The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins

Author:Paul Collins [Collins, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-59222-4
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2011-06-13T23:00:00+00:00

AS THE COURTHOUSE EMPTIED OUT, Journal pigeon posts fluttered past the windows—the first four pages of tonight’s issue would be devoted to the case, shoving aside every other national and international story, including a Spanish overture to President McKinley, a nearly unanimous vote by the Georgia legislature to ban the “brutal” sport of football, and word that infamous outlaw “Dynamite Dick” had been gunned down by lawmen in the wilds of the Indian Territory. With tomorrow’s witnesses slated to be a parade of doctors and professors, the capital circumstantial case was turning historic.

“Interest in the case is not wholly that of a passing sensation,” a Brooklyn Eagle reporter admitted. “The legal aspects of it are scientific and important, and may be cited for precedents in many trials of the future.”

Howe, sparkling at the defense table, was quick to assure everyone that it would also be a historic victory. “We will disprove nearly all of the prosecutor’s testimony,” he announced flatly.

It wasn’t just bluster, either: A Herald reporter had good word that betting on Thorn now ran at roughly even odds. Sure, the evidence looked bad for him, but Howe had an impeccable reputation for beating the rap. Yet as they left the courtroom, there was another presence—up in the gallery—that was altogether more surprising.

Maria Barberi?

The ranks of reporters crowded around her. Barberi had been the first woman ever sentenced to die in the electric chair—and just a year ago, she’d been at the defense table herself, appealing a murder conviction. But she’d been freed by reason of insanity, since Maria slit her lover’s throat with a straight razor in what her lawyer argued was a “psychic epileptic fit”—a curiously selective fit, it must be said. The case was so sensational that it had already been turned into a Broadway play. And now Barberi was a free woman, sitting in the gallery right beside the lawyer who had saved her from the chair: none other than Manny Friend, who was now representing Mrs. Nack.

In her round spectacles and a white floral hat tied under her chin with a wide bow, Maria looked for all the world like a schoolmistress. “I did not see the use of showing those awful pieces of cloth so many times,” she complained to the Evening Journal. It made her feel especially sorry for Thorn. “Every time they were held up my heart thumped, and I know that his did.”

Sitting in the courtroom with Barberi was cheap advertising for Manny, and the message about Mrs. Nack’s case was clear: If I got Barberi off the hook, I can get Nack off, too. William F. Howe was less impressed as he walked over and, towering over his fellow lawyer, sized up Manny Friend.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” he asked.

It was a good question—and when the answer came later that night, the case would be turned upside down.

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