Who Killed Jane Stanford? by Richard White

A premier historian penetrates the fog of corruption and cover-up still surrounding the murder of a Stanford University founder to establish who did it, how, and why.

In 1885 Jane and Leland Stanford cofounded a university to honor their recently deceased young son. After her husband’s death in 1893, Jane Stanford, a devoted spiritualist who expected the university to inculcate her values, steered Stanford into eccentricity and public controversy for more than a decade. In 1905 she was murdered in Hawaii, a victim, according to the Honolulu coroner’s jury, of strychnine poisoning. With her vast fortune the university’s lifeline, the Stanford president and his allies quickly sought to foreclose challenges to her bequests by constructing a story of death by natural causes. The cover-up gained traction in the murky labyrinths of power, wealth, and corruption of Gilded Age San Francisco. The murderer walked.

Deftly sifting the scattered evidence and conflicting stories of suspects and witnesses, Richard White gives us the first full account of Jane Stanford’s murder and its cover-up. Against a backdrop of the city’s machine politics, rogue policing, tong wars, and heated newspaper rivalries, White’s search for the murderer draws us into Jane Stanford’s imperious household and the academic enmities of the university. Although Stanford officials claimed that no one could have wanted to murder Jane, we meet several people who had the motives and the opportunity to do so. One of these, we discover, also had the means.

Too Secret Too Long by Chapman Pincher

Chapman Pincher, the Cold War and the spy scandals which shocked the nation.

Chapman Pincher, the “lone wolf of Fleet Street”, is now regarded as the godfather of investigative journalism. During the Cold War era he became notorious as a relentless investigator of spies, uncovering the shocking extent of Soviet infiltration of the British Secret Services – and the collusion and incompetence at the heart of the British Establishment.

Pincher’s Their Trade is Treachery, published in 1981, became an instant classic. While helping to unmask the Cambridge five, the conclusion he drew was that there must be someone right at the heart of the Secret Services who allowed these men to go undetected. And he concluded that it could be none other than Roger Hollis, then head of MI5 (as did Peter Wright in his autobiography, Spy Catcher).

In this sequel he presents a compelling case against Hollis, with a torrent of new disclosures about the appalling extent to which the British secret services had been penetrated and manipulated by Soviet agents. Pincher builds evidence that Hollis, the man he calls ‘Spy of the Century’, must have colluded. Working with him was a woman, Moscow trained, of such dedication and courage that she qualifies to be regarded as the most successful female spy ever.

Too Secret Too Long paints a riveting picture of Cold War espionage, of corruption within the British Secret Service and the cover-ups by successive governments.

Review: A Talent To Deceive by William Morris

Synopsis: For almost 90 years, the Lindbergh Kidnapping has been a major topic of controversy and fascination in history. After a six-week trial, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was named the ultimate culprit of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's infant son. Hauptmann pleaded that he was not guilty even as he took his last breath execution day. Since the trial, there have been many theories concluding that Hauptmann was innocent. 

A Talent to Deceive is the book that solves a mystery through investigative journalism. William Norris dives into evidence ignored by previous investigators in search of the truth. Who really committed the crime? What really happened the night of March 1, 1932? What was the motive to kidnap and murder the Lindbergh baby?

The kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh infant was the "case of the century" - it still resonates event today - and resulted in a man being sentenced to death in the electric chair. In short, five years after Charles A. Lindbergh made headlines around the world by becoming the first aviator to make a nonstop flight across the Atlantic, he was the subject of a nightmarish new story: On the evening of March 1st, 1932, his 20-month old son, Charlie, was stolen from his crib. 72 days later, a badly-decomposed body authorities identified as Charlie’s was discovered in the woods less than four miles away. But was Richard Hauptmann guilty of such a heinous crime or was there much more - much that went unsaid for the sake of reputation. In "A Talent To Deceive: The Search For The Real Killer of the Lindbergh Baby" author William Norris - reporter and political correspondent - posits just that.

And Norris is not alone in this. Though not discusses here, Lloyd C. Gardner, professor of history emeritus at Rutgers University, in his book "The Case that Never Dies: The Lindbergh Kidnapping", claims that not only was Lindbergh himself somehow involved with little Charlie’s abduction, but also believes the child’s death could have resulted from an accident during the kidnapping.

