The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars (44 page)

  1
Rockaway Ed was a trusty.… second only to a “bum boss”
“Dist. Att’y Youngs Says Journal Gives the Last Link of Evidence,”
NYJA
, October 7, 1897. NB: Rockaway Ed’s dealings with Nack and the
Journal
, although repeated to some degree in other newspapers, is drawn from this
Journal
account.

  2
writers and artists at the ready to make a copy
“Mrs. Nack’s Strange Letter to Thorn Captured by the Jailers,”
NYJA
, October 6, 1897.

  3
the text that would appear in the next morning’s paper …
“Dear Martin”
NYJA
, October 6, 1897.

  4
“Where is it?” Sheriff Doht demanded NYJA
October 6, 1897.

  5
The fragments bearing Thorn’s writing were reassembled.…
“My dear”
NYJA
, October 7, 1897.

  6
The watch on Thorn’s cell was instantly doubled
“Mrs. Nack Has Lost Hope,”
NYT
, October 7, 1897.

  7
“I am sorry.” DA Youngs sighed NYJA
, October 7, 1897.

  8
He had tried to induce vomiting … hung a picture of a man’s disembodied head
“The Soup Was Too Rich,”
NYTR
, October 8, 1897.

  9
Mrs. Nack also tried denying the note
“Nack and Thorn Plan Suicide,”
NYH
, October 7, 1897.

10
the block of brick tenements past the corner of Forty-Second and Tenth Annual Report of the Committee on the Fire Patrol
, 108. NB: All the details of this block except for the mattress shop are drawn from this source.

11
Mssr. Mauborgne’s Mattress Renovating NYT
, classifieds, June 13, 1897.

12
Where’s Guldensuppe’s head? “Thorn’s Brother-in-Law Sunk the Missing Head,”
NYJ
, October 12, 1897.

13
tantalizing story: that one Frank Clark had heard a boozy confession NYW
, October 6, 1897.

14
“
He often boasted,” Clark recalled NYJ
, October 12, 1897.

15
visit to the ailing forger by the district attorney NYW
, October 6, 1897.

16
Journal
came piling into Menker’s hallway YJ
, October 12, 1897.

17
letter had arrived in Coroner Hoeber’s office
“Did Thorn Admit Murder?”
BE
, August 6, 1897.

18
My dear sir: I cannot “Hoeber Jumped on Friend,”
NYTR
, July 8, 1897.

19
One claimed that it was
Guldensuppe
who’d been hiding
“Another Guldensuppe Letter,”
NYT
, August 17, 1897.

20
At least two more claimed that Guldensuppe was alive
“Letters to Hoeber,”
BE
, August 9, 1897; and “Guldensuppe or Edwards?”
NYT
, August 10, 1897.

21
“I have always believed that he had gone to Europe”
“Martin Thorn Has Hope,”
NYW
, August 5, 1897.

22
Kindly do not believe any of the cards
NYT
, August 10, 1897.

23
Yet another missive, sent by Mrs. Lenora Merrifield
“Guldensuppe Case Stirs Up Cranks,”
NYEJ
, August 13, 1897.

24
Guldensuppe is alive, and taking revenge on Thorn
BE
, August 9, 1897.

25
“The police do not expect to see Guldensuppe”
W. R. Hearst, editorial,
NYEJ
, July 3, 1897.

26
Evangelina Cisneros, the pretty eighteen-year-old daughter.… Hearst preferred the latter explanation
Ibid., 317.

27
another
Journal
operative—the hotshot reporter Karl Decker—to Cuba
Whyte,
Uncrowned King, 325
.

28
Disguised with a sailor’s outfit and a cigar
Ibid., 328.

29
EVANGELINA CISNEROS RESCUED BY THE JOURNAL NYJ
, October 10, 1897.

30
A NEW IDEA IN JOURNALISM NYEJ
, October 3, 1897.

31
offensives against a gas trust and crooked paving contractors
Procter,
William Randolph Hearst
, 101.

32
“Every one will sympathize with the
Journal’s
enterprise”
Whyte,
Uncrowned King
, 330.

33
“The newspapers of your country”
Creelman,
On the Great Highway
, 187.

