Wanda Stopa
{{short description|American lawyer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Wanda Elaine Stopa
| image = Wanda Stopa.png
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1900|05|05}}
| birth_place = Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland, Russian Empire
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1924|04|25|1900|05|05}}
| death_place = Detroit, Michigan, US
| death_cause = Suicide by cyanide poisoning
| resting_place = Bohemian National Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois
| occupation = District attorney
}}
Wanda Elaine Stopa (May 5, 1900 – April 25, 1924) was a Polish-American lawyer and murderer who committed suicide the day after committing her crime.
Life
Stopa was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1900. She emigrated to the United States with her parents and siblings, ending up in Chicago's Little Poland neighborhood. Her father was a clay sculpture modeler in Chicago and her mother came from a prominent Polish family. While living in her parents' rigidly conformist home, she studied at The John Marshall Law School, passed the bar exam and became Chicago's youngest and first woman assistant U.S. district attorney. Others described her as extremely smart and of a dominating emotional nature.{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2010/The-Girls-of-Murder-City-by-Douglas-Perry/?mode=popup&cp=2&view=slideshow|title=The Girls of Murder City|website=Chicago magazine|language=en|access-date=2020-01-15}}{{cite news |last=Britt |first=George |date=7 May 1924 |title=Bohemias Golden Sun Leads Girl Prodigy-To Murder Charge |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HTS19240507.2.29&srpos=10&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22stopa%22+%22smith%22-------1 |work=Humboldt Times |access-date=23 June 2022}}
In search of a more individualistic and independent lifestyle, Stopa moved to a studio with other creatives located in the Bohemian Towertown neighborhood. True to the reputation of the Roaring Twenties, the studio was the site of late night parties and non-traditional lifestyles. Stopa lived at the studio for three years; for one summer, an advertising executive named Y. Kenley Smith and his wife, a pianist, lived there as well.
Also living at the artists' studio was a Russian man whom Stopa married, variously referred to in the press as "Vlad", "Ted", "Glaskoff", "Glasko", "Glasgow" or "Glaskow". There is confusion about his background. He described himself as a count who lost a fortune in the Russian Revolution, but Stopa's brothers portrayed him as a bootlegger and professional gambler.{{Cite web|url=http://1001chicago.com/283/|title=#283: The Murderess Down the Block, 1 of 2|website=1,001 Chicago Afternoons|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-15}} He and Stopa separated soon after marrying.
Smith financially supported Stopa as an intellectual and artist. At some point, they began an affair. When Smith broke off the relationship, Stopa was extremely unhappy and demanded he leave his wife for her.{{cite book |last=Zorbaugh |first=Harvey Warren |date=1983 |title=The Gold Coast and the Slum: A Sociological Study of Chicago's Near North Side |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-PKDV11rN8C |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=92 |isbn=9780226989457 |quote=Wanda Stopa, who had sought in Towertown escape from the life in Little Poland.}}{{cite book |last=Seidel |first=Jon |date=20 September 2019 |title=Second City Sinners: True Crime from Historic Chicago's Deadly Streets |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQqiDwAAQBAJ |publisher=Lyons Press |page=154 |isbn=9781493038466 |quote=Smith said he eventually told Stopa they could no longer see each other. A month later, he said, she demanded either $1,000 for a trip to Europe or that he leave his wife for her.}} Stopa traveled to the Smiths' Palos Park cottage on the outskirts of the city and tried to shoot her lover's wife, named Doodles, but accidentally shot and killed their 68-year old gardener, Henry Manning. Kenley Smith was at work in downtown Chicago at the time of the shooting and was quickly picked up by the authorities for his protection and for an interview.{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2010/The-Girls-of-Murder-City-by-Douglas-Perry/|title=The Girls of Murder City, by Douglas Perry|last=Loerzel|first=Robert|website=Chicago magazine|language=en|access-date=2020-01-15}} Stopa fled the scene and led the police on a manhunt.
Death
File:Grave of Wanda Elaine Stopa (1900–1924) at Bohemian National Cemetery, Chicago.jpg
Stopa committed suicide by ingesting cyanide in a room in the Detroit Statler Hotel. Her brothers speculated that her estranged Russian husband provided the poison and described his influence on her life as "evil". Crushed by the loss of their friend, the artists from the Bohemian studio asked to be involved with Stopa's funeral. Enticed by the nature of the tragic love story, her funeral drew many curious onlookers and gawkers, some accounts claiming as many as 10,000 people.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40789339/wanda_stopa/|title=Wanda Stopa|date=1924-04-30|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=2020-01-15|pages=3}} Stopa is buried at the Bohemian National Cemetery.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/04/26/archives/woman-murderer-suicide-in-detroit-wanda-stopa-who-killed-caretaker.html|title=Woman Murderer Suicide in Detroit; Wanda Stopa, Who Killed Caretaker in Chicago Home, Takes Poison in Hotel.|date=1924-04-26|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-01-15|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331 |page=1 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/true-crime-justice-story/ny-justice-story-wanda-elaine-stopa-20200313-6nnan3aqrbaxpouqz64zteyd2u-story.html |title=Justice Story: Love made legal eagle lovesick and homicidal |last=Bovsun |first=Mara |date=13 March 2020 |newspaper=New York Daily News |access-date=24 June 2022 |quote=}}
Popular culture
Ernest Hemingway was once a tenant and friend of Stopa's lover, Kenley Smith. After reading of the scandal in the newspaper, Hemingway privately reacted to it with dark amusement.{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Michael S. |date=1999 |title=Hemingway: The Paris Years |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-PKDV11rN8C |publisher=Norton |page=197 |isbn=9780393318791 |quote=Hadley showed him the April 28th Tribune with the juicy scandal in which his one time friend, Kenley Smith, was standing knee deep.}}
In 2019, Stopa's story was featured in a Season 13 episode of the American television series Deadly Women, with Kelsie Feltrin portraying Stopa.{{Citation|title=Kill the Competition|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt10568250/|access-date=2020-01-15}}
Stopa's story was also the subject of episode 108 of the Chicago History Podcast.
The award-winning blog 1,001 Chicago Afternoons by Paul Dailing delved into the story in post number 283, named "The Murderess Down the Block".
References
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Category:20th-century American murderers
Category:American female murderers
Category:University of Illinois Chicago School of Law alumni
Category:Burials at Bohemian National Cemetery (Chicago)
Category:20th-century American lawyers
Category:Suicides by cyanide poisoning
Category:20th-century American women lawyers
Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
Category:Emigrants from Congress Poland to the United States