Back to Norris' book - we start with a recap of known and "accepted facts" surrounding the case and are introduced to those who will feature in more depth throughout Norris' investigation. And even now at this early juncture, Norris hints at a cover-up by Lindbergh for a member of the Morrow family (his wife Anne's family). We discover that Lindbergh himself - from the very start - is obstructive and deceptive, and intent on controlling or steering the investigation - and as America's golden boy, he is allowed to do so.

Then Norris takes us on the journey of his interest and investigation in the case.  It is not a smooth journey - there are many road blocks with access to still existing documents being refused and witnesses disappearing; the discovery that in the original inquiry leads had not been followed up, forensics were lacking, and pertinent witnesses  were not questioned.

"... I was becoming perhaps a little paranoid in my suspicions of a coverup, but it seemed clear that something odd was going on ..."

Norris follows a number of lines of inquiry either overlooked or purposely ignored - and attention focuses on the Lindbergh and Morrow families as well as the character of Dr John F Condon, who not only insinuated himself into the case but was the sole liaison with the kidnappers and was an intimate of the Morrow family.

Norris discovers an anonymous letter which referred to the kidnapping as " ... one of the greatest hoaxes ever pulled on the American public .." What could this mean - was the family complicit? Norris feels that this was the case, positing that there was the theory of an "unnamed illegitimate son" trying to get even with his father and claim monies owed via inheritance. 

Or was it a harmless (family) prank that went horribly wrong as the author questions that lack of fingerprints at the crime scene, the fake ladder, the state (and behaviour) of the family themselves, the swift identification of the child's corpse and the speed at which the child's remains were cremated. And then there is that almost Sherlockian question of why the dog didn't bark in the night.

Norris' modern-day investigation is interspersed with the historical case as pertinent discoveries are made and examined. Even Lindbergh (his personal life and views) comes in for a good deal of scrutiny - especially his theories on eugenics and Social Darwinism, which provides a potential clue as to why the child may have been kidnapped in the first place - even Lloyd C. Gardner comments on this (see also: The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever by David M. Friedman). 

Norris also pays due diligence to Bruno Hauptmann and provides some background into the man who made for the perfect patsy, and looks a little more closely at the evidence stacked against him - and that which was overlooked which may have called into question the nature of his guilt in the very beginning. 

As I originally mentioned, I never realised just how deceptive and obstructive Lindbergh and his in-laws the Morrows actually were throughout this drama. The whole train of events after the discovery of the missing child (including the investigation and trial) were almost (and horribly) farcical - and for Hauptmann - the alleged kidnapper and murderer - tragically so.

For those wanting to gain a different insight into this "crime of the century" and read about an alternate perpetrator, this is definitely for you. Norris provides enough background information for the reader that prior in-depth knowledge is not essential.

further reading:

FBI website - the Lindbergh Kidnapping

Crime Museum - the Lindbergh Kidnapping

Famous Trials - Hauptmann (Lindbergh Kidnapping)

Minnesota Historical Society - Lindbergh Kidnapping

Website - The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax

Review: Cry of Murder on Broadway by Julie Miller

Synopsis: In Cry of Murder on Broadway, Julie Miller shows how a woman's desperate attempt at murder came to momentarily embody the anger and anxiety felt by many people at a time of economic and social upheaval and expanding expectations for equal rights.

On the evening of November 1, 1843, a young household servant named Amelia Norman attacked Henry Ballard, a prosperous merchant, on the steps of the new and luxurious Astor House hotel. Agitated and distraught, Norman followed Ballard down Broadway before confronting him at the door to the Astor House. Taking out a folding knife, she stabbed him, just missing his heart.

Ballard survived the attack, and the trial that followed created a sensation. Newspapers in New York and beyond followed the case eagerly, and crowds filled the courtroom every day. Prominent author and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, championed Norman and later included her story in her fiction and her writing on women's rights.

The would-be murderer also attracted the support of politicians, journalists, and legal and moral reformers who saw her story as a vehicle to change the law as it related to "seduction," and advocate for the rights of workers. Cry of Murder on Broadway describes how New Yorkers, besotted with the drama of the courtroom and the lurid stories of the penny press, followed the trial for sensation. Throughout all this, Norman gained the sympathy of New Yorkers, in particular the jury, which acquitted her in less than ten minutes.

Miller deftly weaves together Norman's story to show how, in one violent moment, she expressed all the anger that the women of the emerging movement for women's rights would soon express in words.

I will preface this with my notes when at Page 38: "I am going to admit that I am struggling to find some connection with this story. It starts, goes back, moves forward; it is flooded with so much (unnecessary) information that my mind is failing to absorb it all and sift through what is relevant and what is not. I shall no doubt keep persevering ... for the time being."

