FATAL BEAUTY: Evelyn Nesbit, Harry K. Thaw, and the Murder of Stanford White

On the evening of May 20th 1895 Wall Street banker Henry Wuer hosted a lavish dinner party in honor of his friend John Cowen tenth wedding anniversary.

The decadent event took place at the Manhattan studio of James El Breeze and featured erotic photographs of young female models adorning the walls.

Thirty-two invited guests wore formal evening wear with gold laurel crowns while enjoying a sixteen-course meal and drinking one hundred forty-four bottles of champagne.

At midnight six waiters carried in an enormous pie from which a young girl draped in black lace emerged as guests recited a nursery rhyme.

Cowen assisted the girl down and carried her out of the room to the applause of everyone present.

Five months later this extravagant gathering became public knowledge when a local newspaper reported on a missing seventeen-year-old girl named Susie Johnson.

Susie’s parents learned from her friends that she had been a photographer model and a favorite of James Breeze who frequently hosted such elaborate parties.

Newspapers across the country published engravings of Susie emerging from the pie along with the names of prominent business and art figures who attended.

Among the guests were artist Charles Dana Gibson inventor Nikola Tesla sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and famous architect Stanford White who served as master of ceremonies.

Susie Johnson soon faded from the headlines and her fate remained a mystery for over a decade while the wealthy men who exploited her went completely unpunished.

More than a decade later she was found living under a different name with her youthful features faded and her life permanently altered by the stigma.

While Susie served as a cautionary tale for young girls the powerful men responsible continued their secret escapades with absolute impunity.

Years later on the rooftop theater of Madison Square Garden a musical farce called Mam’zelle Champagne was playing to a disappointing crowd.

Shortly before eleven in the evening a tall heavy-set man with red hair and a handlebar mustache strolled into the venue and took his seat near the stage.

He was easily recognized as Stanford white the esteemed architect whose innovative buildings had transformed New York City into a landmark destination.

As the performers launched into a lively number the crack of three gunshots suddenly echoed through the theater interrupting the performance.

Most audience members initially thought the noise was part of the show until chorus girls began screaming in absolute terror.

Stanford white slumped forward onto the table and tumbled lifelessly to the floor after being shot at close range.

The shooter was Harry Kendall Thaw the wealthy scion of a prominent Pittsburgh family who slowly raised his pistol as a signal that he posed no further harm.

He gazed wide-eyed across the audience before speaking in a soft voice that he had ruined my wife and gotten what he deserved.

When no one stepped forward to disarm him Thaw took a final satisfied glance at the man he had just murdered and calmly walked toward the elevator.

Following the shooting house firemen seized Harry Thaw and rushed him toward the exit where they briefly encountered his twenty-one-year-old wife Evelyn Nesbit.

Upon seeing the aftermath Evelyn exclaimed that she thought her husband had killed him to which Thaw replied that he had likely saved her life.

Thaw was handed over to a police officer and escorted to the station while the murder immediately became front-page news across the country.

Florence Evelyn Nesbit was born near Pittsburgh on Christmas Day in 1884 to a struggling lawyer who passed away and left the family heavily in debt.

At age twelve Evelyn began modeling to support her mother and younger brother before the family relocated to New York City to earn a better living.

She quickly caught the eye of artist Charles Dana Gibson and various photographers who captured her face as the Edwardian ideal of feminine beauty.

In October 1901 at age sixteen Evelyn appeared on the Broadway stage as a chorus girl in the musical comedy Floradora.

It was during this time that she came to the attention of Stanford white setting into motion the fateful sequence of events on the roof of Madison Square Garden.

Twelve hours after the shooting Harry Thaw was moved to the city prison known as the Tombs and placed in a cell on murderer row.

Facing an absolute certainty of a grand jury indictment and the electric chair Thaw legal team realized their best defense was a plea of insanity.

However Thaw insisted that he was not crazy and had merely upheld an unwritten law to defend his family honor by executing a murderer.

