The Girls of Murder City

by Douglas Perry

  59 Soon Belva and Kitty were playing cards: “Three Women Smilingly Awaiting Trials That May Cost Their Lives,” Elyria (OH) Chronicle-Telegram, Mar. 19, 1924.

  59 “You can now tell them”: “Malm Woman’s ‘Death Notes’ Are Plea for Her Baby,” CEP, Dec. 1, 1923.

  59 He quickly adjusted his memory: There is no evidence that Kitty Malm carried a gun that night or knew how to use a gun. It was clear even to the prosecutors that Otto’s claim that Kitty fired the fatal bullet into Edward Lehman was a transparent attempt to save himself from the gallows. See “Confession of Slayer Clears Man in Cell; CDT, Nov. 24, 1923; “Blames Escape of Mrs. Malm on Policemen,” CDT, Nov. 25, 1923; “Expect Pistol Fight in Capture of Malm’s Wife,” CEP, Nov. 26, 1923.

  60 The lawyer figured Kitty would be free: “Ex-‘Tiger Girl,’ Kitty Malm, to Ask for Parole,” CDT, Oct. 10, 1932.

  60 “Say, nobody in the world”: “ ‘I’m Not Scare’t,’ Says Kitty, but She Cries a Bit,” CDT, Feb. 24, 1924. For more background information on Kitty Malm, see “Savage Mother Cries Out from Gun Girl’s Soul,” CDT, Nov. 29, 1923.

  60 “She flopped her abundant fur wrap”: “Angel Wings for Malm If I Hang, Says Lone Kitty,” CDT, Feb. 19, 1924.

  61 “Mrs. Malm is the hardest woman”: Descriptions of Kitty Malm’s trial and its aftermath come from: “Jury Completed to Decide Fate of Kitty Malm,” CDT, Feb. 21, 1924; “Girl in Court on Cot Exposes Mrs. Malm,” CDN, Feb. 21, 1924; “Mrs. Malm Has Collapse After State Surprise,” CDT, Feb. 22, 1924; “Mrs. Malm Pale and Broken as Trial Resumes,” CEP, Feb. 23, 1924; “New Surprise Witness in Malm Case Promised,” CEP, Feb. 25, 1924; “Kitty Malm, Two-Gun Girl, on Stand,” CDN, Feb. 25, 1924; “Mrs. Malm Trial Ending,” CDN, Feb. 26, 1924; “ ‘Tiger Girl,’ On Stand, Accuses Malm of Killing,” CDT, Feb. 26, 1924; “Kitty, Witness, Accuses Malm,” CDJ, Feb. 25, 1924; “Guilty; Malm Girl Gets Life,” CDT, Feb. 27, 1924; “Mrs. Malm Gets Life; Mate Hears His Fate Mar. 8,” CEP, Feb. 27, 1924.

  63 Forbes, in the Tribune: CDT, Feb. 22, 1924. Maurine Watkins would steal the phrase two years later for a fictional “Tiger Girl.” Her Kitty Baxter would say of herself, “Say, for the last ten years I’ve carried a gun where most girls carry a powder-puff.” See Watkins, 67.

  63 Kitty read some of the coverage: “Mrs. Malm Is Resting in Cell After Collapse,” CEP, Feb. 22, 1924.

  65 They were “physically and mentally”: Israel, 121.

  65 The social activist Belle Moskow itz: Ibid.

  66 Her attitude and language: “Mrs. Malm Surrenders; Admits Share in Slaying,” CDT, Nov. 28, 1923; “Quiz ‘Killers’ Face to Face,” CDT, Nov. 29, 1923.

  66 Two weeks after convicting Kitty: “Mrs. Gaertner Has ‘Class’ as She Faces Jury,” CDT, June 4, 1924.

  66 But the Tribune stated the situation: “Beulah Annan Awaits Stork, Murder Trial,” CDT, May 9, 1924.

  66 “My experience makes me know”: “Wants Jury of ‘Worldly Men,’ ” Danville (VA) Bee, Mar. 28, 1924.

