Box 3 - Writings by Dix - investigative

Folder 20 of 22

10 items

75+ copies of newspaper articles covering investigative writings by Dix and her colleague Glaspell who wrote at the same time covering major murder trials across the nation. The time period for these articles is 1901-1902 and these articles are from the following three newspapers: New York Journal, New York Journal and American, and Des Moines Daily News. These articles were acquired for a presentation/article comparing the two reporters writing styles.

Listed below are the newspaper articles as stored in the folder.

1. “EVELYN JUST LIKE A LITTLE GIRL,” the second Thaw trial reported on by Dix. The report is divided into five parts, the first being the introduction of the report followed by “Like a Child In School-girl Dress; Brainy and Debonnair Soldier of Fortune; Absorbs Culture Like a Sponge and Dutiful Wife Living Like Hermit,” [The Evening Journal] nd.

2. “Dorothy Dix Says Thaw Trial Has Been GREAT MORAL LESSON.” Article begins with an introduction followed by three topics. “Is Great Moral Lesson, Money Is a Curse and Gold Turns to Ashes.” THE NEW ORLEANS ITEM, January 25 [1907] by Hearst News Service.

3. “DOROTHY DIX PICTURES MISS LAMBERT AS MARVEL FOR MASKED PERSONALITY.” The introduction is followed by the following topics, “Marion Lambert Pictured; Giggling School Girl; Suicide Theory Scouted; Mother Never Suspected and Used Remarkable Ruse.” Some paragraphs are printed in bold text to signify important information. Chicago Evening American, Monday, May 29, 1916.

4. “TODAY – When Dorothy Dix was the best girl reporter in the world, before becoming a leading philosopher, she could unravel faint clues, but French reporters in possession of a finger cut-off would surprise her….,” by Arthur Brisbane [The Times Picayune] nd.

5. “Memories of Dorothy Dix. ‘And it’s that way with great murderers. Human passions almost always atrophy under the restraints of good breeding over several generations, just as muscles atrophy if they are kept inactive too long; just as the fish in the Mammoth cave in Kentucky are blind because they lost their eyes from generations of darkness. It takes generations to breed raw human passions up to the standard of good breeding. And when you have bred them up that way you have little or nothing of the raw material of the murderer left. That’s why I never believed the Stevens family had anything to do with the murder of Dr. Hall and Mrs. Mills. Shooting and throat-cutting had been bred out of them. That’s why I believed that Mrs. Hall was telling the truth when she said she hadn’t the faintest idea that her husband was unfaithful to her. Mrs. Hall was a lady with generations of good breeding back of her. She couldn’t have suspected her husband of an intrigue….” Public Ledger Company, 1927.

6. “She Killed in Real Life as Thomas Hardy’s Heroine Did Upon the Stage – Their Life Stories the Same,” by Dorothy Dix. The Terranova case; photos of Josephine Terranova and Mrs. Fiske as “Tess,” ns., nd.

6a. “Newspaper Scoops that made me famous.” Dorothy Dix, America’s best known woman reporter, tells how she solved the mystery of The Prisoner of Love, gained the confusion of the girl murderess, Josephine Terranova, and beat the police in the unraveling of baffling Virginia Eternal Triangle affair, by Dorothy Dix. The Desert News, April 9, 1927. Public Ledger. Click to View Online

7. Mrs. Carrie Nation and her hatchet blow that changed the whole temperance situation, by Dorothy Dix. Topeka, Kansas, February 9 [1901] (from her scrap book).

8. “Dorothy Dix Success,” a small paragraph about Dorothy Dix (Mrs.Gilmer) of the Picayune staff being commissioned by the New York Journal to go to Kansas and keep up with nation and company, ns.,nd., (from her scrap book).

9. The telegram from S.S. Chamberlain, Managing Editor of the New York Journal complementing Dix “on the excellence of your story about Mrs. Nation. It was the best thing that has yet appeared about her. I am told that you have had some idea of coming to New York. Please let me know if this is true ….I should be glad to make some arrangement with you for regular work. Very Truly Yours, February 12th, 1901" (from her scrap book).