1 Hearst even joked W. R. Hearst, editorial, NYEJ, November 26, 1897.

  2 $60,000 windfall “Patrick J. Gleason Dead,” NYT, May 21, 1901.

  3 her lucky piece of coral “Luetgert Predicts Thorn’s Conviction,” NYW, November 24, 1897.

  4 carried a rabbit’s foot—a present from his wife “Fears Thorn’s Collapse,” NYW, November 23, 1897.

  5 “The case for the people was complete without her” NYH, November 30, 1897.

  6 “Where do you live?” New York v. Thorn, 387.

  7 her voice small and precise, free of artifice NYW, November 30, 1897. 212 “Do you remember” New York v. Thorn, 387.

  8 “Is that all your evidence?” NYH, November 30, 1897.

  9 “I ask … that the jury be permitted to view the bath tub” New York v. Thorn, 495.

10 Thorn … wasn’t interested in joining them Ibid., 501.

11 While a private trolley was requisitioned for the jurors, reporters jockeyed “Martin Thorn’s Case Is in the Hands of the Jury,” NYEJ, November 30, 1897.

12 He hadn’t allowed his charges to read … “nothing but hotel menu cards” “Fight for Thorn’s Life Is On Again,” NYH, November 24, 1897.

13 Good Thing Club “Thorn Jurors’ Bright Idea,” NYH, November 29, 1897.

14 genially hazed their police escort by loading his rifle with blanks “Thorn Will Say the Woman Did It,” NYH, November 28, 1897.

15 referred to as Mrs. Nack’s Office “Thorn Confesses It All,” NYT, December 1, 1897.

16 “All off here for Woodside cottage!” “Thorn’s Fate in Jury’s Hands,” BE, November 30, 1897.

17 The place had hardly changed NYT, December 1, 1897.

18 shooing gawkers to a perimeter NYH, December 1, 1897.

19 Sullivan busily threw open the shutters “Thorn’s Life in Jury’s Keeping,” NYET, November 30, 1897.

20 Judge Maddox hadn’t yet finished his cigar NYEJ, November 30, 1897.

21 tugged down on his pin-striped vest Ibid.

22 so loud that the chandeliers jangled NYJA, November 30, 1897.

23 “Now, as to your visit to the cottage” NYEJ, November 30, 1897.

24 “Remember that the scenes of this day will never” BE, November 30, 1897.

25 “Put these things together in a mosaic” NYEJ, November 30, 1897.

26 it was 2:25 NYEJ, November 30, 1897.

27 a single black-veiled woman nearly hidden “Thorn Found Guilty,” NYTR, December 1, 1897.

28 “So long as Mr. Howe kept in a sphere above the actual evidence” “The Jury’s Declaration at Thorn’s …” (title damaged), NYJA, December 1, 1897.

29 “It is not believed that he cut himself up” editorial, BE, November 27, 1897.

30 reporters could make out raised voices “Jury in Three Hours Finds Thorn Guilty,” NYJA, December 1, 1897.

31 poring over the intercepted jailhouse correspondence “Martin Thorn Convicted,” NYS, December 1, 1897.

32 “Remove your hats!” NYT, December 1, 1897.

33 “Gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon a verdict?” “Jury Finds Thorn Guilty of Murder,” NYH, December 1, 1897.

  1 “I suppose Howe will get a new trial” NYH, December 1, 1897.

  2 wrestling with his adopted mutt “Thorn Sentenced to Die In January,” BE, December 3, 1897.

  3 “I had no motive to kill Guldensuppe” NYH, December 1, 1897.

  4 “Martin!” his sister sobbed “Martin Thorn Is Breaking Down,” NYW, December 3, 1897.

  5 “It doesn’t make any difference to me” NYH, December 1, 1897. NB: The remainder of this scene is drawn from this account.

  6 “I am smoking a cigar” “Howe Calls Doht a Liar,” BE, December 1, 1897.

  7 Garden City Hotel dutifully filed “Thorn Trial Expenses,” NYS, December 3, 1897.

  8 Detective Sullivan’s fruitless trip to Hamburg “Mrs. Nack May Escape Death,” NYW, December 2, 1897.

  9 the entire cost of the case might balloon to $40,000 or $50,000 “Luxurious Thorn Jurors,” NYT, December 3, 1897.

10 hotel bill consisted of the usual pettiness “Thorn Jury Bill Edited,” BE, January 13, 1898.

11 The jury was incompetent to render a verdict “The Thorn Jury Wine Bill,” NYT, January 8, 1898.

12 “I saw no wine drunk” “Thorn Jurors Swear They Had No Wine,” BE, January 9, 1898.

