The Girls of Murder City (51 page)

210
He was considered the “ace”:
Higdon, 50.

213
Nash had made a name for himself:
“Who’s Who in New City Council,”
CDT,
Apr. 2, 1913; “Thomas Nash, Long in City Politics, Dies,”
CDT,
Apr. 12, 1955.

213
“The list of Tom Nash’s clients reads”:
“Litsinger Reads Nash Record in Freeing Killers,”
CDT,
Oct. 30, 1928.

213
He took seriously his client’s preference:
“Wants Jury of ‘Worldly Men,’ ”
Danville (VA) Bee,
Mar. 28, 1924.

214
“She’s wrong,” one policeman told:
Ibid.

214
There also was one more consideration:
“Jury Finds Beulah Annan Is ‘Not Guilty,’ ”
CDT,
May 25, 1924.

215
Though she joked about it in the
Tribune:
“Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

215
“The essence of Christianity”:
Ibid.

218
A reporter from the
Atlanta Constitution:
“Another Woman Acquitted of Murder by Chicago Jury,”
Atlanta Constitution,
June 6, 1924.

Chapter 18: A Grand and Gorgeous Show

224
Said Loeb, “I know I should feel sorry”:
Higdon, 141.

224
The approach apparently worked:
Higdon, 305.

224
The reporter, taking a shot at Leopold’s atheism:
“Leopold, Loeb Trial Set for Monday, Aug. 4,”
CDT,
June 12, 1924.

225
“Why come to me?” he croaked:
Higdon, 139.

225
“The judge entered; Superior Court, criminal branch”:
CDT,
June 12, 1924.

226
“The case was really ridiculous”:
“Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
June 16, 1927.

228
By the middle of 1924, after having interviewed:
“Women Who’ve Won: Maurine Watkins,”
Syracuse (NY) Herald,
June 26, 1928;
NYW,
June 16, 1927.

228
The
American
called the
Tribune
’s broadcast:
Higdon, 159-67.

229
She wrote that Pola Negri had:
“Negri’s Art Shines Through Sordid Plot,”
CDT,
July 27, 1924; “Fine Storm Washes Away All Their Sins,”
CDT,
July 30, 1924.

229
She reported on child star Jackie Coogan’s:
“Jackie Coogan Is Mayor for Ten Minutes,”
CDT,
Aug. 7, 1924.

229
Covering a society yacht party:
Author interview with former
Milwaukee Journal
editor in chief Dick Leonard, May 2, 2008.

Chapter 19: Entirely Too Vile

230
“The finer the spirit of the young artist”:
Kinne, 266.

231
“Nobody but a newspaper worker knows”:
“Feminine Punch Is Knockout,”
CHE,
Sept. 18, 1927.

231
“Who knows you now? Nobody”:
Watkins, 15.

231
The Victorian writer George Meredith wrote:
Kaplan, 541.

232
Expanding on Meredith’s writing, Baker added:
Kinne, 93-94.

232
“Oh, I feel so sorry for her when I think”:
Watkins, 43.

233
Baker taught classical Greek comedy:
Kinne, 92.

233
In October, the
New Yorker:
“Chicago,”
New Yorker,
Oct. 2, 1926.

234
She had put down on the page:
“Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

234
“It seems to me that the purpose and treatment”:
Ibid.

234
“You wrote something that might have an effect”:
Kinne, 267.

234
One prominent playgoer at its pre-Broadway:
Pauly, x.

235
“I quite agree with Professor Archer”:
Chicago
file, Katherine Cornell Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

235
“Liquor runs deep down the course”:
“Blind-Pigs in Clover,”
Vanity Fair,
Apr., 1927.

235
The jury quickly attacked West’s off-Broadway play:
Mantle, 3-5.

236
When
SEX
went to trial, in February 1927:
Watts, 90-92.

236
“Here, take these, too!”:
Watkins, 47-48.

