Here's the thorough headline for Anna Hopkins' Daily Mail piece: Inside the Crime of the 20th Century: The 'mad millionaire' who shot dead New York architect as revenge for sexually assaulting his teenage model wife – before continuing his life of luxury behind bars (21 September 2017)
- Harry Thaw, a railroad heir worth $40 million, assassinated revered architect and socialite Stanford White on the rooftop of Madison Square Garden in 1906
- Thaw said he did it because White 'ruined his wife' - the 'first supermodel' Evelyn Nesbit, who was the 'it-girl' of the early 1900s
- Nesbit had revealed to her husband that White sexually assaulted her when she was 16-years-old in his West 24th Street playhouse
- [White met [...] Evelyn in 1901 – she was 16 and he was 47, with a known proclivity for young women.]
- Despite this, she and White went on to have a years-long affair and just before she died at the age of 82 in 1967 she described him as 'the most wonderful man I ever knew'
- Thaw was found to be criminally insane after two trials, due to the high profile nature of the case
- It was the first trial in United States history that a jury was sequestered for, and became known as the 'Trial of the Century'
In the investigation that ensued, a tragic and bizarre 'love triangle' was revealed between the architect, the millionaire, and his model wife – New York City's first 'it-girl' Evelyn Nesbit.Evelyn was just 15 when she began modelling in New York City, and she looked even younger. She quickly skyrocketed to popularity in the magazine industry, and graced the covers of Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, and Harper's Bazaar in the early 1900s.Her often sexual poses earned her the title of the world's first pin-up girl [...]No one was more invested in Evelyn's success than Stanford White, an architect whose firm constructed the second Madison Square Garden, Washington Square Arch, and mansions for the Vanderbilts.
White met for the first time Evelyn in 1901 – she was 16 and he was 47, with a known proclivity for young women.White convinced Evelyn's mother that it would be a good idea for her to visit friends back in Philadelphia. While her mother was away, [16-year-old] Evelyn came back to White's West 24th Street flat.Again, the two made the tour of the apartment drinking champagne, and this time adjourning to the 10x10ft room with mirrors installed entirely around the walls and on the ceiling. This time, the alcohol made her lose consciousness. The last thing she remembered was changing into a yellow kimono, and when she regained consciousness, she was naked in his bed and no longer a virgin.Thus began the teenager's years-long affair with the architect, who had a wife, Bessie, and son Lawrence. At the time, Evelyn was still 16 [...]However, Evelyn was not White's only mistress [...]In her memoir, Evelyn wrote: 'When I was robbed of my illusions by Stanford's continued interest in other women, love had died in my heart. And I did resolutely put him out of my mind too. I went on adoring Stanford for his kindness, his thoughtfulness, no more.'Eventually Evelyn met Harry Thaw, the multi-million dollar railroad heir who was known to be mentally ill – but piqued Evelyn's interests by delivering her roses encased in $50 bills.While on a trip to Europe, Evelyn decided to come clean about her past with White, and told her husband to-be about being drugged and raped in the Mirror Room [and the rest his history].