Speaker 1: Just heads up. This episode contains references to sexual assault.
Speaker 1: Please take care while listening. You're listening to American Shadows,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Mankey. Ambitious, intelligent, and fearless journalist Sandy Fox
Speaker 1: would do anything for a story, and the tall, handsome,
Speaker 1: younger man smiling at her at the hotel bar was
Speaker 1: about to become her biggest story. Her wit and beauty
Speaker 1: attracted men wherever she went, and younger men were a favorite.
Speaker 1: And though she didn't care much for the floral tie,
Speaker 1: her new admirer war His movie star good looks and
Speaker 1: hair she later described as the color of Scotch and
Speaker 1: water intrigued her, but still she politely declined his offer
Speaker 1: to dance. It had been a trying day. The Fox
Speaker 1: had spent the better part of it trying to get
Speaker 1: an interview with former Vice President Spiro Agnew, unsuccessful. She
Speaker 1: just wanted to unwind with a drinker too. In November
Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy four, journalism was still mostly a man's job,
Speaker 1: but she was determined to succeed. Divorced and in her
Speaker 1: mid forties, English born Fox had recently accepted a one
Speaker 1: month trial with an American newspaper. They paid for all
Speaker 1: her expenses and flew her to Atlanta alone and board.
Speaker 1: She left the bar and headed to the Atlanta Constitution office,
Speaker 1: hoping to entice fellow journalists to show her around town.
Speaker 1: No one offered. Fox returned to the hotel bar to
Speaker 1: find the handsome man still there. He introduced himself as
Speaker 1: Darrell Golden and asked if she had changed her mind
Speaker 1: about that dance. This time she accepted. They hit it
Speaker 1: off and sat and talked for a while. He told
Speaker 1: her that he had traveled quite a bit and planned
Speaker 1: to drive to Miami the next day. She told him
Speaker 1: she was also traveling and leaving for West Palm Beach
Speaker 1: in the morning. Golden suggested they share a ride. The
Speaker 1: Fox choked that he could be a serial killer for
Speaker 1: all she knew. The two laughed, then she finally accepted.
Speaker 1: They spent the night together, and Golden told her he
Speaker 1: wouldn't move long. His lawyer had secret tapes in a
Speaker 1: vault and some one was bound to kill him. He
Speaker 1: suggested that Fox write a book about him, and despite
Speaker 1: this odd behavior in her misgivings, she spent the next
Speaker 1: two days traveling with Golden once they arrived in West Palm.
Speaker 1: Though Fox bid him farewell, Golden pleaded for one more night,
Speaker 1: she declined. The following day, she learned that Golden had
Speaker 1: picked up the wife of a fellow journalist and attempted
Speaker 1: to rape her before she got away. As it turned out,
Speaker 1: Darrell Golden was actually Paul Knowles, the infamous Casanova killer.
Speaker 1: He'd escaped from prison and had killed women in multiple states. Later,
Speaker 1: he had admit to killing thirty five women, though authorities
Speaker 1: only tied him to eighteen. One month later, Knowles died
Speaker 1: while attempting to escape. Fox returned to London with not
Speaker 1: only a story to tell, but the realization that she
Speaker 1: agreed with her former travel companion on one thing. She
Speaker 1: would indeed write a book about him. Fox hadn't intentionally
Speaker 1: placed herself in danger, but she wasn't the only female
Speaker 1: journalist who would do anything for a story. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum.
Speaker 1: Welcome to American Shadows. One day in eighteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: the headline for the Pittsburgh Dispatch read what Girls Are
Speaker 1: Good for? Erasmus Wilson, the father of five girls and
Speaker 1: the papers most popular columnist, penned the story under the
Speaker 1: pseudonym Quiet Observer. In the article, Wilson stated that a
Speaker 1: woman's worth was housework and bearing children. He also said
Speaker 1: that working women were monstrosities, perhaps naturally women readers didn't
Speaker 1: take to Wilson's opinion. One angry woman anonymously wrote a
Speaker 1: lengthy rebuttal, pointing out that women equally intelligent were not
Speaker 1: given the same opportunities as men in the workplace. They
Speaker 1: did their jobs as well as their male counterparts for
Speaker 1: half the pay. The reader eloquently pointed out that a
Speaker 1: woman's shortcomings were the men who held them back. Not
Speaker 1: one to complain without a solution, the author made several
Speaker 1: keen suggestions to enrich the lives of women and the
Speaker 1: state of society. The letter caught the attention of George Madden,
Speaker 1: the papers editor. He published a notice asking for the
Speaker 1: anonymous author to step forward, and when Elizabeth Jane Cochrane
Speaker 1: walked into his office, he offered her a job as
Speaker 1: a reporter, and so began her wild career. Elizabeth was
Speaker 1: no stranger to hard work and pushing to get ahead.
