The Girls Of Murder City Part 14

55 She had married William because: CEA, Apr. 12, 1920.

56 "Me threaten him with a knife?": "Other Woman's Gems s.h.i.+ne as Widow Sneers," CDT, Mar. 13, 1924.

56 Belva was the only inmate "dressed up": "Belle Bemoans Ruined Coat," CDJ, Mar. 13, 1924; "Mrs. Gaertner Lies-Mrs. Law," CDJ, Mar. 13, 1924.

56 "It gives me an awfully blank feeling": "Mrs. Gaertner Lies-Mrs. Law," CDJ, Mar. 13, 1924.

56 "You see, they have taken away": Ibid.

56 "I hope they won't put me to work": Ibid.

Chapter 4: Hang Me? That's a Joke.

57 When the jail matrons brought Belva in: "Never Threatened Law, Says Divorcee," CDN, Mar. 13, 1924; "Mrs. Gaertner Lies-Mrs. Law," CDJ, Mar. 13, 1924.

57 The streak had stood at twenty-nine: Lesy, 154.

57-58 In the Tribune, Genevieve Forbes derided: "Dialect Jargon Makes 'Em Dizzy at Nitti Trial," CDT, July 7, 1923; "Death for 2 Women Slayers," CDT, July 10, 1923.

58 There was simply no comparison: Katherine Malm was actually a native of Austria. But she emigrated with her family at age seven, and her look and accent were thoroughly American.

58 There'd never been a time when it was easy: The best source of information on the difficulties in convicting women, especially husband-killers, in Cook County is Adler's " 'I Loved Joe, but I Had to Shoot Him': Homicide by Women in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago," 883-86.

58 At fourteen, Belva found herself dumped: Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's School, Record Group 255.004, Illinois State Archives. Also see Cmiel, 26-27.

58 Kitty dropped out of the fifth grade: "Ladies in Crime," CDT, Mar. 27, 1927.

58 She'd married Otto Malm illegally: "Kitty Malm's Legal Husband Seeks Divorce," CDT, Mar. 13, 1924.

58 "Defendant Katherine Baluk": Superior Court of Cook County, chancery no. 400645, Baluk v. Baluk, May 31, 1924.

58 This shouldn't have surprised her: "Suspends Police Blamed for Gun Girl's Escape; Mrs. Malm's Love for Baby May Trap Her," CDT, Nov. 26, 1923.

59 Max now claimed: Superior Court of Cook County, chancery no. 400645, Baluk v. Baluk, May 31, 1924.

59 "Fellows, always fellows": "Ladies in Crime," CDT, Mar. 27, 1927.

59 Soon Belva and Kitty were playing cards: "Three Women Smilingly Awaiting Trials That May Cost Their Lives," Elyria (OH) Chronicle-Telegram, Mar. 19, 1924.

59 "You can now tell them": "Malm Woman's 'Death Notes' Are Plea for Her Baby," CEP, Dec. 1, 1923.

59 He quickly adjusted his memory: There is no evidence that Kitty Malm carried a gun that night or knew how to use a gun. It was clear even to the prosecutors that Otto's claim that Kitty fired the fatal bullet into Edward Lehman was a transparent attempt to save himself from the gallows. See "Confession of Slayer Clears Man in Cell; CDT, Nov. 24, 1923; "Blames Escape of Mrs. Malm on Policemen," CDT, Nov. 25, 1923; "Expect Pistol Fight in Capture of Malm's Wife," CEP, Nov. 26, 1923.

60 The lawyer figured Kitty would be free: "Ex-'Tiger Girl,' Kitty Malm, to Ask for Parole," CDT, Oct. 10, 1932.

60 "Say, n.o.body in the world": " 'I'm Not Scare't,' Says Kitty, but She Cries a Bit," CDT, Feb. 24, 1924. For more background information on Kitty Malm, see "Savage Mother Cries Out from Gun Girl's Soul," CDT, Nov. 29, 1923.

60 "She flopped her abundant fur wrap": "Angel Wings for Malm If I Hang, Says Lone Kitty," CDT, Feb. 19, 1924.

61 "Mrs. Malm is the hardest woman": Descriptions of Kitty Malm's trial and its aftermath come from: "Jury Completed to Decide Fate of Kitty Malm," CDT, Feb. 21, 1924; "Girl in Court on Cot Exposes Mrs. Malm," CDN, Feb. 21, 1924; "Mrs. Malm Has Collapse After State Surprise," CDT, Feb. 22, 1924; "Mrs. Malm Pale and Broken as Trial Resumes," CEP, Feb. 23, 1924; "New Surprise Witness in Malm Case Promised," CEP, Feb. 25, 1924; "Kitty Malm, Two-Gun Girl, on Stand," CDN, Feb. 25, 1924; "Mrs. Malm Trial Ending," CDN, Feb. 26, 1924; " 'Tiger Girl,' On Stand, Accuses Malm of Killing," CDT, Feb. 26, 1924; "Kitty, Witness, Accuses Malm," CDJ, Feb. 25, 1924; "Guilty; Malm Girl Gets Life," CDT, Feb. 27, 1924; "Mrs. Malm Gets Life; Mate Hears His Fate Mar. 8," CEP, Feb. 27, 1924.