  66 Asked by newspapers to examine photographs: “Women That Shoot Men True to Type,” Fresno Bee, Apr. 19, 1924.

  Chapter 5: No Sweetheart in the World Is Worth Killing

  68 Maurine’s desk sat on the east side: Chicago Tribune photo files; WGN, 135.

  68 Maurine was “so lovely”: Butcher, 40-41.i.

  69 Maurine had never even seen a poker game: “The Talk of the Town,” New Yorker, May 21, 1927.

  69 She didn’t drink: “Alimony,” Hearst’s International Cosmopolitan, July 1927. See the author’s biography accompanying the story.

  69 Teddy Beck, the managing editor: Butcher, 40-41.

  69 One of the few other women: Butcher, 41.

  69 The 1920s began, wrote Burton: Rascoe, We Were Interrupted, 3.

  70 Gangsters funneled a million dollars: Murray, 309.

  70 Fred Lovering, of the Daily Journal, foolishly: Dornfeld, 137.

  70 Maurine was stunned to learn: “Chicago,” NYW, Jan. 16, 1927. Letter to the “dramatics editor” by Maurine Watkins.

  70 Sitting in a cell less than forty-eight hours: “Jail Java Instead of Gin for Divorcee,” CEP photo caption, Mar. 13, 1924.

  71 “One number on the programme”: “Mrs. Gaertner Leads Jailed Women in Song,” CDJ, Mar. 14, 1924.

  71 “Law is to blame for the trouble”: “Mrs. Gaertner Lies—Mrs. Law,” CDJ, Mar. 13, 1924.

  72 In the original photos from the night: Chicago Tribune photography archives; Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0076750, Chicago History Museum.

  72 Worse, the fusel oil and industrial: Sullivan, Rattling the Cup on Chicago Crime, 90-92.

  72 The typical murderess, one panel exclaimed: “False Colors of Bohemia Lead to Nowhere—Wanda Stopa Learns Too Late,” CEA, Apr. 28, 1924.

  72 Her colleague at the paper, Genevieve Forbes: See Genevieve Forbes file, in Women Building Chicago 1790-1990, Special Collections, University of Illinois at Chicago.

  73 “When they talked of gin and blood, Mrs. Law”: “Other Woman’s Gems Shine as Widow Sneers,” CDT, Mar. 13, 1924.

  74 “No sweetheart in the world”: “No Sweetheart Worth Killing—Mrs. Gaertner,” CDT, Mar. 14, 1924.

  76 There’d been hundreds of brothels: 1929 Illinois Crime Survey, 845-50.

  76 The 1911 Vice Commission calculated: Wendt and Kogan, 294.

  76 In her purse, unknown to her employer: St. John, 159.

  76 Quinby had a way, a colleague: Ibid.

  77 She’d march through the Post’s newsroom: Author interview with Jackie Loohauis-Bennett, May 8, 2008. Loohauis-Bennett worked and became friends with Quinby during Quinby’s last years at the Milwaukee Journal in the 1970s and early 1980s.

  77 One fellow scribe remarked: Newspaper clipping, headlined “Meeting Queen Marie, Lunching with Film Stars All in Day’s Work.” Undated, paper of origin unknown, in Ione Quinby Papers, Western Springs (Illinois) Historical Society.

  77 Indeed, back then, just before: “Finds Liberty as Taxi Driver,” Waterloo (IA) Evening Courier and Reporter, Aug. 4, 1920.

  77 Instead, she undertook a new career: Ibid.

  77 “Well, I just can’t take orders”: “She’s Taxi Driver Now—Her Own Boss,” CDT, July 10, 1920.

  77 Any man walking by the taxi stand: “Finds Liberty as Taxi Driver,” Waterloo (IA) Evening Courier and Reporter, Aug. 4, 1920.

  78 In the spring of 1920, Belva: Israel, 128.

  78 It was, said one commentator: Israel, 120.

  78 Doctors warned that the “flapper”: Israel, 136.

  78 School boards across the country: “Roused Teachers Plan Convention Aimed at ‘Blue Laws,’ ” Davenport (IA) Democrat and Leader, Apr. 5, 1928.

