Art of Crime Podcast

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Art of Crime Podcast The Art of Crime is a history podcast about the unlikely collisions between true crime and the arts.

New episode out today! One Monday morning in 1958, Nina Lawson, Mistress of Wigs at the Metropolitan Opera, came into wo...
19/03/2025

New episode out today! One Monday morning in 1958, Nina Lawson, Mistress of Wigs at the Metropolitan Opera, came into work to discover that someone had stolen thirty thousand dollars' worth of wigs from the Met. The theft made national headlines, and the FBI joined the hunt for the culprits. Who on earth would carry out such a crime?

Braden Brothers, “The Astor Library” (ca. 1911). Located in the East Village, the Astor Library opened to the general pu...
10/03/2025

Braden Brothers, “The Astor Library” (ca. 1911). Located in the East Village, the Astor Library opened to the general public in 1849. It was later consolidated with the NYPL. In 1911, the building was abandoned and its books moved to the library’s main branch in Bryant Park. The Astor collection was an important source for the NYPL’s early collections, including rare books (Image courtesy of the Getty Museum.)

During the 1920s crusaders, spearheaded by The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, whipped up a moral panic ab...
27/02/2025

During the 1920s crusaders, spearheaded by The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, whipped up a moral panic about the alleged sexual deviance of the theater industry. Mae West became a convenient lightning rod for moral indignation in some quarters of the press, including this tabloid cover story.

Publicity portrait of Mae West as published in the trade publication, Variety (Christmas, 1914). In her early career, We...
21/02/2025

Publicity portrait of Mae West as published in the trade publication, Variety (Christmas, 1914). In her early career, West was a popular vaudeville performer. She enjoyed some degree of national recognition even before her career took off in the 1920s.

New episode, "Mae West Goes to Jail," is out today! Pictured here is Mae West in an ultra-glam swan bed. No further comm...
19/02/2025

New episode, "Mae West Goes to Jail," is out today! Pictured here is Mae West in an ultra-glam swan bed. No further comment is necessary.

New episode out today! We talk with best-selling author Dean Jobb about the life and crimes of Arthur Barry, a gentleman...
05/02/2025

New episode out today! We talk with best-selling author Dean Jobb about the life and crimes of Arthur Barry, a gentlemanly thief who stole millions of dollars' worth of jewelry from New Yorkers in the Roaring Twenties. Barry was often compared to the literary character, A.J. Raffles, pictured below with his accomplice, Bunny.

Photograph of the Café Martin, a popular restaurant a short walk from Madison Square Garden. Evelyn Nesbit and Harry Tha...
04/02/2025

Photograph of the Café Martin, a popular restaurant a short walk from Madison Square Garden. Evelyn Nesbit and Harry Thaw dined at Café Martin the night of the murder of Stanford White.

New episode is out--"Murder at Madison Square Garden." It's about the relationship between Broadway showgirl Evelyn Nesb...
27/01/2025

New episode is out--"Murder at Madison Square Garden." It's about the relationship between Broadway showgirl Evelyn Nesbit and architect Stanford White. Nesbit appeared in the enormously popular musical, Florodora (promotional material shown here). Nesbit and White's relationship led to a murder at Madison Square Garden in 1906, right in the middle of a theatrical performance. The homicide became known as the crime of the century.

Constantin Meunier, “The Organ Grinder” (1873). This oil painting is a rare, tranquil glimpse into the life of am Italia...
17/01/2025

Constantin Meunier, “The Organ Grinder” (1873). This oil painting is a rare, tranquil glimpse into the life of am Italian street performer. Meunier paints the youth in a private, tender moment, smiling at his dog. (Dogs frequently performed as dancers alongside organ grinders).

John Henry Bufford, “The Organ Grinder” (1860s). Based in Boston, Bufford made a series of images of street life in that...
13/01/2025

John Henry Bufford, “The Organ Grinder” (1860s). Based in Boston, Bufford made a series of images of street life in that city. Among them was this colorful depiction of an adult organ grinder, accompanied by a monkey and a little girl dressed in Old-World costume. Many Italian performers arrived to the U.S. in New York, only to fan out across the country to several other cities, including Boston.

Happy 2025, everyone! New episode out today. It's called "The Child Musicians of Crosby Street," and it's about the hund...
08/01/2025

Happy 2025, everyone! New episode out today. It's called "The Child Musicians of Crosby Street," and it's about the hundreds--maybe even thousands--of Italian immigrants who moved to New York to work as street musicians in the 1860s and '70s. They suffered horrible abuse at the hands of their employers, unleashing moral outrage and prompting the federal government to take action.

New episode is out! In it, we hear from best-selling author, Margalit Fox, author of the new book, The Talented Mrs. Man...
05/12/2024

New episode is out! In it, we hear from best-selling author, Margalit Fox, author of the new book, The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum. Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum was the supreme crime boss of Victorian New York, so you won't want to miss this interview. (If you listen, you'll also understand what on earth is pictured here!)

Illustration of Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum, New York's most notorious crime boss in the 1860s and '70s. She collaborat...
03/12/2024

Illustration of Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum, New York's most notorious crime boss in the 1860s and '70s. She collaborated with Leslie on his most audacious bank heists, putting up money for supplies and covering other expenses.

Dining hall at Delmonico's, a favored restaurant among New York's social, cultural, and political elites. Gentleman bank...
03/12/2024

Dining hall at Delmonico's, a favored restaurant among New York's social, cultural, and political elites. Gentleman bank burglar George L. Leslie is said to have met robber baron Jim "Jubilee" Fisk at the eatery.

New episode out today, "George L. Leslie and the Gilded Age of Bank Robbery!" Pictured below is an array of tools used b...
20/11/2024

New episode out today, "George L. Leslie and the Gilded Age of Bank Robbery!" Pictured below is an array of tools used by bank burglars in the mid-nineteenth century.

Andrea Vaccaro, King Midas (ca. 1670). In a lesser-known episode from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, King Midas is cursed wi...
19/11/2024

Andrea Vaccaro, King Midas (ca. 1670). In a lesser-known episode from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, King Midas is cursed with a pair of ass's ears after issuing a dubious verdict as the judge of a music competition between the god Apollo and Pan. Here, Midas is shown with his pointy new appendages.

This is a portrait of Aaron Palmer, the lawyer who sat for Francesco Mezzara. Add a pair of ass's ears, and you'll have ...
14/11/2024

This is a portrait of Aaron Palmer, the lawyer who sat for Francesco Mezzara. Add a pair of ass's ears, and you'll have some idea of what Mezzara's infamous--and, sadly, lost--portrait of Palmer looked like!

Apollo, god of music, curses King Midas with a pair of floppy ass's ears. If you've already listened to the latest episo...
11/11/2024

Apollo, god of music, curses King Midas with a pair of floppy ass's ears. If you've already listened to the latest episode of The Art of Crime, you know why this is relevant to the history-making criminal libel case against New York-based painter and loudmouth Francesco Mezzara.

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