Speaker 1: She had fourteen siblings. Her father, Michael, had ten children
Speaker 1: with his first wife, But when she passed away. He
Speaker 1: went Mary Jane Kennedy, also a widow. Kennedy Cochrane had
Speaker 1: five children together. Elizabeth was born on May fifth of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four and became her father's thirteen daughter. Superstition
Speaker 1: about the numbers seemed to do little except to make
Speaker 1: her more ambitious. Michael Cochrane died when Elizabeth was six
Speaker 1: years old. Although he had been the successful judge and
Speaker 1: prosperous landowner, his untimely death presented a serious financial hardship
Speaker 1: for his second family. Some sources say his second family
Speaker 1: had very little to live on by the time the
Speaker 1: estate was divided among all his children. Others say Michael
Speaker 1: died without a will, leaving Mary without access or claim
Speaker 1: to his estate. Either way, the family struggled to make
Speaker 1: ends meet and became destitute. Early on, Elizabeth realized that
Speaker 1: survival meant earning a decent wage. Given the limited choices
Speaker 1: presented to women, it was a monumental task, but Elizabeth
Speaker 1: was smart and very determined. At fifteen, she enrolled in
Speaker 1: a small school to become a teacher, but dropped out
Speaker 1: when she could no longer afford classes. Instead, the mother
Speaker 1: and daughter moved to Pittsburgh to run a boarding house.
Speaker 1: She was just eighteen when she penned her controversial response
Speaker 1: to Wilson's article, and after accepting the job as a reporter,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth got straight to work. The editor wanted her to
Speaker 1: have a catchy pseudonym, and her fellow journalists tossed around
Speaker 1: a few suggestions, but one of them suggested Nellie Bly,
Speaker 1: and it stuck. Pittsburgh songwriter Stephen Foster had made the
Speaker 1: name famous in his song Nellie Bly, though he spelled
Speaker 1: Nellie with a y instead of an I e. The
Speaker 1: lyrics portrayed a young woman with fortitude and grit, traits
Speaker 1: Elizabeth possessed, and with that, Elizabeth Cochrane became Nellie Bly.
Speaker 1: A reporter for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Her new career gave
Speaker 1: her the freedom to shine a light on a subject
Speaker 1: She was passionate about women's issues. While she wrote about
Speaker 1: all injustices, she primarily focused on working when men. Her
Speaker 1: new career seemed nearly perfect, including the salary of five
Speaker 1: dollars a week, at least for a while. Bli's articles
Speaker 1: were highly controversial in the Victorian era. In her first article,
Speaker 1: titled The Girl Puzzle, she argued that women needed better opportunities,
Speaker 1: especially impoverished women. Even more radical, Blin made a case
Speaker 1: for some women to remain single. She titled her second
Speaker 1: article Mad Marriages, which called for divorce law reform. Blin
Speaker 1: didn't stop there. To get to the heart of another story.
Speaker 1: She went undercover working in a factory. Women at sweatshops
Speaker 1: worked for pitiful wages. They endured unsafe working conditions and
Speaker 1: unreasonably long hours to earn more money. Bli thought wealthy
Speaker 1: business men taking advantage of women made for a great story.
Speaker 1: The factory owners didn't agree. They had money and power,
Speaker 1: and immediing le pressured George Madden to stop printing the stories.
Speaker 1: Fearing repercussions from the city's elite and powerful, Madden reassigned
Speaker 1: Bli to the Societal pages to cover more woman appropriate
Speaker 1: topics like gardening, social events, and fashion. The reassignment didn't
Speaker 1: sit well with Bli. She proposed that the paper center
Speaker 1: to Mexico to write an article about life under Dictator
Speaker 1: por Furio Diaz. Unfortunately, the assignment was cut short and
Speaker 1: Bli returned home, where Madden promptly assigned her to the
Speaker 1: Societal pages again. Bli wanted more out of her career
Speaker 1: and quit. She wrote a note to Erasmus Wilson, addressing
Speaker 1: him by his pen name dear q O. She wrote,
Speaker 1: I'm off for New York. Look out for me, signed BLI.