  78 The Evening American reported that: Kahn, 292.

  79 Already Maurine had decided that she would make: In correspondence with the writer John Elliott, Dorotha Watkins recalled her cousin Maurine ending a marriage engagement when she was about twenty-four because she was convinced her dedication to work would make her a terrible wife. See Elliott, “Tearing Up the Pages,” Portland Review.

  79 Soon after starting at the Tribune: “Pioneer in Birth Control Tells How Holland Profited,” CDT, May 17, 1924.

  79 Maurine knew all about how birth control: Israel, 109; Morris, Theodore Rex, 224.

  79 She also attended a conference: “Pacifists Turn to Socialists for Their Guides,” CDT, May 21, 1924.

  79 Maurine decided that murder was more: “Chicago,” NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

  79 Chicagoans rejected the notion: “Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,” NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

  80 One of Maurine’s early assignments: “Jurors Clear Boy Who Killed Brutal Father,” CDT, Apr. 25, 1924.

  80 In Chicago, the young reporter had noticed: “Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,” NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

  80 To get star treatment in “Murder City”: “Chicago,” NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

  80 S
he would even develop a kind of crush: “Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,” NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

  80 “I had to ask him a lot of questions that”: Ibid.

  80 The gangster’s matter-of-fact attitude: Woollcott. As an example of her need to idealize, in one letter to Woollcott, Watkins goes on at some length about her adolescent hero worship of former U.S. senator Albert Beveridge.

  81 “Gunmen are just div ine . . .”: “Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,” NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

  81 Standing around at the Criminal Courts Building: “Miss Watkins Suggests Press Agent for Gray,” New York Telegram, Apr. 18, 1927.

  81 The British war hero Ian Hay Beith: Duncombe and Mattson, 16-17.

  Chapter 6: The Kind of Gal Who Never Could Be True

  The engine of this chapter’s narrative is Beulah Annan’s Midnight Confession, which she gave after prosecutors took her back to her apartment after having first questioned her at the Hyde Park police station. Her initial claims to police that Harry Kalstedt was a stranger who broke in and tried to rape her are patently false. The story she told in later days and weeks—that Harry had arrived drunk and bolted for Al’s gun after she told him their relationship was over—surfaced only after her lawyers entered the picture. The Midnight Confession, however, has the ring of truth throughout. The mask is gone; Beulah, sobered up, is remorseful and distraught and answers questions with specifics in a free-flowing way. This confession also matches up with key facts established at the inquest and with other details brought out at the trial. See “Woman in Salome Dance After Killing,” CDN, Apr. 4, 1924; “Gin Killing is Re-enacted in Cell in Jail,” CDJ, Apr. 5, 1924; “Mrs. Nitti Consoles Beulah,” CEA, Apr. 5, 1924; “What Life Finally Did to ‘the Girl with the Man-Taming Eyes,’ ” Hamilton (OH) Evening Journal, May 5, 1928; “Judge Admits All of Beulah’s Killing Stories,” CDT, May 24, 1924; “Tried to Kill Me, Says Beulah Annan on Stand” (jump-page headline), CEA, May 24, 1924; “‘Shot to Save My Own Life,’ Says Beulah on Stand,” CEP, May 24, 1924.

  83 The Tribune that morning carried: Bergreen, 109.

  83 Already, truckloads of flowers: Ibid, 110.

  84 Back in October, when Beulah: Hamilton (OH) Evening Journal, May 5, 1928.

  84 She knew a doctor who’d give her morphine: Ibid.

  84 She felt it was a woman’s prerogative: “Annan Killing to Grand Jury,” CDJ, Apr. 7, 1924.

  84 She looked at the flowered paper: Watkins, 3. Watkins’s scene description of Roxie and Amos’s fictional flat mirrored Beulah and Al’s real one.

  85 There’s another man, she said: “Mrs. Annan Says She Is Glad She Killed Kalstedt,” CEP, Apr. 4, 1924; CDN, Apr. 4, 1924.

  85 “If that’s the kind of a woman”: “ ‘Glad,’ Says Jazz Slayer,” CEA, Apr. 4, 1924.

  86 She’d been dancing around: “Spurns Husband Who Saved Her from Gallows,” Washington Post, July 13, 1924.

  86 Why, you’re nothing but a dirty: Hamilton Evening Journal, May 5, 1928. The paper quotes her as saying, “Why, you’re nothing but a four-flusher and a jail bird!” In her trial testimony, it came out that she also used an expletive.

