The Girls of Murder City (47 page)

59
He quickly adjusted his memory:
There is no evidence that Kitty Malm carried a gun that night or knew how to use a gun. It was clear even to the prosecutors that Otto’s claim that Kitty fired the fatal bullet into Edward Lehman was a transparent attempt to save himself from the gallows. See “Confession of Slayer Clears Man in Cell;
CDT,
Nov. 24, 1923; “Blames Escape of Mrs. Malm on Policemen,”
CDT,
Nov. 25, 1923; “Expect Pistol Fight in Capture of Malm’s Wife,”
CEP,
Nov. 26, 1923.

60
The lawyer figured Kitty would be free:
“Ex-‘Tiger Girl,’ Kitty Malm, to Ask for Parole,”
CDT,
Oct. 10, 1932.

60
“Say, nobody in the world”:
“ ‘I’m Not Scare’t,’ Says Kitty, but She Cries a Bit,”
CDT,
Feb. 24, 1924. For more background information on Kitty Malm, see “Savage Mother Cries Out from Gun Girl’s Soul,”
CDT,
Nov. 29, 1923.

60
“She flopped her abundant
fur
wrap”:
“Angel Wings for Malm If I Hang, Says Lone Kitty,”
CDT,
Feb. 19, 1924.

61
“Mrs.
Malm
is the hardest woman”:
Descriptions of Kitty Malm’s trial and its aftermath come from: “Jury Completed to Decide Fate of Kitty Malm,”
CDT,
Feb. 21, 1924; “Girl in Court on Cot Exposes Mrs. Malm,”
CDN,
Feb. 21, 1924; “Mrs. Malm Has Collapse After State Surprise,”
CDT,
Feb. 22, 1924; “Mrs. Malm Pale and Broken as Trial Resumes,”
CEP,
Feb. 23, 1924; “New Surprise Witness in Malm Case Promised,”
CEP,
Feb. 25, 1924; “Kitty Malm, Two-Gun Girl, on Stand,”
CDN,
Feb. 25, 1924; “Mrs. Malm Trial Ending,”
CDN,
Feb. 26, 1924; “ ‘Tiger Girl,’ On Stand, Accuses Malm of Killing,”
CDT,
Feb. 26, 1924; “Kitty, Witness, Accuses Malm,”
CDJ,
Feb. 25, 1924; “Guilty; Malm Girl Gets Life,”
CDT,
Feb. 27, 1924; “Mrs. Malm Gets Life; Mate Hears His Fate Mar. 8,”
CEP,
Feb. 27, 1924.

63
Forbes, in the
Tribune:
CDT,
Feb. 22, 1924. Maurine Watkins would steal the phrase two years later for a fictional “Tiger Girl.” Her Kitty Baxter would say of herself, “Say, for the last ten years I’ve carried a gun where most girls carry a powder-puff.” See Watkins, 67.

63
Kitty read some of the coverage:
“Mrs. Malm Is Resting in Cell After Collapse,”
CEP,
Feb. 22, 1924.

65
They were “physically and mentally”:
Israel, 121.

65
The social activist Belle Moskow itz:
Ibid.

66
Her attitude and language:
“Mrs. Malm Surrenders; Admits Share in Slaying,”
CDT,
Nov. 28, 1923; “Quiz ‘Killers’ Face to Face,”
CDT,
Nov. 29, 1923.

66
Two weeks after convicting Kitty:
“Mrs. Gaertner Has ‘Class’ as She Faces Jury,”
CDT,
June 4, 1924.

66
But the
Tribune
stated the situation:
“Beulah Annan Awaits Stork, Murder Trial,”
CDT,
May 9, 1924.

66
“My experience makes me know”:
“Wants Jury of ‘Worldly Men,’ ”
Danville (VA) Bee,
Mar. 28, 1924.

66
Asked by newspapers to examine photographs:
“Women That Shoot Men True to Type,”
Fresno Bee,
Apr. 19, 1924.

Chapter 5: No Sweetheart in the World Is Worth Killing

68
Maurine’s desk sat on the east side:
Chicago Tribune
photo files;
WGN,
135.

68
Maurine was “so lovely”:
Butcher, 40-41.i.

69
Maurine had never even seen a poker game:
“The Talk of the Town,”
New Yorker,
May 21, 1927.

69
She didn’t drink:
“Alimony,”
Hearst’s International Cosmopolitan,
July 1927. See the author’s biography accompanying the story.

