The story of the critical first hours after Ruth’s disappearance, including dialogue, is taken from a number of sources, including newspapers, detective magazines, city maps, and weather reports. The majority of the narrative is from Grace Humiston, “Won’t You Help Me Find My Girl?” Actual Detective, May 4, 1938; Dick Halvorsen, “The Hidden Grave,” Master Detective, April 1954; “Another Arnold Mystery,” New Castle Herald, February 15, 1917, 1; “Girl Kidnapped,” New York Evening World, February 15, 1917, 1; “Pretty Girl Skater,” New York Times, February 16, 1917, 20; “Cocchi Must Be Returned,” New York Evening World, June 23, 1917, 2; “Won’t Limit Inquiry,” New York Times, June 24, 1917, 2; “Swann Prepared,” New York Sun, June 26, 1917, 4; “Police Were Deaf,” New York Times, June 26, 1917, 8; “Police Graft Bared,” New York Sun, June 24, 1917, 6. There is some variation on who goes with Helen on her second trip (and how many times she returns), but the accounts are otherwise in agreement.
Helen’s shiver (p. 14): “Sister Warned,” New York Evening World, June 26, 1917, 2.
“looked positively happy” (p. 15): “Missing Schoolgirl,” New York Evening World, February 15, 1917, 1.
Description of Henry Cruger (p. 16): “Father of Slain Girl,” New York Evening World, June 25, 1917, 3.
first clue (p. 19): “First Clew,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 16, 8.
Alfredo Cocchi’s disappearance (p. 21): “Man Disappears in Cruger Case,” New-York Tribune, February 17, 5.
3: THE CORONER’S CABINET
The majority of background information, dialogue, and information about the Antoinette Tolla case comes from Gertrude Klein, “But the State Said She Must Hang,” Actual Detective, March 23, 1938; State v. Antoinette Tolla, New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, vol. 375, no. 7, 1906. Government sources: Dept. of State—Sec. of State’s office—Miscellaneous Filings (Series III): “Governor Edward C. Stokes Commuted the Death Sentence,” March 9, 1906, item 370; “Reprieve of Antoinette Tolla,” February 7, 1906, item 371; “Governor Stokes Suspended,” January 10, 1906, item 694; Governor Edward C. Stokes—Correspondence, 1904—1908: file 618; Court of Pardons, relating to A. Tolla (7 letters); Death Record for Joseph Sonta, March 4, 1905; New Jersey State Archives Dept. of Institutions and Agencies, New Jersey State Prison at Trenton Inmate Registers, 1894–1975, vol. 21. Thanks to Bette M. Epstein, of the New Jersey State Archives, for her kind help.
“I shot him” (p. 23): Gertrude Klein, “But the State Said She Must Hang,” Actual Detective, March 23, 1938.
“indict for murder” (p. 24): Ibid.
“For the defense” (p. 26): “Woman Will Help in War,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 1907, 6.
“it by reason” (p. 26): Leslie J. Tompkins, “Notes and Personals,” American Law School Review, vol. 4, 1911–12, 176. Ashley was born in Boston on July 4, 1851, and was a Yale graduate.
more than a handful (p. 27): The first woman lawyer in New York, Kate Stoneman, passed the bar in 1886, but only after an arduous battle to change the Code of Civil Procedure to allow women to take it at all. She practiced in Albany, mostly in suffrage cases. Albany now observes “Kate Stoneman Day” and gives out awards; see katestoneman.org and katestonemanproject.org.
Clarice Baright (p. 27): Virginia G. Drachman, Sisters in Law: Women Lawyers in Modern American History, Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001, 133. Baright would go on to become a pioneering attorney nicknamed “The Lady Angel of the Tenement District” for her work with the poor.
Dean Ashley’s teaching (p. 28): “Law Schools,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 15, 1912, 89.
“become a lawyer” (p. 28): Leslie J. Tompkins, “Notes and Personals,” American Law School Review, Vol. 4, 1911–12, 175. Ashley believed in leaving the bar to law school entry low while making it very difficult “to get out.” “He hated sham, despised pretense, and avoided publicity. Quiet and simple in his tastes, he chose to live his life in the congenial and loving society of his family and intimate friends. A man of firm convictions, he rarely expressed an opinion until he had given the subject thoughtful consideration and when once his mind was made up, took a positive stand and retained it.” He died on January 26, 1916, about a year before Ruth Cruger’s disappearance. Clarence D. Ashley, Annual Report: Including Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, vol. 24, 1901, 477. According to Ashley, “There is no question that women are thoroughly able to practice law. They themselves will work out the problem, and they are doing it in New York to-day. Only last year a bright little woman went out of the law school, and the result is that she and her husband are both practicing law successfully together.”
Legal Aid Society (p. 29): Thirtieth Annual Report to the President of the Legal Aid Society for the Year 1905, New York Public Library Archives. In 1904, they took 20,277 cases and paid out $58,665 to clients. They took on work “no matter how small their claims, nor how helpless or poor the claimants.” That year, they spent $22,702. The most popular cases were “Advice,” “Complaints Agt. Attorneys,” and “Domestic Difficulties.”
one thousand female lawyers (p. 29): “Women Lawyers in America,” Evening Star, February 16, 1906, 8.
“may have it” (p. 30): Gertrude Klein, “But the State Said She Must Hang,” Actual Detective, March 23, 1938.
“is manifestly fanciful” (p. 30): Ibid.
an incendiary editorial (p. 32): “Mrs. Tolla Granted a Reprieve Today,” Trenton Times, January 10, 1906, 1.
killed before his arrival (p. 32): “Murder to Save Mrs. Tolla,” Trenton Times, January 15, 2.
under her lower lip (p. 34): New Jersey State Archives Dept. of Institutions and Agencies, New Jersey State Prison at Trenton Inmate Registers, 1894–1975, vol. 21.
“not do so” (p. 34): “Counsel Retained to Save Mrs. Tolla,” Trenton Sunday Advertiser, January 7, 1906, 1. Grace heard that Caesar Barra was working with Antoinette’s lawyer to ask for a pardon. She thought he had been disbarred (“Lawyer Causes Man’s Disbarment,” New York Times, October 4, 1905, 16). Barra said in the press that he felt confident that the appeal would be granted.
“woman-killing country” (p. 34): “City Priest Would Save Murderesses,” Trenton Times, January 8, 1906, 6. “Let the Stars and Stripes shine and float all over the world as an emblem of strength. Don’t let the other peoples think that beautiful flag is stained with the blood of women.”