Furious with his original attorneys for pursuing a lunacy commission against his wishes Thaw fired them and hired the firm of Harridge and Peabody.

His new lawyers leaked stories about Stanford white being a predatory deviant who used money and prestige to ruin underage girls.

They built their defense around the unwritten law portraying Thaw not as a murderer but as an avenging angel who brought justice to a wicked man.

To succeed they needed Evelyn to reveal intensely private details under oath about what Stanford white had done to her when she was only sixteen.

When Thaw trial began on January 23rd 1907 he had spent six months languishing in a jail cell while enduring the unbearable weight of incarceration.

The defense started off shakily when their first witness on mental illness was virtually laughed off the stand during cross-examination.

This misstep prompted an immediate change in defense counsel placing veteran California attorney Delphin Delmas in charge of the case.

On February 7th Evelyn Nesbit Thaw finally took the witness stand in front of thousands of people gathered outside the courthouse clamoring for a glimpse.

Journalist Irvin S. Cobb observed her sliding into the big oak chair wearing a plain blue frock and looking pitiably small and weak.

What followed during her testimony was a harrowing account that laid bare a tale so depraved it shook the foundation of American morality.

Evelyn recounted how she was introduced to Stanford white by friend and Floradora castmate Edna Goodrich in a brownstone near Madison Square Garden.

White admired her features and youthful slender body while Evelyn found him overweight and somewhat boring during their initial luncheon.

After lunch white showed them his studio which featured a red velvet-covered swing hanging in the middle of the room for a playful game.

Following that initial meeting white invited Evelyn and her mother for further outings and promised to help advance her theatrical career.

Florence Nesbit was entirely starstruck by the famous architect and gladly accepted his offer of financial support for the family.

White moved Evelyn, her mother, and her brother into a spacious hotel suite, enrolled the brother in a military school, and covered various personal expenses.

In the fall of 1901 white introduced Evelyn to photographer Rudolph Eickemeyer who captured suggestive photographs of the teenage girl wrapped in a kimono.

One evening white invited Evelyn to dine alone at his brownstone after canceling plans with other guests and offered her champagne.

After dinner he invited her to tour the upper floors of the house and brought her to his mirrored bedroom where he offered her another glass of champagne.

Evelyn noticed the drink had a bitter taste before feeling lightheaded, losing consciousness, and waking up to realize she had been assaulted.

Courtroom spectators gasped and sobbed as she recounted her story while Harry Thaw sweated profusely and wept openly at the defense table.

Delphin Delmas encouraged Evelyn to continue despite the immense difficulty of reliving those terrible events in front of a crowded courtroom.

Evelyn explained that her screams awoke Stanford white who wrapped her in a kimono, noticed blood on the sheets, and told her to remain calm because she now belonged to him.

White accompanied her back to her hotel room and later reassured her that everyone did those things all the time and that youth and thinness were highly prized.

Despite the trauma Evelyn continued her relationship with white as her family’s financial support persisted through various schooling arrangements.

In November 1902 white sent Evelyn to a preparatory school in New Jersey partly because she had become romantically involved with actor Jack Barrymore.

The romance was quickly dismantled by her mother and white, leading Evelyn to meet Harry Thaw during her recovery from an acute appendicitis attack.

Harry Thaw was the thirty-one-year-old son of a late Pittsburgh millionaire who controlled vast wealth and spent lavishly on the New York theater scene.

Thaw showered Evelyn with gifts and attention during her recovery before inviting her and her mother to travel with him to Europe.

When Florence Nesbit asked Stanford white for advice about Thaw, the architect warned her that Thaw had a checkered reputation as a drug user and playboy.

Despite the warning Evelyn was determined to go to Europe and ultimately forced her mother to accompany them as a chaperone.

Arriving in Paris in May 1903 the group enjoyed carriage rides, horse races, and lavish dinner parties hosted by the attentive millionaire.

During an evening together Harry Thaw dropped to his knee and asked Evelyn to marry him, prompting her to give awkward excuses about her age.

