Bag of Bones Read online

  BAG OF BONES

  Also by J. North Conway

  Nonfiction

  The Big Policeman: The Rise and Fall of America’s First, Most Ruthless, and Greatest Detective

  King of Heists: The Sensational Bank Robbery of 1878 That Shocked America

  The Cape Cod Canal: Breaking Through the Bared and Bended Arm

  Head Above Water

  Shipwrecks of New England

  New England Visionaries

  New England Women of Substance

  American Literacy: Fifty Books That Define Our Culture and Ourselves

  From Coup to Nuts: A Revolutionary Cookbook

  Fiction

  The Road to Ruin

  Zig Zag Man

  Poetry

  Life Sentences

  My Picnic With Lolita and Other Poems

  BAG OF BONES

  The Sensational Grave Robbery of the

  Merchant Prince of Manhattan

  J. NORTH CONWAY

  LYONS PRESS

  Guilford, Connecticut

  An imprint of Globe Pequot Press

  Copyright © 2012 by J. North Conway

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

  Lyons Press is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.

  Text design: Sheryl Kober

  Layout artist: Justin Marciano

  Project editor: Kristen Mellitt

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  ISBN 978-0-7627-7812-6

  Printed in the United States of America

  E-ISBN 978-0-7627-8513-1

  This book is dedicated to my mother and father.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  Bones of Contention

  1. COUNTER CULTURE

  In which Alexander Turney Stewart, New York City’s “Merchant Prince of Manhattan,” dies, leaving his widow, Cornelia, a forty-million-dollar fortune and naming Judge Henry Hilton as the executor of his estate. From his humble beginnings in Ireland, Stewart rises to wealth and power, and constructs a series of landmark buildings, including his two retail outlets—the Marble Palace and the Cast Iron Palace—and his lavish domicile, the Marble Mansion.

  2. THE CAST IRON PALACE

  In which A. T. Stewart expands his wholesale, retail, and manufacturing businesses, employing two thousand people and earning himself approximately two million dollars a year. Stewart undertakes one of his grandest philanthropic gestures by planning a “Working Women’s Hotel” in New York City, so working women will be able to find safe, comfortable, and reasonably priced accommodations. He buys more than seven thousand acres of land in Hempstead, Long Island, where he intends to build a model community—Garden City.

  3. CAVEAT EMPTOR

  In which vast tributes are paid to the life of the “Merchant Prince” upon Stewart’s death, lavish funeral, and interment in St. Mark’s Cemetery. Although Stewart bequeaths all his assets to his wife, Cornelia, and names his friend and confidant, Judge Henry Hilton, only as executor of his estate, Hilton seizes upon the opportunity, incorporating a new firm to run Stewart’s wholesale, retail, and manufacturing concerns. The new head of all operations: Henry Hilton.

  4. A PROBLEM WITH HOTELS

  In which Henry Hilton, as head of the A. T. Stewart business empire, commits the first of his many public relations blunders by refusing accommodations to Jewish banker Joseph Seligman and subsequently banning all members of the Jewish community from the Grand Union Hotel, the Stewart estate’s resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. Hilton’s actions lead to a boycott of Stewart’s stores by the Jewish community. Hilton also reneges on building the “Working Women’s Hotel,” causing a furor among New York City women, who also threaten a boycott.

  5. THE GHOULS STRIKE

  In which ghouls steal the body of A. T. Stewart from its grave at St. Mark’s Cemetery in November 1878. Despite several clues, a twenty-five-thousand-dollar reward offered by Henry Hilton, and an extensive investigation by the New York City Police Department, no leads are found in the mystifying case. Hilton does not immediately inform Mrs. Stewart of the ghastly deed for fear that it might send her into shock. He subsequently accuses the church sextons of the appalling crime in an effort to close the unnerving case.

  6. THE BEST DETECTIVE TALENT

  In which the theft of A. T. Stewart’s remains causes a national media sensation and expends the resources of the entire New York City Police Department, as well as private detectives hired by Henry Hilton. While several suspects are apprehended and then released, new clues in the case are uncovered and followed but only lead to a series of dead-ends. Hilton receives hundreds of letters from unnamed sources claiming to be in possession of the body and demanding ransom payment for its return.

  7. THE SEARCH CONTINUES

  In which the motive for the theft continues to elude the police while clues suggest it is the handiwork of professional grave robbers, most notably George Christian, a notorious “resurrectionist” who steals bodies for medical research. Yet, neither Christian nor the flood of mysterious letters claiming to know the location of A. T. Stewart’s body lead the police to the culprits. Stewart’s body remains missing.

  8. VREELAND AND BURKE

  In which the noted investigator, New York City Police Captain Thomas Byrnes, makes a breakthrough in the sensational case and arrests two men, Henry Vreeland and William Burke, charging them with the heinous crime. The two men lead the police on a merry chase through parts of New Jersey where they claim the body is buried.

