The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars (42 page)

  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.

  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.

  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.