The Murder of the Century

[Collins'] exploration of the newspaper world, at the very moment when tabloid values were being born, is revealing but also enormously entertaining....Collins has a clear eye, a good sense of telling detail, and a fine narrative ability. -- Wall Street Journal <br><br> Riveting....Collins has mined enough newspaper clippings and other archives to artfully recreate the era, the crime and the newspaper wars it touched off. -- New York Times <br><br> [A] richly detailed book that reads like a novel and yet maintains a strict fidelity to facts. THE MURDER OF THE CENTURY isn't a case of history with a moral. It's simply a fantastic, factual yarn, and a reminder that abhorrent violence is nothing new under the sun. -- Oregonian<br> <br> A wonderful reminder that we have often been just as we are: fools for spectacle, short of memory, cheered by the invigorating shock of the immoral. - Willamette Week <br><br> Paul Collins' account of the headless torso murder that led to an all-out newspaper war and then a dramatic trial has all the timeless elements of a great yarn--a baffling mystery, intriguing suspects, and flawed detectives. It's compelling history that's also great page-turning entertainment. -- Howard Blum, author of The Floor of Heaven and American Lightning<br><br> Wonderfully rich in period detail, salacious facts about the case and infectious wonder at the chutzpah and inventiveness displayed by Pulitzer's and Hearst's minions. Both a gripping true-crime narrative and an astonishing portrait of fin de siecle yellow journalism. -- Kirkus Reviews<br> <br> A dismembered corpse and rival newspapers squabbling for headlines fuel Collins's intriguing look at the birth of yellow journalism in late-19th-century New York. an in-depth account of the exponential growth of lurid news and the public's (continuing) insatiable appetite for it. --Publishers Weekly <br><br><br> <br><br><br> From the Hardcover edition.