The Girls of Murder City

In 1924 Chicago, "girl gunners" ruled newspaper headlines. Women were murdering men at alarming rates, and getting away with it. In The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago, Douglas Perry writes about two of these cases and the journalist turned playwright inspired by them. Beautiful Beulah Annan and stylish Belva Gaertner were the most popular inmates of Murderess' Row, and were both charged with shooting their lovers to death. New to the city, Maurine Watkins was a small town girl hoping to land a spot as a newspaperwoman covering the crime beat. She would later go on to write the play Chicago, based on Beulah, Belva, and the other women of Murderess' Row

This book sat on my pile a solid month before I finally started it, but it was worth the wait. Both entertaining and informative, The Girls of Murder City received starred reviews from several publications. If you like reading about crime in the Jazz Age, I would also recommend The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum.