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    The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago
    The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago
    The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago

    Written by Douglas Perry

    Narrated by Peter Berkrot

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Chicago, 1924. There was nothing surprising about men turning up dead in the Second City. Life was cheaper than a quart of illicit gin in the gangland capital of the world. But two murders that spring were special-worthy of celebration. So believed Maurine Watkins, a wanna-be playwright and a "girl reporter" for the Chicago Tribune, the city's "hanging paper." Newspaperwomen were supposed to write about clubs, cooking, and clothes, but the intrepid Miss Watkins, a minister's daughter from a small town, zeroed in on murderers instead. Looking for subjects to turn into a play, she would make "Stylish Belva" Gaertner and "Beautiful Beulah" Annan-both of whom had brazenly shot down their lovers-the talk of the town. Love-struck men sent flowers to the jail, and newly emancipated women sent impassioned letters to the newspapers. Soon more than a dozen women preened and strutted on "Murderesses' Row" as they awaited trial, desperate for the same attention that was being lavished on Maurine Watkins's favorites.

    In the tradition of Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City and Karen Abbott's Sin in the Second City, Douglas Perry vividly captures Jazz Age Chicago and the sensationalized circus atmosphere that gave rise to the concept of the celebrity criminal. Fueled by rich period detail and enlivened by a cast of characters who seemed destined for the stage, The Girls of Murder City is crackling social history that simultaneously presents the freewheeling spirit of the age and its sober repercussions.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 5, 2010
    ISBN9781400187690
    The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago

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    Reviews for The Girls of Murder City

    4/5

    32 ratings14 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this look at Chicago in the early part of the last century, when the city's rival newspapers outdid themselves in terms of sensationalism. I particularly appreciated the portrait of female journalist Maurine Watkins.The writing is ok, but sometimes redundant--the author doesn't trust the reader to remember that murder suspect Sabella Nitti was (in contrast to most of the murderesses depicted in the boko) unattractive and illiterate. Every time Nitti is mentioned, her dowdiness and illiteracy is as well.I will probably also remember this book as the first book I read on my Kobo e-reader. The e-reader edition lacked pictures and a usable index, both of which I would have really liked to see.
    • 3/5
      Interesting read about the inspiration behind Chicago. I know the murderesses of Cook County were suppose to be the real focus but the background and information about Chicago author Maureen Watkins was far more interesting.
    • 4/5
      A highly entertaining examination of murderesses in 1920's Chicago and of the culture surrounding them. In 1924 the rate of murders committed by women had risen 400% with murderesses making up 10% of the murdering population. Even more disturbing, almost all of these women got off, often despite overwhelming evidence. In order to be convicted, a murderess had to be non-white and unattractive - other than that, all bets were off.The stories of the various women in this book, including those of Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan, are interesting snapshots in time. From all walks of life the women portrayed primarily murdered the men in their lives, although at least one of them murdered a stranger during the commission of a burglary. In most cases alcohol was involved (because what Prohibition primarily accomplished was encouraging everyone to drink everywhere, including women) and there is often a hint of boredom right around the edges of the tale.Perry hasn't written an incisive social history with lots of detailed analysis, but he has told a wonderful pulpy story. Great fun.
    • 3/5
      A good recounting of the murderesses in Chicago who were arrested and tried, but eventually aquited of their crimes, and then how those trials inspired the Broadway play, and eventually a Tony award-winning musical, Chicago. I found the stories of the women accused of the crimes to be interesting, and Maureen Watkins reporting, with it's biting barbs of satire, to be quite fascinating. Even more so to learn about how Watkins' reporting inspired her to write her play, Chcicago. I enjoyed the book, and learned a bit of history that I was unaware of. Tying that history into a very popular musical, and showing where the inspiration came from was well-done.
    • 4/5
      I’ve seen the 2002 film of the musical Chicago, I’ve seen the live stage performance, but I never realized just how much of the story was based on fact. Perry tells the nonfiction tale of the actual murderesses, the crimes they committed and the media frenzy that followed in their wake. I thought the book was fascinating because the true story is even more intriguing than the fictionalized stage version. In 1924 there were a surprising number of murders committed by women in Chicago. Two of the most famous cases involved Beulah Annan and Bella Gaertner. Both women were arrested and tried for murder and both were acquitted. The two women inspired the characters of Roxie Hart (Beulah) and Velma Kelly (Belva) in the 1926 play Chicago (originally called “Brave Little Woman”). The play was written by Maurine Dallas Watkins. She covered both trials while working as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. She took a course at Yale on play writing and Chicago was the result. It didn’t become a musical until the 1970s. I did think it was fascinating that Beulah and Belva actually saw Chicago performed live! The entire time I was reading the book I kept hearing all the songs from the musical in my head. When I read about the defense lawyer I heard “All I Care About” and during the descriptions of Beulah roping her husband into covering for a murder she committed “Funny Honey” was on repeat in my brain. I related the most to the reporter Maureen. She was originally from Crawfordsville, IN, about 15 minutes from the city where I worked when I was first a reporter at a daily newspaper. I actually covered a few trials in Crawfordsville during that time. Watkins also reported on the famous Leopold and Loeb case, which quickly overshadowed the coverage of the murderesses’ verdicts. It’s interesting how a piece of news can become a huge deal, or so easily be cast aside depending on what else has happened that day. Like celebrities dying on the same day, Michael Jackson’s death left no room for coverage of Farrah Fawcett’s and the same is true for other major events in history. If it had been a slow news day, the women’s acquittals might have been a huge deal, but instead they were barely noted while all eyes focused on the now infamous Leopold and Loeb case, which inspired the film Murder by Numbers and the play Never the Sinner.So if you’re looking for a great nonfiction read in the same vein as The Devil in the White City or if you’ve ever been curious about the story behind Chicago, this one is for you.  
    • 3/5
      Proving once again that there's nothing new in Chicago crime.
    • 5/5
      I liked that not only was it an honest review of people's motivations, it also made the movie and the play make so much more sense. The steps made in this time about women's acceptance in different fields is an important and very telling part of this book.
    • 5/5
      You know the musical Chicago? Guess what—it's all true!

