The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century by Schechter, Harold

The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780345476807)

Vendor: Harold Schechter
Product type: Books
Format: Paperback
$21.00
$21.00
$21.00
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The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century by Schechter, Harold

The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century

$21.00
The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century by Schechter, Harold

The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century

$21.00
Format: Paperback
Description
Description
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From renowned true-crime historian Harold Schechter comes the riveting exploration of a notorious New York City murder in the 1890s, the fascinating forensic science of an earlier time, and the grisly court case that became a tabloid spectacle.

The wayward son of a revered Civil War general, Roland Molineux enjoyed good looks, status, and fortune-hardly the qualities of a prime suspect in a series of shocking, merciless cyanide killings. Molineux's subsequent indictment for murder led to two explosive trials and a sex-infused scandal that shocked the nation. Bringing to life Manhattan's Gilded Age, Schechter captures all the colors of the tumultuous legal proceedings, gathering his own evidence and tackling subjects no one dared address at the time-all in hopes of answering a tantalizing question: What powerfully dark motives could drive the wealthy scion of an eminent New York family to murder?

Praise for The Devil's Gentleman

"A heady tale of sin, sex, jealousy and revenge in sepia-toned Manhattan."
-The New York Times

"A dark chronicle of ghoulish revenge and] journalistic sensationalism . . . a] well-wrought anatomy of a murder and portrait of an age."
-The Wall Street Journal

"Schechter peppers his account of one of America's earliest media circuses with peacock characters and deliciously tawdry details. . . . For scandal sweet tooths, this one's a beaut."
-Entertainment Weekly

"In the hands of an artist and historian as gifted as Schechter, the material becomes a superbly evocative reconstruction of the fascinating period in American life that gave birth to our media-crazed society."
-Bomb magazine

"Well told and powerfully written . . . Through newspaper accounts of the day and memoirs of the principals . . . Schechter brings a crime] to vivid life."
-San Antonio Express-News

Author: Harold Schechter
ISBN-10: 0345476808
ISBN-13: 9780345476807
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 09/30/2008
Pages: 512
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.10w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 12/14/2008 pg. 24
By Harold Schechter
By Harold Schechter
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Harold Schechter is a professor of American literature and culture at Queens College, the City University of New York. He is widely celebrated for both fiction and true-crime writing, including The Serial Killer Files. He lives in Brooklyn and Mattituck, Long Island, with his wife, the poet Kimiko Hahn. Visit the author's website at www.haroldschechter.com.

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