The Mad Sculptor (47 page)

13
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 116.

14
. Trent, “Murder of the Model,” June 15, 1937, p. 12.

15
. Wertham,
The Show of Violence
, p. 130; report of B. G. Dodge, p. 19; Reynolds,
Courtroom
, p. 117.

16
. Report of B. G. Dodge, p. 30;
New York Daily News
, April 15, 1937, p. 11.

17
. Leibowitz,
The Defender, Casebook II
, p. 335;
New York Daily News
, April 15, 1937, p. 11; report of B. G. Dodge, p. 3.

18
.
New York Daily News
, April 16, 1937, p. 6.

19
.
New York Evening Journal
, April 6, 1937, p. 1.

20
. Report of B. G. Dodge, p. 3;
New York Daily News
, April 16, 1937, p. 6.

21
. Report of B. G. Dodge, p. 31.

22
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 134.

Chapter 14. Canton

1
.
New York Daily News
, April 16, 1937, p. 6.

2
. Reynolds,
Courtroom
, pp. 117–118; Leibowitz,
The Defender, Casebook II
, p. 335;
New York Daily News
, April 12, 1937, p. 8.

3
. Reynolds,
Courtroom
, p. 117.

4
. Wertham,
The Show of Violence
, p. 130; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 117.

5
. Reynolds,
Courtroom
, p. 118; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 117; report of B. G. Dodge, p. 3.

6
.
New York Daily News
, April 8, 1937, p. 8; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 117.

7
. Kirk Douglas,
The Ragman’s Son: An Autobiography
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), p. 52.

8
.
New York Evening Journal
, April 8, 1937, p. 1; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” June 15, 1937, p. 12.

9
. See Leibowitz,
The Defender
, p. 235.

10
. Reynolds,
Courtroom
, p. 118.

11
. Ibid.;
New York Daily News
, April 12, 1937, pp. 3 and 8.

12
. Reynolds,
Courtroom
, p. 118;
Syracuse Herald
, April 6, 1937, p. 2.

13
. Report of B. G. Dodge, pp. 4, 46;
Syracuse Herald
, April 6, 1937, p. 2;
New York Daily News
, April 12, 1937, p. 8; Reynolds,
Courtroom
, p. 118.

14
. Fredric Wertham, “The Catathymic Crisis: A Clinical Entity,”
Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry
, Vol. 37 (April 1937), pp. 974–978; Gathje, p. 117.

Chapter 15. Crisis

1
. E. J. Kahn Jr.,
The World of Swope
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965), p. 37;
New York Mirror
, November 9, 1935, pp. 2 and 6;
New York Daily News
, November 9, 1935, p. 8;
New York Times
, November 9, 1935, p. 18;
New York Journal
, March 29, 1937, p. 3.

2
. Lee Horsley, “Dead Dolls and Deadly Dames: The Cover Girls of American True Crime Publishing,” in
Crime Culture: Figuring Criminality in Fiction and Film
, eds. Bran Nicol, Patricia Pulham, and Eugene McNulty (London: Continuum, 2011), p. 110; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 60, 62; West F. Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for
Inside Detective,
Is Murdered,”
Inside Detective
, July 1937, p. 6.

3
. Reynolds,
Courtroom
, p. 118. The first giant panda ever shot was killed in April 1928 by Theodore Roosevelt and his son Kermit. For a complete account of Sheldon’s experience, see William G. Sheldon,
The Wilderness Home of the Giant Panda
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1975).

4
.
New York Evening Journal
, April 6, 1937, p. 1; Francis C. Preston, “Unpublished Facts in New York’s Artist Model Murders,”
True Detective Mysteries
, September 1937, p. 81.

5
.
New York Evening Journal
, April 6, 1937, p. 1; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 118.

6
.
New York Evening Journal
, April 6, 1937, p. 3;
New York Daily Mirror
, April 6, 1937, pp. 13 and 34; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 118–119.

7
.
New York Daily News,
April 12, 1937, p. 3;
New York Evening Journal
, April 12, 1937, pp. 1 and 3; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 7–71. For an entertaining biography of Bernard, see Robert Love,
The Great Oom: The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America
(New York: Viking, 2010).

8
. Trent, “Murder of the Model,” July 1, 1937, p. 46.

9
. Ibid., p. 47; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 120.

10
. William R. Taylor, ed.,
Inventing Times Square: Commerce and Culture at the Crossroads of the World
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 332. The work that best captures Hubert’s ineffably sleazy ambience is Morty Bushmaster,
Hubert’s Dime Museum & Flea Circus: An Underground History
(New York: Book Whisperer Press, 2008).

11
. After its initial newspaper publication, Bob’s confession appeared in many publications. This and other quotes are taken from Lewis J. Valentine,
Night Stick: The Autobiography of Lewis J. Valentine, Former Police Commissioner of New York
(New York: The Dial Press, 1947), p. 175.

12
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p.119.

13
. See
Stage
, March 1935, p. 5.

14
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 120.

15
. Hinsie, “The Psychopathology of Murder,” pp. 4–7.

16
. Wertham,
The Show of Violence
, p. 134; report of B. G. Dodge, p. 8.

