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True Crime Tuesday presents Shadow Men: Murder, Media, & Privilege in Jazz Age America with Researcher/Author, James Polchin!
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\nOn the morning of May 16, 1922, a young man\u2019s body was found on a desolate road in Westchester County. The victim was penniless ex-sailor Clarence Peters. Walter Ward, the handsome scion of the family that owned the largest chain of bread factories in the country, confessed to the crime as an act of self-defense against a violent gang of \u201cshadow men,\u201d blackmailers who extorted their victims\u2019 moral weaknesses. From the start, one question defined the investigation: What scandalous secret could lead Ward to murder?
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\nFor sixteen months, the media fueled a firestorm of speculation. Unscrupulous criminal attorneys, fame-seeking chorus girls, con artists, and misogynistic millionaires harnessed the power of the press to shape public perception. New York governor and future presidential candidate Al Smith and editor of the Daily News Joseph Medill Patterson leveraged the investigation to further professional ambitions. Famous figures like Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, and F. Scott Fitzgerald weighed in. As the bereaved working-class Peters family sought to bring the callous Ward to justice, America watched enraptured.
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\nJames Polchin joins TCT today to talk about the fortunes and misdeed of the Ward family, the Peters family struggle to get justice for Clarence, the role the NY Daily News played in all of this, and how things have changed in the hundred years since this story took place!
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\nGet your copy of "Shadow Men...": here:\xa0 https://bit.ly/3RVI8Y4
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\nCheck out James Polchin at his website:\xa0 https://www.writinginpublic.com/james-polchin
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\nCheck out Robert on social media:
\nFacebook:\xa0 https://www.facebook.com/james.polchin
\nInstagram:\xa0 https://www.instagram.com/james.polchin/
\nx:\xa0 https://x.com/jamespolchin
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\nPLUS DUMB CRIMES AND STUPID CRIMINALS!
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\nLet's pay our final respects to the man who killed himself with a firework on top of his head on the 4th of July: https://www.postandcourier.com/news/summerville-man-dead-fireworks-accident/article_62c98748-3ad3-11ef-8818-4763ccc875ed.html
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\nCheck out the article Tim talked about , the Facebook baby daddy stalker! https://www.yahoo.com/news/happens-nerd-mad-one-man-100000411.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueWFob28uY29tL25ld3MvaGFwcGVucy1uZXJkLW1hZC1vbmUtbWFuLTEwMDAwMDQxMS5odG1s&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAX0IXst_0h7DYMirAFXcNpb9GEQtoWooAQ9XD9Oh04ZBiBPX_SKU4qTQN7_GgboGuhk2Y7XCgiSVFSfRTzbd4pokX4N0A5aj-l9nyla2gwLSopNnC9Ymf1ZldUmu3Peh-aSbdvceZrr6s_yrN7nHCam9PCCA9M35ub3PmVv_0nN
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\nCheck out Jessica Freeburg's website and pre-order her new books:\xa0 https://jessicafreeburg.com/books/
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\nFind out where the crew will be in your area:
\nhttps://www.darknessradioshow.com/p/events/
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\n#crime #truecrime #truecrimepodcasts #truecrimetuesday #shadowmen #thetangledstoryofmurdermediaandprivilegethatscandalizedjazzageamerica\xa0 #dumbcrimesstupidcriminals #TimDennis\xa0 #walterward #clarencepeters #shooting #murder #westchestercounty #tiptopbread #georgeward #blackmail #prohibition #tenderloindistrict #horseracing\xa0 #illegalgambling #bribery\xa0 #floridaman #publicsex #verbalthreats #terrorism\xa0 #policebrutality #sexcrimes\xa0 #floridacuddler #dna
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