I will continue by saying that I skimmed through the rest of the book - unimpressed. Quite a lot of the information could easily have been curated and inserted into the trial component of the story. I was not interested in the (vast) biographical information on a number of other players - again these could easily have been significantly shortened.

As the focus of this book seemed to be on Lydia Maria Child, author and reformer, one wonders whether of not this book should have been about her with the account of Amelia Norman being given as illustrative of her actions (with others) in bringing about reform for women.

Amelia's (and Lydia's) story ends just under the halfway mark - the rest is taken up by sources, notes and bibliography. Had I realised just how this would be structured, I would have passed. 

Review: The Doom List by Gerard O'Donovan

Synopsis: The Doom List - you'd rather be dead than be on it: the intriguing new 1920s mystery featuring Irish-born cop turned private investigator Tom Collins.

July, 1922. Newly-appointed 'movie czar' William H. Hays is about to arrive in town on a single-minded mission to clean up Hollywood. He is said to be compiling a list of 'undesirables' whom he plans to bar from screen work. They call it the Doom List.

With the industry in the grip of fear and paranoia, Hollywood's hottest young director Rex Ingram is determined that no hint of scandal should mar the premiere of his new movie, The Prisoner of Zenda, and hires private investigator Tom Collins, a fellow Irishman, with instructions to protect his leading lady's reputation at all costs. But, as Collins discovers, Barbara La Marr isn't the only member of the cast hiding a dangerous secret.

Meanwhile, a body is discovered in the Baldwin Hills to the south of the city. Could there be a connection? Against his better judgement, Collins is drawn into a case of scandal, forbidden love, blackmail . . . and cold-blooded murder.

This quite neatly follows on from "The Long Silence" which is set in February 1922 and has Tom investigating the disappearance of an actress with close links to the recently murdered director, William Desmond Taylor.

Hollywood 1922

Hollwood started out as a new land development in the 1880s.  It wasn't until 1910 that the first motion picture company - the Nestor Motion Picture Company- set up in Hollywood, which - unlike the East Coast where the majority of films were made - had ideal weather conditions and easy access to locations. The following year, four major film companies – Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO, and Columbia – had their studios in Hollywood, as did several minor companies and rental studios.

Rex Ingram

Tom is no longer attached to the studios as their in-house "fixer" - he has managed to open an office of his own, and through long time "friend" Fay Parker, he meets director Rex Ingram. Rex has just finished "The Prisoner of Zenda" for Metro Studios and is about to hit the publicity trail, whilst in the process of making yet another film, Black Orchids (renamed Trifling Women).

Barbara La Marr

However, his leading lady, Barbara La Marr is not the only one among his cast who has secrets they would much prefer to remain hidden, especially since moral crusader Will H Hays is on his way to clean up the fledgling Tinseltown.  An up and coming young Mexican star Ramon, rumoured to be the next Valentino, has problems of his own and Barbara asked Tom to help him out. Hollywood at this time had a burgeoning Mexican population, attracted by the closeness to the border and the multitude of new employment opportunities that arose from the movie industry.

Ramon Novarro

Hollywood had much to hide by way of scandals from secret pregnancies and abortions, drug and alcohol addiction, homosexuality, affairs, violence and murder.  Many stars burnt bright then faded back into obscurity; the lucky ones stuck around a little longer - it was the movie-going public who could make or break both a film and its stars, so the studios employed "fixers" to cover up an indiscretions and buy off silence.  Unfortunately, not everything could be swept under the carpet.

Will H Hays

In January 1922 Will H Hays was been appointed as chairman of Chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) shortly after the organization's founding. The goal of the organization was to renovate the image of the movie industry in the wake of the scandal surrounding the alleged rape and murder of model and actress Virginia Rappe, of which film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was accused, and amid growing calls by religious groups for federal censorship of the movies. Hiring Hays to "clean up the pictures" was, at least in part, a public relations ploy and much was made of his conservative credentials, including his roles as a Presbyterian deacon and past chairman of the Republican Party. However, at the time of our story, Hays had not yet made a name for himself or trouble for the studios - but the implied threat was very real for some. 

I really enjoyed this second trip into old Hollywood - silents films are still the rage, talkies are barely on the scene, actors and actresses were glamourous, scandalous, mysterious and sometimes murderous. The weaving of some of these famous Hollywood folk into the story gives it a bit more of an edge, and O'Donovan again uses events from this time as a backdrop.

