In the Roaring Twenties, Arthur Barry stole millions of dollars' worth of jewels from some of New York's wealthiest residents. Today, we talk about the cat burglar's audacious capers with best-selling author Dean Jobb, whose new biography of Barry is titled A Gentleman and a Thief. For more about Jobb's writing, visit his website at https://www.deanjobb.com/ . If you'd like to support the show, please consider beocming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast ....
Feb 05, 2025•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1901, Broadway chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit met Stanford White, the fabulously wealthy and influential architect who designed Madison Square Garden. They formed a relationship that ended in murder six years later, right in the middle of a crowded performance at Madison Square Garden. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast . For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com ....
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the 1860s and '70s, hundreds--maybe thousands--of Italian children migrated to New York to make money as street musicians. They worked for bosses known as padroni, living in squalor and suffering abuse at the hands of their employers. In 1873, the plight of these little street performers unleashed outrage in New York and neighboring states, which prompted the federal government to take action. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepo...
Jan 08, 2025•48 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast In 1990, three separate art heists took place in the week leading up to Christmas, baffling New York authorities as well as the FBI. In this special holiday episode, we look at police efforts to recover the stolen artworks as well as the many mysteries that hover over the case to this day. Music featured in this episode: "Deck The Halls" by Alexander Nakarada (CreatorChords) | https://creatorchords.com-- Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music. com Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 Inter...
Dec 18, 2024•18 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we're joined by best-selling author Margalit Fox to talk about Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum, who rose to the top of New York's underworld as a criminal fence and financial backer of bank burglaries in the 1860s and '70s. Earlier this year, Margalit published a brand-new biography of the crime boss, titled The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum, which you will most assuredly enjoy if you like this podcast. If you'd like to learn more about Margalit's work, including The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum, mak...
Dec 04, 2024•58 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast In the late 1860s, gentleman bank robber George L. Leslie arrived in New York and started working for Fredericka Mandelbaum, one of the city’s most notorious crime bosses. Leslie always claimed to have studied architecture in college and drew on his training to mastermind some of the most daring heists of the century, earning the nickname of “King of Bank Robbers.” His reign would prove short-lived, however, after a robbery went bad in 1878. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artof...
Nov 20, 2024•54 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast In 1817, Italian-born painter Francesco Mezzara had a spat with his patron, New York attorney Aaron Palmer. As the feud escalated, Mezzara painted an insulting picture of Palmer and put it up for auction. Mezzara was giddy when the picture fetched $40—but not for long. Soon, he stood accused of criminal libel on account of the offensive portrait. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast . Show notes and full transcripts available a...
Nov 06, 2024•44 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast In this special Halloween episode, we explore an urban legend that emerged from the trial of Levi Weeks. After the verdict came down, a vengeful Catherine Ring is said to have cursed Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and Justice John Lansing, causing all three to die lamentable deaths. Show notes available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com . If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast ....
Oct 30, 2024•31 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast On January 2, 1800, a group of New Yorkers discovered the body of a missing local in the disused Manhattan Well. The Manhattan Well Murder, as the crime came to be known, led to a sensational trial, in which two of America’s Founding Fathers participated. Given the intense public interest in the homicide, publishers raced to print the first—and fullest—account of the proceedings, spawning a new genre of crime writing. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. If you...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast This season, we explore crimes that only could have happened in the Big Apple. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com . If you'd like to suppor the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast .
Oct 16, 2024•2 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Today, I'm sharing an episode of the chart-topping podcast, History Daily. This episode is about the premiere of one of the greatest horror films ever made, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. What better way to kick off spooky season? Next week, we're announcing the theme of season 4 of The Art of Crime, so watch this space! If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.
Oct 09, 2024•16 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Thanks to everyone who submitted questions and comments! For show notes and full transcripts, please visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.
Aug 21, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we're joined by Ann Foster, host and creator of the Vulgar History podcast. Gavin and Ann talk about the enigmatic Princess Caraboo, an exotic princess who washed up on English shores in 1817 and generated a sensation in the press as various observers tried to work out where she had come from. Make sure to check out Vulgar History here: https://vulgarhistory.com/ If you'd like to support The Art of Crime and gain access to exclusive bonus episodes, please consider becoming a patron at www...
Jul 31, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, I'm releasing an episode that became available exclusively to patrons of The Art of Crime at the end of last season. It's about Iranian photographer Azadeh Akhlaghi and her photo-series, By an Eye-Witness, which reconstructs politically significant deaths in twentieth-century Iranian history. If you want more content like this, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.
Jul 17, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we're joined by Will Clark, host and creator of Grey History: The French Revolution . He and Gavin discuss their favorite works of art from the French Revolution. Show notes available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. If you'd like to support the show and gain access to exclusive bonus episodes, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast. And make sure to check out Grey History: The French Revolution, hosted by the brilliant Will Clark....
Jun 26, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1823, John Thurtell murdered the gambler William Weare while the two were riding in a horse-drawn gig. Cashing in on public fascination with the case, the Surrey Theatre staged The Gamblers , a play that recreated the murder and incorporated the actual horse-drawn gig in which the crime took place. The Gamblers became one of the most explosive melodramas of the nineteenth century and came back to haunt Madame Tussaud more than two decades later. For show notes and full transcripts, visit www....
