Robert George Irwin
Encyclopedia
Robert George Irwin an artist-sculptor and recurring mental hospital patient, pled guilty to killing three persons on Easter
weekend in 1937 in the Beekman Hill area of New York City’s Turtle Bay
neighborhood.
One of his victims, Veronica “Ronnie” Gedeon
, was a model who often appeared in seductive pulp magazine
pictures. The crime, its investigation, Irwin’s arrest, and the resulting court proceedings were heavily publicized, often with eye-catching photos of Miss Gedeon and headlines describing Irwin as the “mad sculptor.” Veronica Gedeon left behind a portfolio of sexy photos that, in retrospect, had no relevance to the crime, its cause or Irwin’s responsibility for it. However, that coincidence kept the story on front pages of newspapers around the country for months, publicity which ultimately helped to bring Irwin into custody.
Irwin’s prosecution, which ended through a plea-bargain that kept him incarcerated for life, renewed debate about the use and scope of New York’s version of the insanity defense. Once sentenced, Irwin was deemed “definitely insane” by state psychiatrists. He spent the rest of his life in secure mental institutions.
. His father deserted the family before Robert was three years old, leaving them impoverished. When a family court judge noted that Robert could learn a trade at a state reformatory, he volunteered and spent fifteen months there, where he first learned to sculpt. He soon idolized Lorado Taft
, one of the leading American sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and later moved in with Taft’s family. Then, working for a waxworks studio in Los Angeles
, he carved commercial busts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
and other public figures.
, and was released in the summer of 1936. By then, Ethel Gedeon had married George Kudner. Irwin then made a sculpture of Ethel with a cobra coiled around her neck.
He enrolled as a student at the Theological School of St. Lawrence University
at Canton, New York
. However, he was expelled on March 18, 1937, ten days before Easter, because of “instability.” He then rented (for a single day) a $2.50-a-week room in a house on 52nd Street in New York City, several blocks from Mary Gedeon’s rooming house at 316 E. 50th Street. After considering and rejecting the idea of drowning himself in the East River
, he instead walked to the Gedeon rooming house.
Police attention focused initially on a driver, then on Mary Gedeon’s ex-husband, Joseph Gedeon. By April 7, however, their attention had shifted toward Irwin, in part because a sculpture carefully carved in ordinary bath soap was discovered at the crime scene. A nationwide manhunt for Irwin followed. State Inspector John Lyons was reported as stating of Irwin, “It makes no difference whether he committed three hundred murders, so far as the State is concerned. His psychopathic background shows he is insane.”
Statler Hotel
saw a picture of Irwin in a pulp magazine and noticed a resemblance to a bar boy who been working at the hotel for less than two months, under the name of Bob Murray. He cleaned out his locker and disappeared soon after she asked him about his last name and whether he knew about Robert Irwin. Once again, the search for Irwin became the lead story on the front pages of daily newspapers nationwide.
The next day, the Chicago Tribune
received a call from someone claiming to be Irwin and offering to surrender for a price, but the Tribune dismissed the call as a prank. The William Randolph Hearst
-owned Chicago Herald-Examiner, however, received a similar call, took it seriously, and made an arrangement under which Irwin would be paid $5,000 for an exclusive story, then surrender. After Irwin came to the newspaper’s offices, its city editor John W. Dienhart, and reporters G. Duncan Bauman
and Austin O’Malley kept Irwin in a room in the Morrison Hotel
in Chicago
, working on the terms of a confession to the Beekman Hill murders that the newspaper would publish as an exclusive, while briefly shielding him from police. The Hearst companies then flew him to New York City, where he was turned over to police. At that point, famous New York criminal defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz
, who had represented the Scottsboro Boys
in Alabama
and was reported to have saved 123 murder defendants from the death penalty, appeared as Irwin’s attorney.
In his published confession, Irwin he stated that he originally intended to kill Ethel Gedeon Kudner because “she was the dearest object in the world” to him, but that he “accidentally” killed the others instead. He explained that he went to the Gedeons’ flat, expecting to find Ethel. He first struck then strangled Mary Gedeon, after she had asked him to leave. After her daughter Veronica arrived, he terrorized her, but strangled her only after she called him by name, showing that she recognized him. Afraid to leave alive a possible witness (but unaware of Byrnes’ deafness), Irwin entered Byrnes' room, then stabbed him to death in his bed. In his confession to New York detectives Irwin compared himself to a radio, explaining:
detention center) said, “Irwin certainly isn’t crazy now. He’s as normal as any man in prison.” Irwin attorney Liebowitz, however, replied that Irwin “was, is and will be hopelessly insane. He’s crazy as a bedbug.”