Whilst it is not necessary to have read the first in this series, I would recommend that you do as there are references to previous events in this new outing - events which have never quite been closed.

In Tom Collins, ex-cop, ex-studio fixer, now private inquiry agent, O'Donovan gives us a character straight from the pages of the classic noir playbook - right up their with Spade, Hammer or Marlowe.  I enjoyed the style of storytelling, which provided enough plot twists and turns and diversions to keep the reader firmly planted on the edge of their seat.  You get a true sense of what it was like back in the early days of Hollywood and Los Angeles.

Check out
- Silent Era: The Silent Film Website
- Wikipedia: real life Hollywood Fixer, Eddie Mannix
- Atlas Obscura: the Fixers who buried Old Hollywood's biggest scandals

Review: Hollywood's Dark History by Matt MacNabb

Synopsis: The early days of Hollywood were full of glamour and a newfound decadence. The stars in these films were instantly catapulted to fame and fortune and the spotlight of the public eye. The real people behind the glamour were far different than the characters that audiences grew to know and love and much like Hollywood today, the lives of the stars were often full of scandal and debauchery.

This book examines the forgotten scandals of yesterday, featuring silent and silver screen stars like Jean Harlow, Mae West, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Errol Flynn. Don't let the romanticized black and white world of yesterday fool you, their stories are rife with sex, drugs and murder.

Not quite in the salacious and gossipy tone of Hollywood Babylon, these thirteen vignettes take us back to the early days of Hollywood and to a few of the earliest scandals. From failed marriages and numerous liaisons, drug and alcohol addiction, abusive childhoods and relationships, murder, blackmail, gangsters, sex tapes and everything else in between, this makes for remarkable reading.

Many of the names may already be familiar to those who harken back to the era of vaudeville, silent films, and the "talkies" - Chaplin, Arbuckle, Normand, Taylor, Flynn, Crawford, Turner & West. All are presented with a look to their earlier life, career, personal life, and legacy. Not all received their star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame - and one wonders if of those who did, whether they actually deserved them.

An afternoon's escapism.

Royal Murder by Marc Alexander

‘And tell sad stories of the death of Kings: How some have deposed, some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed, all murdered . . .’

So wrote Shakespeare in Richard II, and in his new book Royal Murder Marc Alexander investigates the sad stories of the victims of royal murders.

Ignoring violent death by battle or political execution, this book is devoted to personal acts of jealousy and revenge which has stained the Crown with blue blood down the ages. The subjects range from those murders one may vaguely remember from schooldays without being aware of their backgrounds of intrigue and mystery, to lesser known scandals such as the secret murder of Count von Konigsmarck, the lover of Princess Sophia of Zell, wife of George the First.

Love, Madness, and Scandal by Johanna Luthman

The high society of Stuart England found Frances Coke Villiers, Viscountess Purbeck (1602-1645) an exasperating woman. She lived at a time when women were expected to be obedient, silent, and chaste, but Frances displayed none of these qualities. Her determination to ignore convention contributed in no small measure to a life of high drama, one which encompassed kidnappings, secret rendezvous, an illegitimate child, accusations of black magic, imprisonments, disappearances, and exile, not to mention court appearances, high-speed chases, a jail-break, deadly disease, royal fury, and - by turns - religious condemnation and conversion.

As a child, Frances became a political pawn at the court of King James I. Her wealthy parents, themselves trapped in a disastrous marriage, fought tooth and nail over whom Frances should marry, pulling both king and court into their extended battles. When Frances was fifteen, her father forced her to marry John Villiers, the elder brother of the royal favourite, the Duke of Buckingham. But as her husband succumbed to mental illness, Frances fell for another man, and soon found herself pregnant with her lover's child.

The Viscountess paid a heavy price for her illicit love. Her outraged in-laws used their influence to bring her down. But bravely defying both social and religious convention, Frances refused to bow to the combined authority of her family, her church, or her king, and fought stubbornly to defend her honour, as well as the position of her illegitimate son.

On one level a thrilling tale of love and sex, kidnapping and elopement, the life of Frances Coke Villiers is also the story of an exceptional woman, whose personal experiences intertwined with the court politics and religious disputes of a tumultuous and crucially formative period in English history.

