When editors were gods

President saves editor from the slammer, 1909

On this day (November 17) in 1909, President William Howard Taft remitted the prison sentence of editor and publisher Bernarr Macfadden. The famous health faddist had been sentenced to two years at hard labor in the New Jersey state penitentiary for what newspaper reports called “mailing unmailable matter.” The matter in question was a series titled “Growing to Manhood in Civilized (?) Society” that Macfadden had published in his magazine Physical Culture in 1906 and 1907. Macfadden still had to pay a fine of $2,000.

Dogged editor in dognapping drama

On this day (September 2) in 1948, the Associated Press reported the apparent theft of Marco, a Pekinese puppy belonging to Richardson Wright, longtime editor of House & Garden magazine, five days days earlier. Wright was vacationing on Cape Cod at the time of the incident, which was witnessed by the wife of his estate's caretaker.

The United Press, which also covered the story, said Marco was “believed to be the first recorded victim of a ‘dognapping.’”

According to the caretaker, Marco was playing with another Pekinese named Mickey in front of the Wright home when, “A big car drove up and stopped and whoever was in it grabbed the dog. My wife was so shocked she can’t describe either the car or the people in it.”

The caretaker added that soon after the alleged dognapping he had received a phone call demanding “as much money as you can pay” for the release of Marco.

Reached by a United Press reporter, editor Wright stood firm, vowing “not to pay a cent” to the dognappers.

Fortunately, the matter came to a happy ending a day later when a Stamford, Connecticut, man phoned the Wright home to report that he had the dog. He said he found Marco wandering on a highway, thought he was lost, and took him home. Later, he’d heard about the alleged dognapping on the radio.

The police wrote the mysterious phone call off as a misunderstanding, possibly a stranger who had read about the incident and simply wanted to know whether Wright was offering a reward.

Wright retired from House & Garden the following year, after a remarkable three-and-a-half-decade run as the magazine’s editor.

The murdered editor and the famous L.A. landmark

On this day (May 20) in 1931, Herbert Spencer, associate editor of a Los Angeles political magazine called Critic of Critics, was shot to death in the office of Charles Crawford, a notorious L.A. crime figure. Crawford, who by some accounts funded Spencer's publication, was also shot dead. An allegedly corrupt former district attorney was charged with the murders but acquitted by a jury. On the site of the crime, Crawford's widow later built Crossroads of the World, an early shopping center and longtime Hollywood landmark.

From magazine editor to chain gang

On this day (May 22), back in 1929, newspapers reported the arrest of Robert Elliott Burns, 38-year-old editor and publisher of Greater Chicago, a local business magazine. Much to the surprise of his fellow Chicagoans, who  considered him a civic leader, Burns had escaped from a Georgia chain gang in 1922 after serving several months of a six-year sentence for his role in a grocery store holdup. Returned to Georgia to finish his sentence, Burns escaped once more and, while in hiding, wrote a popular 1932 book called "I Am a Fugitive From a Georgia Chain Gang!"  Later that year, Burns' book was made into a movie of the same title, minus the "Georgia," which the state had objected to. Eventually pardoned by a sympathetic Georgia governor, Burns finished out his days as a tax consultant in New Jersey.

An L. A. shootout leaves an editor dead

Eighty years ago today (May 20,1931), Herbert Spencer, associate editor of a Los Angeles political magazine called Critic of Critics, was shot to death in the office of Charles Crawford, a notorious L.A. crime figure. Crawford, who by some accounts funded Spencer's publication, was also shot dead. An allegedly corrupt former district attorney was charged with the murders but acquitted by a jury. On the site of the crime, Crawford's widow later built Crossroads of the World, an early shopping center and longtime Hollywood landmark.

The brutally murdered editor who inspired a movie classic

On this day (March 20) in 1927, Albert Snyder, mild-mannered art editor of Motor Boating magazine, was beaten, strangled, and chloroformed to death by Judd Gray, lover of Snyder's apparently scheming wife, Ruth. The ensuing trial became one of the most sensational of the 1920s, despite protests by writers such as Damon Runyon that neither perpetrator was worth the attention. The widow Snyder gained immortality of a sort when her final, blurry moments in the electric chair were recorded by a hidden camera strapped around a photographer's ankle. The case later inspired, very loosely, the much better novel and film "Double Indemnity." 

Editor dies, wife fries: the electrifying end of a famous murder case

It was on this day (January 12) in 1928 that Ruth Snyder and Judd Gray both went to the electric chair for the murder of Snyder's husband, Albert, the apparently mild-mannered art editor of Motor Boating magazine. The made-for-the-tabloids case is remembered for one of the most famous news photos of all time and was also the inspiration for several books and movies, including "Double Indemnity."

 

The fly-by-night editor behind an aviation magazine

It was on this day (January 6) in 1970 that Henry Woodhouse (a.k.a. Mario Terenzio Enrico Casalegno), a founder and managing editor of Flying magazine, died. Casalegno had served four years for murder before re-inventing himself as Woodhouse and establishing himself as an early aviation expert with credentials seemingly pulled out of thin air. Later in life he would gain further distinction as an alleged forger of historical documents.

 

A scandal magazine editor's scandalous exit, 1958

Howard Rushmore, ex-editor of the scandal magazine Confidential, shot himself and his estranged wife to death in a New York City taxi cab shortly after 7 p.m. on this day (January 3) in 1958. Howard Rushmore was 45. His wife, Frances, a former cover girl, was 37. Confidential's saga is chronicled in this recent book by Henry E. Scott.

The safety editor who met a violent end

Ralph W. Thompson, Jr., editor of the National Safety Council's Public Safety magazine, was found dead from a crushed skull on a loading dock near the Chicago Loop on this day (January 2) in 1938. Police were unsure whether the 31-year-old had slipped and struck his head or been murdered. A paper New Year's horn was found beside his body.  

The famous editor who changed his name

William Chon was born in Chicago on this day (August 31) in 1907. Concerned that his name sounded "too Chinese," he later changed it to William Shawn. As Shawn, he spent more than 50 years at The New Yorker, 35 of them as the magazine's editor. The young Chon also figures in a widely told but apparently apocryphal story involving the famous child murderers Leopold and Loeb.

A sad end for a magazine prodigy

On July 2, 1938, newspapers reported that magazine editor Chesla Sherlock, age 42, and his wife had been found dead at their farm in Cortland, New York, a day earlier. Sherlock was the first editor of Better Homes and Gardens while still in his 20s and went on to edit the Ladies' Home Journal and St. Nicholas magazine. The local coroner concluded that he killed his wife with a shotgun before shooting himself.