Publicity again peaked as the trial date approached; one news account reported that “not since the Harry K. Thaw
murder trial had a case excited wider interest.” Soon after a jury was selected, however, Irwin pled guilty to three counts of second degree murder, in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, and a promise that a pair of trousers that he abandoned in a suitcase left at Grand Central Station in 1937 would be returned to him.
Judge James Wallace sentenced him to 139-years-to-life in prison (99 years-to-life for the slaying of Byrnes, 20 years-to-life for the slaying of Mary Gedeon, and 20 years-to-life for the slaying of Veronica Gedeon). He was then sent to Sing Sing
Prison for a psychological evaluation, where prison doctors ruled him “very definitely insane.” On December 10, 1938, he arrived at Dannemora State Hospital
.
in Fishkill, New York
.
Irwin’s enduring legacy involves the way newspapers exploited his crime through sensationalist headlines and racy photos, culminating with a paid confession that nearly put him in the electric chair
. In the immediate aftermath of the crime, New York Daily News
publisher Joseph Medill Patterson
responded to criticism of the sensationalism, editorializing that “murder sells papers, books, plays because we are all fascinated by murder.” He defended the News’ choice to give the story greater attention than President Roosevelt’s failed attempt to “pack” the U.S. Supreme Court, explaining that “perhaps people should be more interested today in the Supreme Court than in the Gedeon murder, but we don’t think they are.”
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
weekend in 1937 in the Beekman Hill area of New York City’s Turtle Bay
Turtle Bay, Manhattan
Turtle Bay is a neighborhood in New York City, on the east side of Midtown Manhattan. It extends between 41st and 54th Streets, and eastward from Lexington Avenue to the East River, across from Roosevelt Island...
neighborhood.
One of his victims, Veronica “Ronnie” Gedeon
Veronica Gedeon
Veronica Gedeon was a 20-year-old commercial model from Long Island City whose murder during Easter Weekend in 1937 captivated New York City. It was reported widely in newspapers there...
, was a model who often appeared in seductive pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
pictures. The crime, its investigation, Irwin’s arrest, and the resulting court proceedings were heavily publicized, often with eye-catching photos of Miss Gedeon and headlines describing Irwin as the “mad sculptor.” Veronica Gedeon left behind a portfolio of sexy photos that, in retrospect, had no relevance to the crime, its cause or Irwin’s responsibility for it. However, that coincidence kept the story on front pages of newspapers around the country for months, publicity which ultimately helped to bring Irwin into custody.
Irwin’s prosecution, which ended through a plea-bargain that kept him incarcerated for life, renewed debate about the use and scope of New York’s version of the insanity defense. Once sentenced, Irwin was deemed “definitely insane” by state psychiatrists. He spent the rest of his life in secure mental institutions.
Personal background
The son of evangelist parents, Irwin was reportedly born in a tent on an old-fashioned camp meeting ground in Portland, OregonPortland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. His father deserted the family before Robert was three years old, leaving them impoverished. When a family court judge noted that Robert could learn a trade at a state reformatory, he volunteered and spent fifteen months there, where he first learned to sculpt. He soon idolized Lorado Taft
Lorado Taft
Lorado Zadoc Taft was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Taft was born in Elmwood, Illinois in 1860 and died in his home studio in Chicago in 1936.-Early years and education:...
, one of the leading American sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and later moved in with Taft’s family. Then, working for a waxworks studio in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, he carved commercial busts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and other public figures.
Irwin’s descent
Irwin was considered “brilliant if erratic and at times violent.” He tried to emasculate himself, using a razor. He then consented to be committed to a state mental hospital, where he initially stayed for a year. After his discharge, he moved into a New York City rooming house owned by Mary Gedeon. There, Irwin had become infatuated with her daughter Ethel, but his love for her was not returned. He underwent further mental illness treatment for two more years at Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New YorkOrangeburg, New York
Orangeburg hamlet , in the Town of Orangetown Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Tappan; south of Blauvelt; east of Pearl River and west of Piermont...
