constance, norma, and fleurette kopp were real people. I have tried to depict their lives as accurately as possible in these pages. To do that, I’ve relied on newspaper stories, interviews with family members, and public documents such as census records, birth certificates, property deeds, wills, and so on. To find out more about the real lives of many of these characters, please do visit my website (amystewart.com) and read the historical notes in the previous novels in the series, particularly the first one, Girl Waits with Gun.
Tony Hajnacka’s story is true, although it actually happened in April, not September, of 1916. Tony really did try to commit suicide with a broken spoon while in jail, and was sentenced the next day to Morris Plains. The events of that evening, including the dive into the river, all happened as I described them. Sheriff Heath really did try to have a medal awarded to Constance for her bravery, but instead was chastised and had the responsibility for transporting inmates taken away from him. He clearly paid a price for standing by Constance, but his support for her was unwavering.
I know less about Anna Kayser’s case. Constance was sent to pick her up and take her to Morris Plains along with Tony Hajnacka. The newspaper accounts said only that there was “some difficulty encountered” at the Kayser home that delayed them and forced them to return to the jail that night, but I don’t know specifically what those difficulties might have been or what became of Anna Kayser. The names and ages of Mr. and Mrs. Kayser, and their daughter Charlotte, are correct, but everything else about them is fiction.
However, I based the fictional parts of Anna’s story on a real-life account of a woman who was sent to institutions around that time so that her husband could be with other women. It’s also true that postpartum depression and symptoms of menopause were poorly understood at the time and were common reasons for putting a woman in an institution.
Mrs. Pattengill is fictitious, but her story is also based on a similar crime that took place around the same time. Another minor character, Harry Core, was a real jewel thief who actually did try to break out of the Hackensack Jail with a metal file. The other women in jail and on probation are all based on real women who were arrested around that time for the crimes described. The unionists—and the working conditions they described—are a composite based on several striking workers arrested at the time.
The dynamics of the election, and the outcome, are based on newspaper reports during the campaign season. John Courter did attack Constance and Sheriff Heath with brutal insults, and Constance really was labeled a “demon deputy” and “troublesome lady policeman” in leaflets posted around town. After the election, Constance was fired because Sheriff Courter said that he had no use for a lady deputy. She fought for her job under the civil service rules but lost. Most of the other deputies were allowed to keep their jobs. (And if readers are wondering about the partisanship implicit in this story line, Sheriff Heath was in fact a Democrat, John Courter was a Republican, and all the election results were, in real life, exactly as I described them.)
As in previous books, I know less about what Fleurette and Norma were up to at the time. Fleurette really did perform a concert at the jail with Helen Stewart for Captain Anderson’s “Brighter Day League” Salvation Army program. The songs performed, and the oath the inmates took, all come directly from that program. However, I shifted the timeframe around: this concert actually took place in the fall of 1915, not 1916. Another factual bit of Fleurette’s story is that May Ward really was making movies at that time, although she might have been in Pennsylvania and not in Fort Lee. However, there was a booming film industry in Fort Lee, and there would have been plenty of work for a seamstress like Fleurette. Another detail that’s rooted in fact is that Freeman Bernstein was booking entertainment acts at the Plattsburg camps.
About those Plattsburg camps: First, “Plattsburg” is spelled “Plattsburgh” today, but was more commonly spelled without the “h” at that time. These camps weren’t always located in Plattsburgh, New York, but they were generally called “Plattsburg camps” after the location of the first one. These were military-style training camps for men who wanted to be prepared to go to war before the United States was officially involved. My descriptions of camp life and activities are based on newspaper accounts at the time.
Maude Miner, charged with overseeing the girls who hung around the camp, did in real life play a similar role. She founded the New York Girls’ Protective League, whose aims were to both protect and police young women. She took on an official role with the War Department as the United States made ready to join the war. I wish I could recommend a good biography of Maude Miner, as she is a fascinating character, but it hasn’t been written. I might have to do it myself. Meanwhile, many of her books are in the public domain and easy to find in ebook format.
Norma’s interest in pigeons is, as in previous books, entirely fictional. However, it is true that pigeons were used in wartime communications, and American pigeon fanciers were eager to participate in the war effort. The Imperial War Museum in London does, in fact, own a collection of tiny horse-drawn mobile pigeon loft models, made during the lead-up to World War I. My description of Norma’s models are based on those.
I quoted directly from these sources:
The Hackensack Republican’s gleefully mocking coverage of Constance’s dive into the Hackensack River appeared on April 13, 1916, under the headline “Thrilling Movie Stunts by Sheriff Heath’s Woman Deputy—Press Agents Tell How She Dived After a Crazy Man, Rescued Him, Fainted, Slept—Will County Buy Her a New Dress?”
The story Fleurette read about Red Cross hospitals in Paris appeared in the New York Times on November 13, 1915, under the headline “To Restore Faces Ruined in the War—American Organization Is Being Formed for the Establishment of a Hospital in Paris.”
Sheriff Heath’s speech at the jail comes from his own speeches, as quoted in the Bergen County Democrat on September 22, 1916, under the headline “Hot Shot from Candidate Heath.” Some lines also came from a speech he gave to the New Jersey Conference of Charity and Corrections, which took place April 25–27, 1915.
“No Medal for Miss Kopp” ran in the New York Times on April 21, 1916.
“Miss Kopp, Ousted by New Sheriff, Just Won’t Quit” was the actual headline in the Evening Telegram on November 16, 1916. The text quoted is a combination of that story and one the same paper ran two days earlier.