The Belle of Bedford Avenue: The Sensational Brooks-Burns Murder in Turn-of-the-Century New York

Affluenza leading to bad behavior among the youth of an earlier century—ultimately ending in murder

At the turn of the 20th century, many affluent Brooklyn teens and young adults were bucking the constraints of their immigrant parents and behaving badly: drinking, having sex, staying out all night, stealing, scamming local businesses—and even more serious activities. The culmination for twenty-year-old Walter Brooks was being murdered in a seedy Manhattan hotel in 1902.

The ensuing court ca...