  86 “Come home, I’ve shot a man”: CDN, Apr. 4, 1924.

  87 “Where is the gun?”: CDT, May 24, 1924.

  87 When he came in the door, the first thing: CEA, May 24, 1924; “Jury Finds Beulah Annan Is ‘Not Guilty,’ ” CDT, May 25, 1924.

  87 When a voice tweeted over the line: “Woman Plays Jazz Air as Victim Dies,” CDT, Apr. 4, 1924. This quote comes from Watkins’s first story about Beulah. In later reports, in newspapers throughout the country, the quote was typically relayed as: “I’ve just killed a man!”

  87 The nearness of wealthy Hyde Park and Kenwood: Holt and Pacyga, 87-88.

  88 Fighting raged for days: Ciccone, 168; Wendt, 464-65.

  88 “This will get us by,” he said: Nash, Makers and Breakers of Chicago: From Long John Wentworth to Richard J. Daley, 52. Nash writes that the motorcycle’s driver was Dean O’ Banion. O’Banion would later become one of the city’s foremost bootleggers.

  89 “Midnight was like day”: Ward and Burns, 87.

  89 One of the officers, Sergeant Malachi Murphy: CEA, May 24, 1924.

  89 “I came home and found this guy”: San Antonio Light, Dec. 21, 1947. The headline is illegible on the University of Texas Library microfilm. The byline is Peter Levins.

  89 “I am going to quit you”: CEP, Apr. 4, 1924.

  89 “I told him I would shoot”: San Antonio Light, Dec. 21, 1947.

  89 She dropped—a dead-away faint: CDT, May 24, 1924; “Beulah on Stand Fails to Keep Out Her Confession,” CEP, May 23, 1924.

  90 “Don’t you know me?”: CDT, May 24, 1924; CDT, May 25, 1924.

  90 Albert Allen, the stenographer there to record: CEP, May 23, 1924.

  Chapter 7: A Modern Salome

  91 “I’ve been a sucker, that’s all!”: “Demand Noose for ‘Prettiest’ Woman Slayer,” CDT, Apr. 5, 1924; Pauly, 128.

  91 “I guess I was too slow for her”: “Hold Mrs. Annan for Murder,” CDJ, Apr. 4, 1924.

  91 The young, slender woman, with “wide blue eyes”: Quoted section from “Select Jury to Pronounce Fate of Beulah Annan,” CDT, May 23, 1924. The description of how Beulah Annan was dressed comes from CDN negatives collection, images DN-0076797 and DN-0076798, Chicago History Museum, and CDJ, Apr. 4, 1924.

  92 “He came into my apartment this afternoon”: “Woman Plays Jazz Air as Victim Dies,” CDT, Apr. 4, 1924; Pauly, 123.

  92 “I didn’t know—I didn’t realize”: CEA, Apr. 4, 1924.

  92 She said the same thing over and over: CDT, Apr. 4, 1924.

  92 Harry’s voice hung in the air: San Antonio Light, Dec. 21, 1947; Pauly, 125.

  92 Photographs of the suspect in her revealing attire: CDJ, Apr. 4, 1924; “Will Her Red Head Vamp the Jury?” CDN, Apr. 4, 1924; “ ‘Glad,’ Says Jazz Slayer,” CEA, Apr. 4, 1924.

  93 “You are right, I haven’t been telling”: Pauly, 122; CDT, Apr. 4, 1924.

  93 After the shooting, she became “distracted”: Untitled clipping, Lincoln State Journal, Apr. 4, 1924, Quinby Papers, Western Springs Historical Society.

  93 “How much did you drink?” they asked: Pauly, 137; “Judge Admits All of Beulah’s Killing Stories,” CDT, May 24, 1924.

  94 It wasn’t because she was giving them : Ibid. W. W. Wilcox described her as “smiling most of the time” that night.

  95 Back at the station, flush with pride: CDN, Apr. 4, 1924.

  95 “Harry was my greatest love”: “Mrs. Annan Says She is Glad She Killed Kalstedt,” CEP, Apr. 4, 1924.