236
The New York correspondent for:
“Chicago’s Lady Killers Theme of New Play,”
CDT,
Dec. 31, 1926.

237
“My hat is off to the genius of ”:
“Hughes Lauds Play for Baring ‘Ghastly Farce’ of Courts,”
San Antonio Light,
Mar. 13, 1927.

237
Two months after the play opened, humorist:
“How a Murder Should Be Advertised,”
Western Weekly,
Feb. 6, 1927.

238
The
New York Times,
in profiling:
“The Author of ‘Chicago,’ ”
NYT,
Jan. 2, 1927.

238
A
New York World
feature on Maurine:
“Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

239
Velma is described as being in her “late thirties”:
Watkins, 24
.

239
Maurine even offered herself up:
Watkins, 41
.

239
The furthest she went in acknowledging:
“Chicago,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

Chapter 20: The Most Monotonous City on Earth

240
The train swung north into Chicago’s sprawling:
Pierce, 504.

240
The traveler coming into Chicago for the first time:
Pierce, 430.

240
Once the train settled into LaSalle:
“Girl Author Pays ‘Chicago’ Surprise Visit,”
CEP,
Oct. 11, 1927.

240
Chicago
’s press agent planned:
Ibid.

241
The best available seat at this late hour:
Ibid.

242
Eddie Kitt, the manager, smiled at her approach:
Ibid.

243
She’d been a reliable background player:
Ibid.

243
New York was surprisingly tame:
Lesy, 304.

243
At one point, Maurine took a trip to supposedly:
Woollcott.

243
Haver would admit that herself, saying:
“Roxie Kept Her Jumping,”
LAT,
Feb. 26, 1928.

243
“Miss Watkins is uncannily keen”:
“ ‘Chicago’ Is a Murder Dance in Jazz Time,”
CEP,
Sept. 12, 1927.

244
The
American
observed that “Good-natured”:
“Women Can’t ‘Go Hang’ in Chicago, It Seems,”
CEA,
Sept. 12, 1927.

244
“Gee, this play’s sure got our number”:
“Murder She Wrote,”
CDT,
July 16, 1997.

244
“Roxie Hart’s supposed to be Beulah Annan”:
Pauly, xxvi.

244
Chicago
was indeed filled with awful:
“Those Playwrights,”
NYT,
May 26, 1929; also “Theater,”
Oakland (CA) Tribune,
Nov. 10, 1926.

245
O’Brien, recognizing his own words:
Pauly, xxvii.

245
The production recalled gayer journalistic:
“This Thing and That Thing of the Theater,”
CDT,
Oct. 16, 1927.

245
It had been incorrectly “whispered about”:
CEA,
Sept. 12, 1927.

246
After
Chicago
opened, the magazine weighed in:
“Young Lady,”
New Yorker,
Jan. 29, 1927.

246
That other popular stage authoress:
Chandler, 2.

246
Vanity Fair
thrilled to this “seraphic”:
Vanity Fair,
Apr., 1927; “Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,”
NYW,
Jan. 16, 1927.

246-47
The
New York Times
’s theater correspondent:
NYT,
Jan. 2, 1927.

247
Frances Browning was the sixteen-year-old:
“Browning’s Wife Tells Her Story,”
NYT,
Jan. 26, 1927.

247
A swarming crowd gave him an ovation:
“Legal Veil of Secrecy May Dim Dramatics out of Browning Case,”
NYW,
Jan. 25, 1927.

247
An editor’s note pointed out that:
“Our ‘Peaches’ Has Got to Have a Jury!”
NYW,
Jan. 30, 1927.

248
Among those who signed up to cover the trial:
“Maurine Watkins Sees Frustrated Ambition in Woman’s Bitter Reviling,”
New York Telegram,
Apr. 21, 1927; “The Olympian Eye,”
New Yorker,
Apr. 30, 1927.