When Thaw pressed for the real reason and mentioned rumors about her belonging to Stanford white, Evelyn finally broke down and told him the entire story.

As Thaw listened to the harrowing details of the assault in the mirrored bedroom, he grew increasingly agitated, raged against the architect, and demanded to know every detail.

In October 1903 Evelyn returned home alone while Thaw remained in Europe before renewing his marriage proposal in March 1904.

Evelyn accepted the proposal, which caused a massive rift in the Thaw family and generated sensational national news headlines about her past association with Stanford white.

On April 4th 1905 Evelyn married Harry Thaw in a private ceremony arranged by his mother with very few witnesses in attendance.

After a month-long honeymoon the couple moved into the Thaw family estate in Pittsburgh where Evelyn faced constant scrutiny from her disapproving mother-in-law.

Meanwhile Harry became completely obsessed with tracking down Stanford white, hiring detectives, and purchasing a revolver to protect his honor.

In June 1906 the couple traveled to New York to embark on a trip to Europe and dined at Cafe Martin the night before their departure.

While dining Evelyn noticed Stanford white enter the restaurant and quickly alerted her husband by handing him a note.

Thaw suggested they attend the theater at Madison Square Garden where white was also present, fueling the growing rage inside him.

During the performance of Mam’zelle Champagne Thaw excused himself multiple times and observed white paying attention to the young chorus girls.

As the group prepared to leave the theater Thaw stepped away from his companions, drew his pistol, and fired three fatal shots into Stanford white.

The architect collapsed to the floor and died instantly, finally bringing an end to the man Thaw considered a dangerous beast.

Evelyn’s explosive testimony over two grueling days commanded massive newspaper sales and sparked intense moral outrage among religious leaders and the public.

President Theodore Roosevelt even considered banning publications carrying details of the trial from the mail service despite privately reading the transcripts.

Following Evelyn’s testimony district attorney William Travers Jerome prepared to cross-examine her and expose a different side of the defendant and his wife.

Jerome considered the defense reliance on the unwritten law to be absurd and set out to dismantle their case piece by piece.

On February 19th Evelyn faced aggressive questioning regarding her past associations with other men including James Garland and actor John Barrymore.

The prosecutor implied that her appendix surgery was actually an illegal abortion and questioned why she continued accepting money from white after the assault.

Jerome attempted to trap Evelyn regarding the exact date of the assault using photographer appointment books, but she maintained that she could not recall the precise calendar day.

The defense successfully blocked attempts to use certain witnesses, but Jerome introduced attorney Abe Hummel who testified about an affidavit Evelyn previously signed.

The affidavit suggested Evelyn had accused Thaw of whipping her abroad when she refused to lie about white, though Evelyn denied making the statement and claimed the document was forged.

As the trial neared its conclusion the defense continued pushing the argument that Harry Thaw suffered from a sudden brainstorm and temporary insanity.

On March 26th Justice Fitzgerald appointed a lunacy commission which ultimately declared that Thaw understood killing Stanford white was wrong.

During closing arguments defense attorney Delphin Delmas coined the term dementia Americana to describe the insanity that drives an American man to protect his home and family honor.

District attorney Jerome mocked the concept in his closing argument and urged the jury not to acquit a cold-blooded killer simply because his wife had a pretty face.

On April 10th 1907 the jury began long deliberations but became hopelessly deadlocked after three separate polls showed an eight-to-four split in favor of conviction.

The jury was discharged after failing to reach a consensus, leaving Harry Thaw to return to his jail cell and await a retrial.

On February 1st 1908 Thaw faced a second trial with new counsel and a renewed focus on proving he was legally insane at the time of the murder.

Evelyn repeated her testimony while Harry mother Mary Thaw delivered a frail and emotional defense regarding her family history of congenital mental instability.

The second trial lasted less than a month before the jury returned a verdict finding Harry Kendall Thaw not guilty by reason of insanity.