69
Teddy Beck, the managing editor:
Butcher, 40-41.

69
One of the few other women:
Butcher, 41.

69
The 1920s began, wrote Burton:
Rascoe,
We Were Interrupted,
3.

70
Gangsters funneled a million dollars:
Murray, 309.

70
Fred Lovering, of the
Daily Journal,
foolishly:
Dornfeld, 137.

70
Maurine was stunned to learn:
“Chicago,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927. Letter to the “dramatics editor” by Maurine Watkins.

70
Sitting in a cell less than forty-eight hours:
“Jail Java Instead of Gin for Divorcee,”
CEP
photo caption, Mar. 13, 1924.

71 “
One number on the programme”:
“Mrs. Gaertner Leads Jailed Women in Song,”
CDJ,
Mar. 14, 1924.

71
“Law is to blame for the trouble”:
“Mrs. Gaertner Lies—Mrs. Law,”
CDJ,
Mar. 13, 1924.

72
In the original photos from the night:
Chicago Tribune
photography archives;
Chicago Daily News
negatives collection, DN-0076750, Chicago History Museum.

72
Worse, the
fusel
oil and industrial:
Sullivan,
Rattling the Cup on Chicago Crime,
90-92.

72
The typical murderess, one panel exclaimed:
“False Colors of Bohemia Lead to Nowhere—Wanda Stopa Learns Too Late,”
CEA,
Apr. 28, 1924.

72
Her colleague at the paper, Genevieve Forbes:
See Genevieve Forbes file, in Women Building Chicago 1790-1990, Special Collections, University of Illinois at Chicago.

73
“
When
they talked of gin and blood, Mrs. Law”:
“Other Woman’s Gems Shine as Widow Sneers,”
CDT,
Mar. 13, 1924.

74
“No sweetheart in the world”:
“No Sweetheart Worth Killing—Mrs. Gaertner,”
CDT,
Mar. 14, 1924.

76
There’d been hundreds of brothels:
1929 Illinois Crime Survey, 845-50.

76
The 1911 Vice Commission calculated:
Wendt and Kogan, 294.

76
In her purse, unknown to her employer:
St. John, 159.

76
Quinby had a way, a colleague:
Ibid.

77
She’d march through the
Post
’s
newsroom:
Author interview with Jackie Loohauis-Bennett, May 8, 2008. Loohauis-Bennett worked and became friends with Quinby during Quinby’s last years at the
Milwaukee Journal
in the 1970s and early 1980s.

77
One fellow scribe remarked:
Newspaper clipping, headlined “Meeting Queen Marie, Lunching with Film Stars All in Day’s Work.” Undated, paper of origin unknown, in Ione Quinby Papers, Western Springs (Illinois) Historical Society.

77
Indeed, back then, just before:
“Finds Liberty as Taxi Driver,”
Waterloo (IA) Evening Courier and Reporter,
Aug. 4, 1920.

77
Instead, she undertook a new career:
Ibid.

77
“Well, I just can’t take orders”:
“She’s Taxi Driver Now—Her Own Boss,”
CDT,
July 10, 1920.

77 Any man walking by the
taxi stand:
“Finds Liberty as Taxi Driver,”
Waterloo (IA) Evening Courier and Reporter,
Aug. 4, 1920.

78
In the spring of 1920, Belva:
Israel, 128.

78
It was, said one commentator:
Israel, 120.

78
Doctors warned that the
“flapper”: Israel, 136.

78
School boards across the country:
“Roused Teachers Plan Convention Aimed at ‘Blue Laws,’ ”
Davenport (IA) Democrat and Leader,
Apr. 5, 1928.

78
The
Evening American
reported that:
Kahn, 292.

79
Already Maurine had decided that she would make:
In correspondence with the writer John Elliott, Dorotha Watkins recalled her cousin Maurine ending a marriage engagement when she was about twenty-four because she was convinced her dedication to work would make her a terrible wife. See Elliott, “Tearing Up the Pages,”
Portland Review.

