Lady Killers
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142My girl: Franklin, The Good-bye Door, 18.
143My Dear Sweet Daddy: Cincinnati Enquirer, “With ‘Love and Kisses!’” August 19, 1937.
144Any old men lived here: Franklin, The Good-bye Door, 25.
144I have a new girl: Ibid., 26.
144Just loved to make old people comfy: Pittsburgh Press, “Ohio Widow Held as Police Probe Alleged Poison Plot,” August 12, 1937.
145Semi-conscious . . . Ich könnte ein Fass voll Wasser trinken!: Franklin, The Good-bye Door, 30.
145I hereby make my last will and testament: Cincinnati Enquirer, “Woman Found Poisons in Wagner’s Dwelling, Hahn Trial Testimony,” October 19, 1937.
146You wouldn’t marry me: Franklin, The Good-bye Door, 36.
149Mean little kid: Ibid., 13–14.
151Here I am, boys: Des Moines Register, “Charged with Pouring Death from Bottle,” August 14, 1937.
151Uninterested: Cincinnati Enquirer, “Aged Mother Unaware,” August 22, 1937.
151It would be a comfort to me: Franklin, The Good-bye Door, 76.
152Telegram . . . hymn: Cincinnati Enquirer, “Thoughts Are of Mother,” August 23, 1937.
152Killed so many men: Franklin, The Good-bye Door, 88.
152A job nobody can handle: Ibid., 133.
153Phlegmatic enigma: Ibid., 187.
153I suppose the death of anyone past sixty: Ibid., 70.
153Living witness: Cincinnati Enquirer, “Wagner’s Physician Testifies in Hahn Case,” October 16, 1937.
154Anna Hahn is the only one in God’s world: Franklin, The Good-bye Door, 161–2.
155In the four corners of this courtroom: Ibid., 165–6.
155She is the bravest woman I ever saw: Ibid., 179.
156I was sitting there hearing a story: Cincinnati Enquirer, “Death Cell Confession!”
156Tried as a hunted animal: Franklin, The Good-bye Door, 183.
156Oh my God!: Ibid., 196.
156My God! What about Oscar?: Ibid., 199.
157In her last twenty-four hours: Columbus Dispatch, “True Anna Hahn Seen as Last Day Slipped by, Matron Says,” December 8, 1938.
157Don’t take him from me: The Cincinnati Enquirer, “Anna Hahn Falls and is Carried to Chair; Dies After She Cries Appeal to Spectators,” December 8, 1938.
158Please don’t. Oh, my boy: Ibid.
158Like a Fourth of July sparkler: New Castle News, “Mrs. Hahn Dies in Electric Chair at Columbus, O.,” December 8, 1938.
157I am surprised she broke: Franklin, The Good-bye Door, 209.
Chapter 9: The Nightingale
161The Nightingale: Mirror (Perth, Australia), “‘Female Landru’ of Morocco—Beautiful Dancer Denies Throttling Dancing Girl,” December 17, 1938.
161White and dazzling: Pückler-Muskau, Hermann Fürst von, Semilasso in Africa: Adventures in Algiers, and Other Parts of Africa (London: R. Bentley, 1837), 302.
161The most beautiful cabaret girl: Daily News (Perth, Australia), “Glamor Girls’ Grim Fate in Morocco,” December 21, 1938.
162Savage friendship: Colette, Looking Backwards (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1975), 35.
162Uncertain and miserable number: Ibid., 34
162Fine firm Berber women: Ibid., 35.
163Spread to the streets: Gershovich, Moshe, French Military Rule in Morocco: Colonialism and Its Consequences (London: F. Cass, 2000), 57.
163Dancing girls: American Weekly (San Antonio Light), “Wicked Madame Moulay Hassen,” September 12, 1937.
164She is rich, she is loved, she is adulated: Paris-Soir trial coverage, November 15, 1938. Translation my own.
164Because it permitted respectable women: American Weekly, “Wicked Madame.”
164One thousand Frenchmen: Ibid.
165Sordid, fetid: Colette, Looking Backwards, 37.
165The men she receives are demanding: Paris-Soir trial coverage, November 16, 1938. Translation my own.
166Fat of middle age: Lincoln Evening Journal, “Former Dancer Sentenced,” October 17, 1938.
166Feet, hands, a head and its hair: Colette, Looking Backwards, 34.
166Boarders: Paris-Soir trial coverage, November 16, 1938. Translation my own.
166Mohammed is a fool: Goulburn Evening Penny Post (Australia), “A Landru of Morocco,” July 23, 1937.
