19th Century murder and mayhem galore
The Beautiful Cigar Girl, Jack the Ripper, Mrs. Mandelbaum, and more
I’ve been fascinated by the Mary Rogers mystery ever since I first encountered it in grad school seventeen (ack!) years ago. This one has it all: an unsolved murder; an obstreperous penny press; a landmark detective story by Edgar Allan Poe; a victim whose body washed ashore in Hoboken, New Jersey just blocks from the future address of my late beloved Maxwell’s. If you’ve not read THE BEAUTIFUL CIGAR GIRL, Daniel Stashower’s 2007 page-turner about this confounding mega-crime from Antebellum Manhattan, get thee hence to Amazon (or better yet your local bookstore), and buy a copy. Or, at the very least, listen to this week’s episode of BURIED BONES from Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, “the first part of a two-parter” in which the hosts “head to 1841 New York City where a young woman has gained attention for her looks. One day she does not return home to her crowded boarding house and the number of suspects is staggering.” I’ll make it easy for you—just click play below:
Bonus: The latest episode of Kate’s other podcast, WICKED WORDS, features Patricia Cornwell discussing her 2002 Jack the Ripper book. “She believes that Jack the Ripper was a German-British artist named Walter Sickert. A controversial opinion, according to some Ripperologists. In this episode with the author, you’ll hear why.” (Bonus bonus: you can listen to my episode of WICKED WORDS here.)
CrimeReads has an excerpt of the new Margalit Fox book, THE TALENTED MRS. MANDELBAUM: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss, a copy of which arrived on my doorstep from Penguin Random House this week. (More on that to come…) Teaser: “New York, July 22, 1884. They were detectives, accustomed to plunder, But they’d never seen anything like this.” While we’re on the subject of detectives, AirMail explores why 1929 was such a banner year for murder-mystery novels. (Agatha, Simenon, etc.) Also from AirMail: “In 1973, Cynthia Bouron, a notorious Hollywood hanger-on who publicly alleged that Cary Grant fathered her child, was brutally killed. Why has the case remained unsolved?” And over at Smithsonian: “Meet Vivian Maier, the Reclusive Nanny Who Secretly Became One of the Best Street Photographers of the 20th Century.” That’s all for now. See you next week.