Trials of the Century: A Decade-by-Decade Look at Ten of America's Most Sensational Crimes

by Mark J. Phillips, Aryn Z. Phillips

In every decade of the twentieth century, there was one sensational murder trial that riveted public attention and at the time was called "the trial of the century." This book tells the story of each murder case and the dramatic trial-and media coverage-that followed. Starting with the murder of famed architect Stanford White in 1906 and ending with the O.J. Simpson trial of 1994, the authors recount ten compelling tales spanning the century. Each is a story of celebrity and sex, prejudice and heartbreak, and all reveal how often the arc of American justice is pushed out of its trajectory by an insatiable media driven to sell copy.The most noteworthy cases are here--including the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the Sam Sheppard murder trial ("The Fugitive"), the "Helter Skelter" murders of Charles Manson, and the O.J. Simpson murder trial. But some cases that today are lesser known also provide fascinating glimpses into the tenor of the the media sensation created by yellow journalist William Randolph Hearst around the murder trial of 1920s movie star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle; the murder of the Scarsdale Diet guru by an elite prep-school headmistress in the 1980s; and more. The authors conclude with an epilogue on the infamous Casey Anthony("tot mom")trial, showing that the twenty-first century is as prone to sensationalism as the last century.This is a fascinating history of true crime, justice gone awry, and the media often at its worst.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History, Crime, Law

338 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2016

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

”Each trial becomes a theatre, with the courtroom as stage, the participants as actors, and enraptured American as audience.”

** This book is dedicated to The Boyfriend, who put with listening to me regale him with facts from this book on the hour every hour.

You’re the real MVP. **

Holy mackerel, this book came out of nowhere! While I wasn’t expecting an exactly riveting read, I was certainly not expecting this to be a five star one either. And yet here we are.

Just as many people are enthralled and enraptured with true crime, as the above quote so astutely puts it, I myself absolutely love the true crime drama. I can even remember the cases that got me interested in it to begin with: Scott Peterson and Vincent Brothers. I watch Forensic Files every year, all the seasons and all the episodes, even though remember the ending and the plot to every single one of them. I love nothing more than curling up on the couch or in bed and turning on the latest slickly made true crime documentary. I love the podcasts, the books, the whole shebang.

So when this book appeared a daily Kindle deal, I was expecting an informative but not necessarily fascinating look at ten of the most sensational and memorable trials in American history from the 1900s to the 2000s and looking ahead into the future.

What I got instead was so much more.

I couldn’t put this book down and would look for every excuse to pick it up. I was constantly relaying facts about what I learned to The Boyfriend. To his credit, he ever so patiently put up with it and even asked for more and never asked once to chuck my Kindle into the river. After each section I would race to Wikipedia or YouTube to read or watch more information about what I just read. Some might say that the writing is dry and almost textbook like in quality, but I found it thoroughly informative.

One thing I really liked about this book was that a lot of the cases I had never heard of before. Out of the ten cases talked about, I only knew about four of them. I love learning about lesser-known true crime cases, and even though the cases talked about here were famous for their time, they were far removed from when I was born.

The cases made my jaw drop to the floor (Harry Thaw), shake my head in fascination and horror (Bruno Hauptmann), gave me new insight into cases I thought I knew (O.J. Simpson), and even made me cry (Leo Frank). The only case I kind of sort of remember is the O.J. Simpson one, and this book gave me so much insight into the behind the scenes into the workings of the trial and both sides’ strategies that I walked away with a new understanding of the reason behind the verdict.

While some might argue that this book was basically a conglomeration of white, male, Christian suspects, it is surprisingly deceiving. It looks at the racial, social, and gender politics at the time the crimes took place and in some of the cases went really in depth into the racial and political structures of America at the time (Leo Frank and O.J. Simpson are supreme standouts).

When I think about skipping work just so I can read a book, you know it’s good. Informative and insightful, rage inducing and heartbreaking, it kept me enraptured and constantly coming back for more. This is probably going to be my surprise read of the year.

And The Boyfriend is probably relieved that I’m finished so he doesn’t have to be regaled with fun facts anymore. If I don’t get him to read it first.

Just kidding. You know I love you.

[Stacia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book basically covers one famous crime for each decade in the 1900s. It covered Harry Thaw (never had heard of this person/case), Leo Frank (contributed to the forming of the Anti-Defamation League), Fatty Arbuckle (knew the name but didn't know he had been accused of rape/murder), Bruno Hauptmann (knew of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping/murder but not really the details), Wayne Lonergan (again, had never previously heard of these folks), Sam Sheppard (The Fugitive movie was based on this but I didn't know about the actual case), Richard Speck (shudder), Manson (we all know who he is; I kept thinking of Tarantino's movie version & his "alternate reality" ending for the Manson murders), Jean Harris (murdered the Scarsdale diet doctor; I remembered this being in the news but not any details of it), O.J. (again, we all know this one), & then a minor look into the early 2000s with Casey Anthony (ugh).

Ok, it's probably not right to laugh when reading such a book, but this paragraph in the Jean Harris section did make me kind of chuckle. (Mostly because many years ago, my sister went on a low-carb diet. After a couple of weeks, her fiance begged her to eat some bread because she had gotten "so mean". Lol.)