63 Forbes, in the Tribune: CDT, Feb. 22, 1924. Maurine Watkins would steal the phrase two years later for a fictional "Tiger Girl." Her Kitty Baxter would say of herself, "Say, for the last ten years I've carried a gun where most girls carry a powder-puff." See Watkins, 67.

63 Kitty read some of the coverage: "Mrs. Malm Is Resting in Cell After Collapse," CEP, Feb. 22, 1924.

65 They were "physically and mentally": Israel, 121.

65 The social activist Belle Moskow itz: Ibid.

66 Her att.i.tude and language: "Mrs. Malm Surrenders; Admits Share in Slaying," CDT, Nov. 28, 1923; "Quiz 'Killers' Face to Face," CDT, Nov. 29, 1923.

66 Two weeks after convicting Kitty: "Mrs. Gaertner Has 'Cla.s.s' as She Faces Jury," CDT, June 4, 1924.

66 But the Tribune stated the situation: "Beulah Annan Awaits Stork, Murder Trial," CDT, May 9, 1924.

66 "My experience makes me know": "Wants Jury of 'Worldly Men,' " Danville (VA) Bee, Mar. 28, 1924.

66 Asked by newspapers to examine photographs: "Women That Shoot Men True to Type," Fres...o...b..e, Apr. 19, 1924.

Chapter 5: No Sweetheart in the World Is Worth Killing.

68 Maurine's desk sat on the east side: Chicago Tribune photo files; WGN, 135.

68 Maurine was "so lovely": Butcher, 40-41.i.

69 Maurine had never even seen a poker game: "The Talk of the Town," New Yorker, May 21, 1927.

69 She didn't drink: "Alimony," Hearst's International Cosmopolitan, July 1927. See the author's biography accompanying the story.

69 Teddy Beck, the managing editor: Butcher, 40-41.

69 One of the few other women: Butcher, 41.

69 The 1920s began, wrote Burton: Rascoe, We Were Interrupted, 3.

70 Gangsters funneled a million dollars: Murray, 309.

70 Fred Lovering, of the Daily Journal, foolishly: Dornfeld, 137.

70 Maurine was stunned to learn: "Chicago," NYW, Jan. 16, 1927. Letter to the "dramatics editor" by Maurine Watkins.

70 Sitting in a cell less than forty-eight hours: "Jail Java Instead of Gin for Divorcee," CEP photo caption, Mar. 13, 1924.

71 "One number on the programme": "Mrs. Gaertner Leads Jailed Women in Song," CDJ, Mar. 14, 1924.

71 "Law is to blame for the trouble": "Mrs. Gaertner Lies-Mrs. Law," CDJ, Mar. 13, 1924.

72 In the original photos from the night: Chicago Tribune photography archives; Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0076750, Chicago History Museum.

72 Worse, the fusel oil and industrial: Sullivan, Rattling the Cup on Chicago Crime, 90-92.

72 The typical murderess, one panel exclaimed: "False Colors of Bohemia Lead to Nowhere-Wanda Stopa Learns Too Late," CEA, Apr. 28, 1924.

72 Her colleague at the paper, Genevieve Forbes: See Genevieve Forbes file, in Women Building Chicago 1790-1990, Special Collections, University of Illinois at Chicago.

73 "When they talked of gin and blood, Mrs. Law": "Other Woman's Gems s.h.i.+ne as Widow Sneers," CDT, Mar. 13, 1924.

74 "No sweetheart in the world": "No Sweetheart Worth Killing-Mrs. Gaertner," CDT, Mar. 14, 1924.

76 There'd been hundreds of brothels: 1929 Illinois Crime Survey, 845-50.

76 The 1911 Vice Commission calculated: Wendt and Kogan, 294.

76 In her purse, unknown to her employer: St. John, 159.

76 Quinby had a way, a colleague: Ibid.

77 She'd march through the Post's newsroom: Author interview with Jackie Loohauis-Bennett, May 8, 2008. Loohauis-Bennett worked and became friends with Quinby during Quinby's last years at the Milwaukee Journal in the 1970s and early 1980s.

