The Girls of Murder City (46 page)

24
The room was stuffed:
CDT,
Mar. 12, 1924; Case S-443652 (
Gaertner
v.
Gaertner,
1926), Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County.

25
“He gave me that coat, too”:
Lesy, 199. Also see “Gin Bottle and Slippers Shown at Belva’s Trial,”
CEP,
June 5, 1924.

26
In her first few weeks:
“Women Who’ve Won: Maurine Watkins,”
Syracuse (NY) Herald,
June 26, 1928; “Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

26
After only a few days on the job:
“Young Lady,”
New Yorker,
Jan. 29, 1927, 18.

26
If she were
lucky,
she might:
“Bobbed Wig or Wigged Bobs Is Fashion Decree,”
CDT,
Apr. 24, 1924.

26
It hardly helped to know:
Rascoe,
Before I Forget,
242.

26
The newsroom’s majordomo was a profane:
Rascoe,
Before I Forget,
235.

27
“The prima donna is one who
will”:
WGN,
132.

27
When the country committed to the World War:
WGN,
85.

28
Serious journals called the Hearst style:
See Pelizzon and West.

28
His papers also vocally supported him:
Murray, 55.

28
The
hardball
tactics in the circulation
war: Nash,
Makers and Breakers of Chicago: From Long John Wentworth to Richard J. Daley,
30-31.

29
Howey’s charge was, “Beat the
Trib
”:
Murray, 120.

29
“Don’t ever fake a
story”: Rascoe,
Before I Forget,
236.

29
In contrast to the
Tribune
’s culture:
Murray, 67-74.

29
Editors at the two newspapers worked:
Wendt, 451.

29
They bribed officers to sit in on:
Murray, 206; Hecht,
Gaily, Gaily,
35-36.

30
Howey’s most memorable physical characteristic:
Hecht,
Charlie: The Improbable Life and Times of Charles MacArthur,
49-50.

30 “What
do you mean, the man”:
Murray, 35-36.

30
“A newspaper man need have only a
spoonful”:
WGN,
133.

31 It was after one in the morning:
WGN,
159; “Mystery Victim Is Robert Law; Hold Divorcee,”
CDT
, Mar. 12, 1924.

31
She and
Walter
were so drunk:
“One-Gun Duel Tragedy Told by Woman,”
CDN,
Mar. 12, 1924, and
CDT,
Mar. 12, 1924.

32
The papers would refer to her:
“ ‘Flip Coin’ Murderess Acquitted by Chicago Jury on Eighth Ballot,”
Waterloo (IA) Evening Courier,
June 6, 1924.

32
“Mr. Law said something about hold-up men”:
Lesy, 199.

33
A girl reporter simply couldn’t be counted on:
Ross, 6.

33
Despite the dramatic rise in “gun girls”:
Dornfeld, 189.

33
“I would rather see my daughter
starve”: Ross, 22.

33
The
Tribune,
at least, wanted a true:
Butcher, 208.

33
On her first assignment, Fanny Butcher:
Butcher, 205-6.

33
She had to listen, she said, “to the intimate”:
Ibid.

34
“Mrs. Belle Brown Overbeck Gaertner”:
CDT,
Mar. 12, 1924.

35
The story had been designated:
WGN,
102, 159, 236, 242, 252.

37
Every crime story was instantly recognizable:
Gilman, “The Truth Behind the News,” 1-4. Sabella Nitti was designated “Senora Sabelle” in “Dialect Jargon Makes ’Em Dizzy at Nitti Trial,”
CDT,
July 7, 1923.

38
“Call William,” Belva had pleaded:
Lesy, 199.

Chapter 3: One-Gun Duel

The chief sources of information for William and Belva Gaertner’s life together are court documents from their second divorce, in 1926, and their aborted annulment case, in 1917: Case S-331246 (
Gaertner
v.
Gaertner,
1917) and case S-443652 (
Gaertner
v.
Gaertner,
1926). These case files reside in the archives of the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court in Chicago. Page numbers are not listed because each case’s documents, compiled over many weeks or months, are out of order and mostly unnumbered. The case files are not overwhelming in size, however. Anyone going through them in the Circuit Court archives can easily find my trail.