Speaker 1: For six months, she applied to one newspaper after another.
Speaker 1: No one wanted to hire a woman journalist. Finally, she
Speaker 1: landed an interview with John Cockrill, the managing editor for
Speaker 1: Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. The paper had a long
Speaker 1: standing reputation for provocative and sensationalist stories and captivating headlines.
Speaker 1: Cockerell wanted someone who could deeply investigate tough topics and
Speaker 1: write powerful stories. Bli assured Pulitzer and Cockerell that she
Speaker 1: could get the job done. The men said that she'd
Speaker 1: need something wild and over the top to secure the position.
Speaker 1: In fact, they had just the assignment go undercover at
Speaker 1: the Blackwell Island Insane Asylum. For years, rumors had swirled
Speaker 1: around the conditions inside Blackwell. There were whispers of cruelty
Speaker 1: and neglect. The job wouldn't be for the faint of heart,
Speaker 1: they warned. Did she have enough courage to endure a
Speaker 1: stay at Blackwell? And could she manage to fool doctors
Speaker 1: and staff into believing she was insane. Bli replied that
Speaker 1: she most definitely did and could. Cockerell cautioned her to
Speaker 1: not write sensationalism for headline's sake. She must tell the truth,
Speaker 1: good or bad. Again. Lie agreed. She assured them that
Speaker 1: getting in would be easy. All she needed to do
Speaker 1: was looking act like she had lost her mind, and
Speaker 1: the real question was how her editors would get her out.
Speaker 1: Cockerell shrugged and replied he had no idea. Bli took
Speaker 1: the job. Her editors left it up to her to
Speaker 1: figure out how to get inside Blackwell. She decided on
Speaker 1: the persona of Nellie Brown. The initials matched her own
Speaker 1: for simplicity's sake. For a while, she considered asking friends
Speaker 1: for help, but that would have required them to act
Speaker 1: and pretend to be poor and Blackwell when we took
Speaker 1: in those without money, she decided the best plan was
Speaker 1: to leave them out of it. She found tattered second
Speaker 1: hand clothes to wear and rehearsed dazed expressions in front
Speaker 1: of a mirror. She practiced acting strangely and stayed up
Speaker 1: most of the night telling herself ghost stories fully In
Speaker 1: her new role, Bli rented a room at a boarding house.
Speaker 1: She shouted about murder and mayhem and accute as her
Speaker 1: fellow borders of being insane. That first night, one of
Speaker 1: the boarders had a nightmare about her. The next day,
Speaker 1: the rest of the tenants became so terrified of her
Speaker 1: that they called the police. Bli later wrote that her
Speaker 1: performance was the greatest of her life. The police took
Speaker 1: her to court to stand in front of a judge.
Speaker 1: Bli continued to play her role. The judge didn't take
Speaker 1: long to send her to Bellevue for an evaluation. Now,
Speaker 1: all Bligh had to do was fool the doctors. As
Speaker 1: the doctors poked, prodded, and questioned her, Bli stared blankly,
Speaker 1: and she told them she had no idea how she
Speaker 1: got to New York. After the doctors determined that she
Speaker 1: was not drugged, they declared her insane. Bli listened as
Speaker 1: the doctors examined another woman till he Maynard. No matter
Speaker 1: how many times Maynard asked for a test to prove
Speaker 1: her sanity, the staff refused and locked her away for
Speaker 1: being difficult. Another mean, an immigrant from Germany, pleaded with
Speaker 1: the doctor in her native language. Unable to understand her,
Speaker 1: he declared her anxiety in pleading word signs of insanity
Speaker 1: and ordered her committed. Bli was stunned. Without any translator
Speaker 1: or family, this woman and those like her would most
Speaker 1: likely live out the rest of their lives at Blackwell.
Speaker 1: Bli quickly dropped the insanity act, and, as it turned out,
Speaker 1: being committed had little if anything to do with mental illness.
