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The Man Who Shot J.P. Morgan, A Life of Arsenic, Anarchy and Intrigue
On July 3, 1915, John Pierpont Morgan Jr., one of the most famous names in finance, was preparing for a grand event at his estate on the Gold Coast of Long Island. The doorbell rang and an armed man forced his way inside. The day before the US Capitol was bombed. The country was on edge.
Nine years earlier, in 1906, Leone Krembs Muenter had fallen ill and died shortly after giving birth. Her husband, Harvard professor Erich Muenter, blamed his wife's Christian Science religious beliefs, which prohibited medical intervention, for the death, but an investigation suggested something more sinister: arsenic poisoning. As suspicions mounted, Muenter vanished. In Texas, a mysterious man calling himself Frank Holt wooed Leona Sensabaugh, and after their marriage he pursued a career at Cornell. But some of Holt's colleagues found he reminded them of someone they knew, a man who had been suspected of murdering his wife. Could Frank Holt and Erich Muenter be the same person? What were they to make of it, later, when they saw a familiar face in the papers following a bizarre attempt on a finance tycoon's life? The Man Who Shot J. P. Morgan is a riveting tale of false identities, radical political beliefs, and ambitious criminal schemes set during the tumultuous time shortly before the United States entered World War I. Published 2025 by Kent State University Press.
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Mary Noe is a lawyer, writer and lecturer and holds the rank of Professor at St. John's University.
