Done & Dunne

Last week Betty Broderick passed away in prison at the age of 78, spending 34 years of her life locked up after murdering her ex-husband Dan and his second wife. Betty’s ultimately fatal obsession was a true crime standout and captured the nation’s attention through her two separate trials. It seemed fitting this week to reprise this episode from the archive to revisit the very trashy divorce of Dan and Betty Broderick, including her crime and punishment. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we are taking a little trip to Cap Ferrat on the Riviera to explore the connections and spiderwebs in one special house, Villa La Mauresque. This house has played host to many a high society and literary figure in its day being owned at one time by both Somerset Maugham and Lynn Wyatt. This villa is loaded with history, and is a definite hot spot on the circuit. Or used to be, before an oligarch steps in reshape the future of the villa. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a bit of an attachment to Lynn Wyatt, our main subject this week, we could not let this particular story fall to the wayside. Lynn had a pretty terrible first marriage early in life to a playboy heir, Robert Lipman. After their divorce, Robert took himself on quite an international tour of travel, and so many drugs. It was in 1967, in swinging Chelsea, that Robert took more than drugs - he took the life of a young girl too, Claudie Delbarre. The manhunt and trial certainly bring to light the power and privilege of the upper crust, and a decided lack of justice too. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dominick Dunne is always talking about the people he knows, and in this segment, he is reporting in 2006 about so many troubles of the socialite ladies in his circle. Lynn Wyatt is the focus here and all the woes with her billionaire husband Oscar Wyatt at the time. We get to know little a bit here, mostly through her dedicated support of her husband at this time. Also added, Alicia chimes in with more stories to connect this one into our investigation, including the romance of Sarah Ferguson and Steve Wyatt, Lynn's son from her first marriage, which is coming back around in no time. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We reconnect with Gardner McKay this week, the handsome actor who starred as Adam Troy in Adventures in Paradise. Gardner was a Dominick Dunne discovery, and Dunne loves to remind you of that fact. In this episode, we begin with a 1999 piece with Dunne being asked for a quote for Gardner’s new book, Toyer. With namedrops, studio gossip and a little more too, Gardner McKay is not a man you will soon forget. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Alicia follows up with some spiderwebs from the Doris Day story, and how her son Terry factors into those terrible events on Cielo Drive on August 8, 1969. Terry and his longtime girlfriend Candice Bergen lived there in a fairy tale dream in 1968, before Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski move into the home. Why did Terry and Candice move? Doris told them they must. This one is filled with all kinds of connections throughout those days in the Hollywood Hills and beyond, with all sorts of folks chiming in on and rounding out the details of this time from Doris and Terry's point of view. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is a special double length bonus today as we explore the life and the loves of Doris Day in this Trashy Divorces crossover! Actress and singer Doris Day built a giant career in Hollywood on the image of the All-American Girl, a perfectly relatable Girl Next Door, virtuous and funny. It was pure spin, with Groucho Marx once quipping, “I’ve been around so long, I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.” Doris herself chafed at the limitations of the typecasting and how utterly at odds it was to the life she was actually living. In this first part of her story, Alicia takes us through her start in show business, her first two husbands, and a whole lotta playing the field in 1950s Hollywood. In this second half, Alicia tracks Doris Day’s disastrous marriage to Martin Melcher, and the enormous financial hole he left her in when he died at the young age of 52. There was still one more husband to go before Doris would decide she’d had enough of matrimony and turned her focus to a more deserving cause: rescuing animals. More spiderwebs to come in tomorrow’s episode, bringing it all together! Sources and Recommended Reading can be found on doneanddunne.com. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who could have imagined this lucky twist? This week, Taylor Swift released the music video for Track 2 from her The Life of a Showgirl album. The song is "Elizabeth Taylor" and the video features the screen goddess in excerpts from eleven of her iconic films. It is a must see if you are an Elizabeth Taylor fan. By the time this recording was complete, the music video is now available on Youtube.com too - check it out below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqbJT_vC0rs Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There was a moment when Dominick Dunne was asked to write an introduction for Elizabeth Taylor's 2002 book about all of her famous jewels. Turns out, Our Man Nick's words didn't make the cut for the release, but we have them in today's episode. From May of 2007, in a special feature from Vanity Fair, Dunne gives a little insight into his multi-decade friendship with Elizabeth Taylor including trashy tidbits about his last film Ash Wednesday, Richard Burton, Robert Evans, Michael Jackson, and jewelry. You know Elizabeth loves her jewelry. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Done and Dunne, we conclude the current arc of Mart Crowley. Packed into this one are his years after The Boys in The Band, and a few stories about his besties, including Natalie Wood and Kay Thompson. Also included, his travels and his eternal legacy. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠Patreon⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we explore the life of high society grande dame Oatsie Charles. Her southern childhood and early life are connected through Santa Rosa and Montgomery, with a whole lot of eccentric family tales. We do have a Tallulah Bankhead connection as well, before we move onto Oatsie’s later years, where she partied it up in Georgetown and her Newport home, Land’s End. Connected to all the players in every era, including JFK, Ian Fleming, Katharine Graham, and Nancy Reagan too – Oatsie is a lady who is hard to forget. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investigators, Alicia got her hot little hands on Graydon Carter's book When The Going Was Good, and there is so much tea to spill. Graydon was Dominick Dunne's Editor at Vanity Fair for years and he shares many stories about so many characters in our universe. First up on these tales, you know we have to begin with Our Man Nick. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on⁠ Patreon⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While filming The Boys in the Band in 1969, our man Nick moves to New York City and is beginning to live on the wild side – one that is very dangerous. There is a whole lot happening this year, in addition to Dunne’s dicey choices. The Manson Murders come in the summer – soon after Lenny reveals her MS diagnosis to the family. Folks noticing Dunne’s adoration of Frederick Combs is a highlight of this time, with a heartwarming attachment from Griffin Dunne connecting it all. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1967, Mart Crowley wrote a groundbreaking work that no one, especially his friend Dominick Dunne, would have predicted success for at the time. However, The Boys in the Band took the theatre world by storm, soon to be followed by a film in 1970. This work's significance made an impact at the time, and only seemed to grow with its importance through the years. This episode covers the whole story - from writing, to production, to release - all of its actors and characters, one who was modeled after our own man Nick. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Sources Mart Crowley: Courage and Candor (americantheatre.com) A Homecoming (baltimoresun.com) Money, Murder, and Dominick Dunne: A Life in Several Acts (amazon.com) The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper⁠, by Dominick Dunne (Amazon) How One Movie Changed LBGT History (time.com) Cinema: Shades of Lavender (time.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dominick Dunne never got around to writing about the murder of Olympic skier Vladimir “Spider” Sabich in 1976, but he devoted an episode of his 2002-2009 television series, Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege, and Justice, to the killing – and the mockery of a trial that followed. Spider, a popular fixture in the Aspen scene, was shot by his longtime live-in girlfriend, singer-actress Claudine Longet. This is approximately where the agreed-upon facts end. Alicia sets the stage and then takes us through the trial and its aftermath, where Longet’s Hollywood lawyer, paid for by her crooner ex-husband Andy Williams, fully overwhelmed the sleepy ski town’s police and prosecutors. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠Patreon⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we deep dive into the whole history of one home in Laurel Canyon, with a number of owners connecting into our investigation. Our focus is 7708 Woodrow Wilson Drive, a beautiful English Country home built by Natalie Wood's parents, and where she begins her married life with Robert Wagner. Natalie sells the home in the 1960s to the "Earth Mother of Laurel Canyon" Cass Elliot, who entertains in grand style until her death in 1974. Musician Harry Nilsson enters the frame from here, with Ringo Starr as a featured player. Dan Aykroyd and Donna Dixon have many years in the home, eventually selling to Beverly D'Angelo in 2008. So many players in our universe floated in and out through the decades in this home, along with perhaps some actual floating ghosts. All the spooky encounters are also included in today's story! Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Any day is a terrific day to talk about Natalie Wood, and this week the beloved actress is coming into full focus on Done and Dunne. Included in this first episode of Natalie Wood Week, we investigate her childhood and early stardom, along with those family complications. Next it is her teenage years, with the accompanying struggles found in Hollywood for a young woman. Natalie’s two marriages to and one divorce from Robert Wagner is a focus, although her second divorce and love affairs are covered as well. The spiderwebs are off the charts in this one bringing in many previous players into the frame.  Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠Patreon⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week our focus centers on Mart Crowley, American Playwright most well known for his 1968 play The Boys In The Band. Within this episode, we take Mart from a terrible childhood in Mississippi to Catholic University, to Elia Kazan and Natalie Wood, and all the spiderwebs of his career before creating this pioneering work.  Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we begin our look into Mart Crowley and his breakthrough play "The Boys in the Band" in a slightly offbeat way. Mart's life and times, and Dunne's role within the creation of the play and the movie version are essential parts of this investigation, but here in the beginning of these episodes, we are wandering back to LOOK Magazine from December 2, 1969 with a piece by Jack Star titled "A Changing View of Homosexuality", which takes the pulse on what the current feeling is among folks. What was the vibe about gays in 1969? You may be surprised in a few ways as we set the stage for this pioneering work and the man behind it.  Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We take a wander down memory lane in this episode, direct from Dominick Dunne himself. Dunne contributed an essay for the Chateau Marmont Hollywood Handbook edited by Andre Balazs. In this piece from 1997, Dunne reveals so much about his journey as it intersects through Los Angeles and the iconic hotel. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this last episode of 2025, we honor and celebrate the life of Jacqueline de Ribes, French aristocrat, designer, fashion icon, businesswoman, film producer and philanthropist, who passed away just yesterday at the age of 96. This extraordinary woman was always getting name-checked by Dominick Dunne, and with her life and its many spiderwebs, it is easy to see why. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we take a little time to bring Dominick Dunne’s First Noël, Noël Coward to the main feed! Noël Coward, a legend in so many ways, was an enormous influence for Dominick Dunne, and well, the rest of the high society and theatre world too, as Alicia detailed back in August 2022. Tune in for a ride of long ago ghosts and so many spiderwebs! Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is a double drop this week to talk about one more of Truman Capote’s lost treasures. Who knew Truman was an artist? And that his creative project was making snake bite kits? This tale explores this hobby, Truman’s planned art show, and Gotham Book Mart’s involvement in the whole affair.  Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are going to take a little jaunt with our man Dominick Dunne through Connecticut in this and future episodes. Dunne writes in June 2006 for Vanity Fair about a whole lot of scoops coming from the state of his home retreat. We begin with a line Nick got about a whole cache of secret papers left behind by Truman Capote investigating a case that he never will write about, although we have his research. Also, included are details of this grisly case in which Dean Corll, the Candy Man, murdered at least 28 men in Texas, soliciting the assistance of other teenagers, including Edmer Wayne Henley. It is a whole spiderweb of connected bits in this literary and true crime journey. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today is second part of the incredible story of Lady Anne Glenconner. This episode is full of the stories and spiderwebs of Anne's third act, having incredible success with her memoirs. So many people show up in this one - with stories and a little tea-spilling too - including Princess Margaret, Lord Snowden, King Charles III, Queen Consort Camilla, Mel B., Mick Jagger, and even Graham Norton too. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! Sponsors Aura Frames. Get $35 off Aura’s best-selling Carver Mat frames by using promo code DONE at checkout at auraframes.com. To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special crossover episode of Done and Dunne and Trashy Royals, Alicia introduces you to The Right Honourable The Dowager Lady Glenconner, Anne Tennant. Lady Anne’s life is truly incredible – from a privileged childhood to being a lady-in-waiting attending Queen Elizabeth II through her coronation, these are only Anne’s early years. Marriage and children follow in her life, with so many connected spiderwebs into the aristocracy, and our podcast journey.  Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! Sponsors Aura Frames. Get $35 off Aura’s best-selling Carver Mat frames by using promo code DONE at checkout at auraframes.com. To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bit of a twist, we move from others’ famous homes in our journey to Dominick Dunne’s last two homes, his East Side pied-a-terre and his rustic Connecticut retreat. It is a bit of a real estate and storytelling ride, with a charming Dunne and Son story to close this cozy episode.  All sources and recommended reading can be found on our website.  Sources:  https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/dominick-dunne-connecticut-retreat https://observer.com/2010/08/the-way-he-lived-then-dunnes-midtown-penthouse-sells-for-12-m/ https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/a-glimpse-into-the-dream-state-of-a-hollywood-family/ Griffin Dunne’s The Friday Afternoon Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone knows that JFK was a man of vociferous appetites when it came to women, but the secret story of a possible love child fathered with a teenage maid in the Hyannis Port compound is not commonly known. Many questions persist, but the tale of JFK's maybe-baby-mama, Alicia Corning Clark, is such a quintessentially American one - from refugee to the Kennedy's to Hollywood and beyond - that we can forgive that much of the mystery remains unresolved. Included within this story are Alicia's marriages, divorces, scandals and so many spiderwebs too, from high society to the top tiers of government. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We go all the back in this episode to Dominick Dunne’s second submission for Vanity Fair in April 1984. Dunne takes us to the Ambitious Blondes of the day, following in the footsteps of the greats before them like Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, and Grace Kelly. Included in this profile are many not-as-famous-as-they will-be blondes like Kim Basinger, Darryl Hannah, and Michelle Pfeffer. Also, a few other fair-haired ladies you might not be so familiar with, including Angelyne and Kelly Collins. Also includes a special appearance by Alana Collins Hamilton Stewart. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this quick bonus episode, Alicia shares a little news about the main feed this week and completes the Peggy Lee coffee giveaway too! The legendary Peggy Lee is being celebrated with two brand new coffee blends from our friend ⁠Breakfast at Dominique’s⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Alicia recounts Dotson Rader’s story about the time Truman Capote met Peggy Lee. This one contains all kinds of spiderwebs including Key West, Jimmy Buffett and Doris Duke too. It is a tiny tale that says a lot - but that is not the only delight in this one! The legendary Peggy Lee is being celebrated with two brand new coffee blends from Breakfast at Dominique’s and we have a few bags to give away!  Included are all the details for how to enter to win a bag of this delicious coffee! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this conclusion of an episode, Alicia reveals the details from the September 1963 home movie made by Jack and Jacqueline Kennedy. Robert Knudsen filmed this James Bond-like film before the President’s assassination just a few months later. Included in this story are many attachments to our man Nick in this piece of forgotten history. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We go way back to January 1954 in this episode with a feature from Suppressed Magazine, featuring a few high society ladies much discussed in our investigation. These are early days for these Three Cinderellas, who were determined to marry well, and boy did they. First up, the lovely Georgette Windsor, who will land Harry Cooke Cushing IV. Filling out the middle, Gregg Sherwood, who will land Horace Dodge Jr. in her second time down the aisle. Rounding out these lovely ladies is a fan favorite around here, Bobo Sears, who landed Winthrop Rockefeller. Lots of names, lots of spiderwebs in this one! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our continuing “Elizabeth Taylor Takeover” this week, we remember that time that Dominick Dunne profiled Elizabeth Taylor in 1985 for Vanity Fair. At this time in her life, Elizabeth Taylor was back on top after battling addiction as well as doing extraordinary work bringing attention to AIDS and fundraising to fight the disease. Our man Nick is namedropping like normal in this one, but he is allowed to – the pair are old friends, after all. Sources ⁠⁠Fatal Charms and the Mansions of Limbo⁠⁠, by Dominick Dunne (Amazon link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alicia's taking over all the podcasts this week, with the stories and spiderwebs of screen goddess Elizabeth Taylor. In this week's musically-themed episode, Alicia breaks down some of the lyrics in Taylor Swift's new track, Elizabeth Taylor, from her album The Life of a Showgirl. From Portofino to the very best table at Musso & Frank's, certain themes resonate across these two titanic figures in American pop culture - and leave our podcasts absolutely covered in spiderwebs. