The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress is based on the disappearance of a real judge, Justice Joseph Crater, in 1930 in New York City. Vivian Gordon, The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress’s “notorious madam” and Sally Lou Ritz’s friend and roommate, was also a real person. Both Gordon and Crater were involved in the political corruption rampant in New York at the time, largely orchestrated by a political organization known as “Tammany Hall” throughout the early 20th century. Tammany Hall was controlled by the Mob (the Mafia), and “Graft and cronyism ruled many facets of city government, including the judicial system and police department” (Blakemore, Erin. “The 1930s Investigation That Took Down New York’s Mayor—and Then Tammany Hall.” History, 27 May 2025).

In 1930, the governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), appointed Samuel Seabury to investigate claims of corruption in the legal system. Seabury’s commission uncovered the venal nature of Tammany’s distribution of judgeships, which was usually fueled by bribery. When Gordon was found strangled in 1931, Roosevelt instructed Seabury to also investigate her death. Seabury learned that Gordon was a sex worker who would blackmail her clients and use the money to negotiate with gangsters. However, the commission also uncovered the bribes taken by the arresting officer and exposed the use of ‘frame-ups,’ a practice by which police officers framed innocent women for financial gain” (Blakemore). Justice Joseph Crater’s mysterious disappearance occurred mere months after his appointment to the bench, fueling suspicion that he was also linked to Tammany’s corruption and organized crime (Kroger, Grove. “Crater Disappearance.” EBSCO, 2022).

The governor soon expanded Seabury’s investigations, which ballooned to encompass every single department in the city’s government. Even the mayor himself was found to have accepted at least $1 million in bribes during his tenure. After Fiorello LaGuardia, a Republican intent on reform, was elected mayor, Tammany’s membership plummeted, and the election of FDR as president finally ended the corrupt regime. 

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress blends fact and fiction. While the author does incorporate elements of historical fact, such as the Seabury commission and the murder of Gordon, she also adds her own fictional twist to the story by imagining that Crater’s death was orchestrated by Stella, Maria, and Ritzi working together to get rid of the judge. In reality, Justice Crater’s disappearance was never conclusively resolved, and he was declared legally dead in 1939. The exact circumstances around his death remain a cause for speculation.