For the life of me I cannot remember the title. I read it maybe 15, 20 years ago when it was new. It’s about a minor-league model who was murdered in New York City in the mid-1930s. The author was somehow connected to the case: I think a relative of his (father? uncle?) was a suspect at some point. The book is just as much about the NY tabloid coverage of the case as about the crime itself–very well written.
I’ve searched the true-crime shelves at the Strand; I’ve bookfindered all kinds of possible word combinations (model, murder, killing, tabloid, New York) to no avail.
Did I hallucinate this book? Does it ring a bell with anyone else?
“Truth once again proves stranger than fiction in Gathje’s unique recounting of a landmark 1937 New York City murder and the subsequent sensational trial. Nude photographs of one of the three victims, model Ronnie Gedeon, turned the case into a tabloid frenzy-“crime and underwear,” said the press-as each of Gotham’s nine dailies illustrated every tidbit with another provocative glimpse of the 20-year-old’s barely draped form. Gathje’s uncle, Stephen Butter, was the last person to see the lovely Ronnie alive, laughing with her at 3 a.m. on Easter Sunday morning just outside the apartment inside which her mother, Mary, already lay dead.”
The publication date is 1995, which only makes it 11 years old, but other than that, it sounds like the book you are describing.