Finding Judge Crater, Stephen J. Riegel
Finding Judge Crater, Stephen J. Riegel
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Finding Judge Crater
A Life and Phenomenal Disappearance in Jazz Age New York

Author: Stephen J. Riegel

Narrator: Chris Monteiro

Unabridged: 9 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/09/2023

Synopsis

On the night of August 6, 1930, Joseph Force Crater, a newly appointed judge and prominent figure in many circles of Manhattan, hailed a taxi in the heart of Broadway and vanished into thin air. Despite a decades-long international manhunt led by the New York Police Department's esteemed Missing Persons Bureau, the reason for Crater's disappearance remains a confounding mystery. In the early months of the investigation, evidence implicated and imperiled New York's top officials, including then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mayor Jimmy Walker, as well as the city's Tammany Hall political machine, lawyers and judges, and a theater mogul.

Drawing on new sources, including NYPD case files and court records, and overlooked evidence discovered years later, Riegel pieces together the puzzle of what likely happened to Joseph Crater and why. To uncover the mystery, he delves into Crater's ascension into the scintillating and corrupt world of Manhattan in the Roaring Twenties and Jazz Age. In turn, the story of the judge's vanishing amid the Great Depression unfolds as a harbinger of the disappearance of his lost metropolis and its transformation into modern-day New York City.

About Stephen J. Riegel

Stephen J. Riegel is a practicing litigator and former federal prosecutor in New York City who appears in some of the same courts Crater did. He also has degrees in American history from Princeton University and Stanford University. He has published articles on legal history.

Reviews

Goodreads review by LAWRENCE on March 18, 2022

I so much enjoyed reading Stephen Riegel’s New York City historical drama Finding Judge Crater - A Life and Phenomenal Disappearance in Jazz Age New York and highly recommend this book to all lovers of true-crime non-fiction and stories of the history of New York City. Riegel expertly unravels the m......more

Goodreads review by Anne on April 08, 2022

Loved this book! Riegel vividly presents the scintillating and corrupt world of Manhattan in the Roaring 1920s, and shines its light on one of the most perplexing missing person cases in American history, the disappearance of Judge Crater in 1930 from the streets of Broadway. Based obviously on exte......more

Goodreads review by Larry on July 11, 2022

This enthralling non-fiction story brought to life a meticulously researched accounting of Judge Joseph Crater’s disappearance. The descriptive atmosphere of the decadent Roaring Twenties in NYC was palpable. The author put together a complex puzzle of facts and reasoned speculations to come to a be......more

Goodreads review by Rosalind on April 26, 2022

The ongoing mystery of the disappearance of Judge Crater comes to life in this extremely well written and exciting book. Steve Riegel brings the reader into the world of Tammany Hall politics and the reader gets to know the missing justice all too well. I found myself turning to read many of the foo......more

Goodreads review by Michael on June 05, 2022

Great book. It is obvious that the author did very extensive research. Riegel's writing style is clear and concise and every word was agonized over. The author's grasp of the times and familiarity with the key actors is impressive. The judge almost becomes secondary to the storyline centering on "go......more

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