Truman Capote, a Cyanide Pill, and a Massive Murder in High Society

HBO show Gilded Age is a delightful jaunt of lavish homes, opulent gowns, and delectable acts. It’s fun to watch, but there’s something about it that feels too high-gloss, not real. It’s Hollywood’s interpretation of late 19th-century New York high society — exaggerated, scaled down, and distilled to just the very best.

That’s what I thought, at least, until I started researching Life Magazine called “shooting of the century.” The dresses could have been a little less provocative and a little more scandalous (Agnes van Rhijn would be appalled by the amount of legs exposed), transport added a whole new level of “horse” power. oh,” and the world of the famously rich did get a little bigger and more connected by the day, but the behavior of America’s highest social class in the 1950s — well, that’s still the case. snobbish and scandalous.

The year is 1955 and the characters in this story are 40-year-old Ann Woodward, a woman of unknown origin (read: lower class who performed on — gasp — on stage) and who The rich man she “trapped” to marry his family’s wishes, 35-year-old Billy Woodward. On the night of October 30, police were called to an ambulance in a tony neighborhood of Oyster Bay, Long Island. When they break into the mansion, they find Ann on the ground, shotgun nearby, clutching the body of her naked and dead husband.