What happened to Anna Jane Phillips, star of ‘A Murder of Convenience’?
When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published the last chapter of its serial novel “A Murder of Convenience” on Jan. 4, we left some readers hanging. The biggest loose end: What happened to Anna Jane Phillips, the real Post-Gazette reporter who covered Martha Westwood’s murder in 1935?
Before we answer that, let’s meet the real Anna Jane, who was known to her family as A.J. She was the oldest of five children and grew up in a turreted mansion at 2336 Brownsville Road in Carrick.
Her father, John M. Phillips, was president of Phillips Mine and Supply Co., and inventor of machinery such as the Phillips automatic crossover dump car. Her mother, the former Harriet Duff, was the cousin of James H. Duff, a Pennsylvania governor and U.S. senator.
Anna Jane earned a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York City.
In 1930, she became the first woman writer hired at the Post-Gazette but was relegated to being editor of the women’s pages. Eventually, she escaped writing lovelorn columns and began covering major news stories under the watchful eye of city editor Joseph Shuman.
“She loved to write,” said her only surviving child, Margaret Shuman Cullen, of Brooklyn, N.Y. “My memory of mother was either typing or on the phone.”
Anna Jane especially liked covering crime, and she often scooped her male counterparts by interviewing the women involved, her daughter said. As shown in Chapter 7 of “A Murder of Convenience,” she was the only reporter from Pittsburgh’s three major newspapers — the Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Press and Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph — who did in-depth interviews with the family of George Matuza, a steelworker and eyewitness who died under suspicious circumstances.
“She was just an incredibly bright woman before the time when that was OK,” her daughter said.
She even wrote about crime for other publications. According to family lore, her son, Joseph Duff Shuman, found a box in the attic of True Detective magazines that included stories his mother had written under a pseudonym.
“She was furious,” Ms. Cullen recalled.
Apparently the crime reporter had hoped to keep secret her history as a pulp fiction writer.
In 1936, she accompanied Margaret Sanger, founder of the forerunner of Planned Parenthood, to India, where Ms. Sanger lobbied for birth control. Anna Jane’s mother had been a pioneer in birth control advocacy and held a seat on the local Planned Parenthood board. Anna Jane had a seat on the same board and promoted family planning throughout her life.
Now here’s the kicker: Remember Joe Shuman, the city editor who funneled big stories to Anna Jane? Well, in 1941, she married him and stopped working at the PG.
She and her husband were from very different backgrounds. He was Jewish and had grown up without wealth or influence in Tennessee. She came from a well-to-do local family with political connections and a philanthropic streak.
Anna Jane played a key role in the construction of a new juvenile detention center with expanded services and more capacity. The Anna Jane Phillips Shuman Detention Center was built in 1975 on Leech Farm Road where Pittsburgh Job Corps Center is now. It’s near where the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center stands today on Highland Drive.
She was a member of the anti-crime Regional Council of Governor’s Justice Commission until 1973, when she resigned in disgust along with future Gov. Richard Thornburgh. Both said the commission was too politicized to be effective.
Anna Jane generally wore two-piece suits and “she never wore flats,” Ms. Cullen said. She also refused to follow the 1950s trend of long fingernails with red polish, preferring short nails painted with Elizabeth Arden Windsor Rose, a subdued shade of pink.
“She thought [red polish] was a little tacky,” Ms. Cullen said.
“A dedicated smoker,” Anna Jane despised domestic pursuits and had no sewing machine. Yet she hand-sewed clothes for her daughter’s baby doll when she was ill in bed with emphysema or other health problems.
In 1976, she died of a heart attack at age 69.
Joseph Shuman retired from the Post-Gazette in 1973 as managing editor and died of heart failure in 1988. Their son, Joseph, died in 2017. Some of the Phillips cousins continue to live in the Pittsburgh area.