39
The horses had almost made the marriage:
“Finds Liberty as Taxi Driver,”
Waterloo (IA) Evening Courier and Reporter,
Aug. 4, 1920; “Riding to a Fall,”
CDT,
Sept. 16, 1917.

39
One observer noted that the “suppleness”:
Evening Courier and Reporter,
Aug. 4, 1920.

39
William gave her a present during their courtship:
“Sleuths Sleuth on Sleuths in Domestic Row,”
CEP,
Apr. 9, 1920.

39
With her trim torso and her penchant:
Holt and Pacyga, 73-79, 95-96.

40
The parks, opined a visitor:
Pierce, 398.

41
That was the name she had been using:
CDT,
in its September 16, 1917, report, suggests that the couple met on the city’s South Side bridle paths. The
Fresno Bee
of September 19, 1926, in “Why the ‘Cave-Girl’ Wants a Third Divorce from Hubby,” describes William Gaertner meeting Belva in a Loop cabaret, where William “had the habit of seeking diversion from the cares of his business.” Considering their respective stations in society and William’s taste in women, it is likely that the initial meeting was in a cabaret. William treasured the portrait he had commissioned of her in cabaret dress, so he clearly had seen her on stage, and it made an impression. The “revelations of the female form” quote comes from Rascoe’s
Before I Forget,
297.

41
Here, wearing molded
breastplates: Lesy, 196. Belva Gaertner’s age is listed in Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphans’ Home Records, 1900 (255.004-008), Illinois State Archives, Margaret Cross Norton Bldg., Springfield, Illinois. She was born September 14, 1885.

42
He soon discovered her given name:
Case S-331246 (
Gaertner
v.
Gaertner,
1917). Also see: case S-327058 (
Oberbeck
v.
Oberbeck,
1917), Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court.

42
Belva, it turned out, was easy to have:
Belva and William Gaertner married for the first time on June 4, 1917. But William had another longtime mistress, Helen LaFontaine, and when LaFontaine found out about the marriage, she threatened William’s reputation. Within days of the ceremony, William told Belva the marriage was over. On August 3, he filed a bill of complaint in the Cook County Superior Court seeking an annulment. Then somewhere between October 1917 and the following March, the newlyweds reconciled. In August 1918, just over a year after their ill-fated first marriage, William and Belva married again. See case S-331246 (
Gaertner
v.
Gaertner,
1917). Also see “Riding to a Fall,”
CDT,
Sept. 16, 1917, and “Gaertners Jog Apart as Court Cuts the Reins,”
CDT,
May 7, 1920.

42
He controlled the universe:
“New Camera to Take Mars,”
NYT,
May 9, 1907.

43
“You are one husband in a million”:
“The Matrimonial Worm That Turned at Last,”
San Antonio Light,
Jan. 9, 1927.

43
On top of such frivolities:
“Are Chicago Women Slaves to Corsets? Well—Yes and No,”
CDT,
June 8, 1921.

43
“Thanks for the
advice”:
San Antonio Light,
Jan. 9, 1927.

44
“It wasn’t unusual for him”:
“Belva Gaertner Will Fight Rich Husband’s Suit,”
CDT,
Aug. 2, 1926.

44
He hired celebrated detective
W
.
C. Dannenberg: The Gaertner divorce and the events leading up to it are detailed in “Sleuths Lose Jobs as Woman Gets Divorce,”
CEP,
May 7, 1920; “Gaertners’ Life Just One Sleuth After Another,”
CDT,
Apr. 9, 1920; “Gaertners Jog Apart as Court Cuts the Reins,”
CDT,
May 7, 1920; “Detectives Bind Wife in Hyde Park Home; Ratio is 16 to 1,”
CEA,
Apr. 12, 1920. Also see case S-443652 (
Gaertner
v.
Gaertner,
1926).

