On the morning of July 3, 1915, John Pierpont Morgan Jr., one of the most famous names in finance, was entertaining guests at his sprawling Long Island estate when the doorbell unexpectedly rang. An armed man forced his way inside. At the same time, authorities in Washington, DC, were investigating a shocking bombing at the US Capitol. While no one had been killed, the blast had destroyed the reception room, and DC citizens were on edge.
Nine years earlier, in 1906, Leone Krembs Muenter had fallen ill and died shortly after giving birth. Her husband, Harvard professor Erich Muenter, blamed his wife’s Christian Science religious beliefs, which prohibited medical intervention, for the death, but an investigation suggested something more sinister: arsenic poisoning. As suspicions mounted, Muenter vanished.
Joining me is Mary Noé, author of “The Man Who Shot J. P. Morgan: A Life of Arsenic, Anarchy, and Intrigue”. She tells the remarkable tale of a deceptive Harvard professor who reemerges with a new name and family —and a dangerous loyalty to Germany during World War I.
The author’s website.
The author’s publisher page.