Jun 12, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast A surprising number of crime stories from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction take place in wax museums. Today, we're joined by Caroline Crampton, host and creator of Shedunnit , a podcast that unravels the mysteries behind classic detective stories, to talk about why the wax museum has fueled the imagination of so many crime writers. Link to "Waxworks" by Ethel Lina White: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47480274/4608076 . Spoiled Stories: "Waxworks" by Ethel Lina White Hound of the ...
May 29, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Beaumarchais’s madcap comedy, The Marriage of Figaro , smashed box-office records when it opened in Paris in 1784. The following year, a team of real-life con artists drew inspiration from a crucial scene in the play as they planned—and pulled off—the swindle of the century. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast....
May 15, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode, we consider Madame Tussaud's unique contribution to the true crime genre. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.
May 01, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1849, George and Maria Manning murdered a guest in their London home and fled the British capital . A dramatic hunt for the killers ensued. After the law caught up with the Mannings, the glamorous Maria achieved near-celebrity status as she made her way through the justice system. A staggering thirty thousand spectators gathered to watch her and George's public execution, triggering a ferocious debate about the ethics of capital punishment. When renowned wax modeler Madame Tussaud unveiled a ...
Apr 18, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast After more than three decades of touring the provinces, Madame Tussaud made the unexpected decision to settle down in London in 1835. Within a matter of years, Tussaud was running the metropolis’s number-one tourist destination, and she updated the Chamber of Horrors more frequently than ever before. In 1838, she unveiled an effigy of Sir William Courtenay, a charismatic cult leader who committed a murder that led to a government massacre of his followers. Show notes and full transcripts availab...
Apr 04, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast For more than three decades, Madame Tussaud toured England, Scotland, and Ireland, winning nationwide acclaim. Over the years, her enterprise morphed into a family business, with both her sons dedicating their lives to the wax museum. In 1829, Madame Tussaud and Sons scored one of their biggest hits of the ’20s with controversial effigies of Burke and Hare, Edinburgh-based murderers who sold their victims' cadavers to anatomists for dissection. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.ar...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast From 1803 to 1808, Madame Tussaud toured Scotland and Ireland, exhibiting her handiwork in major cities. During this time, she took drastic measures to win her freedom from her exploitative business partner, Paul Philipstahl. Tussaud went years without creating new figures related to crime, but in 1828 she introduced a likeness of William Corder, perpetrator of the infamous Red Barn Murder. This brutal homicide sparked a cultural phenomenon that lasted for the rest of the nineteenth century and ...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast After marrying and starting a family, Madame Tussaud accepted an offer to partner with another showman and exhibit her handiwork in London. To her dismay, she soon realized that she had teamed up with a snake. Despite a rough start in the British capital, Tussaud scored a major hit with a wax effigy of Colonel Edward Marcus Despard, a convicted traitor who was hanged, drawn, and quartered in February 1803. For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com. If you'd like to sup...
Feb 22, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast As the French Revolution ran its course, the monarchy crumbled, and the nation descended into wanton violence. During the Reign of Terror, thousands of French citizens went to the guillotine, and Tussaud made waxen replicas of important revolutionaries’ severed heads, including that of Maximilien Robespierre. In 1793, she also created a wax tableau inspired by perhaps the most notorious crime of this period: the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.a...
Feb 08, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast On July 12, 1789, a crowd of protestors furious over King Louis XVI’s policies swarmed Madame Tussaud and Philippe Curitus’s wax museum, demanding busts of prominent political figures. This episode led to bloodshed that same afternoon. Two days later, a mob stormed the Bastille, a medieval prison, marking the outbreak of the French Revolution. Soon after, the Den of Illustrious Thieves exhibited objects associated with the Bastille, including an effigy of the notorious Comte de Lorges, a prisone...
Jan 24, 2024•58 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Born in 1761, Madame Tussaud studied the art of wax modeling under Philippe Curtius, owner of the most famous wax museum in pre-revolutionary Paris. Sometime around 1780, Curtius opened a special exhibit in his establishment called The Den of Illustrious Thieves, in which he displayed wax effigies of notorious murderers. He had an early hit with a sculpture of double poisoner Antoine Francois Desrues, a struggling grocer who wanted to live the life of an aristocrat whether he could afford to or ...
Jan 10, 2024•53 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Introducing Queen of Crime: Madame Tussaud and the Chamber of Horrors Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.
Jan 03, 2024•4 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Today, I'm sharing an episode of the delightful art history podcast, Who ARTed?, hosted by Kyle Wood. This episode is all about the Stockholm art heist of the year 2000. Find out what extraordinary paintings were stolen from the National Gallery--and how they were recovered. We're back next week with another installment in Queen of Crime: Madame Tussaud and the Chamber of Horrors. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com . If you'd like to support the show, please c...
Dec 27, 2023•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Perseus of Benvenuto Cellini is justly considered a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture. Believe it or not, this statue almost never existed. From start to finish, sculpting the Perseus proved a Herculean labor, as dogged opposition from Cellini's own patron, life-threatening illness, and the sheer enormity of the artist's ambitions conspired against him. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a pat...
Dec 20, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
