YESTERDAY’S NEWS-

A reading of historical newspapers from the golden age of yellow journalism.

-

The Trial and Travails of Norma Brighton Millen

-

On Sunday, I will be presenting the final chapter of the Dillinger saga, which I recorded from the main stage of the Biograph Theater, where the scoundrel John Dillinger watched his last gangster picture. Today’s episode takes place around the same time that the Dillinger story began reaching its climax in the first half of 1934.

-

It’s the story of a young girl, the daughter of a prominent minister and graduate of a fine finishing school, who fell into the wrong crowd and married a man who would be executed for the crime of the gang he was trying to build. The papers never said, but I can’t help but think the Millen-Faber Gang fancied themselves to be the Dillingers of the East Coast. The story grabbed my attention because of the way Norma Brighton Millen presented herself after her capture. Is she the innocent dupe as she proclaimed? Or was she using her pretty face and sophisticated air to disguise her inner bad girl and get off easy? I’d like to hear your thoughts, so leave me some comments on my Facebook page after you listen.

-

Music by Chuck Wiggins

-

www.truecrimehistorian.com/1934millen