IN A FIT OF JEALOUSY, SPOILED AND OBSESSED MILLIONAIRE HARRY THAW ENDED STANFORD WHITE’S LIFE – AND WITH IT, NEW YORK’S GILDED AGE
Cocktails, dates with chorus girls, extravagant parties: life in Manhattan at the start of the 20th century could be a riotous, hedonistic time – if you had enough money. And money governed all aspects of life. It enabled you to buy the women you wanted, property, possessions, education and political positions. If you committed a crime, you could hire the best lawyers, pay the cops to bring champagne to your prison cell, or use your money to hide your problems – anything from paedophilia to insanity. In early 20th-century New York, the corrupting power of money was to lead to one of the new century’s most notorious murder cases. The murder was the result of two men’s obsession with a teenage model – Evelyn Nesbit, one of the iconic Gibson Girls, who personified the ideal of beauty in the new century.
This case started not in New York, but in Pittsburgh, a smoky, industrial city. It was here that two families had grown up at the end of the 19th century: the Thaws and the Nesbits. The Thaws were ‘new money’, having made it in the railroad industry. Mrs Mary Thaw presented herself as a benevolent philanthropist. The poor would knock on her door asking for financial help, and she would dispense the cents and dimes to make herself look good. She was a widow, but her late husband, William, had left her financially secure. She appeared to have no worries and was able to indulge her children to an incredible extent.
Minutes away lived the Nesbits. Evelyn Nesbit had something in common with Mrs Thaw: they were both widowed. In Mrs Nesbit’s case, she had been married to a lawyer with little financial nous. When he suddenly died, his wife found herself left with no money and two young children to maintain – 11-year-old Florence Evelyn and her younger brother Howard. Mrs Nesbit’s attempts to find work were rather half-hearted and often shortlived. As a result, she and her children moved frequently around local boarding houses, eking out their money, and often eating only one meagre meal a day. On one occasion, Mrs Nesbit went to Mrs Thaw’s home to beg for help, only to be turned away by one of the servants.
Mrs Nesbit, however, had something in her favour – her daughter, who would later be known as Evelyn like her mother. From an early age, young Evelyn had gained the notice of neighbours, friends and relatives due to her sultry good looks: olive skin, dark hair and large, expressive eyes. It soon became clear that the young girl could help improve her family’s fortunes by posing for artists and photographers, and she became an in-demand model.