Fallen Order: Intrigue, Heresy, and Scandal in the Rome of Galileo and Caravaggio by Karen Liebreich

From @ Amazon.com: 

Catholic hierarchies protecting paedophile priests is a scandal as old as time, and one that has plagued the Church since the 1600s.  In 1643, after a failure by the Church hierarchy to deal with child abuse scandals amongst their members, a group of priests took control of the Order of the Clerics Regular of the Pious Schools.  It would be anachronistic to call this group a paedophile ring, but it is nevertheless true that a man accused of abusing the boys in his care was promoted to universal superior of a Catholic teaching order, supported by a small group of like-minded priests, and with the full complicity of the Inquisition and the pope himself.

This is the world that Karen Liebreich uncovers; one of ancient, deeply disturbing and intensely secretive shames that was endorsed by Joseph Calasanz, the founder of The Order of the Pious Schools.  It was at these private schools, run by the Piarist order of priests, that some of the most famous children in history were educated and vast contributions to science, art and culture were also overseen by heads of the Church.

Yet investigations into child-molestation and the relentless brutality of priests were frequently quashed – countless children who were the recipients of abuse and psychological violence were silenced.  Great lengths were taken to protect the reputation of the Church as rivalry, bribes, conspiracy, evil and pressure from the Vatican continued to mount amongst the priests.

Liebreich brilliantly depicts the dangerous politics of the Church in seventeenth-century Rome, revealing previously hidden and immensely sobering information she uncovered during her intense historical research.

Love, Madness, and Scandal by Johanna Luthman

The high society of Stuart England found Frances Coke Villiers, Viscountess Purbeck (1602-1645) an exasperating woman. She lived at a time when women were expected to be obedient, silent, and chaste, but Frances displayed none of these qualities. Her determination to ignore convention contributed in no small measure to a life of high drama, one which encompassed kidnappings, secret rendezvous, an illegitimate child, accusations of black magic, imprisonments, disappearances, and exile, not to mention court appearances, high-speed chases, a jail-break, deadly disease, royal fury, and - by turns - religious condemnation and conversion.

As a child, Frances became a political pawn at the court of King James I. Her wealthy parents, themselves trapped in a disastrous marriage, fought tooth and nail over whom Frances should marry, pulling both king and court into their extended battles. When Frances was fifteen, her father forced her to marry John Villiers, the elder brother of the royal favourite, the Duke of Buckingham. But as her husband succumbed to mental illness, Frances fell for another man, and soon found herself pregnant with her lover's child. 

The Viscountess paid a heavy price for her illicit love. Her outraged in-laws used their influence to bring her down. But bravely defying both social and religious convention, Frances refused to bow to the combined authority of her family, her church, or her king, and fought stubbornly to defend her honour, as well as the position of her illegitimate son. 

On one level a thrilling tale of love and sex, kidnapping and elopement, the life of Frances Coke Villiers is also the story of an exceptional woman, whose personal experiences intertwined with the court politics and religious disputes of a tumultuous and crucially formative period in English history.

read more here @ OUP Blog - Punishing Peccadilloes

The Nuns of Sant' Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal by Hubert Wolf

Discovered in a secret Vatican archive, this is the true, never-before-told story of poison, murder, and lesbian initiation rites in a nineteenth century convent.

In 1858, Katherina von Hohenzollern, a German princess recently inducted into the convent of Sant'Ambrogio in Rome, wrote a frantic letter to her cousin, a confidant of the Pope, claiming that she was being abused and feared for her life. The subsequent investigation by the Church's Inquisition uncovered the extraordinary secrets of Sant'Ambrogio and the illicit behavior of the convent's beautiful young mistress, Maria Luissa. 

What emerges through the fog of centuries is a sex scandal of ecclesiastical proportions, skillfully brought to light and vividly reconstructed in scholarly detail by one of the world's leading papal historians. Offering a broad historical background on female mystics and the cult of the Virgin Mary, and drawing upon written testimony and original documents, Hubert Wolf tells an incredible story of deception, heresy, seduction, and murder in the heart of the Catholic Church.

read more @ OUP Blog

Royal Betrayal: The Great Baccarat Scandal of 1890 by Michael Scott

For two nights at a house party at Tranby Croft, the residence of one of the richest men in England, a card game is played, instigated by the Prince of Wales. One of the players, Lieutenant Colonel Sir William Gordon-Cumming Bt, Scots Guards, is accused of cheating. 

A classic Victorian melodrama: vast amounts of money, illegal gambling, the Royal Family, mistresses, bed-hopping, cover-up, deception and blackmail. 