167Four of us: American Weekly, “Wicked Madame.” Later accounts insist there were actually five children behind the wall: four girls and one boy.
167Snatched from the throat: Ibid.
168Very dark green-brown eyes . . . flat, ungracious: Colette, Looking Backwards, 36.
168Scalps rather than almonds: Ibid., 37.
168Chamber of horrors: Nevada State Journal, “World-Famous Courtesan Faces Torture Charges,” November 15, 1938.
168Of 14 girls known to have been inmates: Statement of M. Julin, reprinted in the Mirror, “Female Landru,” and Paris-Soir’s coverage of the case.
168Lost her health and looks: American Weekly, “Wicked Madame.”
169Hot Tea Dance: Ibid.
170Moroccan press: Tayebi, Hamza, “Print Journalism in Morocco: From the Pre-colonial Period to the Present Day,” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 4, no. 6 (July 2013): 497–506.
171Boiled the remains for twenty-four hours: Paris-Soir trial coverage, November 16, 1938. Translation my own.
172Utterly loathsome: Colette, Looking Backwards, 38.
172Victim? Certainly: Ibid., 39.
172What words or images can we use: Ibid., 36.
172A touch of torture, starvation: Ibid., 37.
173The colonial view of prostitution: Lazreg, Marnia, The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question (New York: Routledge, 1994), 58.
173Article in a French-language Moroccan press: Found in Baker, Alison, Voices of Resistance: Oral Histories of Moroccan Women (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), 20–21.
174Once-glamorous: Nevada State Journal, “World-Famous Courtesan.”
174After she lost her beauty: Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, “Escapes the Guillotine, Gets 15-Year Sentence,” November 16, 1938.
175The number of victims attributed to her: Wilmington, DE, Sunday Morning Star, “Mass Murderess Once Won the Legion of Honor,” October 3, 1937.
175Seen to dabble his eyes: Ibid.
174Shrouded figures and forgotten passages: New York Times, “The Soul of Morocco,” April 8, 2007.
174Political dynamite: American Weekly, “Wicked Madame.”
Chapter 10: High Priestess of the Bluebeard Clique
179High Priestess of the Bluebeard Clique: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Klimek Poison List Is Twenty; Arrest 1 More,” November 29, 1922.
179Lumpy figure: Chicago Daily Tribune, “‘Guilty’ Is Klimek Verdict,” March 14, 1923.
180Air of peasants: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Arsenic Cousins Go on Trial with Air of Peasants,” March 7, 1923.
180Four-hundred percent: Perry, Douglas, The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago (New York: Viking, 2010), 17.
181Two inches to live: Chicago Daily Tribune, “How Mrs. Klimek Jested of Death of Husband Told,” March 9, 1923.
182You devil: Ibid.
182Woman appeared omniscient: Ione Quinby, a reporter who covered Tillie’s trial a few years later, wrote that “hundreds believed she was possessed of supernatural powers.” Milwaukee Journal, October 16, 1940.
183She had my picture over the mantel: Genevieve Forbes’s interview with Joseph Klimek, Chicago Daily Tribune, “Study of Klimek,” November 16, 1922.
183Some other way: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Poison Evidence Robs Mrs. Klimek of Indifference,” March 11, 1923.
184You made all my trouble: Ibid.
184I don’t know. Don’t bother me anymore: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Grave Digger Tells of Goings On at Klimeks,’” March 10, 1923.
185Poison mystery trails: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Poison Deaths May Total 12; Babes Victims?” Novembe
r 12, 1922.
185Manner of living: Ibid.
186Victim count: For a numbered list of victims, see Chicago Daily Tribune, “‘Mrs. Bluebeards’ of Klimek case and 20 Alleged Victims,” November 19, 1922.
186Voiced objections: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Klimek Poison List.”
186Poison belt: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Police to Delve Anew for Clews [sic]to Poisoners,” November 16, 1922.
186High priestess: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Klimek Poison List.”
186Big men: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Judge Dismisses Koulik Jury,” April 14, 1923.
186Automaton: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Death Called Mere Routine in Poison Home,” November 15, 1922.
187I didn’t rob nobody: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Klimek Poison Charges Ready for Grand Jury,” November 18, 1922.
187Most astounding: Chicago Daily Tribune, “‘Mrs. Bluebeards’ of Klimek case and 20 Alleged Victims,” November 19, 1922.
187Poison parties: Belvidere Daily Republican, “Ask Hanging for Two Women Charged with Murder Orgy,” March 6, 1923.
187Fat, squat: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Killing Ladies,” February 27, 1927.
