tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8906786397374372561.post4004905409736045296..comments2024-03-09T15:02:20.201-05:00Comments on Murder by Gaslight: The Walton-Matthews Tragedy.Robert Wilhelmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11008320767930927490noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8906786397374372561.post-74425700562967991462022-10-31T16:12:47.052-04:002022-10-31T16:12:47.052-04:00This case was the first chapter in "New York ... This case was the first chapter in "New York Murders," a classic collection of cases spanning the years 1860 -- 1940, published in 1944 and edited by Ted Collins. Each chapter had a different author, all of them well-known mystery writers at the time, with some repetition. The chapter on this case was written by Kurt Steel, a pseudonym for NYU professor Rudolf Kagey.<br /> I would urge the writer of this excellent blog to write about another case from that book, the truly tragic, mysterious, and unsolved murder of Kathryn Scharn, a 23-year-old factory worker killed in her apartment on Second Avenue near 37th Street in Manhattan on the evening of August 18, 1900. Her devoted brother Fred was absurdly accused by the police of being the killer, until a Perry Mason-like revelation in coroner's court that absolved him. Lawrence Treat, one of the founders of the police procedural genre, wrote a fine and even moving account of it in the book. I believe that 1900 just makes it under the door as belonging to the gaslight period.VC64https://www.blogger.com/profile/09243770038924629816noreply@blogger.com