It was called the crime of the decade. Newspapers from across the country told of the mysterious death of the wealthy and eccentric Margretta Todd in 1905. In her younger years, Margretta had been the mistress of Napoleon III in Paris and was a favorite in the emperor's court. Later, she built an upscale apartment building in Manhattan at 29 W. Twenty-Sixth Street called the Von-Hoffmann Arms. The building still stands there today. Following Margretta's death, it would become the backdrop for deception and legal battles.

Margretta's daughter, Rosalie, married the wealthy Frank Tousey, who owned one of the largest publishing companies in the country. They lived a charmed life until Frank's untimely death in 1902, which left Rosalie on her own for the first time in her life.

The ensuing years would be filled with unscrupulous men plotting to control the estates of both mother and daughter. Two adversarial lawyers, Ingersoll Lockwood and George Hastings, would stop at nothing, including murder, in order to get their hands on the Todd and Tousey estates. One man succeeded.

This is the story of how that happened.