188Spectator at her own drama: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Death Called Mere Routine.”
188Locate the nest: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Indict 2 Women in Poison Cases; Below Normal,” November 21, 1922.
188She has brains: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Death Called Mere Routine.”
188This is not a theater: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Grave Digger.”
189Lady undertaker: Ibid.
189I couldn’t see in: Ibid.
189I could no help it: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Tillie Klimek Is Strong Witness in Own Defense,” March 13, 1923.
189Gentlemen, the death penalty has never been inflicted upon a woman: Chicago Daily Tribune, “‘Guilty’ Is Klimek Verdict.”
190Dashing . . . no beauty: Ibid.
191Blond curls or dark eyes: Des Moines Register, “Declares the Double Standard of Murder Is Still Invincible,” June 25, 1923.
191Beauty parlor: Chicago Daily Tribune, “Killing Ladies,” February 27, 1927.
190Whiff of spousal abuse: For example, see Cora Orthwein’s trial. Los Angeles Times, “Sensation is Sprung in Orthwein Trial,” June 22, 1921.
Chapter 11: Sorceress of Kilkenny
195Sorceress of Kilkenny: Seymour, St. John D., Irish Witchcraft and Demonology (Dublin: Hodges Figgis, 1913), chap. 2.
195Europe’s first real witch trial: Thurston, Robert, Witch, Wicce, Mother Goose: The Rise and Fall of the Witch Hunts in Europe and North America (Harlow, England: Longman, 2001), 73.
196There is nothing more intolerable: Juvenal, The Satires of Juvenal, trans. G. G. Ramsay (New York: G. P. Putman’s Sons, 1918).
196Flemish merchants: Neary, Anne, “The Origins and Character of the Kilkenny Witchcraft Case of 1324,” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 83C (1983): 343.
197Half of that: Callan, Maeve Brigid, The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish: Vengeance and Heresy in Medieval Ireland (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014), 155.
197Threw them in jail: Wright, Thomas, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic from the Most Authentic Sources (London: R. Bentley, 1851), 24.
198Canceling all of the young man’s debts: Neary, “The Origins and Character,” 344.
199Straight to court: Ibid., 344
199Pattern: Ó Domhnaill, Rónán Gearóid, Fadó Fadó: More Tales of Lesser-known Irish History (Leicester: Troubadour, 2015), 27.
200Score the bishopric: Neary, “The Origins and Character,” 338.
201Dark, sorcerous means: Seymour, Irish Witchcraft and Demonology, 44.
201What was to come: Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 25.
201Armed with a religious zeal: Neary, “The Origins and Character,” 340.
202Totally lacking in any practical diplomatic sense: Ibid. This paragraph: 340–1.
202Lavish palace: Callan, The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish, 144.
202All sorts of grievances: Calendar of entries in Papal Registers: Papal Letters, ed. W. H. Bliss and J. A. Twemlow (London, 1893–1960), 1305–42, 206–7.
203Diabolical nest: Neary, “The Origins and Character,” 345.
203Clean up: Callan, The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish, 136.
204Female inheritance: For a detailed discussion of this, see Callan’s chapter on “Gender and the Colony of Ireland,” The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish.
205To show that Lady Alice: Cohn, Norman, Europe’s Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-hunt. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 138.
205Above the forms of the law of the land: Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 27.
206Bowing to men: Ibid.
206Alien from England: Neary, “The Origins and Character,” 346.
206Not technically allowed: See Code of Canon Law/1917, cc. 2186–2187, in Codex Iuris Canonici Pii X Pontificis Maximi Iussu Digestus, Benedicti Papae XV Auctoritate Promulgatus, edited by Pietro Gasparri (New York, NY: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1918).
206Grievous crimes: Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 28.
206Pontifical robes: Ibid.
207Vile, rustic, interloping monk: Seymour, Irish Witchcraft and Demonology, 33.
207Christ had never been treated so: Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 29.
207Uncited, unadmonished: Seymour, Irish Witchcraft and Demonology, 34.
208Mother and mistress: Ibid., 35.
208First time anyone was given this sentence for heresy: Ibid., 39.
208Pestilential society: Anonymous, A Contemporary Narrative of the Proceedings Against Dame Alice Kyteler (London: Printed by J. B. Nichols and Son, 1843).
208Armed to the teeth: Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 30.
209Ledrede was now convinced . . . cathedral’s bell tower collapsed: Neary, “The Origins and Character,” 349–50.
209Serial murder: Granted, I’m not the first to speculate she was a serial killer. Ó Domhnaill and Thorne both wonder it, too.
