As I recently looked up information
on the topic of crime during the gilded age, many stories and newspapers popped
up. It was explained that newspapers were the gossipers of the town; they explained
everything and involved many pictures of what had happened. Since the press was
very popular they specifically talked about the drama in the city which was
also a very helpful way of urban growth, because through the crimes, press, and
serial killers people talked to one another about it all.
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| Mobs in the city, fighting for what they believe |
The
newspapers were the gossip of the town; they were like magazines now-a-days, with
all of the weekly information on what we really want to hear about. Except
during the gilded age they put information that mostly involved rich people and
pretty girls, every story in the newspaper exposed scandals and investigated wrong
doing of public officials. When newspapers took political stances they also
targeted and figured out scandals involving the presidents. They made stories
that people would remember and soon after talk about, there cartoons that were
created etched into people’s mind. A specific example that the whole town was
talking about, that movies and books wore written about was the Red Velvet
Swing.
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| Popular Newspaper headings, that attracted people to read |
The Red
Velvet Swing was about this girl named Evelyn Resbit who’s raped at a young age
by this guy named Stanford White, he was supposed to be helping her act in
movies but took advantage of her when she was passed out drunk at his house. During
the time she got older she met a new man and told him about what had happened, and
soon they were married but he went crazy and shot Stanford White because “he
ruined my wife! He had it coming to him. He took advantage of the girl and then
abandoned her! You’ll never go out with that women again.” a quote as Thaw was
standing over his dead body. The press was all about this and before you knew
it the whole town was talking about it, it was one of the major crimes that are
still popular today.
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| Evelyn Resbit a beautiful young lady that was part of a crime |
Before
the gilded age, the Victorian era was about; they dealt with crime in ways that
no man would want to live through. Most offenders were young men which involved
the problems of stealing, killings and violence while very few women did get
caught for prostitution, soliciting, drunkenness, and disorderly vagrancy. If
someone was caught they would usually hang them or garrote in front of a huge
crowd. People didn’t like this as much so as years went by during the 1880’s
metropolitan decided to make a police force, the police were forced to help
stop and prevent crime. Every town now has a police force to enforce rules and
stop crime! It was unfortunate how richer people or people with more power
could get away with crimes more easily then the less wealthy could.
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| Crime in the City |
A Huge
serial killer that the police force did not know about was H.H. Holmes. Holmes
was a man convicted for murders from 27 to 100 or even more is what he has told
press. He bought a hotel in the heart of Chicago’s world fair right after the
opening in 1993, except this hotel was created like a dungeon, with trap doors,
gas jets, and a basement to burn dead bodies. He was a rich man so not many
people suspected him, but it wasn’t till he was convicted for the murder of Benjamin
Pitzel after they had a disagreement on life insurance. Holmes was then known
as the 1st documented serial killer of that time. Everyone knew
about it press, people, actors of the time, and not many people felt safe anymore;
it was the discussion of this horrid action that people really in a weird way
felt connected.
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| H.H. Holmes the 1st serial killer known to man |
Crime,
press, and serial killers all were very popular during the gilded age. The press and crimes were a huge part of growth, especially when it came to crimes, because the information
was always twisted into something that people would want to read or hear about.Many of the information in the most famous stories, involved a wealthy man or a pretty girl. It was a way of telling the world, that it can happen to them to.
i chose this source because it helped me with my research on the press. it explained to me the differences between the different types of Newspapers or journals.
i used this source to help me with my information on Holmes, to describe to me who he really was and his background life story.
this source helped me with the explanation of how the writers for the newspapers wrote and exactly what was popular to write about.
i used this source because it was a good place to look up different facts about crime and the background information.
this source was valuable for who convicted crimes and what sometimes happened, the different types of ways the police force dealt with crimes.
this source was background information that described how they used to punish people for crimes and the difference to now.
this was a good source to find because it helped me look up information on research for one of the famous trials/crimes during this era.