      Crime reporter Maurine Watkins covered the trials of some of a string of women in Chicago charged with killing a man, and watched them declared not guilty through a combination of being young and pretty and having really smart lawyers. The experience angered Watkins, and she used her formidable wit to comment on the show-biz shallowness of the whole ordeal. Fascinating read!
    • 3/5
      Interesting tale of the women murderers of 1920s Chicago and one of the "girl reporters" who covered them. Sometimes disjointed - I kept mixing up Belva & Beulah - but solid storytelling. Apparently he aims to correct some of the myths about the author of the original play "Chicago" (the aforementioned girl reporter) - none of which I was aware of, but she's an intriguing character nonetheless.
    • 4/5
      I am much fonder of the musical Chicago than I probably should be. I’ve never seen it on stage, but the movie version came out at a time when...well, let’s just say that a story about thwarted women who killed their men wasn’t all that far-fetched to me, and I loved “The Cell Block Tango” (still do). I’m not sure when I learned that the show was fact-based, but it was when I read Douglas Perry’s The Girls of Murder City that I discovered just how “ripped from the headlines” - of 1924 - it really is. By the way, the word “Chicago” in the book’s subtitle really is properly offset by quotation marks or a change in font, because it refers to Chicago the show, not Chicago the city; while the “merry murderesses of the Cook County Jail” certainly did captivate the city, I’m not sure how truly inspiring they were. Having said that, Perry’s book is also concerned with another woman - reporter Maurine Watkins, who indeed was inspired to base her first stage play on two of the sensational murder trials she covered for the Chicago Tribune. I think she was pretty inspiring, to be honest.Perry relies on both contemporary accounts and later works in his exhaustive research for The Girls of Murder City, but the last adjective that describes this work of narrative nonfiction is “dry.” Its primary subject is the consecutive murder trials of “Beautiful Beulah” Annan and “Stylish Belva” Gaertner - the models for Chicago’s Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly - both in court during the spring of 1924 to defend against charges of shooting and killing men who were not their husbands. Both cases were salacious and scandalous, and Chicago’s many newspapers fed the public appetite for news about the glamorous defendants. Women were rarely convicted of murder by Chicago’s all-male juries - especially if they were good-looking women - but following a couple of recent guilty verdicts, there was more at stake for Beulah and Belva.Within this framework, Perry also delves into the stories of several other Chicago murderesses of the time, the reporters - mostly women, including Watkins - who told those stories to the public, the way things operated and the challenges faced by women at the newspapers where those reporters worked, and the unrestrained climate of Prohibition-era Chicago, where underground jazz clubs flourished and illegal liquor flowed freely. (If you ask me, Prohibition is an object lesson in irony.) He’s got great material to work with, and he crafts it into a page-turner with a firm sense of its time and place. The pace is brisk, and the writing is vivid and occasionally breathless, but Perry succeeds in putting the reader right in the midst of events, including Watkins’ application of her satirical eye to shape them into a hit, prize-winning stage comedy (the musical adaptation came years later).The environment described in The Girls of Murder City seems to be the birthplace of the celebrity-obsessed, fame-for-its-own-sake mindset we know all too well these days, and it’s fascinating in much the same way. Despite being almost a century old, the story here has a sense of immediacy and a contemporary feel, and its blend of true crime and modern history absolutely held my attention - even without “The Cell Block Tango.”
    • 2/5
      I found the book rather bland. Yes the central theme that beautiful women charged with murder in the city of Chicago sparked my curiosity but the unwinding of the story left me wanting more from it. The central figure being the newspaper reporter was rather interesting but once again I felt the story plot was nothing special. I was intrigued that the Chicago Tribune was her paper as I started my career there years ago but not in the news department. I found looking back to those years of newspaper coverage as the major media force now long since replaced by the Internet as these same newspapers slowly fade from relevance. I will be looking again at the latest movie version of "Chicago" to match up events as related to the book now.
