Category: Class Violence

• The "Gilded Age" Murder Cabal

  This theory claimed that members of American high society were not merely decadent or morally corrupt, but periodically murdered lower-status people for amusement, discipline, or secret ritual sport. It belongs to the broader rumor world of Gilded Age vice, elite impunity, and urban class terror. The theory drew force from real scandals involving wealthy men, spectacular crimes among elite circles, and the public impression that money insulated “society” figures from ordinary accountability.