for sordid gain.”
Mollie’s sister Rita Credit 20
But since Anna’s murder Bill had, by all appearances, vigorously
sought to discover who the culprit was. When Bill learned that a
tailor in town might have information, he went with a private
detective to ask him questions, only to find that he was spreading
the now-familiar rumor: that Rose Osage had killed Anna in a fury
of jealousy.
Desperate for a break, the private detectives decided to install a
listening device to eavesdrop on Rose and her boyfriend. At the
time, statutes governing electronic surveillance were nebulous,
and Burns was an avid user of a Dictograph—a primitive listening
device that could be concealed in anything from a clock to a
chandelier. “Burns was the first American to see the immense