, and was released in the summer of 1936. By then, Ethel Gedeon had married George Kudner. Irwin then made a sculpture of Ethel with a cobra coiled around her neck.
He enrolled as a student at the Theological School of St. Lawrence University
Theological School of St. Lawrence University
The Theological School of St. Lawrence University was founded in 1856 at St. Lawrence University and closed in 1965, one of the three Universalist seminaries .-Closure:...
at Canton, New York
Canton (village), New York
Canton is a village in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The village is centrally located in both the town of Canton and the county of St. Lawrence. The population was 5,882 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of St. Lawrence County...
. However, he was expelled on March 18, 1937, ten days before Easter, because of “instability.” He then rented (for a single day) a $2.50-a-week room in a house on 52nd Street in New York City, several blocks from Mary Gedeon’s rooming house at 316 E. 50th Street. After considering and rejecting the idea of drowning himself in the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
, he instead walked to the Gedeon rooming house.
The Easter Weekend murders
On March 28, 1937 (Easter Sunday), relatives arriving at the Gedeon's flat for dinner discovered the partially-clothed bodies of Mary Gedeon and her younger daughter Veronica, in Veronica’s bedroom. Mrs. Gedeon had been strangled and stabbed, and Veronica had been strangled. In a nearby room, they discovered the body of Frank Byrnes, a deaf English waiter who had been stabbed many times. The ensuing police investigation revealed that around 3:00 a.m., Veronica had returned, intoxicated, from a date. Fifty minutes earlier, Charles Robinson, an upstairs neighbor, had noticed the door to the Gedeons’ flat was partially open, and had closed it. This led detectives to conclude that the assailant had entered the apartment before Veronica arrived, and waited for her. They also concluded that Brynes was likely killed while he slept.Police attention focused initially on a driver, then on Mary Gedeon’s ex-husband, Joseph Gedeon. By April 7, however, their attention had shifted toward Irwin, in part because a sculpture carefully carved in ordinary bath soap was discovered at the crime scene. A nationwide manhunt for Irwin followed. State Inspector John Lyons was reported as stating of Irwin, “It makes no difference whether he committed three hundred murders, so far as the State is concerned. His psychopathic background shows he is insane.”
The hunt for Irwin, and his surrender
In late June 1937, a pantry maid in Cleveland'sCleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
Statler Hotel
Statler Hotel
The Statler Hotel company was one of the United States' early chains of hotels catering to traveling businessmen and tourists. It was founded by Ellsworth Milton Statler in Buffalo, New York.- Early ventures :...
saw a picture of Irwin in a pulp magazine and noticed a resemblance to a bar boy who been working at the hotel for less than two months, under the name of Bob Murray. He cleaned out his locker and disappeared soon after she asked him about his last name and whether he knew about Robert Irwin. Once again, the search for Irwin became the lead story on the front pages of daily newspapers nationwide.
The next day, the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
received a call from someone claiming to be Irwin and offering to surrender for a price, but the Tribune dismissed the call as a prank. The William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
-owned Chicago Herald-Examiner, however, received a similar call, took it seriously, and made an arrangement under which Irwin would be paid $5,000 for an exclusive story, then surrender. After Irwin came to the newspaper’s offices, its city editor John W. Dienhart, and reporters G. Duncan Bauman
G. Duncan Bauman
George Duncan Bauman was the publisher of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat from 1967 until 1984.He was born in Humboldt, Iowa, in 1912, the son of P. W. and Mae Bauman and grandson of A. H. Duncan. He attended Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois from 1930 to 1935, and began his work in journalism...
and Austin O’Malley kept Irwin in a room in the Morrison Hotel
Morrison Hotel (Chicago)
The Morrison Hotel was a high rise hotel in downtown the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It was designed by the architectural firm of Marshall and Fox, and completed in 1925...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, working on the terms of a confession to the Beekman Hill murders that the newspaper would publish as an exclusive, while briefly shielding him from police. The Hearst companies then flew him to New York City, where he was turned over to police. At that point, famous New York criminal defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz
Samuel Leibowitz
Samuel Simon Leibowitz was a Romanian-born American criminal defense attorney, famously noted for winning the vast majority of his cases, who later became a judge in New York City.-Early years:...
, who had represented the Scottsboro Boys
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial...
in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
and was reported to have saved 123 murder defendants from the death penalty, appeared as Irwin’s attorney.