  9. KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES

  In which, by early 1879, it appears that all leads in the A. T. Stewart grave robbery have been exhausted and the story fades from the front pages until Patrick Jones, a lawyer and former New York postmaster, reports to the press that he has been in contact with Stewart’s grave robbers, who demand more than two hundred thousand dollars for the return of the body. Despite New York City police officials verifying the authenticity of the demand, Henry Hilton refuses to negotiate with the unnamed criminals and dismisses Jones’s evidence as another elaborate ploy to squeeze money from the Stewart estate.

  10. THE MYSTERIOUS PACKAGE

  In which Italian sculptor Giuseppe F. Sala makes a startling claim that he was involved with men who stole Stewart’s body. Sala had previously been mixed up in the infamous Cardiff Giant hoax, in which a giant was reportedly discovered on a farm in upstate New York. The “giant” turns out to be a body carved out of gypsum by Sala. His claim regarding the body of A. T. Stewart turns out to be merely another hoax. In August 1881, new leads come to light when New York City private detective J. M. Fuller reports he has received a mysterious package that includes a painting showing where Stewart’s body is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery.

  11. THE CYPRESS HILLS CEMETERY INCIDENT

  In which J. M. Fuller begins excavation of a section of Cypress Hills Cemetery in his quest to locate the remains of A. T. Stewart. As word leaks out of Fuller’s search, hundreds of curiosity seekers converge on the excavation site, hampering the investigation. Despite digging up a huge section of the cemetery, Fuller and his men uncover nothing. The excavation is abandoned.

  12. GOING OUT OF BUSINESS

  In which, in early April 1882, it is announced that A. T. Stewar
t & Co., the once prosperous retail empire, is going out of business. Although surprising to the general public, it comes as no surprise to New York City’s mercantile community and bankers, or even to Wall Street. Many agree that Henry Hilton’s lack of business savvy, his imperious management style, and a series of egregious public relations blunders ultimately led to the liquidation of the company. Hilton refuses to accept any blame for the company’s demise.

  13. BAG OF BONES

  In which, in 1881, Mrs. Stewart, without Henry Hilton’s approval, makes arrangements with men claiming to be the grave robbers for the return of her husband’s remains. On a deserted road in New York’s Westchester County, two wagons cross paths, one containing an emissary from Mrs. Stewart with a twenty-thousand-dollar ransom and the other driven by unidentified men who exchange a burlap bag of bones for the ransom money and ride off. The bones are taken by train to Garden City, where they are placed in the crypt at the Cathedral of the Incarnation.

  14. MEMORIAL TO THE MERCHANT PRINCE

  In which one thousand people travel to Garden City, Long Island, to take part in the April 1885 dedication ceremony of the Gothic-style Cathedral of the Incarnation—the huge, ornate, and costly memorial Cornelia Stewart has built for her husband. Construction of the cathedral takes nine years and costs approximately three million dollars. On May 22, 1885, Cornelia Stewart signs over the deed of the great cathedral and all of its adjacent buildings and schools to the Episcopal church for one dollar.

  15. EXPIRATION DATE

  In which Cornelia Stewart dies on October 25, 1886, leaving behind a will that bequeaths nearly half of the remaining Stewart estate to Judge Henry Hilton. Stewart heirs seek to have the will voided, claiming fraud by Hilton. The case lingers in the courts for the next seven years before being resolved. In the end, Hilton’s attempts at replicating his benefactor’s retail business success all fail. Hilton dies, and the once great Stewart fortune is gone.

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter Sources

  Bibliography

  About the Author

  Introduction

  BONES OF CONTENTION

  The tale surrounding the theft and ransom of department store magnate A. T. Stewart’s body—told here in Bag of Bones—would be magnificent fodder for today’s “cold case” entertainment industry were the remains those of a contemporary man of Stewart’s astounding wealth. But this crime took place long before co-ed detective units and lab-coat forensics. It remains one of America’s great and enduring mysteries.

  Bag of Bones is the third and final installment of my trilogy about New York City during the Gilded Age. King of Heists (2009) told the story of the greatest bank robbery in American history, carried out in 1878 by George L. Leslie, dubbed “King of the Bank Robbers.” The Big Policeman (2010) details the career of Thomas Byrnes, a colorful, sometimes ruthless police officer who rose through the ranks to become superintendent of the New York City Police Department and who is credited as the father of American detective work.

  Byrnes is a key player in the A. T. Stewart drama. He is the head cop in the investigation of the gruesome, sensational crime at the heart of the story. I think of the Stewart case as a classic whodunit, yet it weaves together elements of true crime, biography, and Manhattan history and culture, all set against New York City’s decadent social order—the Gilded Age.