Speaker 1: She and the others were ushered onto a ferry and
Speaker 1: taken to Blackwell. The hundred and twenty acre island stretches
Speaker 1: along the East River, running alongside Manhattan from fifty first
Speaker 1: Street to eight Blackwell A later renamed Roosevelt Island, had
Speaker 1: one more name, Welfare Island. The island contained more than
Speaker 1: the asylum. It included prisons, hospitals, and charity housing for
Speaker 1: the needy and disabled. I'll told eleven institutions existed on
Speaker 1: the island In eighteen seventy two. The asylum, which had
Speaker 1: been expanded to accommodate around a thousand patients, now housed
Speaker 1: one thousand, six hundred. Just sixteen doctors were assigned to
Speaker 1: care for all of them. Bli gathered her courage and
Speaker 1: allowed the staff to take her inside. She made friends
Speaker 1: with fellow inmates and asked for their stories. She found
Speaker 1: many were not clinically insane at all. Immigrant women who
Speaker 1: couldn't speak English had been declared incompetent. Indigent women without
Speaker 1: husbands or family had also been committed. Given their treatment,
Speaker 1: Bli had no doubt that anyone who arrived saying wouldn't
Speaker 1: remain that way long. Patients suffered immense cruelty from the
Speaker 1: doctors and staff. The staff forced Blith and the others
Speaker 1: to sit motionless, without speaking, on benches for up to
Speaker 1: twelve hours. Anyone who dared complain or resist was beaten
Speaker 1: or threatened, sometimes with sexual violence. They were harnessed together
Speaker 1: like livestock and made the pull carts. Meals consisted of
Speaker 1: moldy bread and other rotting food. The staff didn't provide utensils,
Speaker 1: forcing the women to tear apart their food by hand.
Speaker 1: Each patient was doused with buckets of cold water instead
Speaker 1: of showering. At night, she and the others slept with
Speaker 1: pillows stuffed with straw and blankets too thin to keep
Speaker 1: them warm. In the dark, a woman sobbed and pleaded
Speaker 1: with God to let her die over several days, Bly
Speaker 1: witnessed more abuse. Tillie Maynard suffered a seizure. Instead of
Speaker 1: offering help, the nurses cursed her. One told the others
Speaker 1: that have falled to the floor might teach Maynard a lesson.
Speaker 1: Nurses threw another woman into a closet for muttering to herself.
Speaker 1: The staff slapped and punched the patients. Nurses nearly choked
Speaker 1: one woman to death. The patients were tied up with
Speaker 1: bed sheets and dunked in frigid water. Beatings with broomsticks
Speaker 1: were common. Doses of morphine and coral hydrate were administered
Speaker 1: liberally and created addictions in some patients, and doctors continued
Speaker 1: to examine and questioned Bly. The more she declared herself, saying,
Speaker 1: the more they doubt at her. After ten excruciating days,
Speaker 1: her editor sent a lawyer to secure her release. Freedom
Speaker 1: was bitter sweet. Although she was glad to put the
Speaker 1: experience and blackwell behind her, Bly felt determined to help
Speaker 1: those she had left behind. In October seven, the first
Speaker 1: installment of her story, titled Behind Asylum, Bars hit the
Speaker 1: streets and Bly became an instant media sensation. Authorities immediately
Speaker 1: launched an investigation doctors and nurses scrambled to cover up
Speaker 1: the allegations. Patients who had been committed were released or
Speaker 1: transferred to prevent them from speaking to investigators. The investigators
Speaker 1: pursued the charges for months, and no one was happier
Speaker 1: to be summoned before a grand jury than Nellie bly.
Speaker 1: Despite the asylum's attempted to cover up, the jury believed
Speaker 1: her account. Blive and New York Assistant District Attorney Vernon
Speaker 1: Davis worked to bring about reform in mental institutions. A
Speaker 1: bill was passed allowing additional funding. Regulations monitoring staff and
Speaker 1: patient care followed. After it was over, Nellie Bligh returned home.
Speaker 1: She slept easier knowing that she had not only helped
Speaker 1: those she left behind a Blackwell, but also other patients
Speaker 1: in mental hospitals throughout the state. After her Blackwell Asylum
Speaker 1: expos a, Bligh's career took off, it should proven that
Speaker 1: women were equally capable of investigative reporting as their male counterparts.
Speaker 1: Two years later, she made the news again. She asked
Speaker 1: her editor at The World News to send her around
Speaker 1: the world, though not as an investigator. Bli suggested a
Speaker 1: publicity stunt readers would love, she would travel around the
Speaker 1: globe and try to match Jules Verne's fictional voyage around
Speaker 1: the world in eighty days. Paper sales soared as readers
Speaker 1: kept track of Blige's whereabouts. The paper hosted a contest
Speaker 1: with the prize of a European trip for anyone who
Speaker 1: could guess Blig's return date. While in France, Bli stopped
Speaker 1: to meet Jules Verne briefly. The clock was ticking, after all.
