The Mad Sculptor (43 page)

Joseph Gedeon takes aim with a beer glass at a tabloid news photographer.

Ronnie’s ex-husband, Robert Flower, kneels at her casket.

Ronnie’s diary. Her entries about “Bob,” originally assumed to refer to her ex-husband, helped detectives identify her killer.

This portrait of Bob was distributed around the country via police circulars, newspapers, and magazines—including
Inside Detective.

The Statler Hotel in Cleveland, where Bob found work under the pseudonym “Bob Murray.”

Bob’s sketch of Henrietta Koscianski.

Henrietta identified Bob while reading the cover story in the July 1937 issue of
Inside Detective
magazine.

Detective Frank Crimmins escorts Bob from the plane that brought him back to New York City from Chicago.

Dressed in the dapper white suit he demanded as part of his surrender agreement, Bob is led to court for his arraignment.

Ethel Kudner leaves the grand jury room in the company of her lawyer.

Samuel Leibowitz, “the Great Defender,” prepares for business.

Wayne Lonergan displays the charms that won the hearts of both Patsy Burton and her father, Bill.

Acknowledgments

I
OWE MY GREATEST
debt of thanks to my agent, David Patterson, whose guidance and advice were absolutely essential to this project, from conception to realization.

Thanks also to:

Kenneth Cobb, New York City Municipal Archives

Bruce Kirby, Manuscript Reading Room, Library of Congress

Mark McMurray, St. Lawrence University

Thomas Mills, Cornell University Law Library

Richard Pope

Martha Sachs, Penn State University Harrisburg Library

E. Morris Sider, Messiah College

Lewis Titterton

As always, I give thanks to—and for—my dear and loving wife, Kimiko Hahn. As the poet said: “If ever two were one, then surely we.”

About the Author

HAROLD SCHECHTER is a professor of American literature and culture. Renowned for his true-crime writing, he is the author of the nonfiction books
Fatal, Fiend, Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved
, and
The Serial Killer Files.
He lives in New York State.