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an exciting crossover episode today, Alicia was delighted to speak with author and biographer Andrew Morton about his new release Winston and the Windsors: How Churchill Shaped a Royal Dynasty. Our conversation explores the influence of Winston’s mother Jennie Jerome on his early days, as well as Winston’s relationship with each of the Windsor monarchs including Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II. Our discussion does not stop there – Andrew shares many stories about the royal family and his own adventures in reporting. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠Patreon⁠! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We continue our journey in Newport, Rhode Island this week, but veer off of Bellevue Avenue for this JFK mystery. Hammersmith Farm, the Auchincloss home, is our destination, and 1963 is the time period we focus upon. There is a whole lot happening in the summer of 1963 for JFK, both politically and personally. Where do you think he would find the idea, and have the time to film a home movie predicting his own assassination this summer? This week begins the deep dive into this JFK mystery, with so many sticky spiderwebs into the world of Ian Fleming his James Bond character, Newport high society, and premonitions too. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the sad passing of Diane Keaton today, we remember her legacy in this one from the vault. This long ago episode delves into the one and only Diane Keaton, and all her spiderwebs! Dominick Dunne interviewed Keaton in 1985, in both New York City and Los Angeles, and this piece provides so much sub-text to so much of Hollywood. Certainly, the story is about the reclusive Diane Keaton, but also leads into our investigation Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and many, many more! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The architect Stanford White is credited with a host of landmark structures in Newport, New York City, and beyond. But it was his sexual predation of young girls, especially the young model and showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, that led to his shockingly public murder and the 1907 "Trial of the Century" in its aftermath. The who was never in question. Harry K. Thaw was the culprit. It was Harry’s motive for the crime, defending his young wife Evelyn, that fascinated the public. Included in today’s investigation is a whole heap of New York City history, from newspapers to theaters, as well as high society figures, sexual secrets, professional jealousies, and courtroom dramas - all set against a landscape designed by the actual victim of the crime. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alicia climbs on her literary soapbox in this episode, the last to cover in our Big Four Spiderwebs episodes. Ginevra King was F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s first love, and oh my – did she stick to his heart and writing for years, also with a little plagiarism too. This one is a literary spiderweb that Alicia will always be mad about and sheds additional light into Scott’s psyche through the years. Click here to save 20% annually on Patreon!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you like golf, this is definitely the episode of The Big Four for you! Edith Cummings is the gal in our spotlight in this episode, and she led quite a life. Edith was one of the premier amateur golfers during the Jazz Age popularly known as the Fairway Flapper. Not only that, but Edith Cummings was also the inspiration for the character Jordan Baker in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. It truly does all connect. Click here to save 20% annually on Patreon!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holy cats! In this episode we meet the second of our Big Four, Courtney Louise Letts. Courtney was beautiful, glamorous and voted one of the world’s best dressed women. Courtney was also married four times, with some distinguished husbands including explorer John Borden and international diplomat Felipe de Espil. Her story includes way more than fashion and romantic love. Courtney was also a distinguished author of nature and diplomatic histories. Click here to save 20% annually on Patreon!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a departure from Newport this week, we are taking a detour to Lake Forest, Illinois to discover The Big Four. The Big Four was a Girl Gang unlike any other. These daughters of privilege are Margaret Carry, Courtney Letts, Edith Cummings, and Ginevra King, and each has her own special story. Today, we explore the origins of this quartet of lifelong female friendship as well as the life of Margaret “Peg” Carry, daughter of the onetime president of the Pullman Company. Peg’s life was fairly conventional, but the kidnapping of her husband (Edward A. Cudahy) as a child is the real showstopper. This case, including the manhunt and criminal trail set American precedent long before the days where child kidnapping of rich men became popular. Annual subscriptions now available on Patreon – Save 20%! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we continue our tour through Newport, Rhode Island, looking at the last block of Bellevue Avenue with Miramar as our focus today. Completed in 1914, Eleanor Elkins Widener finished this grand Gilded Age home to honor her husband George Widener, lost on the R.M.S. Titanic in 1912. The Widener family is a big deal in high society, specifically Philadelphia, and although the couple never lived in their dream home together. Eleanor will keep the home in the family and marry again to Alexander Hamilton Rice Jr., living many happy days at Miramar. After passing from the Widener family, the home does serve as a school for a brief time, although it slides back into being a private residence soon enough. There is some late breaking news about this home which is great for museum loving folks – Miramar is slated in its future to become part of the Newport Preservation Society. There is tons of history in this one that will attach in the next episode. It really does all connect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Edith Wharton came by her subject matter the old-fashioned way: she was born into a prominent New York City family, and was subjected to the mores of the city's high society circle from birth. This did not suit the plain, brainy young Edith even a little bit, much to her mother's horror, but Edith did eventually submit to an extremely unhappy marriage to a diagnosed megalomaniac (!), which ended in, you guessed it, a trashy divorce. But this episode contains way more than Edith’s life, writing and love affairs. We also explore the Gilded Age society that Edith lives in, but it is her aunt who really makes that society. Mrs. Mary Mason Jones is quite the OG legend in New York City, and the entire reason for the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses”. Also included are Mrs. Paran Stevens, Oscar Wilde, a set of international locations, many love affairs, and a whole lot of Newport too. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this holiday episode, we take a diversion from The Gilded Age in Newport to visit the Fabulous Late 1980s in Hollywood, specifically The Platinum Triangle, the area in Los Angeles that encompasses Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills and Bel Air. Dominick Dunne’s writing is terrific here from the spring of 1989, coming back to California and revisiting his old stomping grounds, and dropping all the dish. At the time, there was big push at this time to tear down all the homes that existed to build more glorious houses. Attached into this one are so many names that fold into our investigation through time, including but not limited to: David Geffen, Merv Griffin, Eva Gabor, William and Edie Goetz, Candy and Aaron Spelling, Betsy Bloomingdale, and so many more. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Source ⁠⁠Fatal Charms and the Mansions of Limbo⁠⁠, by Dominick Dunne (Amazon link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oliver Belmont becomes quite the talk of the town when the entire first floor of this grand home is comprised of stables for his prized horses. Oliver will not stay single for long, marrying the recently divorced Alva Vanderbilt in a move that shocks society. And that is only one of the shocking moves. This home and the people who inhabited it are truly unforgettable. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s episode, we continue our tour of Bellevue Avenue to explore Champs Soliel, the last great home built in Newport in 1929, truly shitting down the Gilded Age. We get to know its owner, Lucy Wharton Drexel Dahlgren, who led quite an interesting life, with a real twist on a trashy divorce too. Other notable owners include Russell and Annie Laurie Aitken, mother of Sunny von Bulow.  Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the continuation of tour down Bellevue Avenue in Newport. Rhode Island, this week we take a little detour to one street, packed with a whole lot of history. Ruggles Avenue is this side street, and four homes were very important when it came to fancy folks and a whole lot of spiderwebs. Today's summer cottages include Seaview Terrace, The Cloisters, Fairholme, and Anglesea. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We continue our sleuthing in Newport in today’s episode, focusing in on a little more reporting from our man Dominick Dunne. Dunne covered the second trial of Claus von Bulow, and in so doing, uncovered a few more shady characters. Today, we investigate the two guys coming to help out Claus - David Marriott and Father Phillip Magaldi, both proven to ultimately be lying for Claus to get away with murder. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices