June 24, 1931.
“If we can pull down Lenz”: Culbertson, The Strange Lives of One Man, p. 587.
“ephemeral little bridge gods”: Ibid., p. 585.
130 “good until the cows come home”: New York World-Telegram, June 25, 1931.
“My lady listeners”: Ibid., p. 22.
Ely reportedly was earning $200,000: “The Bonaparte of the Bridge War,” Literary Digest, October 17, 1931, pp. 30-31; also New York Daily News, November 17, 1931, New York Sun, September 24, 1931.
“An irreparable loss to bridge”: Bridge World, July 1931, p. 8.
Mr. or Mrs. Ely Culbertson challenge: Ibid., p. 1.
“Our reaction to the combination”: Ibid., p. 4.
“And if Mr. Culbertson means business”: New York Sun, July 10, 1931.
ELEVEN: MYRTLE’S MURDER TRIAL, PART 2
wonderful city, he said, with lovely Spanish: Kansas City Times, March 3, 1931.
“What a sober town”: Ibid.
Darrow spoke to the press every bit as much: Richard J. Jensen, Clarence Darrow: The Creation of an American Myth (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992), p. 24.
They were often edited after he’d delivered them: Ibid.
denigrated Sapiro, and consistently mispronounced: Watts, The People’s Tycoon, pp. 393-94.
“his courageous, forceful and honest stand”: Kansas City Star, March 20, 1919.
TWELVE: BRIDGE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY
The practical attitude toward all: Culbertson, Contract Bridge Blue Book, pp. 261-62.
“Their so-called system”: New York Times, September 18, 1931.
Ely taught a weekly bridge class: Beatty, “What Is Your Wife Worth?” American Magazine, October 1931, pp. 136-37; also Culbertson, The Strange Lives of One Man, pp. 579-80.
“a youngish David”: Ibid. 156 “He’s grand!”: Beatty, “What Is Your Wife Worth?” American Magazine, October 1931, p. 27.
He once was offered $1,000: Bridge World, November 1931, p. 29.
traveled to India to study magic and Hindu: Ibid., also Bridge World, March 1932, p. 27.
“lays down all the conditions”: New York Times, October 15, 1931.
158 “Whom will I choose as my partner?”: Bridge World, November 1931, p. 6.
“A Culbertson Christmas”: Publishers Weekly, November 14, 1931, p. 2203.
ABSOLUTE SILENCE: New York Herald-Tribune, December 8, 1931; also Chicago Tribune, January 9, 1932.
Americans would spend an estimated $100 million: “A foursome for bridge,” Vanity Fair, March 1932, p. 38.
“The Greatest Peep Show in History”: Clay, Culbertson, p. 125.
a “crack reporter”: H. Allen Smith, “Culbertson’s Coup,” Sports Illustrated, December 20, 1954, p. 62.
“Who’s pickin’ up the tab?” Ibid.
More than two million words (by Ely’s count): Culbertson, The Strange Lives of One Man, p. 601.
“the most amazing card battle in history”: New York World-Telegram, December 7, 1931.
“the contract championship of the world”: New York Sun, December 5, 1931.
Goldman Sachs stock plummeting from $121: Grantland Rice, The Tumult and the Shouting: My Life in Sport (New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1954), p. 309.
“So, if there were room enough”: Atlanta Constitution, December 8, 1931.
luck would not equalize itself: Bridge Magazine 1, no. 4, January 1932, p. 4.
“now I know why it’s called the Battle”: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 8, 1931.
President Dwight Eisenhower’s partner: Time, September 29, 1958.
“Gentlemen of the press!”: Sacramento Bee, December 8, 1931.
He contracted for game at no trump: New York Herald-Tribune, December 8, 1931.
“I’m sorry, Jo”: December 8, 1931, New York World-Telegram; also William Ashby, SLAM! A Ga-Ga History of the Culbertson-Lenz Bridge War (New York: The Bridge World, 1932), p. 25.
to the nearest bellhop, who told the elevator boy: Atlanta Constitution, December 10, 1931.
Lenz-Jacoby led by 1,715 points: This number might look strange to the modern bridge player since nowadays all point totals are divisible by 10. In the time of the Bridge Battle of the Century, though, a no trump contract was worth 35 points per trick.
162 “According to the diffident Mr. Culbertson”: New York Times, December 8, 1931.
players named “Reno,” Mike Cohen, Artie Adelman: New York American, December 24, 1931.
in an auditorium with an electronic scoreboard: New York Sun, December 19, 1931.
I wish you’d have been there: Sacramento Bee, December 8, 1931.
“Mr. Culbertson is by far and away”: Atlanta Constitution, December 10, 1931.
“My God, Ely, you’re getting grease”: Sports Illustrated, December 20, 1954. p. 63.
“My vast public won’t let me”: Ibid.
“Ely, that’s getting awfully monotonous”: New York Times, December 12, 1931.
He hung a large wishbone: Atlanta Constitution, December 11, 1931.
He also offered to autograph it: New York Times, December 12, 1931.
“He’s been sitting there for 10”: New York Sun, December 11, 1931.