Speaker 1: She arrived back in New York seventy two days later,
Speaker 1: beating the fictional record. Bli had become a household name
Speaker 1: and one of the most well known journalists in America.
Speaker 1: Although the paper sold more copies than ever, her editor
Speaker 1: refused to give her a raise or a bonus. She
Speaker 1: left and went on tour as a lecturer and novelist,
Speaker 1: recounting her trip around the world. Employment came knocking once
Speaker 1: more when a publisher contracted her to write fiction for
Speaker 1: three years, earning her far more than she ever had
Speaker 1: at the paper. When new editors took over the World
Speaker 1: News in three they convinced Bli to return, but by
Speaker 1: the age of thirty, she retired from reporting and married
Speaker 1: Robert Livingston. Seaman, the millionaire owner of the iron Clad
Speaker 1: Manufacturing Company. She co ran her husband's company, even designing
Speaker 1: a milk can and patenting the first fifty five gallons
Speaker 1: steel drum. Robert died in nineteen o four, leaving Bli
Speaker 1: to run the company alone. She added employees with healthcare, libraries,
Speaker 1: and even a gym. The company failed, though a factory
Speaker 1: manager's embezzlement helped bankrupt it. Bli returned to writing covering
Speaker 1: women's rights for the New York Evening Journal. She accurately
Speaker 1: predicted that women wouldn't get the right to vote until
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty. Her number of firsts weren't complete, though. Bli
Speaker 1: became the world's first woman to cover the front lines
Speaker 1: as a foreign correspondent during World War One, where she
Speaker 1: was briefly arrested when authorities mistook her for a British spy.
Speaker 1: She continued writing about the war after returning to New York.
Speaker 1: In nine two, Bli became ill with pneumonia. She died
Speaker 1: at St. Mark's Hospital at age fifty seven and was
Speaker 1: buried at a simple grave at Wood Lawn. In nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight, the New York Press Club purchased a proper
Speaker 1: headstone for her grave site, and in nine Bli was
Speaker 1: inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Four years later,
Speaker 1: she and other women journalists were honored on American post stamps.
Speaker 1: Even then, Nellie Bligh wasn't done. A monument was erected
Speaker 1: in consisting of multiple pieces sprawling along a walkway. The
Speaker 1: faces of four women, each rendered seven feet tall and
Speaker 1: bronze interspersed with large mirrored spheres, then invite the viewer
Speaker 1: to see the statues and themselves and the reflections, all
Speaker 1: leading to a bronze statue of Blith's face observing all.
Speaker 1: Designed by artist Amanda Matthews, the memorial honors Blig's courageous
Speaker 1: life and outstanding journalism, along with other women who have
Speaker 1: helped reshape the world. The monument, named the Girl Puzzle
Speaker 1: after Bligh's first article, stands in Lighthouse Park on Roosevelt Island.
Speaker 1: The location isn't far from where she went undercover at
Speaker 1: Blackwell Asylum. The asylum itself, along with many other original buildings,
Speaker 1: fell into disrepair. An octagon shaped tower is all that's left.
Speaker 1: I've been there. It's a quieting place, once a house
Speaker 1: of horror. Blackwell now stands in ruins and in the
Speaker 1: shadow of the bronze monument. There's more to this story.
Speaker 1: Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all
Speaker 1: about it. On February eighth, nine seven, Evelyn Nesbitt took
Speaker 1: to the witness stand, heart pounding. All eyes were on her.
Speaker 1: Yet it wasn't the black curls framing her flawless complexion
Speaker 1: that caught their attention. It wasn't her famous beauty or
Speaker 1: status is a well known model that had everyone's focus.
Speaker 1: It was her testimony. She recounted the events as that
Speaker 1: unfolded with Stanford White, new York's top architect, and while
Speaker 1: he was well known for designing homes for the city's
Speaker 1: wealthy elite, he harbored a dark secret. Evelyn told the
Speaker 1: court how Stanford had insisted she'd drink the champagne he
Speaker 1: had handed her, despite telling him that it tasted terrible.
Speaker 1: Everything went black. Shortly afterward, she awoke naked in a
Speaker 1: room full of mirrors and realized what had happened. The
Speaker 1: memory caused her to tremble and collapse on the stand.
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't go on, she sobbed. The court
Speaker 1: waited anyway, Evelyn bravely pushed on with the events. When
Speaker 1: she realized Stanford had raped her, Evelyn screamed. Stanford told
Speaker 1: her it was over now and that she should be quiet.
