The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism

Communications and Media Studies

by James McGrath Morris

Today, seventy-three years after his death, journalists still tell tales of Charles E. Chapin. As city editor of Pulitzer’s New York Evening World , Chapin was the model of the take-no-prisoners newsroom he drove reporters relentlessly―and kept his paper in the center ring of the circus of big-city journalism. From the Harry K. Thaw trial to the sinking of the Titanic , Chapin set the pace for the evening press, the CNN of the pre-electronic world of journalism.

In 1918, at the pinnacle of fame, Chapin’s world collapsed. Facing financial ruin, sunk in depression, he decided to kill himself and his beloved wife Nellie. On a quiet September morning, he took not his own life, but Nellie’s, shooting her as she slept. After his trial―and one hell of a story for the World’s competitors―he was sentenced to life in the infamous Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.

In this story of an extraordinary life set in the most thrilling epoch of American journalism, James McGrath Morris tracks Chapin’s rise from legendary Chicago street reporter to celebrity powerbroker in media-mad New York. His was a human tragedy played out in the sensational stories of tabloids and broadsheets. But it’s also an epic of in prison, Chapin started a newspaper to fight for prisoner rights, wrote a best-selling autobiography, had two long-distance love affairs, and tapped his prodigious talents to transform barren prison plots into world-famous rose gardens before dying peacefully in his cell in 1930.

The first portrait of one of the founding figures of modern American journalism, and a vibrant chronicle of the cutthroat culture of scoops and scandals, The Rose Man of Sing Sing is also a hidden history of New York at its most colorful and passionate.

James McGrath Morris is a former journalist, author of Jailhouse The Fourth Estate Behind Bars , and a historian. He lives in Falls Church, Virginia, and teaches at West Springfield High School.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Crime, True Crime, Journalism

470 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2003

About the author

I'm the author of several well-received biographies, including the New York Times bestseller and Editor's Choice "Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, The First Lady of the Black Press," which received the Benjamin Hooks National Book Prize and was long-listed for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography; "The Ambulance Drivers: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War,' as well as "Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power," "The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism," and "Jailhouse Journalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars."

My newest book is "Tony Hillerman: A Life."

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Provides a great snapshot of life in America during the latter portion of the 1800's and the early 1900's. The story follows the story of Charles Chapin who rises from poverty to become one of America's most powerful editors--working for Joseph Pulitzer's New York Evening World. At his zenith, Chapin murders his wife in what he characterized as mercy killing to hide from her their ruinous debt. He claimed that he planned to kill himself also, but for reasons that he never adequately explained, he did not. After a then-celebrity/now-forgotten celebrity trial, Chapin is sentenced to Sing Sing. There, he again becomes a powerful figure with special privileges. He runs the prison library, the prison paper, and develops magnificent rose gardens on the grounds. As a result of his celebrity and prison behavior, he becomes the cause celeb for the early prison reform movement, which tries to win his release. This is a great read. Reminds me in a way of "Devil and the White City" in its ability to covey history in a way that reads like a novel.

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this one 5 stars because I had a hard time putting it down. I've been married to the news business for 35+ years and actively worked with news people in the communications and pr businesses for 20+. I remain absolutely enamored with what journalists can do and who the most dedicated are as people, both the best and the worst. Charles Chapin was among the best as a newsman but not as a person. The times were not all that different from now, except that newspapers were at their zenith, much as we see social media these days. The competition was amazing - a dozen daily papers in NYC alone, and the results were that people got information in a way they never got it before. From the late 1890s thru the 1930s, Chapin was at the center of the whirlwind and this book tells his story, scales and all. Well researched and engrossing for a news junky like me...

[Doris Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. I learned about the media and the history of journalism. The book explained to me what "yellow journalism" really means, who Yellow Kid Weil was, the Pulitzer editors, Hearst, how the newspapers reported on the sinking of the Titanic, and then - after a successful lifetime career as a top newspaper editor in New York City - how this elderly editor coped with his new status as a "lifer" in Sing Sing prison.
He murdered his wife at about age 60, and the reasons remain a mystery. Why did he do it? None of the feeble excuses (debt) made sense to me. A psychologist could write another book just on this aspect of his story. Too bad he died of pneumonia in 1930 in Sing Sing Prison, so he is probably unavailable for personal interviews.
This book was well-researched and documented and edited. If you want a quick, light and fast read, this book is not for you. If you enjoy reading and learning and meditating and thinking on the human condition, I recommend it. Especially to anyone with any association to the media.

[Jo Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think people who have an affinity for journalism, or learning about yellow journalism may be interested. One of the reviewers of this book said "Reminds me in a way of "Devil and the White City" in its ability to covey history in a way that reads like a novel." I heartily disagree. White City moved like a novel, this does not! Way too many words used to describe everything and nothing. There was so little mentioned about his wife that he killed, it was difficult for me to think anything, but HUH? The author certainly describes a despicable man who killed his wife for no good reason. I don't care how many roses he tended.

[Ariel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I would love this book- turn of the century, yellow journalism, roses at Sing Sing, what's not to love? Well, the whole book actually. It plodded though Chapin's life chapter by chapter with very little narrative arc and a lot of repetition. I didn't feel like I got a good feeling of the time or really of the person being described. Some fun bits about journalism, but I really had to push myself through at the end.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting account of the incarceration of editor Charles Chapin, who killed his wife and made a name for himself as a gardener at Sing Sing.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched book and interesting subject. But, I was most interested in the gardening at Sing Sings and 2/3 of the book were details of his life before prison. Difficult to please all audiences!

[Kai Palchikoff]

Beat reporters, evolution of US journalism