Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Shadow Men by James Polchin - Available

Shadow Men

The Tangled Story of Murder, Media, and Privilege That Scandalized Jazz Age America

by James Polchin
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Read a sample Read a sample
1 of 1 copy available
"Polchin knows the era, and brings to his account a wealth of colorful supporting detail . . . With its layers of taboos and public spectacle, the case feels, a century later, as relevant as ever." —Marisa Meltzer, The New York Times Book Review
From Edgar Award finalist James Polchin comes a thrilling examination of the murder that captivated Jazz Age America, with echoes of the decadence and violence of The Great Gatsby
On the morning of May 16, 1922, a young man’s body was found on a desolate road in Westchester County. The victim was penniless ex-sailor Clarence Peters. Walter Ward, the handsome scion of the family that owned the largest chain of bread factories in the country, confessed to the crime as an act of self-defense against a violent gang of “shadow men,” blackmailers who extorted their victims’ moral weaknesses. From the start, one question defined the investigation: What scandalous secret could lead Ward to murder?
For sixteen months, the media fueled a firestorm of speculation. Unscrupulous criminal attorneys, fame-seeking chorus girls, con artists, and misogynistic millionaires harnessed the power of the press to shape public perception. New York governor and future presidential candidate Al Smith and editor of the Daily News Joseph Medill Patterson leveraged the investigation to further professional ambitions. Famous figures like Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, and F. Scott Fitzgerald weighed in. As the bereaved working-class Peters family sought to bring the callous Ward to justice, America watched enraptured.
Capturing the extraordinary twists and turns of the case, Shadow Men conjures the excess and contradictions of the Jazz Age and reveals the true-crime origins of the media-led voyeurism that reverberates through contemporary life. It’s a story of privilege and power that lays bare the social inequity that continues to influence our system of justice.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 11, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781640096011

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781640096011
      • File size: 21903 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 22, 2024
      Polchin (Indecent Advances) combines a novelist’s gift for narrative and a journalist’s eye for detail in this riveting work of true crime. In 1922, the body of 19-year-old Clarence Peters was found on the side of a road in Westchester County, N.Y. The bullet that killed Peters only pierced his shirt, not his outer garments, leading police to believe that the body had been moved from where the murder occurred. Days afterward, New Rochelle police commissioner Walter Ward came forward to confess, claiming he acted in self-defense. According to Ward’s testimony, he was being blackmailed by Peters’s gang, to whom he’d already paid $30,000, and when Peters pointed a pistol at him during a confrontation, Ward wrested the weapon away, and fired it to save his life. Doubts about his account were widespread, and Polchin packs the narrative with cliffhangers as he takes readers through the case’s often-shocking twists, including the involvement of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who had become a devout spiritualist and claimed to be able to commune with Peters’s spirit. It’s an entertaining account of an obscure yet fascinating crime. Agent: Deirdre Mullane, Mullane Literary Assoc.

    • Booklist

      May 1, 2024
      On a May morning in 1922, the body of a young man was found neatly laid out, face up, next to an isolated road in Westchester County, New York. He wore a suit, tattered vest, and shirt. A bullet had pierced his shirt near his heart, exiting his lower back, but his jacket and vest were intact. The following week, baking company scion Walter Ward presented himself as the shooter of penniless Clarence Peters. Ward claimed self-defense in a struggle with three blackmailers amid a volley of bullets, though only one casing was ever found. Polchin, who teaches creative nonfiction at NYU, wades into the morass of unanswered questions over the notorious case. Who were these blackmailers and what leverage did they have? Why were Ward's father and wife unavailable for testimony? And what was Ward's true connection to Peters? Readers today will--as were readers in the 1920s--be confounded by the crime's lack of resolution, which presages modern-day issues of money, political power, gambling, homophobia, media coverage, and accountability--or lack thereof--in America.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
Check Out What's Being Checked Out Right Now