In his published confession, Irwin he stated that he originally intended to kill Ethel Gedeon Kudner because “she was the dearest object in the world” to him, but that he “accidentally” killed the others instead. He explained that he went to the Gedeons’ flat, expecting to find Ethel. He first struck then strangled Mary Gedeon, after she had asked him to leave. After her daughter Veronica arrived, he terrorized her, but strangled her only after she called him by name, showing that she recognized him. Afraid to leave alive a possible witness (but unaware of Byrnes’ deafness), Irwin entered Byrnes' room, then stabbed him to death in his bed. In his confession to New York detectives Irwin compared himself to a radio, explaining:
- Bob Irwin is nothing. I am only a receiving set. An extremely imperfect one, which can indistinctly tune in the divine mind. You have heard a radio that isn’t working well. You turn the dials and get a squawking. Only once in a while can we get the pure clear music. My whole idea in life was to perfect myself so ‘the receiving set’ could always get the divine music at its best.
Irwin’s prosecution, plea and sentencing
Hours after New York police took Irwin into custody, he was indicted for three counts of first degree murder. Contrary to Inspector Lyon’s initial view that Irwin was insane, New York now found him normal. As Irwin’s trial date approached in the fall of 1938, William A. Adams (warden of The TombsThe Tombs
"The Tombs" is the colloquial name for the Manhattan Detention Complex, a jail in Lower Manhattan at 125 White Street, as well as the popular name of a series of preceding downtown jails, the first of which was built in 1838 in the Egyptian Revival style of architecture.The nickname has been used...
detention center) said, “Irwin certainly isn’t crazy now. He’s as normal as any man in prison.” Irwin attorney Liebowitz, however, replied that Irwin “was, is and will be hopelessly insane. He’s crazy as a bedbug.”
Publicity again peaked as the trial date approached; one news account reported that “not since the Harry K. Thaw
Harry K. Thaw
Harry Kendall Thaw was the son of coal and railroad baron William Thaw. He is best known for murdering the architect Stanford White at Madison Square Garden in 1906 in a jealous rage.- Early life:...
murder trial had a case excited wider interest.” Soon after a jury was selected, however, Irwin pled guilty to three counts of second degree murder, in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, and a promise that a pair of trousers that he abandoned in a suitcase left at Grand Central Station in 1937 would be returned to him.
Judge James Wallace sentenced him to 139-years-to-life in prison (99 years-to-life for the slaying of Byrnes, 20 years-to-life for the slaying of Mary Gedeon, and 20 years-to-life for the slaying of Veronica Gedeon). He was then sent to Sing Sing
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...
Prison for a psychological evaluation, where prison doctors ruled him “very definitely insane.” On December 10, 1938, he arrived at Dannemora State Hospital
Clinton Correctional Facility
Clinton Correctional Facility is a New York State Department of Correctional Services state prison for men located in the Village of Dannemora, New York. The prison itself is sometimes colloquially referred to as Dannemora, although its actual name is derived from its location in Clinton County,...
.
Death and legacy
Irwin died of cancer in 1975 in Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally InsaneFishkill Correctional Facility
Fishkill Correctional Facility is a medium security prison in New York, USA. The prison is located in both the Town of Fishkill and the City of Beacon in Dutchess County.Fishkill was constructed in 1896...
in Fishkill, New York
Fishkill (town), New York
Fishkill is an affluent suburban town in the southwest part of Dutchess County, New York, USA. The population was 20,258 at the 2000 census, however, current estimates put the town's population at over 22,100. Fishkill partly surrounds the city of Beacon....
.
Irwin’s enduring legacy involves the way newspapers exploited his crime through sensationalist headlines and racy photos, culminating with a paid confession that nearly put him in the electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
. In the immediate aftermath of the crime, New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
publisher Joseph Medill Patterson
Joseph Medill Patterson
Joseph Medill Patterson was an American journalist and publisher, grandson of publisher Joseph Medill, founder of the Chicago Tribune and a mayor of Chicago, Illinois.-Family:...
responded to criticism of the sensationalism, editorializing that “murder sells papers, books, plays because we are all fascinated by murder.” He defended the News’ choice to give the story greater attention than President Roosevelt’s failed attempt to “pack” the U.S. Supreme Court, explaining that “perhaps people should be more interested today in the Supreme Court than in the Gedeon murder, but we don’t think they are.”