13 “Prisoner, arise” BE, December 3, 1897. NB: The remainder of the scene is drawn from this account.

14 Thorn sat up on his jail cot “Thorn Taken to Sing Sing,” BE, December 4, 1897.

15 he turned to his dog “Martin Thorn in Sing Sing,” NYET, December 4, 1897.

16 two inches of slush and snow “Thorn Must Die Within Five Weeks,” NYW, December 4, 1897.

17 Thorn slid on the ice “Almost Fell Twice,” NYJ, December 5, 1897.

18 crowd was pressing on Thorn and his two jailers NYET, December 4, 1897.

19 “They all want to see you” “Thorn’s Vanity Betrayed Him,” NYW, December 5, 1897. NB: The remainder of this scene is drawn from this account.

20 a piano maker’s wife had thrown herself “The Suicidal Mania,” NYT, May 13, 1881.

21 man recently arrested for assisting a high diver’s illegal leap “Jumped from the Bridge,” NYT, July 5, 1897.

22 employee had once run off with the florist’s wife “Mrs. Spengler Went Wrong,” NYT, September 9, 1892.

23 burnished oak coffin “Guldensuppe’s Body Buried,” NYTR, December 6, 1897.

24 his right hand laid upon his breast NYT, December 6, 1897.

25 Journal women’s page reporter who visited her on Christmas Day “Mrs. Nack’s Christmas Present to Thorn,” NYJA, December 26, 1897.

26 “head devil” of the case “Maudlin Sympathy,” BE, December 6, 1897.

27 “They should place her in the electric chair with Thorn” “Mrs. Nack May Escape Death,” NYW, December 2, 1897.

28 “Imagine Santa Throwing an X-Ray” Bloomingdale’s display ad, NYW, December 5, 1897.

29 FIRE IN A MATCH FACTORY NYH, December 4, 1897.

30 proposal to put bike racks on trolley cars “Brooklyn Trolleys May Carry Cycles Next Season,” NYJ, December 10, 1897.

31 THOUGHTS PICTURED NYH, November 28, 1897.

32 FISH CHOWDER POURS NYJ, December 15, 1897.

33 the Prophecy Prize “What Do You Think Will Happen in the Year 1898?” NYJA, December 19, 1897.

34 “Poor Martin.” Gussie sighed NYJA, December 26, 1897. NB: The remainder of this section is drawn from this account.

  1 windowless walls on three sides NYW, December 5, 1897.

  2 “bathing in a search-light” Molineux, Room with the Little Door, 21. NB: Though an erstwhile work of fiction, Molineux’s book is well worth finding for its account of life on Sing Sing’s Death Row—namely, because he was a convicted poisoner sent there just a couple of years after Thorn. Molineux’s conviction was one of the next great “newspaper trials” after Thorn’s, although he was later released after a retrial.

  3 Thorn had already devoured The Old Curiosity Shop NYT, December 6, 1897.

  4 Sutherland was a West Indian in for shooting his wife “Died in the Electric Chair,” Sun (Baltimore), January 11, 1898.

  5 warden stopped by with a message from Howe “A Stay for Martin Thorn,” NYT, January 1, 1898.

  6 Hadley was not as fortunate “Went to His Death Cheerfully,” NYW, January 11, 1898.

  7 “I could never eat off that table” “Ghastly Vanity Fair,” NYW, January 16, 1898.

  8 salesrooms on 125th Street magically transformed “May Go To-Morrow,” BE, January 13, 1898.

  9 in the reconstituted parlor was a suite NYW, January 16, 1898.

10 “a low cut” “Mrs. Nack’s Effects,” BE, January 16, 1898.

11 the plain and melancholy wooden bed of Guldensuppe NYW, January 16, 1898.

12 dime-museum men … Luetgert’s sausage vat “Would Exhibit Luetgert’s Vat,” NYJ, December 24, 1897.

13 MURDER DEN A KLONDIKE NYEJ, January 14, 1898.

14 THE FAMOUS STOVE NYW, January 16, 1898.

15 handed at the entrance—business cards BE, January 16, 1898.

16 “Those are terrible things my husband told” “Mrs. Nack’s Story,” BE, January 18, 1898. NB: The remainder of this scene is drawn from the Eagle’s interview.

17 appeals piled up “Calmly Martin Thorn Awaits His Fate of Death,” NYW, July 28, 1898.

18 “This is good news” “Martin Thorn to Die, and He Is Glad of It,” NYW, July 31, 1898.

