Introducing Murder by the Book (S5E0)

It's not unusual for real-life crimes ot inspire murder mysteries. But it is unusual for a murdery mystery to inspire a real-life crime. And yet that's exactly what happened at a genteel, Christian boarding school in 1934.

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TRANSCRIPT

Crime writers have never hesitated to rip their stories from the headlines. In 1913, Marie Belloc Lowndes published The Lodger, a novel about a serial killer modeled on Jack the Ripper. In 1930, Dorothy L. Sayers released Strong Poison, invoking the trial of Florence Maybrick, a woman convicted of poisoning her husband. In 1934, Agatha Christie drew inspiration for Murder on the Orient Express from the kidnapping and murder of the Lindburgh baby.

It’s not unusual for a real-life crimes to inspire murder mysteries. But it is unusual for a murder mystery to inspire a real-life crime. And yet, that’s exactly what happened on the campus of a genteel, Christian boarding school, right at the height of the Golden Age of detective fiction.

Welcome to The Art of Crime, a history podcast about the unlikely collisions between true crime and the arts. This season is titled Murder by the Book. Over the course of five episodes, it tells the tragic story of Elliott Speer, a murder mystery lover who served as headmaster at a religious boys’ school in Massachusetts. In 1934, a trespasser murdered Elliott in his own home, devastating his family, his colleagues, and the rest of the community. As police soon discovered, Elliott’s death bore an uncanny resemblance to a killing at the center of a novel titled The Public School Murder by R.C. Woodthorpe. Elliott Speer not only owned a copy but also appears to have loaned it to the prime suspect in his homicide.

As we follow the life and death of Elliott Speer, we’ll explore how Christian fundamentalists battled against reformers in American education, how the murder mystery became the most popular literary genre on both sides of the Atlantic in the wake of World War I, and how the conventions of detective fiction informed both the public’s reaction to the slaying of Elliott Speer as well as the police investigation into it.

Episode 1 will be available to the public two weeks after the release of this teaser, on Wednesday, June 25. But patrons of The Art of Crime can listen to the first two episodes right now. So if you can’t wait and you’d like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast. Again, that’s www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast. Alternatively, you can listen to episodes 1 and 2 by signing up for an Apple subscription. Until next time!