Mac Levy, Young and Pulitzer -- Brooklyn History
Mac Levy, Young and Pulitzer, NY Herald, 1902

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5, and Part 6 of this story.

On a balmy September night in 1902, a beautiful young woman named Anna Pulitzer went out on the town in Manhattan, on the last night of her life. Around midnight, she was seen buying rolls for her husband at an all-night bakery on West 47th Street.

She was then seen talking to a young man on the street, and she went off in a cab with him, still carrying the rolls. Two days later, her nude body washed ashore in New Jersey. She had been murdered, and her body had a large cut in the abdomen.

Her husband, Joseph, had been considered a suspect, but was soon cleared. Suspicion went next to the mysterious young man who had ridden away with her into the night. Someone matching his description had also rented a horse and wagon in New Jersey, and had not returned it, the very same night as the murder.

The man did return the rig late the next day, but couldn’t pay the overtime fine. He told the stableman that he worked for a local paper, and was good for the payment.

When police took the stableman to the office of the paper, he picked out the young man from a photograph. He was William Hooper Young, once a co-owner of the paper. Young was also the grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young, and had a very wealthy father who kept a large apartment in Manhattan, near the Plaza Hotel.

This was the same area where the West Side cab driver had let Anna Pulitzer and her gentleman friend out. It wasn’t looking good for young Bill Young.

Bill Young may have had a famous and wealthy family, but he was a troubled young man. He had a hard time holding a job, and was last working for Brooklyn’s favorite fitness guru, Professor Mac Levy. The professor has been the topic of the last three Walkabouts.

The links can be found at the end of the story. Mac Levy had a fitness center in the St. George Hotel, in Brooklyn Heights, and Bill Young or “Hooper” as Mac Levy knew him, worked there for several months prior to the murder.

Levy told police that he had just seen Young the day before, when Young came by the fitness center to let Levy know that he was leaving for the Rockies in a day or so. The professor told the police where Young was staying: a large apartment building at 103 West 58th Street, the Clarence Apartments.

As soon as police knew who they were looking for, the search was on for William Hooper Young. They went to the Clarence Apartments where they learned that Young’s father had several apartments in the building, which he had combined to accommodate his extremely large family when they came to New York. But William Young was not there.

The apartment, however, held a wealth of evidence. The doorman and floor boy both told police that Young had a large trunk taken out of his apartment the night of the murder.

The floor boy had helped Young take it downstairs, and asked what was in it. He was told it was books and they were going to Chicago. The trunk was picked up by a livery service and taken to the stable in Newark.

The apartment also yielded clues. A cupboard was opened to reveal a lot of blood, which had not been sufficiently cleaned up. There were blood stained clothes of both a man and a woman, and a bloody butcher’s knife was found on the floor. Anna’s keys were also found in the bedroom.

The police now had a good idea of what had happened. Anna Pulitzer had come here with William Hooper that night, and for some reason was killed.

Her body was taken out in the trunk, and then dumped into the harbor. He then had the trunk picked up and mailed to Chicago. The evidence against William Young was damning. They just needed to find him.

His photo and description was passed out to law enforcement and transportation hubs. A sharp-eyed conductor recognized the photograph and led police to Connecticut, where William Young was arrested, in a small town outside of Derby.

He insisted that there had been a mistake, and that he was not William Young, but the police brought in Professor Mac Levy to make the identification.

The Professor and New York police detectives traveled to Connecticut to identify William Young. When they got to the jail, Levy met Young in the hallway, outside of his cell. “Hello, Hooper,” Levy said.

Young looked at him, long and hard, and then said, “I don’t know you.” Levy said,” Of course you know me.” Young then told him quite unemotionally,” You should be sure of your identification. This is a terrible crime for which I am being held.”

The police then made Young take off almost all of his clothes so that Mac Levy could confirm his identity, as the man had worked in Levy’s gym with far less on than he had now. The physical culturist insisted that Young was the man who had worked for him, and finally the man admitted that his name was William Hooper Young. He told Levy, “From now on, I’m going to stop drinking and smoking cigarettes.

I’m going to lead a different kind of life.” The police also got a positive ID from Dick Anser, his former business partner in the newspaper. There was no doubt, this was William Young.

After repeated questioning about the murder, Young was asked if he was guilty of killing Anna Pulitzer. He gave a vague “yes and no” answer. Yes, he had been present at the crime, and had disposed of the body, but did he kill her? No.

That crime was committed by a man named Charles Simpson Eiling, the name on the trunk that had been sent to Chicago. Where was this “C.S. Eiling” now? Young didn’t know, but Eiling was the real murderer. Young was taken back to New York by train and sent to the Tombs.

The trunk addressed to the mysterious C.S. Eiling arrived in Chicago, and was send back to NYC without being opened. When they received it, the police found Anna’s bloodstained clothing, the bag of rolls that she had with her, and other personal belongings.

They did not find her diamond earrings, which she had been seen wearing. It was later determined that Young had pawned them.

Meanwhile, his powerful father and family back in Salt Lake City was notified. As investigators continued to try to find answers, it seemed that William Young did not have a good relationship with his family. His father, John Young, as the second son of Brigham Young, had taken three wives.

William was the child of Young’s first wife. As Young’s attentions moved on to his new wives, William’s mother became bitter and disillusioned. She eventually moved out, and took her son with her. The father didn’t take it well.

William tried to be close to his father, even moving to London with him, where John Young had business interests, but that closeness never came. After completing college in England, William Hooper Young became the black sheep of the family, always broke, always wandering around searching for a purpose and focus.

He became a womanizer, a hard drinker, and was unsuccessful in all of his business dealings. His affiliation with Professor Levy was another search for purpose. He said he intended to start his own fitness business one day, and was learning the ropes.

As William Young languished in jail waiting for his trial, Professor Mac Levy continued to grow his business. His name was now known everywhere, as all of the papers, including papers across the country, were carrying the story of Anna Pulitzer and John Young.

Confirming Young’s identity had become part of what was becoming the crime and trial of the century, of which there would certainly be many.

The fitness center at the St. George was going well. He had fitness centers on Long Island, and reporters were at his door all the time, because of the Young trial. His swimming schools were incredibly popular, and in his personal life, he and his wife were expecting a baby.

Life was good. But then came the trial of William Young, and the rumors that the powerful Mormon leadership in Salt Lake City was not going to let the grandson of Brigham Young be hanged for the murder of a street walker. It was the stuff of pulp fiction or an adventure novel.

Would Mac Levy, the “Young Hercules of Brooklyn,” have the strength to withstand a powerful religious empire? We’ll see.

(Photos of Anna Pulitzer and William Hooper Young – NY Herald, 1902)

The Amazing Professor Mac Levy, Part One
The Amazing Professor Mac Levy, Part Two
The Amazing Professor Mac Levy, Murder Most Foul


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