Speaker 1: He threw her a kimono to put on and left
Speaker 1: the room for a while. She screamed harder than before.
Speaker 1: Evelyn raised her eyes to look at the courtroom and
Speaker 1: primarily filled with men, except for the small table in
Speaker 1: the corner where four women sat in n seven women
Speaker 1: weren't permitted in a courtroom unless they were relatives or witnesses.
Speaker 1: The women, Dorothy Dix, Winnifred Black, Nicola Greeley Smith, and
Speaker 1: Ada Patterson, weren't either of those. They were journalists sent
Speaker 1: to cover what some called the trial of the century.
Speaker 1: Yet Stanford wasn't on trial for sexual salt. Evelyn had
Speaker 1: been called to testify in the murder trial being conducted
Speaker 1: against her husband, Harry Thaw, a feigned heir to a
Speaker 1: railroad fortune. Evelyn worked as a professional model, posing for
Speaker 1: everything from the Gibson Girl Drawings to several top magazines.
Speaker 1: She served as an inspiration for Anne of Green Gables.
Speaker 1: Her beauty meant that she had plenty of suitors, including
Speaker 1: Stanford White. She was sixteen when they met and he
Speaker 1: was forty eight. Though Stanford was married, he groomed Evelyn
Speaker 1: and her mother for what was to come. He bought
Speaker 1: them expensive gifts and paid for their apartment. Stanford had
Speaker 1: a long history of grooming young girls for sex. He
Speaker 1: and other members of the Union Club participated in orgies
Speaker 1: and other sexual escapades. Reportedly, the ultra rich new of
Speaker 1: Stanford's affinity for underaged girls, and that depravity made the
Speaker 1: story much more interesting to the public. Even after the assault,
Speaker 1: Stanford pursued Evelyn with the help of her mother. Feeling helpless,
Speaker 1: Evelyn remained trapped in the abusive relationship for six months.
Speaker 1: When she turned seventeen, Evelyn broke away from the relationship
Speaker 1: and dated twenty one year old actor John Barrymore. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: both Stanford and her mother conspired to end the relationship.
Speaker 1: Barrymore was down on his luck and Stanford had plenty
Speaker 1: of money. But another suitor was equally taken with Evelyn,
Speaker 1: harry Thaw. He first met her while she starred in
Speaker 1: the Broadway show The Wild Rose. He attended forty times,
Speaker 1: sending Evelyn flowers and lavish gifts. Aside from his attraction
Speaker 1: to Evelyn, Harry knew about Stanford's preference for having sex
Speaker 1: with miners and felt compelled to save her. When Evelyn
Speaker 1: developed pendicitis, Harry was at her side at the hospital
Speaker 1: while she healed. He offered to take Evelyn and her
Speaker 1: mother on a trip to Europe. After their arrival, Evelyn
Speaker 1: told Harry about the attack. Harry misused drugs and frequently
Speaker 1: experienced fits of rage and mental instability. Evelyn knew this,
Speaker 1: but when Harry proposed, she accepted. The two married on
Speaker 1: April five of nineteen o five. A year later, in
Speaker 1: June of nineteen o six, Evelyn and Harry attended a
Speaker 1: musical at Madison Square Garden. Harry caught sight of Stanford
Speaker 1: setting a few rows away. Harry stood fists clenching. Evelyn
Speaker 1: asked to leave. She thought her husband was behind her,
Speaker 1: but when she reached the elevator he was nowhere to
Speaker 1: be found. Then she heard the shots. When the police arrived,
Speaker 1: Harry insisted Hid shot Stanford for the atrocities committed against
Speaker 1: his wife. The case was a field day for the press,
Speaker 1: and the four women sitting at the table in the
Speaker 1: courtroom took to Evelyn's story with enthusiasm and heart. When
Speaker 1: their stories appeared, journalist Irving Cobb commented on their emotional
Speaker 1: retelling and dubbed them the Sob Sisters. Despite this derogatory nickname,
Speaker 1: it said that the women's stories helped effect the trial's outcome.
Speaker 1: After to try else, Harry Thaw was found not guilty
Speaker 1: by reason of insanity. All four women had successful careers
Speaker 1: telling human stories and ways that, like Nellie Bly, reshaped journalism.
Speaker 1: American Shadows is hosted by me Lauren Vogelbaum, researched by
Speaker 1: Genneros That are Caught, and produced by Jesse Funk and
Speaker 1: Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show, visit Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild dot com. And four more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.