19 found one hundred dead rats “Dead Rats in the Ventilators,” BE, May 29, 1898.

20 Howe had claimed a mistrial “Trying to Save Thorn’s Life,” NYT, July 29, 1898.

21 bill was cruelly knocked down to $127 “W. F. Howe’s Cut Down,” NYT, June 19, 1898.

22 Howe talked grandly to the press of taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court “Martin Thorn Must Die,” NYW, June 8, 1898.

23 “Take all your clothes off, Martin” “Murderer of Guldensuppe, Martin Thorn, Will Pay the Penalty and Be Killed Today,” NYW, August 1, 1898.

24 a crisp dress oxford NYW, July 31, 1898.

25 There were five condemned prisoners NYW, August 1, 1898.

26 “I want my books” Ibid.

27 snare a coveted title from the prison library NYP, August 2, 1898. 239 chat across the cell walls with the other prisoners NYW, August 1, 1898.

28 “Have you seen your mouse yet, Thorn?” “Thorn Dies in the Chair for Guldensuppe’s Murder,” NYEJ, August 1, 1898.

29 Sage was bustling around his office, making preparations NYEJ, August 1, 1898.

30 only twenty-eight observers were allowed NYW, July 28, 1898.

31 Hearst had deployed Langdon Smith NYEJ, August 1, 1898.

32 famed as the country’s fastest telegrapher “Answer No. 96,” American Mercury, May 1926, 114.

33 Haydon Jones, the World’s own speed artist “Martin Thorn Pays the Penalty of Murder in the Electric Chair,” NYW, August 2, 1898.

34 scooped up by Pulitzer’s crew from the Mail and Express Armes, Ethel, “Haydon Jones, Newspaper Artist,” National Magazine 26 (1906): 151.

35 his favorite Blaisdell pencil Ibid., 148.

36 room was reminiscent of a small chapel NYW, August 2, 1898.

37 “Gentlemen … you will oblige me” “Thorn Met Death Calmly,” NYS, August 2, 1898.

38 “the tentacles of an electrical octopus” NYEJ, August 1, 1898.

39 “By these lamps … we will test the current” NYW, August 2, 1898.

40 “The hour has come” NYP, August 2, 1898. 242 long black rubber sash was stretched across his face NYW, August 2, 1898.

41 “Christ, Mary, Mother of God” NYEJ, August 1, 1898.

42 “like an overheated flatiron on a handkerchief” “Martin Thorn Dies in Abject Terror,” NYH, August 2, 1898.

  1 MARTIN THORN GOES CALMLY TO HIS DEATH NYET, August 1, 1898.

  2 THORN MET DEATH CALMLY NYS, August 2, 1898.

  3 MARTIN THORN DIES IN ABJECT TERROR NYH, August 2, 1898.

  4 WOMAN MEDIUM COMMUNES WITH THORN NYW, August 2, 1898.

  5 O’Neill was a surgeon with the New York School of Clinical Medicine Medical Times and Register 35–36 (1898): 185.

  6 sponges had dried out, causing a burn hole “Thorn Met Death Calmly,” NYS, August 2, 1898.

  7 nitroglycerin, strychnine, and brandy NYW, August 2, 1898.

  8 Kemmler had been left still breathing Brandon, Electric Chair, 177.

  9 O’Neill bent over and rested the stethoscope NYW, August 2, 1898.

10 “The law requires post-mortem mutilation” O’Neill, “Who’s the Executioner?” 185.

11 “the prostitution of science” “Electrocution,” American Medico-Surgical Bulletin 21, no. 21 (November 10, 1898): 999.

12 Evening Journal lavished attention that night NYEJ, August 1, 1898.

13 front-page attacks on crooked dealings “The Journal Stops,” NYJA, December 3, 1897.

14 stoked his paper’s capacity “The Journal’s Presses—Past, Present and Future,” NYJ, December 5, 1897.

15 THE WORST INSULT “The Worst Insult to the United States in Its History,” NYJ, February 9, 1898.

16 “Have you put anything else on the front page?” Morris, Pulitzer, 339.

17 WAR! SURE! “War! Sure! Maine Destroyed by Spanish,” NYEJ, February 17, 1898.

18 THE WHOLE COUNTRY THRILLS “The Whole Country Thrills with War Fever,” NYJ, February 18, 1898.

19 “Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!” Procter, William Randolph Hearst, 118.

