The Murder of the Century

The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars

By: Paul Collins

Narrated by: William Dufris

In Long Island, a farmer found a duck pond turned red with blood. On the Lower East Side, two boys playing at a pier discovered a floating human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth. Blueberry pickers near Harlem stumbled upon neatly severed limbs in an overgrown ditch. Clues to a horrifying crime were turning up all over New York, but the police were baffled: There were no witnesses, no motives, no suspects.

The grisly finds that began on the afternoon of June 26, 1897, plunged detectives headlong into the era's most perplexing murder. Seized upon by battling media moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the case became a publicity circus. Re-creations of the murder were staged in Times Square, armed reporters lurked in the streets of Hell's Kitchen in pursuit of suspects, and an unlikely trio - an anxious cop, a cub reporter, and an eccentric professor - all raced to solve the crime. What emerged was a sensational love triangle and an even more sensational trial: an unprecedented capital case hinging on circumstantial evidence around a victim that the police couldn't identify with certainty - and that the defense claimed wasn't even dead.

The Murder of the Century is a rollicking tale - a rich evocation of America during the Gilded Age and a colorful re-creation of the tabloid wars that have dominated media to this day.

©2011 Paul Collins (P)2011 AudioGo

Critic reviews

“Wonderfully rich in period detail, salacious facts about the case and infectious wonder at the chutzpah and inventiveness displayed by Pulitzer’s and Hearst’s minions. Both a gripping true-crime narrative and an astonishing portrait of fin de siecle yellow journalism.” ( Kirkus Reviews)

"A dismembered corpse and rival newspapers squabbling for headlines fuel Collins’s intriguing look at the birth of 'yellow journalism' in late 19th-century New York. [A]n in-depth account of the exponential growth of lurid news and the public’s (continuing) insatiable appetite for it." ( Publishers Weekly)

Fantastic!

I could listen to this story more than once, first for fast paced and interesting story and then the wonderful narrative reading. The story does get bit a graphic on the details of the murder but what would you expect, it's about a murder. The story never slows up and you are placed into that time period with fluidity of the story's timeline. I loved learning about the history of the papers and really enjoyed the writer including the epilogue. I will go out and buy the book to see if I missed anything. I love a book that makes you want to do more research on the time period because it opens your eyes to a different time.

A fun short read

True crime is really quite a fun genre, in and of itself, but I particularly enjoy it when it adds historical context and historical significance. This was the case with the dismembered body found in New York just before the turn of the century. What followed was an investigation just as scientific method was starting to be applied to investigations and a trial that ran into incredible difficulties. More than just the investigation, arrest and trial, this is a story about the rise of "yellow journalism" and how it made several careers and created the modern journalistic style we know today. Through this tale of one-upsmanship we can see the rise of the paparazzi and the 24 hour news cycle.

So yes, I recommend this book. The murder is sensational, the characters are interesting, the impact on modern America is recognizable. Enjoy it!

History made entertaining

Different voices and accents were well done. In addition to recounting an infamous murder, included the history of " yellow" journalism and the rivalry between Hearst and Pulitzer

Murder of the Century

I had to read this book for an American History college class. I could not seem to get much into the book. There were parts of it that were interesting, but there was so much going on, it just didn't catch my attention much. This is the reason why I bought the audiobook. I bought it so reading this book wouldn't be such a struggle. It is present that Collins did put a lot of work into writing this book though.

Historical details will entertain modern CSI fans

A little dry, yet still entertaining with the attention to details of the period. The origins of yellow journalism fascinate as we seem to have returned to News as Entertainment rather than information. As the french say:..."the more things change, the more they remain the same."

Thoroughly entertaining history!!

Excellent! An insane murder mystery and a journalistic dogfight between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. The beginnings of the aggressive news media we all know today...
More fun than I expected!!

Incredibly well written, and well performed.

Easily worth the credit. Solid 5stars.

About more than a murder

This is an interesting story that's as much about the end of an era, and the beginning of yellow journalism as it is about a sensational, and now forgotten murder. I definitely think it's worth a listen if you find either true crime or history interesting.

Good Read

Excellent research and entertaining. T h e narrator managed to pull the personalities from the page

Great story

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the history more than the murder itself. It was interesting to see how involved journalist were when it came to murder cases and how the police just let them.

Focus on a time and place

The real focus of this book is New York City at the turn of the 20th century. A ghastly crime and the ensuing investigation, trial and denouement serve as the occasion for the narrative, but the book uses these central events to immerse the reader in a very wide ranging evocation of the time and place. As melodramatic as many of the events and details may be, in the end this is a piece of well researched cultural history which gives one the sense of being set down in the middle of the chaos, the sights, the sounds, the smells and the swirling energy at the vortex of American turn-of-the-century dynamism.

This New York has spawned a gaggle of newspapers engaged in a cutthroat struggle for survival. It is a rich, bubbling brew of newly arrived European immigrants finding their place in a brash society which has just gotten a grip on its confidence and is changing at the speed of avaricious inspiration. It is a time when trial reports are transmitted to anxious newsrooms by both telephone and carrier pigeon. Scientific "experts" are finding their way onto witness stands, and American jurisprudence is celebrating its first superstar criminal attorneys. In short, this is an extremely interesting city!

If you are looking for a gripping true crime investigation, penetrating character studies or a probing examination of the newspaper wars, you will be somewhat disappointed. If you would be delighted to be delivered by time-machine to a fascinating city where a diver in a newfangled helmet is searching the bottom of the river for a severed head and where the grisly aspects of the recently introduced and quite inefficient electric chair are being hotly debated, this may be your cup of tea.

I found William Dufris' narration to be a bit labored and overwrought, perhaps in keeping with the lurid nature of some of the content. Still I would recommend the book to anyone who will enjoy a colorful and detailed glimpse of a moment in history.