“assault the woman” (p. 34): “Mrs. Tolla Found Guilty,” Trenton Times, January 17, 1906, 1.
Antoinette’s cell window (p. 36): Gertrude Klein, “But the State Said She Must Hang,” Actual Detective, March 23, 1938. Afterward, Antoinette cried and talked with Anna Valentine, another death row prisoner. Father Lambert, the prison chaplain, would visit at night and hear these conversations, praying for them both. There is debate whether she actually witnessed the execution.
“is rendered doubtful” (p. 37): New Jersey v. Tolla, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined Before the New Jersey Supreme Court, Newark: Soney and Sage, 1906, 523.
about five years (p. 38): Letter, Office of the Sheriff of Bergen County Hackensack to Secretary of State James Mercer, March 10, 1906, Department of State Secretary of State Office miscellaneous filings (series 3), box 370, 1836c–1915.
4: THE HEATHERBLOOM GIRL
“very little of his business” (p. 41): “Man Disappears in Cruger Case,” New-York Tribune, February 17, 5. All of the dialogue in this beginning section is from this article.
“protection for their children” (p. 42): “Hunt Missing Man,” New York Times, February 17, 1917, 1. The document was signed by Mrs. Pattinson, Mrs. Gershwin Smith, Mrs. John H. Brown, Mrs. B. M. Oxley, and Miss Grace M. Chamberlain.
How much they loved Ruth Cruger (p. 43): “Students Join Hunt,” Washington Herald, February 17, 3; “Movies to Present,” New York Times, February 21, 1917, 20.
“in the newspapers” (p. 43): “Saw Weeping Girl,” New York Evening World, February 17, 1917, 1.
blind woman (p. 44): Wording taken from Paul Strand, “Print shows woman beggar wearing ‘Blind’ sign and New York City beggar’s permit,” Photograph—New York, 1917. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Call No. TR1.C5 1916/1917 (case X) [P&P]. I am using this photograph as a representative image of the beggars Henry Cruger would have seen. There is no evidence to prove that he indeed saw this particular woman, though there is no evidence he did not. Throughout this book, I similarly use other contemporary details and situations to fill out cultural and social details. This is a story of creative nonfiction, not an academic history.
become a detective (p. 44): “Lost Cruger Girl,” New York Evening World, February 19, 1917, 1.
“sent in search of her” (p. 44): “Pretty Girl Skater,” New York Times, February 16, 1917, 20.
“knew it was she” (p. 45): “Sure Ruth Cruger Rode,” New York Times, March 2, 1917, 2; “Chauffeur Gives Cruger,” New-York Tribune, February 20, 1917, 6.
“which [I] did” (p. 46): “Sure Ruth Cruger Rode,” New York Times, March 2, 1917, 2.
“wide black hat” (p. 46): “Police Graft Bared,” New York Sun, June 24, 1917, 6.
“had been crying” (p. 46): “Lost Cruger Girl,” New York Evening World, February 19, 1917, 1.
“for police shirking” (p. 47): “Man Who Last Saw,” New York Evening World, February 16, 1917, 1.
“with me long ago” (p. 47): Ibid.
“and the children” (p. 47): “Lost Cruger Girl,” New York Evening World, February 19, 1917, 4.
nothing in-between (p. 48): Ernest Poole, His Family, New York: Macmillan, 1917. Poole’s book is set in 1913 and tells the story of widower Roger Gale as he tries to understand his three modern daughters who are navigating life in New York City. Known for its inclusion of real-life detail and events into its fictional narrative, the book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1918—the first given to a work of fiction. The work is largely forgotten today. In an attempt to get closer to 1917 language, I have, at several points in this book, consciously reflected some of Poole’s brief phrases and images in homage. His Family is in the public domain.
“should be done” (p. 49): “Girl Drugged,” New York Times, February 20, 1917, 20.
“You big fool” (p. 49): “Woods Sworn In,” New-York Tribune, April 9, 1914, 2. Woods’s inauguration day was the same day as the funeral of Detective Joseph Guarnieri. Woods’s pals at the Harvard Club had sent roses for his inaguration. Woods supposedly looked at the flowers for a moment and had them sent on to the detective’s family instead. For more on Woods, see Arthur Woods, Policeman and Public, Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2009 (reprint); Arthur Woods, “Police Administration,” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York. New York: City of New York, April 1915, 54–61. The Arthur Woods Papers, 1884–1938 on microfilm, Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, shelf no. 19,604.
“to shoot me?” (p. 50): “Corporation Counsel Polk,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 17, 1914, 1. Mitchel was convinced, in the hours afterward, that it was a larger conspiracy and began brandishing his own pistol in the air.
“none of them did” (p. 50): “Polk Expected,” Harrisburg Daily Independent, April 18, 1914, 1. Mahoney, after trial, was sent to a mental asylum.
“dealing with strange forces” (p. 50): “Malone Warns Revilers,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 18, 1914, 2. Attributed to both Mayor Mitchel and here to Dudley Field Malone, collector of the Port of New York.
Barking Squad (p. 51): “Nothing Like a Canine Sherlock Holmes,” New York Times, September 6, 1908, 46.
long campaign of murder (p. 52): Francesco Maraesciallo Bianco, “The Story of ‘Jo’ Petrosino,” The Scrap Book, April 1910; Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld, New York: Knopf, 1928; James Dalessandro, “Petrosino v. The Black Hand,” Playboy, January 2010; “Old-Time Racketeers,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 18, 1951, 1. Tom McDonough played for the “Barnstorming All-Americans” and was a .300-hitting third baseman; “Masquerading Sleuth,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 20, 1951, 5; Anne Romano, “Italian Squad,” Italian Americans in Law Enforcement, Bloomington, IN: Xlibris, 2010; Bernard Whalen and Jon Whalen, The NYPD’s First Fifty Years, Lincoln, NE: Potomac, 2015.
Black Tom Island (p. 52): “Munitions Explosions,” New York Times, July 31, 1916, 1. At 2:08 A.M. on July 30, 1916, German saboteurs set off explosions on Black Tom Island, an ammunitions dump located off Jersey City, causing reverbations that allegedly made the Brooklyn Bridge sway. Less than an hour later, another explosion showered the region with debris. Six people were killed in the aftermath, including a baby.
without its own controversies (p. 52): “School Children Told Life,” Washington Times, November 2, 1910, 6. An English teacher, Miss Henrietta Rodman, had been disciplined for teaching the work of Victorian novelist George Eliot. It wasn’t the choice of novel so much as the details of Eliot’s personal life: she had lived openly with George Lewes, who was married to someone else.
“insulted me in the street” (p. 53): “Gang Annoys Schoolgirls,” New York Evening World, May 1, 1903, 6.