June 8, 1931: The Death of Starr Faithfull

June 8, 1931: Starr Faithful is found dead on the beach at Long Beach, Long Island, New York. She was 25 years old.

Marian Starr Wyman had been born on January 27, 1906, outside Chicago in Evanston, Illinois. She grew up outside New York in Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey. A cousin, Martha Phillips, had married Andrew J. Peters, a Boston politician. In 1917, Peters was elected that city's Mayor. The Wymans frequently visited.

In 1924, Marian's parents, Frank and Helen Wyman, divorced. The next year, Helen married Stanley Faithfull, and Marian and her younger sister Elizabeth -- already nicknamed "Starr" and "Sylvia," respectively -- took their stepfather's family name.

By this point, Starr Faithfull had already become a socialite, a "Roaring Twenties" or "Jazz Age" equivalent of Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian. She became a star as a model for the Walter Thornton Modeling Agency, appearing in magazine advertisements. She was one of the "flappers," whose "liberated" lifestyle included the booze-filled speakeasies, fast cars, and sexual adventure.

Letters found after her death suggested that the last of these was her way of making up for abuse she'd suffered from Peters on her visits to him. Apparently, she wanted to know what "normal" sex was like, but, as her knowledge grew, her consent led to "less normal" activities.

The stock market's Crash of 1929 became the symbolic end of the Roaring Twenties. Within a few days of the Crash, Starr's boss, Walter Thornton, appeared in a famous photograph, standing in front of his car, with a sign reading, "$100 WILL BUY THIS CAR MUST HAVE CASH LOST ALL ON THE STOCK MARKET." (Whether he got the $100 is unknown, but he did eventually recover and build a new fortune.)

Starr apparently didn't get the memo that the party was over. She continued to carouse through 1930. She apparently did so on money given to her by Peters as hush money. She was briefly committed to the infamous psychiatric ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital in March 1931. But in May and in the 1st week of June, there were plenty of sightings of her carrying on in public.

As with Judge Joseph Crater the previous year, she was last seen alive getting into a New York taxi. This was on the night of June 6. She was reported missing on the 7th, and found on the beach on the 8th. An autopsy suggested she had been in the water about 48 hours, but this was publicly questioned. She also had many bruises, apparently caused by beating or rough handling, and a large dose of a sedative in her system.

Investigators initially thought her death was a homicide, and that she had either been pushed into deep water or forcibly held under shallow water. Faithfull's stepfather accused Peters of having her killed to prevent her from revealing the earlier sexual abuse. However, the homicide theory was called into question by letters that Faithfull had written shortly before her death that said she planned to commit suicide. A grand jury was convened to hear evidence, but it returned an open verdict, and the case was closed with no definitive conclusion.

The death of Starr Faithfull -- at an early age, with a wild lifestyle, and with a name that stood out even if the reader had never heard of her -- made national and international news, due to its many sensational aspects. If a person did not consider the "Roaring Twenties" over yet, this was a big sign that they were. Newspapers published selections from her diary, which contained explicit descriptions of her sexual liaisons with 19 different men, including one she called "AJP," who was thought to be Peters. Time magazine called the story a "sexy death mystery" with a "perfect front-page name."

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June 8, 1931 was a Monday. Actress Dana Wynter was born on this day.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. Red Ruffing took a 1-0 lead into the top of the 9th inning, but ran out of gas, allowing a triple, a single, a home run by Earl Averill, and a walk before getting 2 groundouts, then another triple before getting a strikeout to end it. Wes Ferrell held the Yankees to 3 hits: A single and a double by Joe Sewell, and a single by Bill Dickey. Babe Ruth went 0-for-4, and Lou Gehrig went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Bill Terry went 4-for-5. Mel Ott went 0-for-3, but drew 2 walks.

* That was the only game scheduled in the National League. To make travel arrangements easier, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals moved their game scheduled for this day to the day before, a doubleheader. The Dodgers won the opener, 6-4. The Cardinals won the nightcap, 9-0, with Bill Hallahan pitching a 6-hit shutout.

* The Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves also did this, at Redland Field (later Crosley Field) in Cincinnati. The Reds won the 1st game, 8-2. The Braves won the 2nd game, 10-9.

* The Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Lefty Stewart pitched a 7-hit shutout.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Jimmie Foxx went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs.

* The Washington Senators beat the Chicago White Sox, 18-4 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Despite 4 RBIs from Dave Harris, and 3 each from Buddy Myer and Ossie Bluege, the Senators managed to score 18 runs without a home run.