34
“It is epochal”
W. R. Hearst, editorial,
NYJA
, October 13, 1897.

35
a fine profusion of ads … the Lady Push Ball Players
advertisement,
NYEJ
, September 4, 1897.

36
“Organize a great open-air reception”
Creelman,
On the Great Highway
, 171.

37
Rooms were hired at the Waldorf, reservations made at Delmonico’s
Whyte,
Uncrowned King
, 332.

38
“scooped every day of its existence” Ibid.

39
THE PAPER SUFFERS AN EXCESSIVE STATESMANSHIP
telegram, October 27, 1897. Pulitzer Papers, container 2.

40
firing of a reporter for using the word “pregnant”
Morris,
Pulitzer
, 379.

41
MAKE SALARIED ARTISTS
telegram, November 16, 1897. Pulitzer Papers, container 2.

42
I REALLY DON’T EXPECT TO BE IN NEW YORK
telegram, October 29, 1897, ibid.

43
Brisbane, who jumped ship for the
Journal Morris,
Pulitzer
, 334.

44
Brooklyn Eagle
 … a curious development in Germany BE
, October 13, 1897.

45
“reputable merchants of Hamburg,” were departing for New York BE
, October 15, 1897.

46
GULDENSUPPE ALIVE? BE
, October 14, 1897.

  1
A thick fog blanketed the Hudson NYT
, November 6, 1897.

  2
“The
Fürst Bismarck
has been sighted”
“Looks in Vain for Mrs. Nack,”
NYEJ
, November 5, 1897.

  3
Hamilton Fish was on board
“A Young Wheelman Hurt,”
NYT
, November 6, 1897.

  4
one Josephine Vanderhoff had turned up
“No Bail for Martin Thorn,”
BE
, July 19, 1897.

  5
Edwards’s minister visited to view the pickled
“Didn’t Know Guldensuppe,”
NYT
, August 28, 1897.

  6
they immediately identified the abandoned valise
“Edward’s Satchel Murray Says,”
NYTR
, August 29, 1897.

  7
explain the enigmatically marked-up slates
“Murrays Identify Valise,”
NYT
, August 29, 1897.

  8
daughter examined the corpse’s hands
Ibid.

  9
Chicago trial had concluded for the infamous sausage-maker Adolph Luetgert NYT
, October 22, 1897.

10
nothing but five bone fragments
“On These Five Bones Hang Luetgert’s Fate,”
NYEJ
, October 10, 1897.

11
Thorn eagerly read the wire reports NYEJ
, November 5, 1897.

12
No Carl and Julius Peterson were listed
“Ready for the Thorn Trial,”
NYTR
, November 7, 1897.

13
Open twenty-four hours a day
Rovere,
Howe & Hummel
, 126.

14
When seventy-eight brothel madams were arrested
Ibid., 6.

15
loud green and violet waistcoats
Ibid., 16.

16
defended 650 murder and manslaughter cases
Ibid., 5.

17
“
You cannot prove a
corpus delicti”
NYW
, October 12, 1897.

18
DA’s office laughed Howe off NYT
, July 13, 1897.

19
The notion had originated with Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale
“Proof of the Corpus Delicti Aliunde the Defendant’s Confession,” 639.

20
revived in America in 1819 after the Boorn brothers case
Ibid., 646.

21
combination safe filled with coal
Rovere,
Howe & Hummel
, 25.

22
staff amused themselves by serving one another
Ibid., 27.

23
they’d found nothing in the desks
Ibid.

24
“I cannot see how the District Attorney can get around the identification”
“Mrs. Nack Offers to Confess All,”
NYW
, October 12, 1897.

25
Danish preacher Soren Qvist
Warren,
Famous Cases
, 14. NB: Warren’s account of Soren Qvist, along with a number of nearly identical ones published in English in the late nineteenth century, is curiously lacking in specific dates—and may indeed be drawing its information from an earlier Danish fictionalization of the case, the 1829 novel
The Rector of Veilbye
. That tale, though, is drawn from an apparently factual account of a 1626 case.

26
“Then there was the Ruloff case”
“Dredging for the Head Hopeless,”
NYEJ
, October 7, 1897.