  Running parallel to the grave-robbing narrative is the story of the Stewart family’s rise and fall, and how the family fortune fared under the questionable stewardship of one of Stewart’s most trusted friends, Judge Henry Hilton. Any reader will be quick to conclude that Bernie Madoff had nothing on Judge Hilton. The tragedy of A. T. and Cornelia Stewart serves as a cautionary tale, one that reinforces how vital study of the Gilded Age is to our understanding of contemporary American society. The Gilded Age was a term coined by Mark Twain and used as the title of a book he wrote with Charles Dudley Warner in 1873, The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-Day. It encapsulates a period in American history (1870–1890) of enormous greed, the accumulation of great wealth by the so-called robber barons—people who made their great fortunes through ruthless and uncontrolled business practices—and the vulgar display of that wealth.

  Gilded Age figures occupy the top tier of the list of the richest Americans in history according to both Forbes and the New York Times. Among them are John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), America’s first billionaire, ranked number one with approximately $190 billion by early twenty-first century currency standards, followed by Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), who was estimated to be worth about $140 billion, and John Jacob Astor in the number three spot at nearly $115 billion. Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) reached sixth place, and A.T. Stewart (1803–1876), who is considered the father of the American department store, was in the seventh position. The Gilded Age yielded five of the top ten richest men in American history. During this period it was estimated that the richest 2 percent of the people owned one-third of the nation’s wealth, while the richest 10 percent owned three-quarters. If, as stated in the Sermon on the Mount, “the meek shall inherit the earth,” then the celestial courts will surely be clogged with litigation. According to Robert Frank of the New York Times, during the “New Gilded Age” of the 1990s and the early 2000s, “today’s rich barely hold a candle to the Gilded Age titans. … This is partly a measure of the astounding wealth accumulated by Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Astor, and Carnegie.” Count A. T. Stewart among these notable Gilded Age billionaires.

  At the time of his death in 1876, before Rockefeller had completed his ascent, Alexander Turney Stewart was considered the third richest man in America behind only Vanderbilt and Astor. He left his wife, Cornelia, an estate estimated at more than forty million dollars, a vast fortune that he had made in the retail sales business and that had earned him the title of the “Merchant Prince of Manhattan.”

  An Irish immigrant, Stewart began his career in New York City in 1823, selling linens from the old country. By 1862, he had built the largest department store in the world, the “Cast Iron Palace.” Stewart’s store was six floors tall and located on the corner of Broadway and Ninth Street. It had a cast-iron front and a glass dome skylight. The immense store employed more than two thousand people and had nearly twenty departments, selling everything from burlap bags to women’s calf gloves. He later established department stores overseas, including in London and Paris.

  In 1869, Stewart completed his ornate mansion on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street in New York City. Unlike the other luxurious brownstone mansions owned by the Astors and Vanderbilts, all located along what was referred to as “Millionaires’ Row,” Stewart’s was made entirely out of Italian marble, cut exclusively for him and shipped to the United States. Costing approximately two million dollars, it took seven years to build. Constructed in Parisian Empire design, the building had three main floors, an attic with a mansard roof, and a ballroom that ran the full length of its Fifth Avenue frontage. A lighted moat separated the residence from the sidewalks. Stewart filled the mansion with expensive furniture and antiques and a large and valuable art collection. There was no home like it in America.

  Stewart’s attempt to outdo his multimillionaire neighbors, like William and Caroline Astor, did not endear him to New York City’s powerful and affluent society. He and his wife found themselves ostracized by high class circles, viewed as millionaire upstarts. Still, their exclusion did nothing to damage his retail empire. Following the death of Cornelia Stewart in 1886, the Marble Mansion was sold, and in 1901 it was torn down.

  Stewart did not spend all of his fortune on himself and his wife. Although he was not known as a philanthropist among the ranks of Andrew Carnegie, he was still very generous to those in need. During the Irish potato famine of 1848, Stewart sent a shipload of provisions to his native Lisburn and invited young people to take free passage to America, where he found them j
obs within his vast department store complex. He also sent fifty thousand dollars to the victims of the 1871 Chicago fire.

  His most lasting philanthropic endeavor was the building of Garden City, New York. In 1869, Stewart bought more than seven thousand acres on the Hempstead Plain on Long Island, where he established the first planned workers’ community in the United States. Garden City included sixteen miles of streets and avenues, a central park, affordable homes, stores, and a hotel. Stewart even built a railroad into the city so his employees could take the train to work at one of his many retail, wholesale, or manufacturing businesses. Stewart had nearly thirty thousand trees planted in his development. He did not, however, offer home ownership. Instead he acted as landlord of the community. Today, Garden City remains one of the country’s most sought after residential locations.