But the highly structured and unforgiving low-carbohydrate, low-fat, low-calorie regimen was essentially a starvation diet, and it had hundreds of thousands of hungry adherents, dissatisfied with their breakfasts of half a grapefruit, a slice of toast, and black coffee, wishing that someone would kill Dr. Herman Tarnower. Much to their surprise, on March 10, 1980, somebody did.

Obviously the book gives a high level overview of the crimes & following trials/outcomes -- slightly more detailed than a wikipedia article but not a lot more. The book is about ten years old so some info is out of date (for ex., a Manson follower is now out on parole, OJ is now dead, etc.). However, I found it interesting because what the book really seems to be charting is the influence of yellow journalism/tabloid style news & how these crimes were covered in the newspapers & media. (I suspect the authors spent their time researching old newspaper archives vs. court documents.) Considering the media hellscape (news as well as social media) that contributed to our current situation, I found the overall arc of media & the public's opinions/actions an interesting one. It's not a great book by any means but it did hold my interest well enough & provided "light" reading that, fortunately or unfortunately, gives some awareness to people's fascination with the lurid & outrageous.

[Laura Milvy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting cases but not an interesting book. Basically dry reporting without any insight. Being written by lawyers the tactics used in the cases would have been interesting to discuss but I get the feeling they just thought of this book as another way to make a quick buck.

[Heather G · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very informative, fascinating look at sensation in the media. I highly recommend it!

[Elizabeth Buerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know about a lot of these cases before I read this book. It was very informative.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-done look at 10 (well, really 11) famous trials. The authors recount the basics of each case, discuss the trial, and go into depth about the media coverage of the crime and trial and discuss ramifications of each case. The chapters are pretty succinct and matter-of-fact, but the authors do a good job of immersing you into the situation for each case and providing context for what happened.

Of the 11 cases, there was only one that I knew nothing of (the murder of heiress Patricia Lonergan by her husband Wayne in 1943); the others I knew, and most of them I knew fairly well. (Thanks to my love of musicals, I knew the Evelyn Nesbit/Stanford White/Harry Thaw case from Ragtime and Leo Frank/Mary Phagan from Parade.) Ironically, it was the case in the Epilogue--Casey Anthony--that I probably knew the least about, other than the Lonergan case. Even so, I feel like I learned a lot, so good job, authors.

I read this on a few flights flying across the country and it was honestly perfect for that. Not too long, not terribly in-depth, but provides a good feel for each case. And it manages to avoid a lot of the upsetting details, since the focus is more on the court cases and media involvement than the actual crimes.

[Allisonlcarter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly surface-level summary of sensational trials from each decade of the 20th century. Some are instantly familiar (I skipped the chapter on O.J. Simpson, since I just finished Toobin's exhaustive work on the trial), some I knew the names of but few details ("The Fugitive" case), and some I had never heard of at all.

Kinda felt like the authors wanted to write a critique of media coverage and how it affected each trial, but instead we wind up with a quick summary of each case and then, "by the way, the media was *really bad*" Which, they were! No doubt! but wish they'd gone more into depth with that idea.

Overall, I still struggle with the true crime genre. I read it. I "enjoy" reading it. And I'm repulsed by my own impulse to that. It's interesting. They're human dramas of life-or-death. But they're real humans who lived and died too soon and in horror. And that clash of interest versus sympathy is hard to reconcile.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would be really interested to see what the writer would say in a post-zoom-court world. Their thesis is that justice cannot exist within the context of the media. That public pressure can cause people to be wrongly convicted. They pick some great examples for this. I just disagree with it. Sometimes justice can ONLY happen within the light. For example, with police brutality. With court more accessible than ever, I can see the double-edged-sword, to be sure. Some judges put on a show. Some judges are taken off of a case because of their zoom court comments. Glimpses of people's lives, their mistakes, are put on display for everyone to see. But, at the same time, I've gained a lot of respect for our justice system watching it work. The accessibility of the court highlights systemic issues and trends.

Even though I disagree with the thesis of the book, I still think it's worth a read. Each court case shows the public's views during the decade. A window into past prejudices. It also shows what causes a case to get so big that everyone pays attention.

[Fiona Lawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and entertaining but doesn’t really provide any insight or analysis. Each chapter really only cites to one or two books, so this is basically just a collection of book reports on 11 different criminal trials from 1907-2008. There is very little to no explanation as to why the authors chose the specific trials they did to highlight for each decade when others from the time period had been called the “trial of the century” and no through line is drawn from case to case.

[Cass Hopkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read a few crime books in my time but none have been as boring as this one. I managed to finish this book but only by skimming through the last few chapters and not really absorbing any of the content.

[Sandy James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice book that covers (although a bit briefly) some of the interesting "Trials of the Century." The only one I skimmed was the Manson murders because I've read so many books about that subject, a brief review would only bug me.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several trials I was not aware of but found the book quite interesting.

[Rosie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could have done without the complete character assassination of Virginia Rappe. Couldn't trust another word of this book after reading that. Also very shallow in terms of analysis.

[Patricia Ibarra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A description and explanation of the main trial that happened in each decade in the XX century.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sensational murders that were prominent in each decade, such as the Manson Murders and OJ Simpson trial to the obscure cases. Very informative.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this is your first true crime book I would say this is a good pick. The book gives a good overview of a handful of crimes. Definitely not a book that goes into depth about each case, but is a good jump off point if something intrigues you for further reading. It was kind of strange that it didn't include the Leopold and Loeb case considering it was called "the crime of the century" but oh well.

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not realize anyone could make crime and murder boring but these two do!