Anyone who thinks the increasingly lurid sensationalism of crimes by the news media is a modern aberration should read this book. In 1897 the discovery of parcels of body parts in the area around New York City became the obsession of the public and the press. Battling newspaper owners Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst fueled the sensation with their daily stories and even the creation of their own "detective teams" trying to solve the murder before the police and their competitors. After a lengthy search for the identity of the headless victim is finally discovered to be that of William Guldensuppe, a bath house masseur. Hearst went so far as to hire a diving company to search the river bottom for the plaster encased head of the victim. Eventually it comes to light that the unfortunate man was the victim of a murderous love triangle between himself, his landlady and part-time midwife/abortionist Augusta Nack, and a barber named Martin Thorn. The subsequent trial with a bombastic, over-the-top defense lawyer, William F. Howe is reminiscent of the antics at the O.J. trial. Fans of Erik Larson's books will enjoy this one.
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