The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars

( 164 )

Overview

“No writer better articulates ourinterest in the confluence of hope, eccentricity, and the timelessness of the bold and strange than Paul Collins.”—DAVE EGGERS
 
On Long Island, a farmer finds a duck pond turned red with blood. On the Lower East Side, two boys playing at a pier discover a floating human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth. Blueberry pickers near Harlem stumble upon neatly severed limbs in an overgrown ditch. Clues to a horrifying crime are turning up all over New York, but the police are ...

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The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars

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More About This Book

Overview

“No writer better articulates ourinterest in the confluence of hope, eccentricity, and the timelessness of the bold and strange than Paul Collins.”—DAVE EGGERS
 
On Long Island, a farmer finds a duck pond turned red with blood. On the Lower East Side, two boys playing at a pier discover a floating human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth. Blueberry pickers near Harlem stumble upon neatly severed limbs in an overgrown ditch. Clues to a horrifying crime are turning up all over New York, but the police are baffled: There are no witnesses, no motives, no suspects.
 
The grisly finds that began on the afternoon of June 26, 1897, plunged detectives headlong into the era’s most baffling murder mystery. Seized upon by battling media moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the case became a publicity circus. Reenactments of the murder were staged in Times Square, armed reporters lurked in the streets of Hell’s Kitchen in pursuit of suspects, and an unlikely trio—a hard-luck cop, a cub reporter, and an eccentric professor—all raced to solve the crime.
 
What emerged was a sensational love triangle and an even more sensational trial: an unprecedented capital case hinging on circumstantial evidence around a victim whom the police couldn’t identify with certainty, and who the defense claimed wasn’t even dead. The Murder of the Century is a rollicking tale—a rich evocation of America during the Gilded Age and a colorful re-creation of the tabloid wars that have dominated media to this day.
 

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Editorial Reviews

Sam Roberts
…Paul Collins…artfully recreate[s] the era…[and] delivers a riveting account of what, years later, Walter Winchell would hail as "the first of the great newspaper trials."
—The New York Times
James McGrath Morris
Paul Collins engagingly recounts the press's obsessive pursuit of the story, the unlikely alliances that eventually led to the apprehension of the suspects and the trial…[he] has crafted a work that won't disappoint readers in search of a book like Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City.
—The Washington Post
Library Journal
In the sticky summer of 1897, New York City was rocked by the discovery of a human torso wrapped in oilcloth floating in the river. A second bundle wrapped in the same fabric was found, then a third. Who was the dead man, and where had his head been dumped? The murder terrified the populace but galvanized the newspaper tabloids. Upstart New York Journal, run by a very young William Randolph Hearst, took on the champion New York World, under Joseph Pulitzer, in a circulation duel to the death. The rival papers sent out investigators, hounded the police, and offered substantial rewards, not in the service of justice but of circulation. The dogged search eventually produced suspects, but how do you get a conviction when you can't even identify the body? Collins (The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World) utilizes newspaper accounts from more than a dozen dailies to bring this tale of sex, murder, and yellow journalism to life. VERDICT This intriguing case, sensational at the time but now long forgotten, will appeal to fans of early 20th-century social history and crime.—Deirdre Bray Root, Middletown P.L., OH
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780307592217
  • Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 4/24/2012
  • Pages: 336
  • Sales rank: 21654
  • Product dimensions: 5.28 (w) x 7.82 (h) x 0.72 (d)

Meet the Author

PAUL COLLINS is the author of seven books, which have been translated into ten languages. His work has appeared in Slate, New Scientist, and the New York Times, and he is regularly featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition as their “literary detective.” He lives in Portland, Oregon.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 164 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(35)

4 Star

(52)

3 Star

(39)

2 Star

(18)

1 Star

(20)
See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 166 Customer Reviews

  • Posted Sat Jul 02 00:00:00 EDT 2011

    Totally engrossing

    Fascinating story written so well it reads like fiction! The investigators and detectives have their hands full without any of the modern forensic tools and even fingerprints are considered junk science! And the media? Boy if you think the media is out of control today... you've got to read this!!

    28 out of 30 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Tue Aug 30 00:00:00 EDT 2011

    Lively and engrossing

    The murder is fascinating enough, but Collins also explores the ways in which the war between competing newspapers and the corruption in the New York City judicial system affected the investigation and trial--and vice versa. Collins has a lively writing style; he knows just what historical details to add and when to spice things with humor. This is well researched, highly entertaining, and one of the best true crime books around. Formatting of the ebook version is excellent.

    9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Mon Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2011

    Very interesting

    Really enjoyed the book. The history of print journalism and the story itself was very entertaining.

