Author Event and Book Signing with Mary Noé: “The Man Who Shot J.P. Morgan” at Great Neck Library

The thrilling, true story of a prolific criminal’s many identities and exploits.

On the morning of July 3, 1915, John Pierpont Morgan Jr., one of the most famous names in finance, was entertaining guests at his sprawling Long Island estate when the doorbell unexpectedly rang. An armed man forced his way inside. At the same time, authorities in Washington, DC, were investigating a shocking bombing at the US Capitol. While no one had been killed, the blast had destroyed the reception room, and DC citizens were on edge.

Nine years earlier, in 1906, Leone Krembs Muenter had fallen ill and died shortly after giving birth. Her husband, Harvard professor Erich Muenter, blamed his wife’s Christian Science religious beliefs, which prohibited medical intervention, for the death, but an investigation suggested something more sinister: arsenic poisoning. As suspicions mounted, Muenter vanished.

In Texas, a mysterious man calling himself Frank Holt wooed Leona Sensabaugh, and after their marriage, they moved to Ithaca, New York, as he pursued a career at Cornell. But some of Holt’s colleagues found he reminded them of someone they’d worked with before, a man who had been suspected of murdering his wife. Could Frank Holt and Erich Muenter be the same person? What were they to make of it, later, when they saw a familiar face in the papers following a bizarre attempt on a finance tycoon’s life?

The Man Who Shot J. P. Morgan: A Life of Arsenic, Anarchy and Intrigue (Kent State University Press) is a riveting tale of false identities, radical political beliefs, and ambitious criminal schemes set during the tumultuous time shortly before the United States entered World War I.

Mary Noé is a lawyer, author and lecturer and holds the rank of Professor at St. John’s University. After graduating high school, she worked in a typing pool at the New York office of the FBI. Several secretarial jobs later and after obtaining her Class 2 license, she applied to Varsity Transit for a position as a bus driver for New York City Schools. The New York City Human Rights Division brought an action on her behalf against Varsity. She was the only female driver among the 700 male drivers working from Varsity’s Brooklyn location.

Mary is a graduate of Brooklyn College magna cum laude and St. John’s University School of Law. She has served as an administrative law judge for the New York State Office of Professional Medical Conduct and an Impartial Hearing Officer under a federal law known as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA.

She has appeared on numerous podcasts discussing the book (Fox True Crime Podcast, Untapped New York, Most Notorious), libraries, Osher Life Long Learning Institutes around the country. Her recent article "Murder at Madison Square Garden" was published in Judicial Notice, the journal of the Historical Society of the New York Courts. She is also the author of IEP Workshop (Attainment Press 2013).

The author event will be at the Great Neck Library (159 Bayview Avenue, Great Neck) on Monday, November 9, at 2:00 p.m. Registration is not required; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event. For more information, please call Great Neck Library at (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatnecklibrary.org.