S19 Ep82: Shadow Men: Murder, Media, & Privilege in Jazz Age America w/James Polchin

Darkness Radio

True Crime Tuesday presents Shadow Men: Murder, Media, & Privilege in Jazz Age America with Researcher/Author, James Polchin!
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.
James Polchin joins TCT today to talk about the fortunes and misdeed of the Ward family, the Peters family struggle to get justice for Clarence, the role the NY Daily News played in all of this, and how things have changed in the hundred years since this story took place!
Get your copy of "Shadow Men...": here: https://bit.ly/3RVI8Y4
Check out James Polchin at his website: https://www.writinginpublic.com/james-polchin
Check out Robert on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.polchin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/james.polchin/
x: https://x.com/jamespolchin
PLUS DUMB CRIMES AND STUPID CRIMINALS!
Let's pay our final respects to the man who killed himself with a firework on top of his head on the 4th of July: https://www.postandcourier.com/news/summerville-man-dead-fireworks-accident/article_62c98748-3ad3-11ef-8818-4763ccc875ed.html
Check out the article Tim talked about , the Facebook baby daddy stalker! https://www.yahoo.com/news/happens-nerd-mad-one-man-100000411.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueWFob28uY29tL25ld3MvaGFwcGVucy1uZXJkLW1hZC1vbmUtbWFuLTEwMDAwMDQxMS5odG1s&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAX0IXst_0h7DYMirAFXcNpb9GEQtoWooAQ9XD9Oh04ZBiBPX_SKU4qTQN7_GgboGuhk2Y7XCgiSVFSfRTzbd4pokX4N0A5aj-l9nyla2gwLSopNnC9Ymf1ZldUmu3Peh-aSbdvceZrr6s_yrN7nHCam9PCCA9M35ub3PmVv_0nN
Check out Jessica Freeburg's website and pre-order her new books: https://jessicafreeburg.com/books/
Find out where the crew will be in your area:
https://www.darknessradioshow.com/p/events/
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