The Girl on the Velvet Swing

Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

De: Simon Baatz

Narrado por: Christine Lakin

From New York Times bestselling author Simon Baatz, the first comprehensive account of the murder that shocked the world.

In 1901 Evelyn Nesbit, a chorus girl in the musical Florodora, dined alone with the architect Stanford White in his townhouse on 24th Street in New York. Nesbit, just sixteen years old, had recently moved to the city. White was forty-seven and a principal in the prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. As the foremost architect of his day, he was a celebrity, responsible for designing countless landmark buildings in Manhattan. That evening, after drinking champagne, Nesbit lost consciousness and awoke to find herself naked in bed with White. Telltale spots of blood on the bed sheets told her that White had raped her.

She told no one about the rape until, several years later, she confided in Harry Thaw, the millionaire playboy who would later become her husband. Thaw, thirsting for revenge, shot and killed White in 1906 before hundreds of theatergoers during a performance in Madison Square Garden, a building that White had designed.

The trial was a sensation that gripped the nation. Most Americans agreed with Thaw that he had been justified in killing White, but the district attorney expected to send him to the electric chair. Evelyn Nesbit's testimony was so explicit and shocking that Theodore Roosevelt himself called on the newspapers not to print it verbatim. The murder of White cast a long shadow: Harry Thaw later attempted suicide, and Evelyn Nesbit struggled for many years to escape an addiction to cocaine. The Girl on the Velvet Swing, a tale of glamour, excess, and danger, is an immersive, fascinating look at an America dominated by men of outsize fortunes and by the women who were their victims.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A terrifically entertaining work of popular history: swiftly paced, richly evocative, engrossing from the first page. . . . This vivid retelling of the 1906 murder of Stanford White couldn't be timelier. . . . The murder of Stanford White has been the subject of many other books [but] Baatz's gripping, deeply researched retelling is certain to stand as the definitive version."—Harold Schechter, Wall Street Journal

"Baatz has resurrected a forgotten saga of lust, lucre and lunacy that would seem improbable if it were merely fiction. . . . This true-life theater is packed with action [and] surprises."—David Holahan, USA Today (3 out of 4 stars)

"A gripping book that is nearly impossible to put down . . . Baatz has crafted a book that reads more like a novel than a historical tome. Peppered with historical photos and with prose that paints a wonderful picture of New York City at the dawn of the 20th century, The Girl on the Velvet Swing brings the characters to life again."—Under the Radar

"Readers will appreciate Baatz's exciting, novel-like approach, and those interested in early twentieth-century law especially will enjoy the courtroom scenes."—Booklist

"Simon Baatz has written a wickedly enjoyable book that enthralled me from start to finish. This multifaceted tale, rendered with an expert's touch, encompasses the aspirations and vices of an entire era."—Laurence Bergreen, author of Capone

"Simon Baatz, the absolute master of the true crime genre, has written another page-turner. This book has everything, bad behavior in high places, a spectacularly public murder, courtroom drama, a daring escape, even a mother-in-law from hell. It reads like fiction, but it's all real. A wonderful book."—John Steele Gordon, author of An Empire of Wealth

"Simon Baatz takes readers on the strange and sensational legal odyssey of Harry Thaw, the Pittsburgh millionaire who murdered famed architect Stanford White in 1906. . . Baatz offers a detailed and assiduously researched account of the shocking crime and its aftermath, with a focus on the legal wrangling that dominated two trials."—Paula Uruburu, author of American Eve

"In his absorbing, well-written, and meticulously researched account of the murder of Stanford White, Simon Baatz delves deeper than ever before into the event's judicial, popular, and psychiatric dimensions and ramifications."—Mike Wallace, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Gotham

"The Girl on the Velvet Swing is a must-read, a book that is ceaselessly engaging, one surprise following another, even to the author's final assessment of Stanford White and his relationship to Evelyn Nesbit."—Leland Roth, author of American Architecture and the critical study "McKim, Mead & White"

Excellent

Very well done. Great story telling. So much to this story I was unaware of. The author and narrator was amazing.

strange and interesting tale

Fewer adverbs would improve style.
Story held my attention. More discussion of the large legal and moral questions involved, such as the insanity defense, and whether murder is ever justified, would have been interesting.
Good reader.

A detailed account

The true story of Evelyn Nesbit is told in novel form from original source material. Narrator needs to learn to pronounce a few words correctly, but in general had a pleasant reading voice and good diction.

It Proves Truth Is Stranger than Fiction

This book is a very thorough re-telling of the "crime of the century." Evelyn Nesbit, a beautiful teenager who had come to New York to make a living as a model and a chorus girl, caught the fancy of Stanford White, the most prominent architect of the day. She later married a rich man with a trust fund, Harry Thaw. Thaw then gunned down White at point blank range at a performance at Madison Square Garden, which White had designed.

Was it murder? Was Thaw insane due to believing that White had raped his wife? To reveal any more would spoil the story, but this tale has more twists and turns than you can believe. The book is well written, and reads like a drama, not a history. It is quite well done.

I thought the narration detracted from the story. I suppose the decision was made to have a woman narrate the book on the theory that the story is about Evelyn. More accurately, the first 40 percent or so focuses on Evelyn, but the balance of the story is about Harry Thaw. The actors in the legal dramas are mainly male. I found Ms. Lakin's efforts to imitate male voices (there is much dialogue in the book) to range from off-putting to laughable. Her effort to effect a French accent from a Canadian official in Quebec sounded a lot like a bad Russian accent from a cartoon character.

Overall, though, well worth a listen.

Fact based and interesting story

Well researched and very interesting book. I’d always heard bits and pieces of the story, but felt I got the rest of the story here.

Dark, Tragic, and Eye-Opening ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dark, Tragic, and Eye-Opening
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Girl on the Velvet Swing by Simon Baatz is a true crime story that grips you from the start. Honestly, the beginning of the book gave me major Jeffrey Epstein vibes—wealthy, powerful men preying on young, vulnerable women. My heart broke for Evelyn Nesbit, especially in an era where young girls and women rarely had a voice. Her story isn’t just about fame—it’s about survival, resilience, and exploitation.

What stood out most is how the book highlights that power and wealth often come with equal parts danger and chaos. For Evelyn, her life became about just finding ways to keep going, while men around her fed on her naivety.

I appreciated how well-researched this was—true crime paired with a rich history lesson. Tragic, yes, but also an important lens into a time (and a story) that still resonates today.

Guaranteed, you don't know the whole story .

The murder of Stanford white was only the beginning. What follows is stranger than fiction.

Pronunciation & Content Distracting

Pronunciation of anything not English was very poor & distracting. Many of the American accents used were also problematic. The book focuses more on Harry Thaw towards the end, & I really wanted to hear more about Evelyn’s life, since the book’s title was in reference to her.

"The Girl" is barely in this book

I got this book after being introduced to the story through "Ragtime." I hoped to learn more about Evelyn Nesbitt, but this was not the boik for that. She disappears from the narrative for chapters at a time as the author focuses on the legal journey of her husband, Harry Thaw.

Moreover, the story the author chose to tell was told in a very repetitive manner. For example, the story of Evelyn's rape at the hands of Stanford White is told in a virtually identical manner several times. Was the author trying to get his word count up?

We get a taste of what I wanted in the book in the epilogue, as he finally gets to Evelyn's post-Thaw life, but it is perfunctory.