Chapter 16. Bloody Sunday

1
.
New York Sun
, March 29, 1937, p. 2.

2
. See “Murder for Easter,”
Time
, April 12, 1937, pp. 67–68.

3
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 11;
New York Evening Journal
, March 30, 1937, p. 3.

4
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 11;
New York Evening Journal
, March 31, 1937, p. 4.

5
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 29, 1937, p. 2.

6
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 11–13; Francis C. Preston, “Unpublished Facts in New York’s Artist Model Murders,”
True Detective Mysteries
, September 1937, p. 6;
New York Daily Mirror
, April 1, 1937, p. 7.

7
. Frederick L. Collins,
Homicide Squad: Adventures of a Headquarters Old Timer
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1944), p. 207; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 6; Report of Death on (Mrs.) Mary Gedeon by
Thomas A. Gonzales, M.D., Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, Case No. 1898, March 29, 1937, pp. 1–3.

8
. Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, pp. 4–5.

9
.
New York Daily News
, March 29, 1937, p. 3; Report on Death of Frank Byrnes by Thomas A. Gonzales, M.D., Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, Case No. 1897, March 29, 1937.

10
. Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 8.

11
.
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 12.

12
. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
(New York: Dover, 2010), p. 17.

13
.
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 13; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 9.

14
. Doyle,
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
, p. 20.

15
.
New York Sun
, March 29, 1937, p. 2; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 8.

16
. Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 8.

17
. Ibid., p. 7.

18
.
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 12.

19
. Jack Alexander, “Independent Cop—Part I,”
The New Yorker
, October 3, 1936, p. 23, and “Independent Cop—Part II,”
The New Yorker
, October 10, 1936, p. 30.

20
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 14; Collins,
Homicide Squad
, p. 210.

21
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 7–8, 14;
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 13.

22
.
New York Sun
, March 29, 1937, p. 2;
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 13.

23
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 29, 1937, p. 3.

24
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 31, 1937, p. 5; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 23.

25
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 29, 1937, p. 3.

Chapter 17. The Party Girl

1
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 1–2. In the same week that
Newsweek
covered the Easter Sunday Massacre, both
Time
and
Life
magazines also ran pieces on the case. See
Time
, April 12, 1937, p. 68, and
Life
, April 12, 1937, p. 31.

2
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 29, 1927, pp. 1 and 15;
New York Daily News
, March 29, 1937, p. 3; Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 6.

3
.
New York Daily News
, March 29, 1937, p. 3.

4
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 29, 1937, p. 3; Collins,
Homicide Squad
, pp. 207–208.

5
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 14; Leo E. McGivens,
The News: The First Fifty Years of New York’s Picture Newspaper
(New York News Syndicate Co., 1969), p. 215; “Murder for Easter,” pp. 67–68.

6
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 29, 1937, p. 1;
New York Daily News
, March 31, 1937, p. 33; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 59–60. One nationally distributed newsstand magazine published several photographs of the fully nude Ronnie. See
Real Detective
, September 1937, pp. 23, 25.

7
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 33;
New York Evening Journal
, March 29, 1937, p. 3; Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for
Inside Detective
,” p. 8.

8
. Collins,
Homicide Squad
, p. 213; Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for
Inside Detective
,” p. 8; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 63–65; Peterson, “Veronica Gedeon, Model for
Inside Detective
,” pp. 77–78; Neal Gabler,
Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), p. 71.

9
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 29–30;
New York Evening Journal
, March 29, 1937, p. 3.

10
. Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 30;
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 12.

11
.
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 13.

12
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 30, 1937, p. 5.

13
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 30, 1937, p. 5; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” June 1, 1937, p. 12.

14
.
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 13.

15
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 30, 1937, p. 5; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, pp. 9, 40.

16
. Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 76; Collins,
Homicide Squad
, p. 211.

17
.
New York Post
, March 30, 1937, p. 3;
New York Evening Journal
, March 29, 1937, p. 1.

18
. Benj. Morgan Vance, M.D., Acting Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, City of New York, “Examination of Fingernail Scrapings from Left Hand of Mary Gedeon Taken March 29, 1937,” attached to autopsy report;
New York Evening Journal
, March 30, 1937, p. 3; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 50.

19
. Preston, “Unpublished Facts,” p. 77; Trent, “Murder of the Model,” May 15, 1937, p. 41.

20
.
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 12.

21
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 30, 1937, p. 2, and March 31, 1937, p. 1; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, p. 77.

22
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 30, 1937, p. 2; Collins,
Homicide Squad
, p. 214.

23
.
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, pp. 1 and 12; Collins,
Homicide Squad
, p. 214;
New York Evening Journal
, March 30, 1937, p. 3.

24
.
New York Evening Journal
, March 30, 1937, p. 2; Gathje,
A Model Crime
, pp. 35, 67.

25
.
New York Post
, March 29, 1937, p. 1.

26
.
New York Post
, March 30, 1937, p. 3;
New York Times
, April 16, 1976, p. 27. The best book-length study of Smith is Glen Jeansonne,
Gerald L. K. Smith: Minister of Hate
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997).