The ad read, why be lonely, register with us for a small fee and start corresponding

with members of the opposite sex, thousands of our members have met the ideal mate

through the mail, why not you?

Well, lonely heart's advertisements, like this one, didn't start when the infamous

case of the quiet Dell murders was first splashed across the pages of newspapers and detective

magazines in the 1930s, and they didn't end there either.

Even after the murders made headlines, people continued to meet, court, and marry partners

they met through the mail.

Gradually, those advertisements evolved into the so-called Lonely Heart's Clubs, which

provided names and addresses to the lonely for a fee.

The clubs owed most of their popularity to prohibition.

When it became very difficult to meet people in the bars and clubs, they'd once frequented,

since the bars and clubs were closed.

The Lonely Heart's Clubs seemed to break down into two categories, middle-aged people

looking for love and young people anxious for what they called the joys of marital life.

In 1920s, the joys of marital life meant sex, so the clubs became the era's version

of a hook-up app.

But it seemed most members were those with limited social options, particularly widows

and single women and men passed a certain age.

They flocked to the Lonely Heart's bureaus by the thousands.

The love starved hundreds of thousands of letters through various services, hoping

to meet the perfect person each year.

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