209FBI’s website: That would be right here: www.fbi.gov/stats -services/publications/serial-murder.
208Human nails: Seymour, Irish Witchcraft and Demonology, 37.
209Insolent fiend: Yeats, W. B., “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen.” The Tower (London: Macmillan, 1928).
Chapter 12: Beautiful Throat Cutter
213Beautiful Throat Cutter: Jacksonville Journal Courier, “Was Kate—The Killer—Ever Here?” June 30, 1974.
213Both men were named: Hardy, Allison, Kate Bender, the Kansas Murderess: The Horrible History of an Arch Killer (Girard, KS: Haldeman-Julius, 1944), 3.
214Dark Stranger: Ibid., 2.
214Neighborliness: James, John T., The Benders of Kansas (Washington, DC: Photoduplication Service, Library of Congress, 1913), 19.
214Miniature store and dining area: Case, Nelson, History of Labette County, Kansas from the First Settlement to the Close of 1892 (Topeka, KS: Crane, 1893), 86.
215Never looked a feller in the eye: Hardy, Kate Bender, the Kansas Murderess, 3.
215Lady Macbeth: Triplett, Frank, History, Romance and Philosophy of Great American Crimes and Criminals (New York: N. D. Thompson, 1884), 560.
216Like a young eagle: Hardy, Kate Bender, the Kansas Murderess, 3.
216Well-formed, voluptuous mold . . . animal attraction: James, The Benders of Kansas, 13.
216A beautiful wild beast: Triplett, History, Romance and Philosophy, 557.
216Red-faced, unprepossessing: New York Times, “The Kansas Murders,” May 13, 1873.
217A perfect devil: Wichita City Eagle, “The Cherryvale Murders,” May 15, 1873.
221“Hell hotel”/“inn of no return”: I took these particular terms from the endlessly fascinating site tvtropes.org, but the concept of these tropes is pretty universal.
221Charles Ingalls: O’Brien, Liam, “Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Bloody Benders:
Truth or Fiction?” in Melville House Books, January 29, 2015, accessed April 21, 2016, mhpbooks .com/laura-ingalls-wilder-and-the-bloody-benders-truth-or -fiction/.
223I’ll find your brother: Scott, Robert F., “What Happened to the Benders?” Western Folklore 9, no. 4 (1950): 326.
224Spite-dolls: Hardy, Kate Bender, the Kansas Murderess, 15.
225I see graves: Ibid.
225Human hair: Triplett, History, Romance and Philosophy, 569.
225$50,000: Hardy, Kate Bender, the Kansas Murderess, 19.
226Human Hyenas: Ibid., 16.
226They said that she’d married: Camden News, “Story of Iron-Fisted Kate,” September 22, 1971.
226They claimed that she started cross-dressing: Parsons Daily Sun, “Another ‘Kate Bender,’” March 9, 1904.
226Handsome profit: Kinsley, KS, Valley Republican, “Crime,” August 21, 1880.
228The Night was dark: New York Times, “Dying Man Clears the Bender Mystery,” July 12, 1908.
229Frederick Jackson Turner: His quotes are taken from his famous 1893 paper “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” available in a number of forms online.
228Shoot and be damned: Scott, “What Happened to the Benders?”: 334.
229I tell you, man, she was a bad one: New York, NY, Sun, “The Fate of the Benders,” January 9, 1887.
Chapter 13: The Angel Makers of Nagyrév
233Angel Makers: “Angel maker” is a nickname used on many a female serial killer—for example, Amelia Dyer. “The Angel Makers of Nagyrév” is a common (English-language) way to refer to the Nagyrév women en masse.
233The authorities are doing nothing: The letter was reprinted in the New York Times, “Murder by Wholesale: A Tale from Hungary,” March 16, 1930.
234Ringed round: Ibid.
234Nagyrév felt the strain: For an in-depth look into the sociocultural climate of Nagyrév at the time of the murders, see Bodó, Béla, Tiszazug: A Social History of a Murder Epidemic (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), chap. 4.
234Brutish: New York Times, “Murder by Wholesale.”
235Divorce: Parascandola, John, King of Poisons: A History of Arsenic (Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2012), 37.
235Facsiga: Bodó, Tiszazug, 190.
235The ways to kill an infant: Ibid., 193.
235Suicide rates: Moksony, Ferenc, “Victims of Change or Victims of Backwardness? Suicide in Rural Hungary,” in Lengyel, Gy. and Rostoványi, Zs., eds., The Small Transformation: Society, Economy and Politics in Hungary and the New European Architecture (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2001), 366–76.