Today, we look at how the conventions of detective fiction informed--and misinformed--the investigation into the murder of Elliott Speer.

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In 1937, former Mount Hermon employee S. Allan Norton was ambushed at home by a trespasser with a shotgun. Norton identified his attacker as Thomas Elder, prime suspect in the unsolved murder of Elliott Speer. Members of the community held their breath as Elder went to trial for the attempted murder of Norton, hoping that proceedings would shed light on the shooting of Headmaster Speer.

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Within a week or two of the shooting of Elliott Speer, Dean Thomas Elder, second-in-command at Mount Hermon School for Boys, became the prime suspect in the crime. After amassing as much evidence as possible agains Elder, District Attorney Joseph Bartlett called an inquest that would determine whether Elder would stand trial for the homicide.

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In 1934, police were initially baffled by the murder of Elliott Speer. Then, one day, while an investigator was combing over the bookshelves in Speer's study, he happened upon a murder mystery that blew the case wide open.

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The son of an internationally renowned Presbyterian preacher, Elliott Speer became headmaster of the Mount Hermon School for Boys, a religiously oriented boarding school, in 1932. On the night of September 14, 1934, a trespasser murdered Speer in his own home, devastating his family, his colleagues, and the rest of the community.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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Introducing season 5 . . .

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Thanks to everyone who submitted questions and comments!

As promised, here's a link to Netherlandish Proverbs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlandish_Proverbs.

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In 1990, two men entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole something like $500 million worth of art, in what became the most infamous art heist in U.S. history. Today, we're joined by retired museum professional Frederick J. Fisher, who thinks that the Gardner affair may have been a sequel to an earlier effort to rob a different institution, the Hyde Collection, located in Glens Falls, New York. Fisher explores the theory in a new book titled The Practice Run, which is out May 15, 2025, so go order a copy!

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Today, we're joined by acclaimed author and filmmaker Barry Avrich to talk about one of the most colossal art fraud cases in New York history. It all started when a woman named Glafira Rosales walked into the storied Knoedler Gallery with a painting she claimed to have been created by Mark Rothko. The ensuing fiasco ended in catastrophe for the gallery. 

The Devil Wears Rothko by Barry Avrich is out June 24, 2025, and you can pre-order a copy today.

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This week, I'm re-releasing one of my all-time favorite episodes of The Art of Crime, "Shooting Andy Warhol: Valerie Solanas." It originally aired ac ouple years back, during seasons 2 of the podcast, Assassins. It looks at how playwright, writer, and all-around hellraiser Valerie Solanas shot and nearly killed Andy Warhol in 1968.

For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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