Immediately following the verdict Justice Victor Dowling ordered Thaw committed to Matteawan State Hospital for the criminally insane because he posed a significant danger to the public.

Thaw was utterly stunned by the ruling and raged against his attorneys while the public debated the controversial outcome.

Thaw spent five frustrating years confined inside the asylum alongside violent criminals while his legal team filed multiple unsuccessful writs of habeas corpus.

On August 17th 1913 during a milk delivery at the asylum laundry room Thaw slipped through a back door, ran across the yard, and escaped into a waiting automobile.

News of the daring escape quickly spread and reporters rushed to interview Evelyn who was rehearsing a new dance review for the stage.

Evelyn reacted with sheer terror upon hearing the news because she had previously testified that Thaw threatened to kill her upon gaining freedom.

Police placed guards around Evelyn while Thaw fled toward Canada before being captured near the border for violating immigration laws regarding individuals ruled insane.

Extradition battles ensued between Canadian officials, New York prosecutors led by William Travers Jerome, and Thaw defense attorneys.

The United States Supreme Court eventually ruled that Thaw must return to New York to answer conspiracy charges related to his prison break.

After enduring further legal battles and another sanity hearing, a jury declared Thaw sane in July 1915, making him a completely free man once again.

Thaw immediately declared that he was finished with New York, liquor, and Evelyn, vowing to file for divorce as soon as possible.

Evelyn responded to the press by stating she cared nothing for Thaw name or money and simply wanted to continue her stage career in peace.

Meanwhile Thaw befriended a nineteen-year-old engineering student named Fred Gump whom he invited to New York City on Christmas Day in 1916.

After arriving in Manhattan Thaw brought Gump to his hotel room, offered him a bath, and subsequently attacked him with a leather whip.

Thaw demanded that the terrified teenager become his slave, subjecting him to severe beatings before Gump managed to escape and return home to Kansas City.

Photographs of Gump battered body were delivered to the New York district attorney, prompting an immediate arrest warrant and a nationwide manhunt for Thaw.

Realizing the closing net, Thaw attempted suicide in a Philadelphia rooming house by slashing his throat and wrists with a razor, though he miraculously survived.

His mother Mary Thaw finally conceded that her son was deeply mentally ill and worked to have him committed to a private Pennsylvania asylum to avoid further criminal extradition.

Thaw was eventually released in 1924 after his mother settled out of court with Fred Gump, allowing New York authorities to drop all pending charges against him.

Enjoying his newfound freedom, Thaw published a self-aggrandizing memoir titled The Traitor in 1926 which defended his murder of Stanford white.

He spent his later years moving between estate properties in Virginia and Florida while occasionally making headlines for minor altercations and nightclub brawls.

On June 9th 1929 Mary Thaw passed away at the age of eighty-six after exhausting much of the family fortune on legal defenses for her troubled son.

Harry Thaw lived out his final decades as an eccentric elderly man, famously remembered for jumping on hotel beds and asking people if they recognized him.

He passed away at the age of seventy-six in early 1947 with only a handful of mourners present at his burial in Western Pennsylvania.

By 1955 Twentieth Century Fox released the film The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing starring Joan Collins as Evelyn Nesbit, Ray Milland as Stanford white, and Farley Granger as Harry Thaw.

Evelyn was paid for the rights to her story and sat down for interviews in Los Angeles where she lived a quiet life focused on sculpting and her grandchildren.

Reflecting on her tumultuous past, Evelyn expressed no regrets and noted that while Stanford white was the lucky one for dying quickly, she had survived to suffer through a lifetime of consequences.

Evelyn Florence Nesbit passed away peacefully in her sleep on January 17th 1967 at the age of eighty-two.

Despite once being the most famous woman in the world, her final funeral mass was attended by only thirty mourners.

The quiet graves of Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford white, and Harry Thaw offer no hint to passersby of the profound tragedy, passion, and madness that defined their extraordinary lives.

FATAL BEAUTY: Evelyn Nesbit, Harry K. Thaw, and the Murder of Stanford White
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