27
two hapless detectives on the next steamer to Hamburg
Carey,
Memoirs
, 51.

28
secretly paying a witness to move to Japan
Rovere,
Howe & Hummel
, 51.

29
blaming a stabbing on the man’s four-year-old daughter
Ibid., 69.

30
“Well … when you see Guldensuppe walk”
“Thorn’s Victim Rebuilt,”
NYEJ
, July 23, 1897.

31
carpenters added extra benches
“Heavy Demand for Seats,”
BE
, November 7, 1897.

32
They’d spent nearly two hours shifting tables BE
, November 7, 1897.

33
he had a table custom-built for the case NYEJ
, November 5, 1897.

34
galleries were saved for sketch artists
“Ready for the Thorn Trial,”
NYTR
, November 7, 1897.

35
Sheriff Doht was flooded with ticket requests NYEJ
, November 5, 1897.

36
being converted into a newsroom BE
, November 7, 1897.

37
housewives … hung Room for Rent signs NYEJ
, November 5, 1897.

38
COURT TO PRINTING PRESS NYEJ
, November 6, 1897.

39
prosecution of a recent Columbia graduate
“College Man Confesses Crime,”
NYW
, November 9, 1897.

40
murder trial of a man who gunned down a police officer
“Traced by a Timepiece,” Ibid.

41
husband driven mad by his wife’s incessant whistling
“Whistling Drove Him Mad,” Ibid.

42
“Martin Thorn is the same as any other man”
Editorial,
NYEJ
, November 9, 1897.

43
“Every day there will be some fifty different pictures of scenes”
“Murder Pictures,”
NYT
, November 7, 1897.

44
hundreds of potential jurors … waited
“Five Jurors to Try Thorn for His Life,”
NYEJ
, November 8, 1897.

45
Harriet Ayers was easy to spot … as was novelist Julian Hawthorne
“Thorn on Trial,”
NYP
, November 9, 1897.

46
gray-haired janitor shuffled up NYEJ
, November 8, 1897.

47
police captain read that morning’s newspaper
“Thorn’s Counsel Happy,”
BE
, November 9, 1897.

48
district attorney was balding and bespectacled, wearing an off-the-rack suit
“The Trial of Martin Thorn,”
NYCA
, November 8, 1897.

49
“He’s dead”
NYEJ
, November 8, 1897. NB: With the following exception, the remainder of this scene is drawn from this account.

50
lottery wheel with slips of paper bearing jury-pool names
“Thorn’s Trial Opens,”
NYME
, November 8, 1897.

51
“That
is not Mr. Blomquist”
“Thorn’s Jury Selected,”
NYT
, November 9, 1897.

52
“How long have you lived in this country?” NYEJ
, November 8, 1897.

53
they
had
interviewed Blomquist
“Thorn’s Life Is in the Balance,”
NYH
, November 9, 1897.

54
“Have you an opinion” NYEJ
, November 8, 1897.

55
“I think he’s guilty” NYT
, November 9, 1897.

56
Another two men confessed that they were over seventy NYH
, November 9, 1897.

57
the judge had to empty the room out twice NYT
, November 9, 1897.

58
a bell rang out lunchtime NYEJ
, November 8, 1897.

59
all the local establishments were out of food within minutes NYH
, November 9, 1897.

60
peremptory challenges, he admitted to reporters, were following a pattern
“The Thorn Jury Completed,”
NYTR
, November 9, 1897.

61
“I’m going at every talesman with extreme care” NYH
, November 8, 1897.

62
first approved juror was a retired oysterman named Jacob Bumstead NYT
, November 9, 1897.

63
appeared to be counting the gaslights NYEJ
, November 8, 1897.

64
“Thorn is a very average specimen”
“Martin Thorn’s Trial Begun, with Singular Celerity,”
NYW
, November 9, 1897.

65
They had run through sixty-four candidates NYH
, November 9, 1897.

66
Press
journalist had wickedly spread the rumor
“Thorn on Trial,”
NYP
, November 9, 1897.

67
“This … is magnificent”
“Testimony Begun in Trial of Thorn,”
BE
, November 9, 1897.