249
Time
magazine pointed out that the “details”:
“Carnival,”
Time,
Apr. 25, 1927.

249
“Strike up the band, for the show starts”:
“Playwright Says Dislikes Couple Didn’t Realize Now Flame into Open Hate,”
New York Telegram,
May 6, 1927.

249
More than a hundred seats in the courthouse:
“Miss Watkins Suggests Press Agent for Gray,”
New York Telegram,
Apr. 18, 1927.

250
“Feel depressed,” she wrote:
Woollcott.

250
On the first day of the trial, Maurine highlighted:
MacKellar, 112.

251
In Philadelphia, the play was withdrawn:
“ ‘Revelry’ Withdrawn from Philadelphia Stage; ‘Unpatriotic, ’ ”
CDT,
Sept. 7, 1927.

251
“The play that Miss Watkins fashioned is”:
“Wild Men,”
New Republic,
Sept. 28, 1927.

252
George Jean Nathan, in the
American:
“The Theatre,”
American Mercury,
Nov. 1927.

252
“Does your department pay damages to”:
Woollcott.

252
Nelson B. Bell, a
Washington Post
film:
“Offerings at the Theaters: Rialto,”
Washington Post,
Mar. 5, 1928.

253
The
Chicago Tribune
reported that:
“Theater,”
CDT,
Dec. 6, 1927.

253
Baker wrote to Maurine from Yale:
Kinne, 268.

253
“I expect it will be the making of me”:
Watts, 92.

254
“I am not coming for a drink today”:
Woollcott.

254
But her themes and subjects changed little:
See
Hearst’s International Cosmopolitan,
July, Nov. 1927; July, Sept., Dec. 1928; Jan. 1929.

254
One, “Butterfly Goes Home,” once again:
“Real ‘Chicago’ Play Heroine Dies Unknown,”
Oakland (CA) Tribune,
Mar. 14, 1928.

254
Instead she had come to believe that “the feminine”:
“ ‘Chair Too Good for Them,’ Says ‘Gentle Sex’ Which is Ready to Save State’s Time,”
New York Telegram,
Apr. 20, 1927.

Epilogue

256
“A Woman Jury to Try Women Slayers”:
Danville (VA) Bee,
June 12, 1924.

256
Seven years later, in 1931, Illinois voters:
“Women Juror Law Held Void by High Court,”
CDT,
May 1, 1931.

256
Finally, in 1939, fifteen years after Beulah:
“Women to Start Serving on Juries in September,”
CDT,
July 9, 1939.

256
“Chicago men have suddenly become delighted”:
“Men Now Eager to Get on Jury; Reason: Women,”
CDT,
Jan. 13, 1940.

257
“It was with a gesture of contempt”:
“Spurns Husband Who Saved Her from Gallows,”
Washington Post,
July 13, 1924.

257
In January 1927, six months after her divorce:
“Beulah Annan, Beauty Freed of Murder, Is Bride,”
CDT,
Jan. 19, 1927.

257
At a divorce hearing Beulah told of “blackened”:
“ ‘Beautiful Slayer’ Fails to Get Decree,”
Washington Post,
May 8, 1927.

257
“She wasn’t very beautiful”:
Oakland (CA) Tribune,
Mar. 14, 1928.

257
On March 14, 1928, the
Tribune
wrote:
“Beulah Annan, Chicago’s Jazz Killer, Is Dead,”
CDT,
Mar. 14, 1928.

258
“I cannot make myself realize that Beulah has given”:
Washington Post,
July 13, 1924.

258
She mused publicly that Al’s willingness to endure:
“ ‘Chair Too Good for Them,’ Says ‘Gentle Sex’ Which Is Ready to Save State’s Time,”
New York Telegram,
Apr. 20, 1927.

258
Ten years after Beulah left him, Al, now:
“Dead Woman Linked with Stoll Kidnap,”
Brownsville (TX) Herald,
Oct. 10, 1934.

258
The judge granted a request for a new trial:
“Annan Goes Free in Party Slaying of Woman Guest,”
CDT,
Dec. 29, 1934.