One hundred years ago, the trial of millionaire Harry K. Thaw for the murder of his wife’s lover—renowned New York City architect Stanford White—engendered an unprecedented media frenzy. The woman at its center was Helen of Troy and Delilah rolled into one: the original Gibson Girl, the first “It Girl,” the Girl in the Red Velvet Swing—the first supermodel celebrity, Evelyn Nesbit. Thaw was acquitted by reason of insanity, but the real story behind the “Crime of the Century” was the rise and fall of that young woman.
