The mad sculptor
Subtitle: the maniac, the model, and the murder that shook the nation
By: Harold Schechter
Publisher: New Harvest
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9780544114319
Subjects: Psychopathology; Murder; PSYCHOLOGY; TRUE CRIME; Serial murderers; General
Description: "Beekman Place, one of the most exclusive addresses in Manhattan, hasn't always been home to the rich. In the 1930s, when bluebloods like the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers began to build luxury towers, poor European immigrants lived in filthy slums among the riverside factories and abbatoirs. It was in this setting that a young man committed a grisly triple-murder on Easter Sunday, 1937. The details of the case were so sensational that one might think it had been cooked up in a tabloid editor's overheated imagination. The charismatic perpetrator, Robert Irwin, was a promising young sculptor, but he was also deeply disturbed. An obsession with Veronica Gedeon, a stunning photographer's model, would inspire him to murder. Harold Schechter masterfully tells the story of the "Mad Sculptor" case, one of the most engrossing American crime dramas of the twentieth century--evoking an atmosphere and a madness that will have readers glued to their chairs"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Cast of characters; title: Prologue: 268 East 52nd Street, New York City; title: pt. 1. Beekman Place. Dead end; title: Vera and Fritz; title: "Beauty slain in bathtub"; title: Sex fiends; title: pt. 2. Fenelon. The firebrand; title: The brothers; title: Epiphany; title: Romanelli and Rady; title: pt. 3. The shadow of madness. Depression; title: The Gedeons; title: Wertham; title: Bug in a bottle; title: The snake woman; title: Canton; title: Crisis; title: pt. 4. The mad sculptor. Bloody Sunday; title: The party girl; title: Murder sells; title: Prime suspect; title: Manhunt; title: pt. 5. The defender. Murder in Times Square; title: Henrietta; title: The front page; title: Confession; title: Celebrities; title: Lunacy; title: Plea; title: Aftermath; title: Epilogue: The Lonergan case.