    • 5/5
      The setting: Chicago, 1920's, Jazz Age, prohibition, flappers and all the fun thatentails. Newspapers fighting for the top spot, the best stories. And a wave of girl murderers. Women were shooting, stabbing, poisoning their lovers, their husbands. And the all-male juries kept letting them go free.The Girls of Murder City focuses mostly on the trials of Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan. Belva, a rich divorcee was accused of killing one of her lovers in a car outside her apartment. Beulah, is a married woman, accused of killing her lover after he threatens to leave her. These two women loved the spotlight and could not stop talking to the press about what they had done. And the public loved them!Maurine Watkins is a small-town girl who moves to Chicago to cover the crime beat for the Chicago Tribune and eventually writes the play Chicago, that the musical is based on. I don't read a lot of non-fiction but this is the kind I like when I do. It reads like fiction and was very entertaining. Besides covering the trials of these two women, it discussed other famous women on Murderess Row, the reporters who cover these stories and sit outside their cells writing every word they say. The book also discusses the competition between newspapers, journalism and the public's fascination with these women killers.One woman, kills her husband or lover, I can't remember which, flees Chicago then eventually commits suicide. Thousands of people mobbed her funeral, overwhelming her family and the police.This was very enjoyable. I am one of the few people who has not seen the musical Chicago, not even the movie version, but I loved this account of the women who inspired it. The book was fast-paced entertainment, a great read.my rating 4.5/5
    • 4/5
      Let me start by saying I'm a sucker for popular history books, and I tend to judge them all against "The Devil in the White City." Perry's coverage of the Chicago murders that eventually inspired the musical Chicago is a very enjoyable read if you like creative non-fiction or even true crime of a certain type. It's fascinating to see the legal and social culture in which these murders were committed, and Maurine Watkins, who is really the main character of the story, comes across as a charming and nuanced figure. Perry is best when he's explaining Watkins' motivations--her ambition and faith and bravado. Clearly, Perry's goal here is partly to rehabilitate Watkins' image in the history books, and he does an admirable job of it. The pacing of the book is excellent--even though you already know the outcome--and while Perry is not quite the wordsmith that Erik Larson is, his enthusiasm for his topic is contagious. Well worth the read if you're a fan of the genre, the era, or even just a fan of the famous Broadway show.
    • 4/5
      The Girls of Murder City tells the story of several women accused of murder and held in the women's section of the Cook County jail in 1924 Chicago. It also tells the story of Maurine Watkins, a rookie reporter who makes a name for herself through her coverage of these women, their crimes, and their trials. Watkins later turned her experiences into the play Chicago, which in turn became the basis for the musical and film of the same title.I picked this up because of my interest in Maurine Watkins and her background as the daughter of a Disciples of Christ minister. However, the book quickly skims over Watkins's life prior to her arrival in Chicago, as well as her life after writing the play.The book's structure is a little problematic. Leopold and Loeb weren't girls, yet part of the book focuses on their crime and its media coverage. It's included because this crime became the top news story, forcing continuing coverage of the murdering women out of the top headlines.Overall, the book seems to be carefully researched and well documented. However, I did spot one error. The author states that one of the women in jail for murder, Sabella Nitti, “would be the first woman ever to hang in Illinois.” Most readers probably wouldn't question that statement. However, several generations of my father's family lived in Lawrence County, Illinois, where Elizabeth Reed was the first woman to hang in Illinois in 1845.Recommended for readers interested in Chicago's history, true crime readers, and fans of the movie or musical.