77 One fellow scribe remarked: Newspaper clipping, headlined "Meeting Queen Marie, Lunching with Film Stars All in Day's Work." Undated, paper of origin unknown, in Ione Quinby Papers, Western Springs (Illinois) Historical Society.

77 Indeed, back then, just before: "Finds Liberty as Taxi Driver," Waterloo (IA) Evening Courier and Reporter, Aug. 4, 1920.

77 Instead, she undertook a new career: Ibid.

77 "Well, I just can't take orders": "She's Taxi Driver Now-Her Own Boss," CDT, July 10, 1920.

77 Any man walking by the taxi stand: "Finds Liberty as Taxi Driver," Waterloo (IA) Evening Courier and Reporter, Aug. 4, 1920.

78 In the spring of 1920, Belva: Israel, 128.

78 It was, said one commentator: Israel, 120.

78 Doctors warned that the "flapper": Israel, 136.

78 School boards across the country: "Roused Teachers Plan Convention Aimed at 'Blue Laws,' " Davenport (IA) Democrat and Leader, Apr. 5, 1928.

78 The Evening American reported that: Kahn, 292.

79 Already Maurine had decided that she would make: In correspondence with the writer John Elliott, Dorotha Watkins recalled her cousin Maurine ending a marriage engagement when she was about twenty-four because she was convinced her dedication to work would make her a terrible wife. See Elliott, "Tearing Up the Pages," Portland Review.

79 Soon after starting at the Tribune: "Pioneer in Birth Control Tells How Holland Profited," CDT, May 17, 1924.

79 Maurine knew all about how birth control: Israel, 109; Morris, Theodore Rex, 224.

79 She also attended a conference: "Pacifists Turn to Socialists for Their Guides," CDT, May 21, 1924.

79 Maurine decided that murder was more: "Chicago," NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

79 Chicagoans rejected the notion: "Pistol Fire Lights Up 'Chicago'; or, Telling It to the Maurine," NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

80 One of Maurine's early a.s.signments: "Jurors Clear Boy Who Killed Brutal Father," CDT, Apr. 25, 1924.

80 In Chicago, the young reporter had noticed: "Pistol Fire Lights Up 'Chicago'; or, Telling It to the Maurine," NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

80 To get star treatment in "Murder City": "Chicago," NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

80 She would even develop a kind of crush: "Pistol Fire Lights Up 'Chicago'; or, Telling It to the Maurine," NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

80 "I had to ask him a lot of questions that": Ibid.

80 The gangster's matter-of-fact att.i.tude: Woollcott. As an example of her need to idealize, in one letter to Woollcott, Watkins goes on at some length about her adolescent hero wors.h.i.+p of former U.S. senator Albert Beveridge.

81 "Gunmen are just div ine . . .": "Pistol Fire Lights Up 'Chicago'; or, Telling It to the Maurine," NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

81 Standing around at the Criminal Courts Building: "Miss Watkins Suggests Press Agent for Gray," New York Telegram, Apr. 18, 1927.

81 The British war hero Ian Hay Beith: Duncombe and Mattson, 16-17.

Chapter 6: The Kind of Gal Who Never Could Be True.

The engine of this chapter's narrative is Beulah Annan's Midnight Confession, which she gave after prosecutors took her back to her apartment after having first questioned her at the Hyde Park police station. Her initial claims to police that Harry Kalstedt was a stranger who broke in and tried to rape her are patently false. The story she told in later days and weeks-that Harry had arrived drunk and bolted for Al's gun after she told him their relations.h.i.+p was over-surfaced only after her lawyers entered the picture. The Midnight Confession, however, has the ring of truth throughout. The mask is gone; Beulah, sobered up, is remorseful and distraught and answers questions with specifics in a free-flowing way. This confession also matches up with key facts established at the inquest and with other details brought out at the trial. See "Woman in Salome Dance After Killing," CDN, Apr. 4, 1924; "Gin Killing is Re-enacted in Cell in Jail," CDJ, Apr. 5, 1924; "Mrs. Nitti Consoles Beulah," CEA, Apr. 5, 1924; "What Life Finally Did to 'the Girl with the Man-Taming Eyes,' " Hamilton (OH) Evening Journal, May 5, 1928; "Judge Admits All of Beulah's Killing Stories," CDT, May 24, 1924; "Tried to Kill Me, Says Beulah Annan on Stand" (jump-page headline), CEA, May 24, 1924; "'Shot to Save My Own Life,' Says Beulah on Stand," CEP, May 24, 1924.

83 The Tribune that morning carried: Bergreen, 109.

83 Already, truckloads of flowers: Ibid, 110.

84 Back in October, when Beulah: Hamilton (OH) Evening Journal, May 5, 1928.

84 She knew a doctor who'd give her morphine: Ibid.