79
Soon after starting at the
Tribune:
“Pioneer in Birth Control Tells How Holland Profited,”
CDT,
May 17, 1924.

79
Maurine knew all about how birth control:
Israel, 109; Morris,
Theodore Rex,
224.

79
She also attended a conference:
“Pacifists Turn to Socialists for Their Guides,”
CDT,
May 21, 1924.

79
Maurine decided that murder was more:
“Chicago,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

79 Chicagoans
rejected the notion:
“Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

80
One of Maurine’s early assignments:
“Jurors Clear Boy Who Killed Brutal Father,”
CDT,
Apr. 25, 1924.

80
In Chicago, the young reporter had noticed:
“Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

80
To get star treatment in “Murder
City”: “Chicago,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

80
She would even develop a kind of crush:
“Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

80
“I had to ask him a lot of questions that”:
Ibid.

80
The gangster’s matter-of-fact attitude:
Woollcott. As an example of her need to idealize, in one letter to Woollcott, Watkins goes on at some length about her adolescent hero worship of former U.S. senator Albert Beveridge.

81
“Gunmen are just div ine . . .”:
“Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

81
Standing around at the Criminal Courts Building:
“Miss Watkins Suggests Press Agent for Gray,”
New York Telegram,
Apr. 18, 1927.

81
The British war hero Ian Hay Beith:
Duncombe and Mattson, 16-17.

Chapter 6: The Kind of Gal Who Never Could Be True

The engine of this chapter’s narrative is Beulah Annan’s Midnight Confession, which she gave after prosecutors took her back to her apartment after having first questioned her at the Hyde Park police station. Her initial claims to police that Harry Kalstedt was a stranger who broke in and tried to rape her are patently false. The story she told in later days and weeks—that Harry had arrived drunk and bolted for Al’s gun after she told him their relationship was over—surfaced only after her lawyers entered the picture. The Midnight Confession, however, has the ring of truth throughout. The mask is gone; Beulah, sobered up, is remorseful and distraught and answers questions with specifics in a free-flowing way. This confession also matches up with key facts established at the inquest and with other details brought out at the trial. See “Woman in Salome Dance After Killing,”
CDN,
Apr. 4, 1924; “Gin Killing is Re-enacted in Cell in Jail,”
CDJ,
Apr. 5, 1924; “Mrs. Nitti Consoles Beulah,”
CEA,
Apr. 5, 1924; “What Life Finally Did to ‘the Girl with the Man-Taming Eyes,’ ”
Hamilton (OH) Evening Journal,
May 5, 1928; “Judge Admits All of Beulah’s Killing Stories,”
CDT,
May 24, 1924; “Tried to Kill Me, Says Beulah Annan on Stand” (jump-page headline),
CEA,
May 24, 1924; “‘Shot to Save My Own Life,’ Says Beulah on Stand,”
CEP,
May 24, 1924.

83
The
Tribune
that morning carried:
Bergreen, 109.

83 Already, truckloads of flowers: Ibid, 110.

84
Back in October, when Beulah:
Hamilton (OH) Evening Journal,
May 5, 1928.

84
She knew a doctor who’d give her morphine:
Ibid.

84
She felt it was a woman’s prerogative:
“Annan Killing to Grand Jury,”
CDJ,
Apr. 7, 1924.

84
She looked at the flowered paper:
Watkins, 3. Watkins’s scene description of Roxie and Amos’s fictional flat mirrored Beulah and Al’s real one.

85
There’s
another man,
she said:
“Mrs. Annan Says She Is Glad She Killed Kalstedt,”
CEP,
Apr. 4, 1924;
CDN,
Apr. 4, 1924.

85
“If that’s the kind of a woman”:
“ ‘Glad,’ Says Jazz Slayer,”
CEA,
Apr. 4, 1924.

86
She’d been dancing around:
“Spurns Husband Who Saved Her from Gallows,”
Washington Post,
July 13, 1924.

86
Why, you’re nothing but a dirty:
Hamilton Evening Journal,
May 5, 1928. The paper quotes her as saying, “Why, you’re nothing but a four-flusher and a jail bird!” In her trial testimony, it came out that she also used an expletive.

86
“Come home, I’ve shot a man”:
CDN,
Apr. 4, 1924.

87
“Where is the gun?”:
CDT,
May 24, 1924.

87
When he came in the door, the first thing:
CEA,
May 24, 1924; “Jury Finds Beulah Annan Is ‘Not Guilty,’ ”
CDT,
May 25, 1924.