Saving Sin City

May 1, 2018

In June 1906, Harry Thaw, scion of a wealthy Pittsburgh family, shot architect Stanford White in a jealous rage over chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit. The collision of beauty, money, passion, and murder was catnip for the press, who called it the Trial of the Century. This oft-told tale still fascinates, and historian Cummings finds a new way of examining the case and its implications, delving deeply into the life and work of William Travers Jerome, a crusading lawyer and political hopeful whose prosecution of Thaw was thwarted by the very climate of corruption he fought for years. Born into the same wealth and privilege as White, Travers became a crusader for reform, taking on the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine with varying success. Frustrated in his efforts to bring down the mighty, he saw the high-profile Thaw case as the make-or-break point for his career. The attempt failed, and the man who once sought the governor's mansion became barely a footnote in history. VERDICT Cummings brings the Gilded Age to vivid life, with the barest suggestion of connections to today's click-bait news culture and epidemic of "affluenza." For popular history buffs as well as true crime fans.--Deirdre Bray Root, formerly with MidPointe Lib. Syst., OH

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2018
This work of narrative nonfiction offers a richly detailed plunge into the excesses of the Gilded Age, as revealed in one infamous love triangle. Journalist Cummings adds a new dimension to a case that's often been written about, that of the murder of famed New York society architect Stanford White by Harry K. Thaw, a psychopathic millionaire playboy. The murder of White by Thaw in 1906 at the Madison Square Garden's rooftop theater was the culmination of years of festering jealousy over White's relationship with the woman both men loved, showgirl Evelyn Nesbit. Cummings expands what is already a great story (including the fact that Thaw was acquitted, despite having committed murder in front of dozens of witnesses) by setting a counterpoint to the lavishly appointed sins of this age. She shows the other side, the doomed campaigns of the antivice reformers and, especially, the effort of district attorney William Travers Jerome to investigate and prosecute Thaw. Cummings' gift for the odd detail (John Barrymore got his start as a newspaper sketch artist, for example) and for describing physical settings (she uses newspaper accounts of the time to peer into Fifth Avenue homes filled with marble and artworks plundered from Europe by White) make this latest account of the Stanford White murder a standout.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)