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Scandalous Hamiltons Bill Shaffer ARC Advance Softcover
Scandalous Hamiltons A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Father’s Disgraced Descendent, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism by Bill Shaffer Softcover ARC Advance Reader’s Copy. New, unread condition. This book has not been read. From a smoke-free home. 297 pages. This advance reader’s copy does not have the pages of pictures. Published July 26, 2022. ISBN: 9780806542256. Synopsis: The tawdry, true Gilded Age scandal involving the doomed great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton, duped into marriage by a beautiful and scrappy prostitute whose criminal exploits and sordid life were gobbled up by America’s fledgling tabloids. It was unseemly as it was unfathomable. The descendent of one of America’s Founding Fathers had taken up with a con-artist prostitute who duped him into marriage using an infant purchased from a baby farm. Within the year she was sentenced to prison for stabbing the couple’s baby nurse – all while in a common-law marriage with another man. The scandal surrounding Robert Ray Hamilton and Evangeline Brill was one of the sensations of the Gilded Age, a sordid, gripping tale involving bigamy, bribery, and violence. When this scandalous Hamilton story emerged during Eva’s trial for the August 1889 stabbing, it commanded unprecedented national and international newspaper coverage thanks to the telegraph and recently founded Associated Press. For the New York dailies, eager to capture readers through provocative headlines, Ray and Eva were a godsend, their trial helping to birth a new era of journalism. The public’s fascination with the case grew with each new lurid detail – how did a man of Hamilton’s stature fall from grace over such a woman? Infamous investigative reporter Nellie Bly’s exclusive post-conviction interview with Eva fanned the flames of notoriety. Hamilton’s death under mysterious circumstances, a year after the stabbing, added to the intrigue. Through personal correspondence, court records, and sensational newspaper accounts, The Scandalous Hamiltons explores not only the full, riveting sage of the ill-fated Ray and Eva, but the rise of tabloid journalism and celebrity in a story that is both a fascinating slice of pop culture history and a timeless tale of ambition, greed, and obsession.