Play Audiobook Sample
The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime that Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(3.01) - 2,108 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
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.
Download and start listening now!
"This could have been a very dry and boring recounting of a 100+ year old murder case. Instead, the author found a way to pace it so that the reader's interest was kept and doled out the clues tantalizingly. The amount of research that must have gone into this book was remarkable. The comparison that kept coming to mind was The Devil in the White City. It's a terrific book - highly recommended if you like factual, historical stories."
— Linda (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“Riveting…Collins has mined enough newspaper clippings and other archives to artfully recreate the era, the crime, and the newspaper wars it touched off.”
— New York Times -
“[Collins’] exploration of the newspaper world, at the very moment when tabloid values were being born, is revealing but also enormously entertaining…Collins has a clear eye, a good sense of telling detail, and a fine narrative ability.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“[A] richly detailed book that reads like a novel and yet maintains a strict fidelity to facts. The Murder of the Century isn’t a case of history with a moral. It’s simply a fantastic factual yarn, and a reminder that abhorrent violence is nothing new under the sun.”
— Oregonian (Portland, OR) -
“An in-depth account of the exponential growth of lurid news and the public’s (continuing) insatiable appetite for it.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“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 siècle yellow journalism.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
-
A 2012 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominee for Best Fact Crime
The Murder of the Century Listener Reviews
-
" Another murder mystery in the vein of Erik Larson's books. "
— Gary, 2/18/2014 -
" A quick and interesting read, but not a lot of meat on the bone. Not nearly the depth of something like Devil in the White City. "
— Joel, 2/15/2014 -
" Well done research but author is limiting himself to yellow-press journalism, he missed the opportunity to go deeper. "
— Valentin, 2/4/2014 -
" What a great book! Crazy to see how things were done back then in regards to investigations and such. Great read for those who like non-fiction and a good story. "
— Spence, 2/3/2014 -
" This book did a really good job of detailing the information of the crime and interwining it with the personalities of the people involved. This balance made for an effectively compelling narrative. It did not dwell on the gory details nor did it ignore them. I am coming to realize that I like the crime genre a lot and this is a good example of it. "
— Daniel, 1/26/2014 -
" A little wordy but overall an interesting read. It combines all my must-read criteria/interests: NY history, real-life murder mystery and the history of publishing. "
— Danielle, 1/14/2014 -
" Very interesting and informative about New York in 1897. Learned a lot of historical facts about American during the Gilded Age and tabloid wars. "
— Stephanie, 12/14/2013 -
" Ah, back on track....trying to fit in reading and homework and life... "
— Shannon, 11/24/2013 -
" If you like Erik Larson's books (well sourced, history that reads like fiction), you will enjoy this book. Covers a strange murder case in NYC and state of journalism at the time. "
— Sueroberts123, 11/23/2013 -
" Interesting for its historical information. "
— Lacy, 11/12/2013 -
" A great page turner from start to finish. A little too descriptive about the actual crime, but fascinating to see, that even in the late 1800's, the police could still put all this circumstantial evidence together and get the guy responsible. "
— Brent, 9/9/2013 -
" Fun read. More about the war between the various newspapers at the time than about the murder. But enough information on both to keep you engaged. Paul Collins is a great writer. One of my favorite books by him is "The Three-penny house". "
— Jack, 8/17/2013 -
" Excellent book on an infamous murder and the newspaper wars of Pulitzer and Hearst. "
— Robert, 6/11/2012
About Paul Collins
Paul Collins is an author specializing in science writing, magazine writing, history, and memoir; his books have appeared in a dozen languages. He is the recipient of an Oregon Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and teaches in the Creative Writing program at Portland State University.
About William Dufris
William Dufris attended the University of Southern Maine in Portland-Gorham before pursuing a career in voice work in London and then the United States. He has won more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards, was voted one of the Best Voices at the End of the Century by AudioFile magazine, and won the prestigious Audie Award in 2012 for best nonfiction narration. He lives with his family in Maine.