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The Ghosts of Eden Park
Group Read - Ghosts of Eden Park
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Group Read - Ghosts of Eden Park part 2 Spoilers Welcome
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While Remus is doing his time in various prisons, his wife Imogene begins a flagrant affair with Franklin Dodge. Together they loot all of Remus's possessions, from the extravagant furnishings at the Cincinnati house, to the valuable rights to pre-prohibition liquor supplies around the country. Their activities become so outrageous that Willibrandt is forced to let him go, and word gets back to Remus. His reactions to this news are volatile. Just hearing their names triggers manic fits, witnessed by his friends and supporters as well as outsiders. Once he is released a cat-and-mouse game begins. Who will strike first, Remus or Imogene? It is Remus, who shoots her dead in broad daylight in a public park, then turns himself in.
George’s “brainstorms” sure indicate a neurologically based mental illness. This section sent me researching electroshock therapy to find out why someone didn’t intervene in his dangerously manic episodes. Turns out EST wasn’t used until the 1930’s, so he missed the boat on that. Still, if I’m remembering my history of psychology right, there were other similar (but less controllable) prior therapies involving temperature extremes or chemical injections to provide the same synaptic reboot. But who would have dared suggest to George that he needed treatment? If ever there were a case of a powerful man surrounded by sycophants, he would be it. I felt sorry for his loyal sidekick, Conners, who took George into his home, rode out his rages, stayed up all night keeping an eye on him, wandering the city with him until dawn, until Conners finally, as Abbott so mildly puts it, “lost patience” (I think it was months later) and moved George to a hotel.
In our times it’s hard to imagine so many people seeing George’s and Imogene’s guns, hearing their threats to kill one another and saying/doing nothing. Or maybe it wasn’t the times but their milieu. Their colleagues were hardly the types to go to the police, were they?
In this section there were a few times I was tempted to feel sorry for George but I’d remind myself of who he was at the beginning of the book and my sympathy would ebb away. Then he ends up deliberately and cold-bloodedly chasing Imogene down and killing her and goes way past any tiny glimmer of pity. These were ugly people indeed.
I simply couldn’t believe Imogene’s and Dodge’s systematic dismantling and looting the mansion. First the Remuses are unrestrainedly acquisitive and then Imogene is equally unrestrained in her cruelty and destruction. She and Dodge had already stripped George of as many of his assets as they could get. Taking every last tidbit out of the mansion was just revenge. But revenge for what? In what way could Imogene feel so wronged by George when he’d given her so much and she was carrying on with Dodge while George was in prison?
What do you think of Willebrandt’s hands-off approach to Dodge? George thought they’d had an affair, but I think it was more likely that she didn’t want to give up on him when he’d served her so well in bringing about the Savannah prosecution. Plus, having received so many public accolades, perhaps she couldn’t admit she’d been wrong about Dodge. Abbott says something about Willebrandt’s difficult position of being the “first woman” and conscious that any mistake might set back the women would would follow her.
The line on Prohibition has always been that it was a foolish law that caused far more lawlessness than alcohol ever did, hence repeal. But I had no idea how much corruption and flouting there was—right up to the President obtaining and drinking liquor in the White House. Federal agents charged with investigating and prosecuting bootleggers were at the same time accepting bribes, investing in liquor smuggling schemes, lying and stealing from the bootleggers. What a sordid mess.
I also had always pictured that bootleggers dealt in homebrew and some alcohol smuggled from Canada. You know—the common image of the Revenuers raiding a still and chasing the bootleggers through the Appalachian woods. Who knew that when the distilleries shut down they just left their stock in place, ready-made when George Remus bought the distillery? I can understand the distillers not stopping production until the law was actually enacted because who knows what’s going to happen. But why didn’t the Feds recognize the vast stores as an attractive nuisance and either destroy it or sell it outside the country?
The Poisoners Handbook includes even more horrific actions on the part of the government during Prohibition.
Good to know Barbara! I knew there were many who acknowledged that Prohibition was misguided and ineffective and there were extensive bootleg liquor operations, but as Jan mentioned, the depth and extent of the government corruption described here was surprising. I suppose it shouldn't have been. I watched the HBO series Boardwalk Empire which was steeped in bootleg liquor, bribes and double crosses.
Barbara wrote: "The Poisoners Handbook includes even more horrific actions on the part of the government during Prohibition."
Jan O'Cat: Very insightful, and thanks for looking up the treatment options at the time of George's manic episodes. As for feeling sorry for him, it was tempting but hard to muster any sympathy, especially as he treated her so badly when he first was in jail. To berate and demean her, expect her to clean his jail cell on her hands and knees, and to then abuse her and not instead thank her was unforgivable. He was not free to alternate that poor treatment with whatever benefits being married to her had offset it when he was free. I thought then he was most unwise and it would come back to bite him.
As for Willebrandt's inexplicably benign attitude about Frank Dodge's criminal indiscretions with Imogene; I couldn't figure that out. I don't think George was right that Mabel and Frank had an affair, that seems out of character for her. Loyalty for his past work is a possible motive and she certainly had to tread lightly as a woman. If she turned on her former investigator it might have undermined any future support from other (of course, male) investigators. It was a terrible thing he and Imogene did to George.
OMalleycat wrote: "George’s “brainstorms” sure indicate a neurologically based mental illness. This section sent me researching electroshock therapy to find out why someone didn’t intervene in his dangerously manic episodes.
In this section there were a few times I was tempted to feel sorry for George but I’d remind myself of who he was at the beginning of the book and my sympathy would ebb away. Then he ends up deliberately and cold-bloodedly chasing Imogene down and killing her and goes way past any tiny glimmer of pity. These were ugly people indeed
What do you think of Willebrandt’s hands-off approach to Dodge? George thought they’d had an affair, but I think it was more likely that she didn’t want to give up on him when he’d served her so well in bringing about the Savannah prosecution. Plus, having received so many public accolades, perhaps she couldn’t admit she’d been wrong about Dodge. Abbott says something about Willebrandt’s difficult position of being the “first woman” and conscious that any mistake might set back the women would would follow her.
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