The Scandalous Hamiltons

May 23, 2022
Design historian Shaffer (George Nelson and the Design of Time) gives a detailed account of the scandal surrounding Robert Ray Hamilton (1851–1890), great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton, and his secret marriage to a prostitute and attempted murderer. After serving four years in the New York State Assembly, Hamilton’s life took a dramatic turn in 1889, when he secretly married Evangeline Steele, a former prostitute with whom he’d had a years-long affair. The impetus for the marriage was the birth of their daughter, Beatrice—or so Hamilton thought. In reality, Evangeline, aided by her common-law husband, Joshua Mann, had purchased an unwanted infant girl from a midwife and passed her off as Hamilton’s child in a scheme to get his money. The plot unraveled months later, when Evangeline stabbed the baby’s nursemaid in a drunken argument. After a sensational trial and divorce proceedings, which were breathlessly documented by the era’s tabloid reporters, including Nellie Bly, Hamilton retreated to the West, where he died under mysterious circumstances in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Shaffer relates these events in a straightforward style that drains the era of some its color, but resists caricature. Historical true crime buffs will be engrossed.