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OverviewExamining the case that inspired a pop culture phenomenon In 1924 Beulah Annan was arrested and incarcerated for killing her lover, Harry Kalsted. Six weeks later, a jury acquitted her of murder. Inspired by the sordid event, trial, and acquittal, Maurine Watkins, a reporter at the time, wrote the play Chicago, a Broadway hit that was adapted several times. Through a fresh retelling of the story of Annan and of Watkins’s play, Charles H. Cosgrove provides the first critical examination of the criminal case, and an initial exploration of the era’s social assumptions that made the message of the play so plausible in its own time. His careful historical research challenges the received portrait of Annan as a killer who got away with murder, and of Watkins as a savvy cub reporter and precocious playwright. In They Both Reached for the Gun, Charles H. Cosgrove expertly combines inquest and police records, and interviews with Annan’s relatives, to analyze the participants, the trial, and the subsequent play. Although no one will ever know what really happened in the Kenwood apartment on Chicago’s south side one hundred years ago, Cosgrove’s interrogation shows how sensationalized Watkins’s writing was. Her reporting on the Annan case perpetuated falsehoods about Annan’s so-called “confession,” and her play gave an inaccurate portrayal of Chicago’s criminal justice system. Despite Watkins’s insistence that her drama revealed the truth about its subjects without any exaggeration, her play depicted police, prosecutors, and judges as the only “good guys” in the story, ignoring those who lied, misled, and used brutal methods to obtain forced confessions. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Charles H. CosgrovePublisher: Southern Illinois University Press Imprint: Southern Illinois University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.399kg ISBN: 9780809339389ISBN 10: 0809339382 Pages: 240 Publication Date: 08 July 2024 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface A Note on Names Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Beulah Mae 2. A Shooting 3. An Alleged Confession 4. Police and Prosecutors Shape the Narrative 5. Inquest into the Death of Harry Kalsted 6. Finding Beulah behind the Press’s Tropes and Paraquotations 7. Maurine Watkins’s News with Wit 8. Back in Owensboro 9. Popular Opinions about Jury Bias in Favor of Women 10. Beulah Annan Goes to Trial 11. Watkins’s Tendentious Reporting on the Annan Trial 12. A Play Is Born 13. The Truth about Chicago’s Criminal Justice System 14. The Short Unhappy Finish to Beulah’s Life 15. Beulah Remembered as Roxie 16. Bob Fosse’s Musical Remake of Maurine Watkins’s Play Postscript Abbreviations Notes BibliographyReviews"""Cosgrove shines a dazzling spotlight on the historical distortions behind the musical Chicago and its source material. With authority and clarity, he argues there never was a Jazz Age Chicago where beautiful women routinely got away with murder. On trial here: the pushback against American women's social progress.""--Marcia Biederman, author of The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill: Abortion, Death, and Concealment in Victorian New England ""They Both Reached for the Gun is a fascinating exploration of the history behind Chicago, the musical based loosely on the 1924 conviction of Beulah Annan for her lover's murder. Through a careful reexamination of the case, the sensational press coverage, and the transformation of the actual events into entertainment, Cosgrove investigates the sometimes-unhealthy relationship between crime news and entertainment.""--Ann Durkin Keating, North Central College ""In a smooth and flowing style, Cosgrove's rich insight into a troubled woman's existence culminating in a questionable indictment and 'trial-by-press' presumption of guilt, provides readers with a sobering reassessment of the case, with a glimpse into the era and tabloid culture of the Roaring Twenties.""--Richard C. Lindberg, author of Tales of Forgotten Chicago" “Cosgrove shines a dazzling spotlight on the historical distortions behind the musical Chicago and its source material. With authority and clarity, he argues there never was a Jazz Age Chicago where beautiful women routinely got away with murder. On trial here: the pushback against American women’s social progress.” - Marcia Biederman, author of The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill: Abortion, Death, and Concealment in Victorian New England “They Both Reached for the Gun is a fascinating exploration of the history behind Chicago, the musical based loosely on the 1924 conviction of Beulah Annan for her lover's murder. Through a careful reexamination of the case, the sensational press coverage, and the transformation of the actual events into entertainment, Cosgrove investigates the sometimes-unhealthy relationship between crime news and entertainment.” - Ann Durkin Keating, North Central College “In a smooth and flowing style, Cosgrove’s rich insight into a troubled woman’s existence culminating in a questionable indictment and ‘trial-by-press’ presumption of guilt, provides readers with a sobering reassessment of the case, with a glimpse into the era and tabloid culture of the Roaring Twenties.” - Richard C. Lindberg, author of Tales of Forgotten Chicago Author InformationCharles H. Cosgrove is emeritus professor of early Christian literature at Garrett Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Fortune and Faith in Old Chicago: A Dual Biography of Mayor Augustus Garrett and Seminary Founder Eliza Clark Garrett, and Music at Social Meals in Greek and Roman Antiquity. A lifelong native of the Chicago area, he is an aficionado of the city’s history and makes occasional appearances in the area’s music venues as a jazz trombonist. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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