Today, mystery writer M.J. Rose visits Gothamist as part of her Virtual Book Tour, to support her new book, The Halo Effect. The Virtual Book Tour typically has its authors take over a site, posting from there, but we decided not to subject MJ to the nuttiness that is our site, even if she can write a book about Manhattan sex therapist on the trail of a sadistic prostitute killer (which is the plot of The Halo Effect). Instead, we asked M.J. what her favorite New York crimes of passion were, and she did, with some great links. Read an excerpt of Halo Effect here and buy a copy here. And without further ado, here are M.J. Rose's Favorite NYC Crimes:
In high school (what is now NY's Lenox Birch Wathen) I was assigned a paper on "Social Reform in New York City in the 19th Century." Because I couldn't ever do what I was asked, I wrote my paper on crimes of passion and what how they were a barometer of the times.
The crimes themselves -- the mystery, the sensationalism, the passion -- completely captured my imagination. For a nice, Jewish girl from the Upper East Side it was an odd fascination. But one that has lasted. All of my own novels -- especially the newest -- THE HALO EFFECT -- are psychological suspense novels that take place in New York City.
And they all have something to do with sex. (What doesn't involve sex?)
My favorite crimes:
The Murder of Stanford White
Harry Thaw, a socialite, murdered architect Stanford White in the rooftop cabaret atop Madison Square Garden in the summer of 1906. The murder was culmination of a battle between two powerful and wealthy men over Evelyn Nesbit, a young and lovely artist's model and showgirl.
Nesbit was married to Thaw but passionately involved both before and after her marriage with White who was 30 years her senior.
"It is not merely a murder," William Randolph Hearst's Journal reported at the time. "The flash of that pistol lighted up an abyss of moral turpitude, revealing hidden features of powerful, reckless, openly flaunted wealth."
- What the city looked like then
- Stanford White's NY
The Love Letter Murder
Massive publicity surrounded the 1836 murder of young New York City prostitute Helen Jewett and the ensuing trial of her literary lover captivated the nation.
Richard Robinson, was a clerk with a real flair for the written word which he used to seduce Jewett. (I never knew you had to seduce a prostitute - I thought you just paid them.) Despite a ten month long series of assignations and exchanged letters, early in the morning of April 10 Robinson killed Jewett with a hatchet in her brothel room and set fire to her bed.
Robinson was eventually acquitted despite an overwhelming amount of evidence that both placed him at the scene and his hand on the murder weapon.
The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers
In 1841, 21-year-old Mary Cecilia Rogers - known as the "Beautiful Cigar Girl" disappeared from her mother's New York City boardinghouse.
Three days later her bruised body was found three days later in the Hudson River.
Speculation flourished that she was brutally raped by a gang, or killed by a lone assassin. Later testimony indicated that she had died in a botched abortion; yet, despite the alleged deathbed confession of an innkeeper who oversaw the abortion, her death remained unsolved.
Edgar Allen Poe was obsessed with Mary Rogers and fictionalized the tragedy in his tale "The Mystery of Marie Roget." And amid hysteria over crime, New York City passed the Police Reform Act of 1845, allowing closer social and political surveillance; during the same year, a state law criminalized abortion.
- Walking Tours of Edgar Allen Poe's Haunts
- Edgar Allen Poe's New York
- An illustration of the Mysterious Cigar Girl who inspired Poe.
Learn more about M.J. Rose at her site, MJRose.com
