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Curtis Gathje : A Model Crime

Donald I. Fine, Inc., New York, 1995

ISBN 1556114281

8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. BH2 - A first edition (complete numberline) hardcover book SIGNED by Curtis Gathje and inscribed to Otto (Otto Penzler) on the title page in very good condition in very good dust jacket that is mylar protected. Dust jacket and book have some bumped corners, light tanning and shelf wear. Although not marked in any way, this copy comes from the personal collection of Otto Penzler, legendary editor and founder of the Mysterious Press, an award-winning icon in the genre. A True Fiction. 9.5"x6.5", 198 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Based on an actual case of 1937, which the sensationalist New York press of the day was quick to blow up into a major national event, A Model Crime is a quasi-fictionalized account of a tabloid-dream crime in which a beauteous young model, her mother, owner of a boarding house, and a man known as the "English boarder" are knifed and garroted to death on Easter Eve. Who? Why? Author Curtis Gathje, whose uncle, Stephen Bu 1556114281ter, was himself a suspect in the case and first revealed his involvement to his nephew over a Thanksgiving Day dinner, weaves the suspense-laden storyline through actual newspaper clippings and cover pages of the time, with dozens of actual photographs of the suspects and the three victims. The result is a multifaceted book that moves with the dimension and pace of a Ken Burns-like documentary, allowing the reader to develop his or her own theories about the killer, right up to the very end and the arrest of the true killer. At the time there were nine New York City 1556114281abloids, including Pulitzer's sheets and those the relative newcomer William Randolph Hearst, who was trying to outdo his more established rivals with sensational photography and reporting. It was the time of Walter Winchell and Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club, of Ed Sullivan, the columnist, of Adela Rogers St. John and the upstart who upended her, Dorothy Kilgallen, and of Helen Norden Brown (Helen Laurenson), editor of the soon-to-be defunct Vanity Fair, who was the boss of the sister of the divine and cruelly dead young model. It was also the time of legendary Police Commissioner Valentine. Winchell was to become the voice-over for t.v.'s "The Untouchables." The killer's defense counsel was the most famous criminal lawyer of the day, Sma Leibowitz, later a judge. All these are not only background and ambience - they are functional to the Case of the Model Crime - as the reader will discover his and her delight and astonishment. A Model Crime goes under and beyond the so-called golden age of tabloid-style reportage - with a more than passing resemblance to current events in the media - and is fully documented with the wonderful journalistic text and photos of the day.. Book Condition: Very Good. Binding: Hardcover. Jacket: Very Good

First Edition
Signed by Author

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