An Almanac of Infamy

Nancy Titterton John Fiorenza Reenacting the Murder for Police On the morning of April 10, 1936, the body of novelist Nancy Titterton was found in a bathtub in her home on Beekman Place, an upscale street on the east side of Manhattan. Previous to her untimely death, she had shared the home with her husband Lewis Titterton, an executive at NBC. Titterton had been raped and strangled to death with her own pajamas. The only evidence at the scene was a foot-long cord tied around Titterton's hands and a single horsehair on her bedspread. The detective in charge of the case set out immediately to find the source of the cord used to bind Nancy Titterton. Every rope and twine manufacturer in the Northeast was contacted until police determined that the distinctive cord was produced by Hanover Cordage Company in York, Pennsylvania. Company records showed that the same type of cord had been sold to an upholstery shop in New York owned by a man by the name of Theodore Krueger. It jus...