The Mad Sculptor - by Harold Schechter (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

2015 Edgar Award Nominee

Beekman Place, once one of the most exclusive addresses in Manhattan, had a curious way of making it into the tabloids in the 1930s: SKYSCRAPER SLAYER, BEAUTY SLAIN IN BATHTUB read the headlines. On Easter Sunday in 1937, the discovery of a grisly triple homicide at Beekman Place would rock the neighborhood yet again--and enthrall the nation. The young man who committed these murders would come to be known in the annals of American crime as the Mad Sculptor.

Caught up in the Easter Sunday slayings was a bizarre and sensationalistic cast of characters, seemingly cooked up in a tabloid editor's overheated imagination. The charismatic perpetrator, Robert Irwin, was a brilliant young sculptor who had studied with some of the masters of the era. But with his genius also came a deeply disturbed psyche; Irwin was obsessed with sexual self-mutilation and was frequently overcome by outbursts of violent rage.

Irwin's primary victim, Veronica Gedeon, was a figure from the world of pulp fantasy--a stunning photographer's model whose scandalous seminude pinups would titillate the public for weeks after her death. Irwin's defense attorney, Samuel Leibowitz, was a courtroom celebrity with an unmatched record of acquittals and clients ranging from Al Capone to the Scottsboro Boys. And Dr. Fredric Wertham, psychiatrist and forensic scientist, befriended Irwin years before the murders and had predicted them in a public lecture months before the crime.

Based on extensive research and archival records, The Mad Sculptor recounts the chilling story of the Easter Sunday murders--a case that sparked a nationwide manhunt and endures as one of the most engrossing American crime dramas of the twentieth century. Harold Schechter's masterly prose evokes the faded glory of post-Depression New York and the singular madness of a brilliant mind turned against itself. It will keep you riveted until the very end.

Review Quotes

"The Mad Sculptor is as gripping as the cleverest Golden Age mystery...Mr. Schechter outdoes himself." --Wall Street Journal

"Ambitious, bold, and evocative, Schechter's storytelling grabs the reader in a similar manner to Capote's searing In Cold Blood." --Publishers Weekly

"Grisly...The novelist Raymond Chandler listed [the triple murder] as No. 3 on his compilation of the ten greatest crimes of the century." --New York Times

"This fascinating tale of a charismatic and savvy madman will thrill historical true crime fans." --Library Journal

"Schechter adds another page-turner to his stable of atmospheric, highly readable true-crime works." --Booklist

"Harold Schechter, arguably America's foremost historian of the macabre, has unearthed one of the most fascinating--and terrifying--horrors of the Depression era. You've probably never heard of the artist Robert Irwin or the beautiful model Veronica Gedeon. After reading Schechter's visceral telling of their story, you'll never be able to forget them." --Douglas Perry, author of Eliot Ness: The Rise and Fall of an American Hero

"A righteously disturbing chronicle of a madman/artist and his deviant life, Schechter again produces a heavyweight. Meticulously researched and eloquently delivered, The Mad Sculptor is a wild ride into a savage crime in 1930s New York." --Steve Miller, author of Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Rock 'n' Roll in America's Loudest City

"Harold Schechter has unveiled another sensational murder with a cast of characters that might have stepped from a novel by Dostoyevsky. Schechter's absorbing narrative will fascinate everyone with an interest in New York in the twentieth century." --Simon Baatz, author of For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago

"A lurid summer read...[The Mad Sculptor] is more than a mere real-life thriller; it's a gritty glimpse at American dreams descending into nightmare." --The Times Picayune