The saga ranges from the wind-swept remoteness of Gordonstoun in Scotland, big game hunting in Africa and India, to life in the Guards in London and action in the Zulu Wars and Egyptian Campaign of 1882.

For the first time, the Gordon-Cumming family papers are brought to light, including many of Sir William’s diaries and letters, as well as letters from The Royal Archives at Windsor Castle that detail the anxieties amongst the Royal Family. 

Previously undiscovered, there are more than mere coincidental connections between Gordon-Cumming and the Intelligence community. What was he really up to and why didn’t the Prince, his close confidant and friend, bail him out? Views of present-day descendants of those involved are also revealed for the first time. Was Gordon-Cumming a cheat or not? Or was he the scapegoat for something which is shrouded in even more mystery? 

Book Bargains - December 2017

Whilst I didn't get any books for Christmas (couldn't rely on delivery during December), I did manage to pick up a couple whilst out and about Christmas shopping:


From Alex Connor (conspiracy thrillers set in the art world):

• The Caravaggio Conspiracy
• The Bosch Deception

These books combine all her passions; art history, painting and thriller writing. All have a fascinating historical back story, combined with a hard hitting contemporary thriller – giving an insider’s glimpse into the art world. Taking some of the most famous names in art – Rembrandt, Hogarth, Goya, Titian etc. – Alex exposes little known facts about their lives and secrets, bringing the Old Masters from the past into the complex and, at times, dangerous world of art dealing in the 21st Century.

From Dr Kathryn Harkup:

• A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie used poison to kill her characters more often than any other crime fiction writer. The poison was a central part of the novel, and her choice of deadly substances was far from random; the chemical and physiological characteristics of each poison provide vital clues to the discovery of the murderer. Christie demonstrated her extensive chemical knowledge (much of it gleaned by working in a pharmacy during both world wars) in many of her novels, but this is rarely appreciated by the reader.

From Alix Christie:

• Guttenberg's Apprentice

"Gutenberg's Apprentice" tells his story: of a young man's hate and grudging love for a man both brilliant and stormy, their struggle to prevail against resistance and betrayal and the power of the Church. It is the story, too, of the last great communications revolution. All the wonder and doubt the digital world provokes today were felt half a millennium ago, in the workshop that produced the world's first printed book.

From Paul Spicer:

• The Temptress

In the spirit of Frances Osborne's The Bolter, this fascinating life of femme fatale and gorgeous Chicago heiress, Alice de Janzé, offers a solution to the decadesold murder of Lord Erroll—the story at the center of James Fox's acclaimed book and movie White Mischief (my review  of The Temptress here @ Goodreads and of The Bolter here also @ Goodreads)

From Robert Lyndon:

• Hawk Quest

The Normans have captured England. The Turks have captured a Norman knight. And in order to free him, a soldier named Vallon must capture four rare hawks. (I have read this and left it unfinished - so when it crossed my path again, I have decided to give this another go)

The Fixers Who Buried Old Hollywood's Biggest Scandals

The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine by EJ Fleming

Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling are virtually unknown outside of Hollywood and little-remembered even there, but as General Manager and Head of Publicity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, they lorded over all the stars in Hollywood’s golden age from the 1920s through the 1940s—including legends like Garbo, Dietrich, Gable and Garland. When MGM stars found themselves in trouble, it was Eddie and Howard who took care of them—solved their problems, hid their crimes, and kept their secrets. They were “the Fixers.” At a time when image meant everything and the stars were worth millions to the studios that owned them, Mannix and Strickling were the most important men at MGM. 

Through a complex web of contacts in every arena, from reporters and doctors to corrupt police and district attorneys, they covered up some of the most notorious crimes and scandals in Hollywood history, keeping stars out of jail and, more importantly, their names out of the papers. They handled problems as diverse as the murder of Paul Bern (husband of MGM’s biggest star, Jean Harlow), the studio-directed drug addictions of Judy Garland, the murder of Ted Healy (creator of The Three Stooges) at the hands of Wallace Beery, and arranging for an unmarried Loretta Young to adopt her own child—a child fathered by a married Clark Gable. Through exhaustive research and interviews with contemporaries, this is the never-before-told story of Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling. The dual biography describes how a mob-related New Jersey laborer and the quiet son of a grocer became the most powerful men at the biggest studio in the world.

read article here @ Atlas Obscura on not just Mannix and Strickland but also Fred Otash, who took on the role in the 1970s