“It’s just like letting out a yell”: Ibid.
“Hamlet required a shorter interval”: New York World-Telegram, December 12, 1931.
“we have the reformed Culbertsonians”: Ibid.
“Now I am prepared to acquit”: New York World-Telegram, December 19, 1931.
“neither side has yet demonstrated”: New York Times, December 14, 1931.
“I always lead this way for no trump”: New York Sun, December 15, 1931.
“an express-train and a hansom cab”: Bridge World, February 1932, p. 15.
youngest ever to pass the Society of Actuaries: J. Patrick Dunne and Albert A. Ostrow, Championship Bridge: As Played by the Experts (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1949), p. 61.
“Darling, you are wonderful”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 15, 1931.
“At the conventional suburban”: New York World-Telegram, December 16, 1931.
“She seems detached”: New York Sun, December 17,
1931.
“If Lightner smiles, is it a signal?” New York Times, December 18, 1931.
“one of the most grotesque hands”: Ely Culbertson, analyst, with Josephine Culbertson, Theodore A. Lightner, and Waldermar von Zedtwitz, Famous Hands of the Culbertson-Lenz Match (New York: The Bridge World, 1932), p. 355.
168 “Ozzie promised me faithfully”: New York World-Telegram, December 18, 1931.
“Another session like tonight’s”: New York Times, December 18, 1931.
“The whole thing is a publicity stunt”: Ibid.
“I believe I may safely allow”: New York Times, December 19, 1931.
“Baron, you played a perfect game”: Atlanta Constitution, December 23, 1931.
“Why don’t you read my Blue Book?”: New York Times, December 22, 1931.
“I haven’t!”: Ibid. 169 sixty white men lynched two black men: New York Times, December 11, 1931.
“the fires of suffering”: New York Times, January 4, 1932. 169
“the right of the individual”: New York Times, January 7, 1932.
The Chicago Crime Commission declared: New York Times, December 21, 1931.
Adolf Hitler promised a day of reckoning: New York Times, December 17, 1931.
“Who does he think he is?”: New York World-Telegram, December 4, 1931.
John “Legs” Diamond was shot to death: New York Herald-Tribune, December 18, 1931.
suffered head injuries and two broken ribs: William Manchester, The Last Lion: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 (New York: Dell Publishing, Co., Inc. 1984), pp. 878-80; also New York Times, December 21, 1931. The accident occurred on December 13, 1931.
“Germany has declared war against Russia”: Manchester, The Last Lion, p. 472.
Mrs. Marshall Field III, Mrs. Vincent Astor: Bridge World, February 1932. p. 12.
“You’re going down with flying colors”: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 23, 1931.
“Why do you make these rotten bids?”: New York Times, December 29, 1931.
“Well—well, sir, well, sir”: New York Sun, December 29, 1931.
“I was criticized merely to cover”: New York Herald-Tribune, December 29, 1931.
Lenz had believed, incorrectly, that Liggett preferred: Brooklyn Eagle, January 9, 1932.
172 “Looking at you, how can I?”: Atlanta Constitution, January 9, 1932.
“Looks like I’m the goat”: Ibid.
Ely’s side held 1,745 aces: Atlanta Constitution, January 9, 1932.
“that Lenz is just as apt to bid”: “The Revolt Against Bridge Systems and Ballyhoo,” Literary Digest, January 2, 1932, p. 32.
Ely “is to contract what John D. Rockefeller”: Ibid.
“More citizens than ever are now talking”: Brooklyn Eagle, January 11, 1932.
“No such excitement has been felt”: Uncle Henry, “Sound the Trump,” Collier’s, February 6, 1932, p. 16.
“It has been stated several times”: Bridge World, February 1932, p. 19.
“To women the most satisfying feature”: Ibid.
THIRTEEN: MYRTLE’S MURDER TRIAL, PART 3
“Queen of the West and Southwest”: Letter written in 1901 from Kansas City mayor James A. Reed to the Kansas City mayor in the year 2001, James A. Reed Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-Kansas City, KC443: Box 43.
“In 2001 you may have greater concourse”: Ibid.
VERDICT IN BENNETT CASE: Western Union telegram from James A. Reed to his wife, Lura Reed, March 6, 1931, James A. Reed Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri, Kansas City, KC443: Box 3.
FOURTEEN: MIAMI
“Why go to Arkansas”: Kansas City Star, March 13, 1931.
“The senator should have snapped”: Ibid.
“has deliberately obstructed the introduction”: Kansas City Star, March 9, 1931.
“Some people are preordained”: Ibid.
“It was representative of a good many”: Kansas City Times, March 7, 1931.
Hickok held two pair, aces and eights: Joseph C. Rosa, Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and His Myth (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996), pp. 193-95.
shot through the stomach with a Colt .38: Nick Tosches, King of the Jews (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005), pp. 142-50, 316.
“four shots heard round the world”: Alexander Woollcott, While Rome Burns (New York: The Viking Press, 1934), pp. 191-96. Woollcott’s 1931 story originally appeared in The New Yorker.
195 “There was probably not a literate”: Ibid.
“I’m afraid you’ll want to shoot me for this”: Ibid.
Myrtle settled out of court: Kansas City Star, July 6, 1931; July 7, 1931. 195
7 men were hanged and 3,088 were sentenced: Kansas City Star, November 21, 1934.
“ran around on his wife for years”: Kansas City Star, March 18, 1993.
“There can be no more terrible accidents”: Peter Reed interview.
“He was such a gentleman”: Interview with Becky Rice Stanley. A granddaughter of Annie Rice, Stanley lives in Carmi, Illinois. I had placed a notice about my book project in the Carmi newspaper, seeking to interview any remaining members of Jack Bennett’s extended family. Ms. Stanley contacted me after reading that notice.
“Can you imagine someone”: Ibid.
I searched online for “Myrtle A. Bennett”: Number 489-07-3621; Issue state Missouri; Issue date: Before 1951. Social Security Administration, Social Security Death Index, Master File, Social Security Administration.
I located Myrtle in the 1930 Census: Year: 1930; Census Place: Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri; Roll: 1196; Page: 29A; Enumeration District: 111. United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930, T626, 2,667 rolls.
a remarkable finding: a will for “Myrtle A. Bennett”: Myrtle A. Bennett, signed December 3, 1991, filed January 22, 1992, case number 1992-338-CP-02, 11th Judicial Circuit Court, Dade County, Fla.
died at her apartment at 5:27 A.M.: Myrtle A. Bennett, Certificate of Death, January 21, 1992, Local File No. 001011, Office of Vital Statistics, Florida Department of Health.
distribute an estimated $850,000: Myrtle A. Bennett, signed December 3, 1991, filed January 22, 1992, case number 1992-338-CP-02, 11th Judicial Circuit Court, Dade County, Fla., Petition for Administration.
“She was a fascinating woman”: William Armshaw interview.
“one of the most domineering women”: Ibid.
“Did someone die?” Ibid.
FIFTEEN: KANSAS CITY
designed by John Browning, weighed just twenty-three: Garry James, “Colt Model M Pocket Auto,” Guns and Ammo, January 2002, pp. 46–48; also Colt Automatic Pistol, Pocket Model, Calibers .32 and .380 Hammerless Owner’s Manual, Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing, Co., Hartford, Conn., 2001.
“Equipped with safety features”: Advertisement on the inside of the manufacturer’s box of the Colt Model 1903 Hammerless .32 Pocket Automatic, Courtesy of Alan Henry, owner of Marin Firearms, Novato, Calif.
“Abe Lincoln may have freed all men”: Kathleen Hoyt interview; Hoyt, a Colt company historian and archivist, believes this phrase first circulated during, or perhaps soon after, the Civil War.
“The Secrets of Nelly Don”: Kansas City Star Magazine, May 7, 2006.
husband, Paul, telling him to get $75,000: Kansas City Journal-Post, December 17, 1931.
“I will say this, if a single hair”: Kansas City Star, December 17, 1931.
That was a ruse. She returned from Europe: Terence Michael O’Malley and Peter Reed interviews.
Reed presented Lazia an ultimatum: O’Malley, Nelly Don, pp. 52-53.
found Nell and her chauffeur walking: Kansas City Star, December 18, 19
31.
“You go and sit down”: William Reddig, Tom’s Town: Kansas City and the Pendergast Legend (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986), pp. 212-13.
“crushed by the sudden loss”: Kansas City Star, October 12, 1932.
“Heartfelt sympathy from your old friend”: Kansas City Times, October 13, 1932.
Thirty-four days later Nell filed for divorce: Kansas City Times, December 14, 1933.
She purchased Paul’s half-interest: O’Malley, Nelly Don, p. 61.
“Wonder if there is anything to the buzz”: Minneapolis Tribune, November 27, 1932, James A. Reed Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri, Kansas City, 771KC: Box 4.
“You may think what you said was witty”: Letter from James A. Reed to Walter Winchell, December 28, 1932, James A. Reed Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 771KC: Box 4.
The Walnuts, she and the Senator married: Kansas City Times, December 14, 1933.
placed metal bars on the second-story: Peter Reed interview.
he hanged himself: O’Malley, Nelly Don, p. 61.
208 “If Mr. Reed gets smart”: Letter from U.S. senator Harry S. Truman to his wife, Bess, July 4, 1935, Robert H. Ferrell, ed., Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959 (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1983), p. 368.
“I am happy you find my logic infallible”: Letter from U.S. senator Harry S. Truman to James A Reed, May 20, 1937, James A. Reed Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-Kansas City, KC443: Box 13.
“There’s Reed. Don’t you want”: Ferrell, ed., Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, p. 491.
“the old so-and-so”: Ibid.
had promised Nell not to disclose the story: Peter Reed interview.
“They were drunk as skunks”: Ibid.
“We expected them to figure it out”: Ibid.
“There were some things”: Ibid.
SIXTEEN: NEW YORK
“Mrs. Bennett was so good-lookin’”: Michael O’Connell interview.
touting “pleasant working conditions”: These advertisements for The Carlyle ran intermittently in The New York Times from September 1945 through July 1955.
The Devil's Tickets Page 30
