Hearst vs Pulitzer | The Headless Torso | 2
American History Tellers
Audible
4.6 • 19K Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2018
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you lived in an American city at the turn of the century, you got all of your news from a single source: the daily newspapers. No where was that more true than New York City; in the City, two papers ruled them all. You had the World and the Journal. And then men behind them were the most famous newsmen in American History.
William Randolph Hearst headed up the Journal and Hungarian immigrant Joseph Pulitzer ran the World.
In their mad scramble for readers, they’d pioneer daring technologies and set new precedents for aggressive investigative coverage. They poured millions of dollars into the fight even when their advisors warned it could push them over the brink.
And in the end, it very nearly did.
This is just the beginning of this story. You can listen to the rest on Business Wars.
Support us by supporting our sponsors!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music, |
| 0:05.6 | download the app today. |
| 0:09.5 | Imagine it's 1897 in New York City. |
| 0:12.6 | It's a sweltering summer day. |
| 0:15.5 | Like other city dwellers, you get all your news from a single source, the daily newspapers. |
| 0:21.5 | New York has more than a dozen papers, all cranking out new editions day and night. |
| 0:26.8 | The two fastest growing papers are the world and the journal. |
| 0:31.8 | That summer in 1897, the two big rivals are battling for scoops on one of the city's |
| 0:37.0 | most sensational and lurid crimes ever. |
| 0:40.4 | And in Guilded Age New York, that's saying something. |
| 0:43.7 | The case is known as the headless torso murder. |
| 0:46.6 | Lower lag found in the East River, perfect match to the torso. |
| 0:50.3 | Get it in the New York world. |
| 0:52.4 | To promote the latest headlines about the Grizzly saga, the papers use newsies. |
| 0:57.2 | These are kids, some as young as six years old, who work each street corner waving fresh |
| 1:01.6 | hot copies and hocking the papers with salacious headlines. |
| 1:06.0 | Walking down the street, you can't avoid a throng of them in their knickers and caps. |
| 1:09.8 | They crisscross in front of you as you make your way to work. |
| 1:12.4 | Jailhouse confession from Augusta Nath, only in the New York Journal. |
| 1:16.4 | Murder suspect tells tales of love triangle gone wrong. |
| 1:20.0 | Read all about it. |
| 1:21.0 | The headless torso mystery involves a jilted husband, a German-born midwife, a mysterious |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Audible, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Audible and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.