44
The neighborhoods to the west:
Holt and Pacyga, 95-98.

45
Belva munched a sandwich:
Descriptions and dialogue from the inquest come from the following sources: “One-Gun Duel Tragedy Told by Woman,”
CDN,
Mar. 12, 1924; “Belle Bemoans Ruined Coat,”
CDJ,
Mar. 13, 1924; “Other Woman’s Gems Shine as Widow Sneers,”
CDT,
Mar. 13, 1924; “Hold Divorcee as Slayer of Auto Salesman,”
CDT,
Mar. 13, 1924; “Gamble with Death Excuse for Killing,”
NYT,
Mar. 13, 1924; “Never Threatened Law, Says Divorcee,”
CDN,
Mar. 13, 1924; “Mrs. Gaertner Lies—Mrs. Law,”
CDJ,
Mar. 13, 1924; “Mrs. Gaertner in Cell for Slaying Is No Longer Gay,”
CEP,
Mar. 13, 1924; “Gaertner Trial Starts,”
CDN,
June 4, 1924. Additional information came from Lesy, 200; and Aylesworth and Aylesworth, 22.

51
The day after William caught her in bed:
William and Belva’s face-off on this day is chronicled in the
Evening Courier and Reporter,
Aug. 4, 1920.

53
Wags called the
Gaertner
estate:
“She’s Taxi Driver Now—Her Own Boss,”
CDT,
July 10, 1920.

54
The whip would be presented:
“Sleuths Sleuth on Sleuths in Domestic Row,”
CEP,
Apr. 9, 1920.

54
“Sure, I whipped my millionaire husband”:
Fresno Bee,
Sept. 19, 1926.

55
She had married William because:
CEA,
Apr. 12, 1920.

56
“Me threaten him with a knife?”:
“Other Woman’s Gems Shine as Widow Sneers,”
CDT,
Mar. 13, 1924.

56
Belva was the only inmate “dressed up”:
“Belle Bemoans Ruined Coat,”
CDJ,
Mar. 13, 1924; “Mrs. Gaertner Lies—Mrs. Law,”
CDJ,
Mar. 13, 1924.

56
“It gives me an awfully blank feeling”:
“Mrs. Gaertner Lies—Mrs. Law,”
CDJ,
Mar. 13, 1924.

56
“You see, they have taken away”:
Ibid.

56
“I hope they won’t put me to work”:
Ibid.

Chapter 4: Hang Me? That’s a Joke

57
When the jail matrons brought Belva in:
“Never Threatened Law, Says Divorcee,”
CDN,
Mar. 13, 1924; “Mrs. Gaertner Lies—Mrs. Law,”
CDJ,
Mar. 13, 1924.

57
The streak had stood at twenty-nine:
Lesy, 154.

57-58
In the
Tribune,
Genevieve
Forbes derided:
“Dialect Jargon Makes ’Em Dizzy at Nitti Trial,”
CDT,
July 7, 1923; “Death for 2 Women Slayers,”
CDT,
July 10, 1923.

58
There was simply no comparison:
Katherine Malm was actually a native of Austria. But she emigrated with her family at age seven, and her look and accent were thoroughly American.

58
There’d never been a time when it was easy:
The best source of information on the difficulties in convicting women, especially husband-killers, in Cook County is Adler’s “ ‘I Loved Joe, but I Had to Shoot Him’: Homicide by Women in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago,” 883-86.

58
At fourteen, Belva found herself dumped:
Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s School, Record Group 255.004, Illinois State Archives. Also see Cmiel, 26-27.

58
Kitty dropped out of the fifth grade:
“Ladies in Crime,”
CDT,
Mar. 27, 1927.

58
She’d married Otto Malm illegally:
“Kitty Malm’s Legal Husband Seeks Divorce,”
CDT,
Mar. 13, 1924.

58
“Defendant Katherine Baluk”:
Superior Court of Cook County, chancery no. 400645,
Baluk
v.
Baluk,
May 31, 1924.

58
This
shouldn’t
have surprised her:
“Suspends Police Blamed for Gun Girl’s Escape; Mrs. Malm’s Love for Baby May Trap Her,”
CDT,
Nov. 26, 1923.

59
Max now claimed:
Superior Court of Cook County, chancery no. 400645,
Baluk
v.
Baluk,
May 31, 1924.

59
“Fellows, always fellows”:
“Ladies in Crime,”
CDT,
Mar. 27, 1927.

59
Soon Belva and Kitty were playing cards:
“Three Women Smilingly Awaiting Trials That May Cost Their Lives,”
Elyria (OH) Chronicle-Telegram,
Mar. 19, 1924.

59
“You can now tell them”:
“Malm Woman’s ‘Death Notes’ Are Plea for Her Baby,”
CEP,
Dec. 1, 1923.