Name: Evelyn Nesbit

Born: 25th December 1884 (possibly 1885)

Died: 17th January 1967

Country of Origin: USA

In a nutshell: Both a model and actress, Evelyn is best known nowadays for her involvement in the murder trial of Stanford White. But, even before being rocked by scandal, her face was one of the best-known of her day. 

*Trigger warning: Sexual assault 

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In January 1907, a court case began which the press of the time called ‘the trial of the century’. Evelyn Nesbit would have been around 22 years old when she appeared as a star witness. She told the court about how she had been sexually assaulted by the architect Stanford White. At the turn of the century, it was still rare for accusations of sexual assault to be shared in court. However, this wasn’t the crime that had brought Evelyn to the witness stand. She was to give evidence in defence of White’s murderer, her husband, Harry K. Thaw. It was a complicated and highly publicised case that would lead to Evelyn’s cataclysmic rise to fame to take a dramatic turn.

Evelyn was born around 1884 in Pennsylvania. Her exact year of birth is unknown, Evelyn herself even said she wasn’t sure due to the records being lost in a fire and her mother, Evelyn Florence, possibly changing her year of birth depending on the requirements of child labour laws at the time. She grew up with a love of books and learning but her father, an attorney, died when Evelyn was 10 and the family fell into poverty. 

Evelyn, her mother and younger brother moved around for a while before settling in Philadelphia and all three of them got work in a department store. One day, when Evelyn was about 14, she was spotted by an artist who asked Evelyn to pose for her. This was Evelyn’s first introduction into what was to become her profession. The family then relocated again, this time to New York and soon enough Evelyn was posing for various high-profile artists of the time. Possibly the most notable of these was James Carroll Beckwith, whose patron was none other than millionaire John Jacob Aster. 

Evelyn’s mother was thrown into the role of manager for her daughter as she became more and more in demand. She transitioned easily from the star of portraits to the star of photographs and became a renowned fashion model. She starred in advertising campaigns and soon got a role as a chorus line girl in the Broadway play, Florodora. It was around this time that rising star Evelyn was introduced to Stanford White. He was an architect known for working on various big projects, including the second iteration of Madison Square Garden. White and Evelyn began spending time together and he lavished her and family with expensive gifts and paid for their accommodation. Evelyn was already the subject of much press attention at the time and stories circulated about their relationship. One story that became particular popular was that White had a red velvet swing hanging from the ceiling of his apartment that he had allegedly pushed Evelyn on during her first visit to his place. The press would later give her the nickname ‘the girl in the red velvet swing’. During this time, Evelyn would have been around 16, White was in his late 40s.

After a while, Evelyn and White’s relationship came to an end and she became associated with other men, including the millionaire Harry K. Thaw. This was during the time when she took on a speaking role in the play, The Wild Rose. Thaw and Evelyn married in 1905 and they relocated to quiet Pittsburgh. 

It was what happened next, during a visit to New York, that would dominate any mention of her name in history from this point on. At a performance at the Madison Square Garden rooftop, Thaw shot White dead at close range. 

In court, Thaw pleaded temporary insanity, claiming that he was acting in defence of his wife who had been raped by White. Evelyn was even brought forward to take the stand and she shared the story of what had happened to her at the hands of White in detail. The media of the time were completely absorbed in the ‘crime of the century’ and for the first time in US history, the jury had to be sequestered. Eventually, Thaw was found not guilty and was interned in a psychiatric hospital rather than a prison. 

Evelyn was supported through the court proceedings by Thaw’s family but once the trials were done with, they cut her off financially and Evelyn made her own way through work as a vaudeville star and silent film actress. She had a son called Russell in 1910 who she claimed with Thaw’s child after his conception during a visit to where Thaw was hospitalised. Throughout the rest of his life, Thaw would deny paternity. 

Thaw was let out of from hospital in 1915, the same year that Evelyn divorced him. Not long after, Thaw committed violent and sexual abuse of 19-year-old Frederick Gump and, after another plea of insanity, was placed in an asylum. 

For a time, Evelyn was married to her dance partner, Jack Clifford, but the marriage was short-lived as he couldn’t handle her fame. Evelyn would struggle with finances and addiction for many years. She worked as a technical advisor on a highly fictionalised film about her life, ‘The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing’, released in 1955 and died in California in 1967. 

Evelyn is also featured in the book, musical and film, Ragtime. 

Now you’ve read her story, what do you think? Was Evelyn a fame and money-hungry queen of scandal and ‘girl in the red velvet swing’ or a mistreated teenager and abuse survivor who had to grow up too fast to support her family? You decide.