S19 Ep82: Shadow Men: Murder, Media, & Privilege in Jazz Age America w/James Polchin

Darkness Radio

Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality, Leisure, True Crime, Hobbies

4.7 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2024

⏱️ 127 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

True Crime Tuesday presents Shadow Men: Murder, Media, & Privilege in Jazz Age America with Researcher/Author, James Polchin!

On the morning of May 16, 1922, a young man’s body was found on a desolate road in Westchester County. The victim was penniless ex-sailor Clarence Peters. Walter Ward, the handsome scion of the family that owned the largest chain of bread factories in the country, confessed to the crime as an act of self-defense against a violent gang of “shadow men,” blackmailers who extorted their victims’ moral weaknesses. From the start, one question defined the investigation: What scandalous secret could lead Ward to murder?

For sixteen months, the media fueled a firestorm of speculation. Unscrupulous criminal attorneys, fame-seeking chorus girls, con artists, and misogynistic millionaires harnessed the power of the press to shape public perception. New York governor and future presidential candidate Al Smith and editor of the Daily News Joseph Medill Patterson leveraged the investigation to further professional ambitions. Famous figures like Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, and F. Scott Fitzgerald weighed in. As the bereaved working-class Peters family sought to bring the callous Ward to justice, America watched enraptured.

James Polchin joins TCT today to talk about the fortunes and misdeed of the Ward family, the Peters family struggle to get justice for Clarence, the role the NY Daily News played in all of this, and how things have changed in the hundred years since this story took place!

Get your copy of "Shadow Men...": here: https://bit.ly/3RVI8Y4

Check out James Polchin at his website: https://www.writinginpublic.com/james-polchin

Check out Robert on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.polchin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/james.polchin/
x: https://x.com/jamespolchin

PLUS DUMB CRIMES AND STUPID CRIMINALS!

Let's pay our final respects to the man who killed himself with a firework on top of his head on the 4th of July: https://www.postandcourier.com/news/summerville-man-dead-fireworks-accident/article_62c98748-3ad3-11ef-8818-4763ccc875ed.html

Check out the article Tim talked about , the Facebook baby daddy stalker! https://www.yahoo.com/news/happens-nerd-mad-one-man-100000411.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueWFob28uY29tL25ld3MvaGFwcGVucy1uZXJkLW1hZC1vbmUtbWFuLTEwMDAwMDQxMS5odG1s&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAX0IXst_0h7DYMirAFXcNpb9GEQtoWooAQ9XD9Oh04ZBiBPX_SKU4qTQN7_GgboGuhk2Y7XCgiSVFSfRTzbd4pokX4N0A5aj-l9nyla2gwLSopNnC9Ymf1ZldUmu3Peh-aSbdvceZrr6s_yrN7nHCam9PCCA9M35ub3PmVv_0nN

Check out Jessica Freeburg's website and pre-order her new books: https://jessicafreeburg.com/books/

Find out where the crew will be in your area:
https://www.darknessradioshow.com/p/events/

#crime #truecrime #truecrimepodcasts #truecrimetuesday #shadowmen #thetangledstoryofmurdermediaandprivilegethatscandalizedjazzageamerica #dumbcrimesstupidcriminals #TimDennis #walterward #clarencepeters #shooting #murder #westchestercounty #tiptopbread #georgeward #blackmail #prohibition #tenderloindistrict #horseracing #illegalgambling #bribery #floridaman #publicsex #verbalthreats #terrorism #policebrutality #sexcrimes #floridacuddler #dna

Transcript

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0:00.0	And then. Welcome to the best in Paranormal Podcasting. This is True Crime Tuesday. I'm your host Tim Dennis.
0:29.0	We have a very exciting program for you today folks coming up in just a bit we have
0:34.6	dumb crime stupid criminals with Jessica Freberg but first I want to talk about a
0:39.5	true crime story that takes place almost actually a little over a hundred years ago a story that
0:46.6	it involves murder media privilege and the story that resonates through time, which isn't too much different 100 years ago than it is now.
0:58.0	We're talking about burying scandals today.
1:02.0	And we're talking about what happens when someone of privilege murders somebody
1:08.0	and tries to bury the truth.
1:11.0	Do you get away with it? A hundred years ago, you certainly did.
1:16.8	Nowadays, you certainly do.
1:20.5	And we'll talk to our guest, author James Pulchon, who is a professor, about what the difference
1:27.9	is between then and now, even with today's glaring spotlight of the media, and believe me, it was a glaring spotlight 100 years ago.
1:36.4	We'll talk about the differences in media, we'll talk about the differences in
1:41.0	exactly how money matters when it comes to crime and justice.
1:51.0	And this is a wonderful book folks. I had the privilege of being able to sit down and read this book.
1:56.2	It's called Shadowman, The Tangled Story of Murder, Media, and Privilege that scandalized Jazz Age American.
2:03.8	I highly recommend you check it out.
2:05.6	Let's talk about first our guest and we'll bring him in.
2:08.1	James Pulchen PhD is a writer, professor, and cultural historian.
2:12.7	His book, In Decent Advances,
2:14.5	A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice
2:17.0	before Stonewall was an Edgar Award finalist
	...

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