The Bondage Murders Organized Crime In New York City 1923-1924

Sir Basil Thomson, formerly of Scotland Yard, took an interest in the murders of Louise Lawson and Dorothy Keenan. He realized that their deaths was the work of persons who defied detection easily. One of Keenan's acquaintances/suitors was the son-in-law of Harry Daugherty, who was the U.S. Attorney General under President Warren Harding. The thieves/murderers specialized in furs and jewelry. More

The murders of Broadway celebrities Thula Louise Lawson and Dorothy Keenan, in 1923 and 1924, occurred in the Times Square/Theater District of Manhattan, New York. Lawson and Keenan were both associated with mobsters in their social lives, especially in the clubs they frequented in Manhattan. Lawson came to New York from Texas. She was a talented musician and also an ingenue actress in theater. Keenan, also known as Dot King, began as a seamstress in the garment district. She became a kept woman who was the consort of a number of rich men. Both women were murdered in their apartments in a horrific way, by assassins who bound them up before killing them. Keenan was also chloroformed by the men who killed her. My book looks at the lives of Louise Lawson and Dorothy Keenan and hints at possibilities of who might have killed them, and why.