The Amazing Mabel Stark - Tiger Trainer & Big Cat Tamer

A brilliant new documentary film entitled Mabel, Mabel, Tiger Trainer directed by Leslie Zemeckis premiered in 2017. We added the film trailer to our website in 2018 (on right sidebar) so we could help spread the word about this amazing woman. Lesley Zemeckis has done a sterling job in bringing Mabel’s incredible life story to the big screen. 

Mabel Stark, whose real name was Mary Haynie was a renowned tiger trainer of the 1920s and was one of the world's first women to take up this thrilling but very dangerous occupation, which she did from 1911 right through to 1968. 

"Mabel Stark" entered the world on December 10, 1889 in Kentucky. She was one of seven children born to Lela and Hardy Haynie. Her parents were farmers and they died within two years of each other, so that by the age of 17, Stark and her siblings were orphaned. 

She spent a short period of time living with her aunt in Princeton. She then travelled to Louisville and became a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital. Soon after that, she left Louisville and her history becomes difficult to trace. 

Her Circus friends contend that she worked in carnivals as a "dancer". Like many circus performers, Stark did not hesitate to enrich the truth to create an interesting story. She even once told an interviewer that she was born to a wealthy Canadian.

In 1911 she was working with the Al G. Barnes Circus based in Culver City, California, where she met animal trainer Al Sands. She worked for a brief time there as a "high school" horseback rider, but her dream job was to work with the big cats. She began work with Louis Roth, a famous "cat man" who she would later marry. Roth advocated training big cats by rewarding them with meat, as opposed to beating them as earlier trainers did. Roth used the carrot instead of the stick. Stark's first big cat performance was with two lions and two tigers. 

Soon, she became a tiger trainer in the ring. At first, they had her work a "balloon act" which had her "riding" a lion on a platform and then pressing a pedal to release fireworks at some point in the act. But by 1916, she was presenting the show's major tiger act.

On 18 February 1916, Stark was severely mauled by a lion named Louie while rehearsing for the Pacific Electric exhibit of the National Orange Show in San Bernardino, California. Stark's husband, Louis Roth, fired blank cartridges from a revolver into the face of the lion amid the screams of his wife and spectators who had gathered to watch the rehearsal.

 The lion seized Stark's left arm into its mouth and rolled over a number of times. Roth had also been mauled earlier that same day by a lion. He suffered deep injuries to his arm before firing blanks into the animal's open jaws. Mabel was dragged unconscious from the cage and rushed to a hospital where she was treated for a mauled and broken arm. This was Stark's third mauling in as many years. In 1914, while in Detroit, Michigan, she was attacked by her leopards during a parade, and during the winter of 1915 she was again attacked in Venice, California.

She adopted a sickly tiger cub named Rajah and raised him to perform a famous wrestling act with her. She accomplished this by romping and playing with the cub at the beach and actually keeping him as a pet in her apartment. According to Stark's autobiography:

 "Rajah would run straight toward me. Up he went on his hind legs, his forefeet around my neck. We turned around once or twice, I threw him to the ground, and we rolled three or four times. I opened his mouth and put my face inside, then jumped to my feet".

Rajah became instrumental in making Stark a star. She admitted years later that Rajah was actually relieving himself sexually during this wrestling act, which looks very much like a vicious attack to anyone not familiar with tiger behaviour. Stark started wearing a white uniform at this time so that the audience would not see tiger semen. The white costume became her signature, which she used for the rest of her career.   

She was approached by, and joined, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1922, where she performed in Madison Square Garden with snarling tigers and a black panther. By the end of that season, of the six wild animal acts featured with the circus, Mabel Stark's was clearly the greatest success. In 1923, she starred in the Ringling centre ring, but two years later the circus banned all wild animal acts. 

By then Stark had divorced Roth and was a star act. She married the circus's accountant Albert Ewing, who was embezzling funds from Ringling. They divorced when the crime was uncovered, but Stark believed she was being punished for her husband's sins when the circus cut all big cat acts in 1925. 

