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The Murder of the Century
The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars | Paul Collins
No writer better articulates ourinterest in the confluence of hope, eccentricity, and the timelessness of the bold and strange than Paul Collins.DAVE EGGERS On Long Island, a farmer finds a duck pond turned red with blood. On the Lower East Side, two boys playing at a pier discover a floating human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth. Blueberry pickers near Harlem stumble upon neatly severed limbs in an overgrown ditch. Clues to a horrifying crime are turning up all over New York, but the police are baffled: There are no witnesses, no motives, no suspects. The grisly finds that began on the afternoon of June 26, 1897, plunged detectivesheadlong into the era's most baffling murder mystery. Seized upon by battling media moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the case became a publicity circus. Reenactments of the murder were staged in Times Square, armed reporters lurked in the streets of Hell's Kitchen in pursuit of suspects, and an unlikely trioa hard-luck cop, a cub reporter, and an eccentric professorall raced to solve the crime. What emerged was a sensational love triangle and an even more sensational trial: an unprecedented capital case hinging on circumstantial evidence around a victim whom the police couldn't identify with certainty, and who the defense claimed wasn't even dead. The Murder of the Century is a rollicking talea rich evocation of America during the Gilded Age and a colorful re-creation of the tabloid wars that have dominated media to this day. From the Hardcover edition.
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DieAReader
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Pickpick
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 3y
33 likes2 comments
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Sace
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TBH this post is more about Over and to share with @Daisey and @Riveted_Reader_Melissa. I kind of like being able to "curve" text. The circle crop is cool. The paper overlay on Litsy helps though because free Over doesn't have interesting background options.

As for this audio, it's not going to be on my list of favorites. The narrator insists on bad accents and I swear the way he's doing one of the lawyer voices he sounds like Sam the Eagle.

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Sace
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Ruthiella 😋 4y
Megabooks So good! 4y
Sace @Megabooks @Ruthiella chocolate with peanut butter buckeyes. Yum! 4y
65 likes3 comments
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Sace
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Morning walk with the husband is complete. I've done a couple of chores. Next up, post my tbr book then some #audioknitting and #ReadYourSign reading.

I'll be turning off my phone for a few hours because I can't resist getting on and seeing all the #CYOreadathon posts. I'm weak! I don't think I've done much reading at all. 😂

MittenGirlPeach I do the same thing! 😉 It‘s so much fun to see what everyone is up to and reading. 4y
Sace @MittenGirlPeach It doesn't help me reduce my tbr though 😏 4y
87 likes2 comments
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EadieB
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OriginalCyn620 👍🏻📚😱 5y
56 likes1 comment
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TracyReadsBooks
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Pickpick

In 1897, 4 boys playing on the East Eleventh Street Pier discovered a headless torso. Days later more body parts were found miles away and the race was on...not just between the police and the killer but also between NYC‘s big paper barons—Pulitzer & Hearst. Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime, this book offers a fascinating glimpse into 19th c. NYC and the rivalry between men/newspapers as well as, needless to say, crime.

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Booksnchill
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Great book- fascinating look at the rise of yellow, tabloid journalism especially between Pulitzer and Hearst fueled by a spectalcular murder- a headless corpse is recovered, boiled and with no ID. There are fake witnesses, planted evidence (by ringers for the papers) generally a circus atmosphere. The murder itself is also worth a book- a love triangle, midwife, butcher, barber, rumors and innuendo. Fast listen recommended!

74 likes2 stack adds
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Booksnchill
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My next commute listen- murders in Long Island in 1897- picked it up at the library due to title and the narrator- William Dufris

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KeepCalmWithBooksAndCoffee
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Mehso-so

Overall I enjoyed this but it was a little too dramatized for me. I would‘ve preferred more facts but I know this was a True Crime Novel. The story was very interesting though and the narrator of the audiobook was really good

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tysephine
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What a wild ride of a murder mystery! Excellent on audio.

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Brie
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True crime combined with the beginning of sensational journalism. As an unidentified man‘s severed body parts begin to turn up around New York City in 1897, rival newspapers and cops try to find the killer and discover a deadly love triangle. I hadn‘t heard of this case before, and the historical context of the tabloid wars provides some insight into how the 24 hour news cycle of today started.

vivastory I really enjoyed it 7y
Brie @vivastory No not yet but I‘ve wanted to. I heard that one‘s good. 7y
65 likes7 stack adds3 comments
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KtCakes22
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This book looks into some of the early phases of journalism where newspapers would do anything to get information on a story... and really, they would do everything and anything possible! The dialogue was collected from court testimonies and other primary sources, so the quotes used are things people actually said during that time. Really interesting read!

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Shauna
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And now for something completely different. I read a couple of pages of this the other day while getting a pedicure, and today I'm ready to dive in.

Adutcher Great descriptions of the practices of the newspaper industry at that time. 8y
3 likes1 comment