Evelyn Nesbit (
December 25,
1884 –
January 17,
1967) was an artists' model and chorus girl, noted for her entanglement in the murder of her ex-lover, architect
Stanford White, by her first husband,
Harry K. Thaw.
Stanford White and John Barrymore were subsequently supplanted in Evelyn's life by
Harry Kendall Thaw (1871-1947) of
Pittsburgh, the son of a coal and railroad baron. Thaw was extremely possessive of Nesbit (he reportedly carried a pistol), and obsessive about the details of her relationship with White (whom he referred to as "The Beast"). Thaw was a
cocaine addict and sexual
sadist who subjected women—including Nesbit—to severe
whippings. However, following a trip to
Europe, Evelyn finally accepted Thaw's repeated marriage proposal. They were wed on
April 4,
1905, when Nesbit was twenty.
On
June 25,
1906, Evelyn and Harry saw White at the restaurant Cafè Martin and ran into him again later that night in the audience of the Madison Square Garden's roof theatre at a performance of
Mamzelle Champagne, written by
Edgar Allan Woolf. During the song, "I Could Love A Million Girls", Thaw fired three shots at close range into White's face, killing him instantly and reportedly exclaiming, "You will never see that woman again!"
-http://www2.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=29420835
..Good song choice.