20 HOW DO YOU LIKE THE JOURNAL’S WAR? Stevens, Sensationalism, 97.

21 offered the U.S. military $500,000 Procter, William Randolph Hearst, 122. 247 now rocketed up to … a million and a half Bleyer, Main Currents, 378. 247 “war news was written by fools for fools” Turner, When Giants Ruled, 135.

22 ran news of the death of one Colonel Reflipe W. Thenuz “The World Confesses to Stealing the News!” NYEJ, June 9, 1898.

23 newspaper publisher tearing around Havana Harbor Churchill, Park Row, 131.

24 MUST FIND THAT FLEET! NYEJ, May 28, 1898.

25 summer dessert tips for homemakers “Even Ice Cream and Confectionary Are Now Made to Suggest War,” NYEJ, May 28, 1898.

26 taking some Spanish prisoners of war Procter, William Randolph Hearst, 130.

27 spotted at the Battle of El Caney Ibid., 129.

28 Eden Musée was busy adding a score of patriotic advertisement, NYT, August 14, 1898.

29 its baggage car disgorged a plain pine box “Curious Crowds Look on the Coffined Face of Martin Thorn,” NYW, August 3, 1898.

30 worries that freak-show promoters might try “Took Amperes to Kill Thorn,” NYP, August 2, 1898.

31 A thousand disappointed spectators had appeared “Thorn Met Death Calmly,” NYS, August 2, 1898.

32 A dozen policemen from the Twenty-Seventh Precinct “Martin Thorn Body Buried in Calvary’s Consecrated Ground To-Day,” NYH, August 2, 1898.

33 undertaker barred the door NYEJ, August 2, 1898.

34 his head still bore red electrode marks BE, August 2, 1898.

35 brother-in-law leaned over for a word NYEJ, August 2, 1898.

36 luxuriant display of lilies of the valley “Thorn Met Death Calmly,” NYS, August 2, 1898.

37 “Probably a woman” NYEJ, August 2, 1898.

38 “Mrs. Nack?” NYH, August 2, 1898.

39 inmate #269 at Auburn “Mrs. Nack Is Now No. 269,” NYW, January 20, 1898.

40 a three-inch-thick oak door “How Mrs. Nack Will Spend Her Term in Auburn,” NYW, January 16, 1898.

41 spent her day in the prison’s sewing room NYW, January 20, 1898.

42 Word was leaking out “State Control of Midwives,” Buffalo Medical Journal 48 (1898): 131.

43 Journal pounced on a damning discovery “Mrs. Nack Has Money in Realty,” NYEJ, August 11, 1898.

44 sardonic inscription of AUGUSTA NACK, SURGEON “Bright Editorial,” San Antonio (Texas) Daily Light, March 13, 1900.

45 “Epidemic Hypnotic Criminal Suggestion” “Epidemic Hypnotic Criminal Suggestion,” Massachusetts Medical Journal 21 (1901): 512.

46 SECOND GULDENSUPPE CASE NYT, October 9, 1899.

47 third [Guldensuppe case] “Zanoli, Queer Man of Tragedies,” NYJA, December 11, 1897.

48 fourth [Guldensuppe case] “Murder and Butchery,” NYT, February 9, 1898.

49 fifth [Guldensuppe case] “Like Guldensuppe Murder,” NYT, June 11, 1899.

50 a woman’s leg was found “Another Ghastly Find,” NYS, October 10, 1899.

51 her chest washed ashore on Staten Island “Torso of the Body Found,” NYS, October 11, 1899.

52 NYPD threw 200 detectives on the case NYS, October 10, 1899.

53 Moses Cohen, the “C” newspaper “Murder Still His Mystery,” NYT, October 13, 1899.

54 captain of the barge Knickerbocker NYS, October 10, 1899.

55 “would have appealed to Sherlock Holmes” “The Influence of Sherlock Holmes,” BE, October 11, 1899.

56 Prospect Place coal cellar of Alma Lundberg “New Clue in Murder Case,” NYT, December 4, 1899.

57 other clues proved to be the usual nonsense “Police at a Standstill,” NYS, October 13, 1899.

58 “the Great American Identifier” NYT, October 19, 1899.

59 cuts precisely matched those on Guldensuppe NYT, October 13, 1899. NB: Although the crime was officially unsolved, police afterward believed that the victim was Kate Feeley, who went missing after answering a newspaper ad for employment. Max Schmittberger, later the chief police inspector for the NYPD, voiced the suspicion that William Hooper Young—later convicted of the 1902 murder of Anna Pulitzer—was the perpetrator. (See “Mrs. Pulitzer Is Buried,” NYT, August 24, 1902.)

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.

  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 Love 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.

  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.