  95 “I am glad I did it,” she said: Ibid. Also see CEA, Apr. 4, 1924.

  95 “Mrs. Beulah Annan, termed by her questioners”: CDN, Apr. 4, 1924.

  95 In the Tribune, Maurine wrote that the popular: CDT, Apr. 4, 1924; Pauly, 123.

  96 It borrowed from Edgar Allan Poe: CEA, Apr. 4, 1924.

  96 “A grotesque dance over the body”: “Dances Over Body of Man She Kills,” Davenport (IA) Democrat and Leader, Apr. 6, 1924.

  97 Sometimes it seemed that running down payment: Stewart, Stewart on Trial Strategy, 60.

  97 He was so successful with murder cases: “William Scott Stewart Dies Broke, Alone,” CDT, Mar. 20, 1964.

  97 Wanderer was a veteran of the World War: Lesy, 9-15.

  97 So did the hanging, when Wanderer: Murray, 240-241.

  98 He prepared for each court appearance: Stewart, Stewart on Trial Strategy, 109-10.

  98 “I am a great believer in original”: Ibid., 568.

  98 He married a performer, Louise Dolly: ISA: O’Brien, 31.

  98 In 1922, he married a third time: Case B-121999 (O’Brien, William and Zoe, 1925), Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County.

  99 In 1922, two assistant state’s attorneys accused: “2 Bribe Efforts Cited in Charges Against O’Brien,” CDT, Oct. 5, 1922; “S
eek to Disbar W. W. O’Brien on Bribery Charge,” CDT, Oct. 3, 1922.

  99 Two years later, it happened again: ISA: O’Brien, 32.

  99 “I haven’t much money,” he told reporters: “ ‘I’d Rather Be Dead,’ Mrs. Annan Sobs as She Prays,” CEP, Apr. 5, 1924.

  99 “Beulah wanted a gay life”: “Beulah, the Beautiful Killer!” CDT, Dec. 30, 1951.

  100 She wore a light brown dress, a darker brown coat: CDT, Apr. 5, 1924.

  100 From the next room could be heard strains of: Ibid.

  100 “I wish they’d let me see him”: Ibid.

  100 She had a seven-year-old son: Ibid.

  100 She had married that first time: “Mrs. Annan Sorry She Won Race for Pistol,” CDN, Apr. 5, 1924.

  100 “I didn’t love Harry so much”: CDN, Apr. 4, 1924.

  101 “They say she’s the prettiest woman ever accused”: CDT, Apr. 5, 1924.

  101 “Both went for the gun!”: Ibid.

  101 The inquest dragged on, and Beulah grew: CDT, Apr. 5, 1924; CDJ, Apr. 5, 1924.

  102 “He pressed a $5 bill into her hand”: CDJ, Apr. 5, 1924.

  102 After the inquest, the police moved Beulah: CDN, Apr. 5, 1924.

  102 “Murderesses have such lovely names”: “Pistol Fire Lights Up ‘Chicago’; or, Telling It to the Maurine,” NYW, Jan. 16, 1927.

  102 In the morning, Sabella clomped past the cell: CEA, Apr. 5, 1924.

  103 “You pretty-pretty,” she croaked: Ibid.

  103 When the Italian immigrant was convicted, Forbes: “Death for 2 Women Slayers,” CDT, July 10, 1923.

  103 “Mrs. Nitti Consoles Beulah”: CEA, Apr. 5, 1924.

  Chapter 8: Her Mind Works Vagrantly

  104 “Twenty-three, not twenty-nine”: “Gin Killing Is Re-enacted in Cell in Jail,” CDJ, Apr. 5, 1924.

  104 “Harr y said, ‘You won’t call me a name like that’ ”: “Woman in Salome Dance After Killing,” CDN, Apr., 4, 1924.

  105 She suggested they have a picture taken: Pauly, xvi.

  105 “No, no, no. It would choke me”: “ ‘I’d Rather Be Dead,’ Mrs. Annan Sobs as She Prays,” CEP, Apr. 5, 1924.

  105 The thought of what she’d done to her husband: What Beulah said is paraphrased in CDJ, Apr. 5, 1924.