The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

The true crime story of the Gilded Age revenge killing that shocked New York City and the world—from a New York Times–bestselling author.

“A terrifically entertaining work of popular history: swiftly paced, richly evocative, engrossing from the first page.” —Wall Street Journal

In 1901 Evelyn Nesbit, a sixteen-year-old chorus girl in the musical Florodora, dined alone with the architect Stanford White in his town house on 24th Street in New York City. White was forty-seven, the foremost architect of his day, and a celebrity responsible for designing numerous landmark buildings in Manhattan. That evening, after drinking champagne, Nesbit lost consciousness and awoke to find herself naked in bed with White, who had raped her.

Evelyn spoke of it to no one until, sever years later, she confided in Harry Thaw, the millionaire playboy who would become her husband. Thaw, thirsting for revenge, shot and killed White in 1906 before hundreds of theatergoers during a performance at Madison Square Garden. The trial was a sensation that gripped the nation. Most Americans agreed that Thaw was justified in killing White, but the city’s district attorney expected to send him to the electric chair. Evelyn Nesbit’s testimony was so explicit and shocking that President Theodore Roosevelt himself called on the newspapers not to print it. The Girl on the Velvet Swing is a tale of glamour, excess, and danger—an immersive, fascinating look at the murder that made the Gilded Age and the trial that shocked the world.

“Baatz has resurrected a forgotten saga of lust, lucre and lunacy that would seem improbable if it were merely fiction. . . . This true-life theater is packed with action [and] surprises.” ―David Holahan, USA Today

“Simon Baatz has written a wickedly enjoyable book that enthralled me from start to finish. This multifaceted tale, rendered with an expert’s touch, encompasses the aspirations and vices of an entire era.” ―Laurence Bergreen, author of Capone

© 2024 Mulholland Books (Ebook): 9780316396677

Release date

Ebook: 24 September 2024