Long-missing Judge Crater resurfaces as gripping novel
The disappearance of New York State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater in 1930 led to tabloid headlines and gossip about underworld ties made it the most compelling mystery of the era.
“Judge Crater, call your office” was a comic punch line for years and the case was such a sensation, theories of what happened to the judge on the night of Aug. 6, 1930, persist to this day.
Ariel Lawhon, a Nashville, Tenn., writer, is the latest to bring Crater and his lively cast of cohorts back to life for another shot at solving this epic whodunit. Her telling of the Crater story is a gripping, fast-paced noir novel, The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress.
It captures a New York City period full of high-kicking showgirls, mob-linked speakeasies and Tammany Hall political scandal. Crater was no stranger to this highliving, precarious life, and it’s commonly assumed he paid dearly for it.
Lawhon brings fresh intrigue to this tale, making the final outcome a guessing game for the reader as events unfold.
Her version is built colourfully around many of the actual places and key people, including Crater’s wife, Stella, and his presumed mistress, the showgirl Sally Lou Ritz, known as Ritzi. She testified that she had dinner with Crater at a Manhattan chophouse before he possibly got in a cab for an uncertain destination.
Lawhon uses creative licence to bring to life many of the characters, including the Craters’ maid, a little-known woman who is named Maria Simon in the novel. Stella, Maria and Ritzi are central to Lawhon’s tale and give it a depth of emotion often missing from crime thrillers.
T here a re qu i rk s in the timeline that can be troublesome, but generally the story moves forward with momentum, thanks to well-crafted scenes and fluid dialogue.