Details Are Unprintable

August 24, 2020
In this riveting true crime account, Levine (The Exchange: 100 Years of Trading Grain in Winnipeg) takes an in-depth look at the murder of 22-year-old Canadian heiress Patsy Lonergan, whose naked, beaten body was found in her Manhattan apartment on October 26, 1943, the day after she spent the night hitting nightclubs in New York City with a man other than her husband, Wayne Lonergan, from whom she was separated. Wayne, a poor Canadian playboy, who was also in town, was arrested and convicted in a circus trial, but it was the revelations about their dysfunctional marriage that kept the scandal sheets selling. Both were heavy drinkers and fixtures at the Stork Club and El Morocco. Both had affairs, and Wayne, who was bisexual, may have had a liaison with Patsy’s father. Wayne confessed to the murder, though he later recanted, and spent 22 years in Sing Sing. After parole, he was deported to Canada, where he spent the last 14 years of his life with actress Barbara Hamilton. Levine does a good job filling in the cultural background, in particular the plight of a bisexual man trying to fit into an intolerant society. This titillating tale of how the rich live and die compels even if it offers no definitive answers.