The Girls of Murder City (52 page)

258
After moving into a luxurious:
“Husband Sues Belva Gaertner, Freed in Murder,”
CDT,
Aug. 1, 1926; Case S-443652 (
Gaertner
v.
Gaertner,
1926).

259
This cowardice apparently infuriated Belva:
“The Matrimonial Worm That Turned at Last,”
San Antonio Light,
Jan. 9, 1927.

259
Another paper referred to her as:
“Why the ‘Cave-girl’ Wants a Third Divorce from Hubby,”
Fresno Bee,
Sept. 19, 1926.

259
She traveled to New York, Europe, and Cuba:
Ship manifests, ancestry.com.

259
When William Gaertner died in 1948:
“Business Left to Chicago U.,”
NYT,
Dec. 15, 1948; Belva E. Gaertner probate notice,
Pasadena Star-News,
May 26, 1965.

259
Katherine Malm was a model prisoner:
“Kitty Malm, ‘Tiger Girl’ of Sensational Murder Case, Is Dead,”
CDT,
Dec. 28, 1932.

259
“Each time,” the reporter recalled:
“Dear Mrs. Griggs,” a reprint of a five-part series that appeared in the
Milwaukee Journal
in March 1980, Ione Quinby Papers, Western Springs Historical Society.

259
Kitty tried to win early release in 1930:
Joliet Penitentiary Record for Katherine Baluk (no. 418-9185), Illinois State Archives, Margaret Cross Norton Building, Springfield, Illinois.

259
In response, Quinby began to agitate:
“May Free Convict,”
Charleston (SC) Gazette,
July 19, 1931.

260
Elsie Walther, a prisoner advocate working for:
“Ex-‘Tiger Girl,’ Kitty Malm, to Ask for Parole,”
CDT,
Oct. 10, 1932.

260
In 1931, he was involved in riots:
“Fear New Riots at Joliet; Tell Guards to Shoot,”
CDT,
Mar. 25, 1931.

260
She soon began an advice column:
“Angel of the Green Sheet,”
Coronet,
Sept. 1953; “Mrs.Griggs,” Mar., 1980.

260
“Whenever we had a tour come through”:
Author interview with Jackie Loohauis-Bennet, May 8, 2008.

261
Convinced she was failing:
“Informally: Feminine Fallacies in Newspaper Work,”
CDT,
July 17, 1927; Steiner and Gray, 14.

261
The following year, in 1926, O’Brien:
“Noted Lawyer Shot in Chicago Gang War; 2 Killed, 3 Wounded,”
NYT,
Oct. 10, 1926.

261
“You better lay down, Willie”:
ISA: O’Brien, 33.

261
O’Brien, wounded in the stomach:
“Chicago Police War upon Bandits,”
NYT,
Oct. 14, 1926.

262
O’Brien would win the Saltis case:
ISA: O’Brien, 33.

262
He had begun drinking heavily:
Case B-121999 (
O’Brien, William and Zoe,
1925).

262
Four years later, he was disbarred:
ISA: O’Brien, 30-40.

262
In 1939, in an attempt to regain:
ISA: O’Brien, 27-29.

262
In 1944, facing new legal troubles:
“William W. O’Brien Disbarred 2d Time; Five Others Banned,”
CDT,
May 13, 1944.

262
In 1929, he was sentenced to three months:
“Scott Stewart Ordered to Jail by High Court,”
CDT,
Dec. 21, 1929.

262
Two years later, he beat back:
McConnell, 136.

262
Stewart defended gangsters through much of the 1930s:
“William Scott Stewart Dies Broke, Alone,”
CDT,
Mar. 20, 1964.

262
On June 16, 1924, Sabella Nitti was released:
“Mrs. Crudelle, Back on Nitti Farm, Rejoices,”
CDT,
June 17, 1924; “Drop Charge of Murder Against Two Crudelles,”
CDT,
Dec. 2, 1924.

263
“ ‘The woman in law’—and straig htaway”:
“The Woman in Law,”
Viewpoints
magazine, Nov. 1924, series 3, folder 72, Helen Cirese Papers, Special Collections, University of Illinois at Chicago.

263
In the three years after
Chicago
made:
“Theater,”
CDT,
Dec. 6, 1927; “News and Gossip of the Times Square Sector,”
NYT,
Aug. 25, 1929, Sept. 17, 1929; Woollcott.

263
In 1981, seeking to revive interest:
“How a 1936 Screwball Comedy Illuminates Movie History,”
NYT,
Feb. 1, 1981.

264
Maurine Watkins died of lung cancer:
Letter from Fred J. Thompson to Mr. J. E. Smith, Oct. 9, 1969, William Roy Smith: Vice President of Abilene Christian College, 1940-1962 (MS9), Milliken Special Collections, Abilene Christian University Library.

265
Abend, who died in 2003, claimed:
“Murder She Wrote,”
CDT,
July 16, 1997.

265
“She didn’t want to accept a dime”:
CDT,
July 16, 1997; also see “Pssstttt! ‘Chicago’ Has a Secret Past,”
USA Today,
Mar. 25, 2003.

265
Journalists and theater scholars recycled:
Grubb, 193; Pauly, xiii.

265
University of Delaware professor:
Pauly, xiii, xxix.

265
In a 1959 letter to an administrator:
Letter from Maurine Watkins to W. R. Smith, Dec. 7, 1959, William Roy Smith: Vice President of Abilene Christian College, 1940-1962 (MS9), Milliken Special Collections, Abilene Christian University Library.

266
A 1935 stage revival in London:
“London Dislikes Watkins Play,”
NYT,
Mar. 14, 1935.

266
Bob Fosse had no desire to stage:
Grubb, 201-3.

266
Fosse told his stars that, though Roxie and Velma:
Ibid.

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