    6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sat Nov 05 00:00:00 EDT 2011

    What's all the fuss??

    This book sounds good, unfortunately most of the reviews are from whiners complaining that they got something for free!!! I will take my chances and buy it, then post a review about the actual story which is what I'm pretty sure people reading reviews are looking for!!

    5 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Thu Apr 26 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    A well written and fascinating story

    Murder, a headless body cut into 3 sections, history, adultery, and an epic battle between two of the greatest names in newspaper history...Hearst and Pulitzer!
    The story starts with the murder of William Guldensuppe by his lover, Augusta Nack and her other lover, Martin Thorn. (Augusta's husband wasn't involved!) Problems start right away because no one is completely sure that the body is Guldensuppe...because there's no head!
    As big as this story is, it's almost the backstory to the real story...the battle between Pulitzer's New York World and Hearst's New York Journal newspapers. It's this battle over this story that marks the beginning of "yellow journalism" and tabloid newspapers!
    Extremely well researched (63 pages of notes, credits, and acknowledgments) and very well written, Collins will even make you chuckle a few times! My only criticism, and it's a minor one, is that sometimes it's hard to tell if this is a murder story or a journalism history lesson. Enjoy this book!

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Tue Feb 28 00:00:00 EST 2012

    Very Interesting story concerning the press & society

    I bought this book thinking that I would read about a grizzly murder and the subsequent investigation and trial. And I did that and so much more. Society, the working class, corruption and the city. But the most disturbing aspect of this story is the "yellow journalism" of the time. I have lost any respect I had for William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. I have even greater respect for The New York Times. Paul Collins did a great job telling this story.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Sat Sep 03 00:00:00 EDT 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Fascinating

    Why criticize a book without reading it first. This happens to give an old case "A UNIQUE WAY OF SEEING HOW ROTTEN JURISPRUDENCE HAS ALWAYS BEEN".while leaving it suspenseful and timely. TRY TO KEEP AN OPEN LITERARY MIND!

    3 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Mar 25 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    Short

    54 pages

    2 out of 19 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Mon Jan 02 00:00:00 EST 2012

    Great!

    Great read and well told real life historical murder mystery

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Fri Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 2011

    Very Good Read

    I throughly enjoyed this book. It took me to history of the newspaper business in the early 1900's! Profiles of well know people that established the newspaper guidelines and how industry.

    2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Jan 31 00:00:00 EST 2012

    Very interesting

    A fascinating book, as much for the New York history, and the yellow journalism of Hearst, as the so-called Murder of the Century. An interesting and educational glimpse into the past.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Wed Jan 18 00:00:00 EST 2012

    Fascinating book about the turn-of-the-century tabloid wars in NYC

    I think this book makes fascinating reading for history buffs. It is well-written and an easy read. It definitely held my attention.

    The lengths the tabloids went to at the turn of the century to gain readership is truly something to read about.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Oct 30 00:00:00 EDT 2011

    A window into the tabloids at the turn or the century

    This book brings perspective to the newspaper wars and William Randolph Hearst, one of the most interesting characters of the 20th century. A great read with many interesting people, some you will know, others you wish you did!

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Feb 19 00:00:00 EST 2013

    Three stars

    Interesting read but it did drag in a few places.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Thu Feb 07 00:00:00 EST 2013

    Engaging

    The historical references and information were facinating and were well woveninto the story. Very entertaining.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Jan 20 00:00:00 EST 2013

    I was very surprised

    I was very surprised by the depth and scope of this novel. The dynamic interplay with all of the characters and how the author guides you through the events really brings this entire drama to life and gives you an almost disturbing look into the reality of the human mind. The changes that happen during this investigation and it shapes the way that we do things still today is a marvel.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Mon Nov 26 00:00:00 EST 2012

    Murder of the Centry

    Really horrible book!! Dont

    0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Wed Sep 05 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    Great For True Crime Fans

    This was a very well written true crime thriller and I don't believe the crime was truly solved by the officials at the time. It is much more than the crime when the newspapers of the day make a circus out of it. The study of how Hearst and Pulitzer handle the story (or become part of it) could easily become more interesting than the crime itself.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Wed Mar 07 00:00:00 EST 2012

    I enjoy reading books about journalism and I enjoy mysteries. Th

    I enjoy reading books about journalism and I enjoy mysteries. This book had both. I love when a non-fiction book reads like fiction and this book did. It's not fair for people to give it one star because they were angry that the book was shipped for free to their Nook. That is lowering the review mark unjustly. I paid for my copy and I loved it.

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 166 Customer Reviews
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