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Dark Histories

The Mysterious Death of Joseph Elwell

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.82.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2020

⏱️ 74 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rumoured as a top contender as the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgeralds most enigmatic of characters, Jay Gatsby, Joseph Bowne Elwell was among other things, a property developer, race horse owner, author, socialite, broker, tutor and, last but certainly not least, thoroughly famous card player. Winning sums that totalled into the tens of thousands on a nightly basis, he built both wealth and a social circle that placed him firmly in the upper echelons of New York Cities elite. That was until, one morning in June, 1920, when his maid found him, shot in the forehead, dressed in his Pyjamas, sitting in an armchair of the reception room of his Manhattan residence. Perplexing for the police was not only the fact that he was a man with no known, but potentially thousands of, enemies, but also that his house had been locked shut, the windows barred and no gun ever found at the crime scene. ------ For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072 or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thanks for downloading Dark Histories.

0:02.0

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0:07.0

We have a Patreon, Amazon Booklist, Coffee and Audible Affiliate Link.

0:12.0

So if you're interested in supporting, hopefully

0:14.9

you can find a way that best suits you. All of the links for those things can be found

0:19.8

either in the show notes or over on the website at dark histories.com.

0:24.0

Of course, just continuing to spread the word about the show on social media,

0:29.0

leaving reviews and sharing with all your family and friends is also a huge help.

0:34.0

So thank you to everyone for all that.

0:36.4

All right, enough of this.

0:38.3

Let's crack on with the episode.

0:39.5

Rumored as a top contender as the inspiration for F Scott Fitzgerald's most enigmatic

0:48.0

of characters, J. Gatsby, Joseph Bown Elwell was among other things a property developer, race horse owner, author,

0:57.0

socialite, broker, tutor, and last but certainly not least, thoroughly famous card player.

1:05.0

Winning sums that totaled in the tens of thousands on a nightly basis,

1:09.0

he built both wealth and a social circle that placed him firmly in the upper echelons of New York City's elite.

1:16.2

That was until one morning in June 1920 when his maid found him shot in the forehead dressed in his pyjamas sitting in an armchair

1:26.5

of the reception room of his Manhattan residence. Perplexing for the police was not only

1:31.8

the fact that he was a man with no known but potentially

1:34.7

thousands of enemies, but also that his house had been locked shut.

1:39.4

The windows were barred and no gun had ever been found at the crime scene.

1:45.0

This is dark histories where the facts are worst in fiction. Hello and

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