Ringling chiefs claimed that the cage took too long to assemble and tear down during a performance. Stark was still under contract, though, and was assigned to a horse act. Her tigers were kept on in the circus's menagerie, which was supervised by Art Rooney. Mabel later claimed that she married her first husbands for practical reasons, but she fell in love with Rooney. They soon married, which surprised other circus employees because Rooney wore makeup and nail polish, and they assumed he was not the marrying kind. Rooney died soon after under circumstances that were not recorded.

After a sojourn to Europe where she performed in a circus, she came back to the U.S. in 1928 and began work with the John Robinson Show. The circus train was late getting to the venue in Bangor, Maine, the tigers were getting wet in the rain, and there was no time to feed them before the show. Normally, a cat act would be delayed or cancelled for this reason. But Stark let the show go on. Two hungry tigers named Sheik and Zoo mauled her during the show. Stark's own description of the incident was:

    "Sheik was right behind me, and caught me in the left thigh, tearing a two-inch gash that cut through to the bone and almost severed my left leg just above the knee. . .I could feel blood pouring into both my boots, but I was determined to go through with the act. . .(Zoo) jumped from his pedestal and seized my right leg, jerking me to the ground. As I fell, Sheik struck out with one paw, catching the side of my head, almost scalping me. . .Zoo gave a deep growl and bit my leg again. He gave it a shake, and planting both forefeet with his claws deep in my flesh, started to chew. . .I wondered into how many pieces I would be torn. . .Most of all I was concerned for the audience. . .I knew it would be a horrible sight if my body was torn apart before their eyes. And all my tigers would be branded as murderers and sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in narrow cages instead of being allowed the freedom of the big arena and the pleasure of working. That thought gave me strength to fight."

She would suffer a wound that almost severed her leg, along with face lacerations, a hole in her shoulder, a torn deltoid muscle and a host of other injuries. Stark managed to leave the cage with the help of another trainer, Terrell Jacobs, and insisted on changing out of her blood-soaked stage clothing before going to the hospital. Doctors sewed muscles and skin back together with 378 stitches, but they did not expect her to survive. She was back to work within a few weeks, swathed in bandages and walking with a cane, although the injuries troubled her and she was in and out of hospitals several times over the next two years for further muscle repair. When she was mauled, she blamed herself, or other factors, but never the tigers. She loved them and respected them, but also said there was no such thing as a "tame tiger." 

 Stark announced her retirement a couple of times, but always returned to performing.

She performed with the Sells-Floto Circus in 1929 and then rejoined Barnes, after it had been sold to Ringling, in 1930 and stayed there until it was absorbed into Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey during the season of 1938. 

Mabel with Mae West in 1933

In 1932 she and her tiger act was filmed for the Paramount Pictures motion picture King of the Jungle (1933). In the film Stark is seen putting her tigers through their paces when fire erupts in the big top. 

 She also worked as a stunt double in the lion-taming scenes for Mae West in the 1933 film I'm No Angel, which West wrote, possibly inspired by Stark's career. 

Hollywood work introduced Stark to Louis Goebel's Jungleland, in Thousand Oaks, California, a facility that housed trained animals for movies. She returned to California and finished her career at the Jungleland Compound.

She toured with some small circuses and lived in Japan where she performed her circus act in the 1950s. Stark also appeared on television in the 1960’s - she did a stint as one of the guests with an unusual occupation on What's My Line?, the popular Sunday Night CBS-TV program.

In 1968 Jungleland was sold to a new owner who disliked Stark and fired her. Soon after she left, one of her tigers escaped and was shot. Stark was angry and hurt about the animal's destruction and felt that she could have safely secured the tiger if the owners had asked for her assistance. Three months later, she killed herself by an overdose of barbiturates.

 In the last pages of her autobiography, Hold That Tiger, Stark writes:

 "The chute door opens as I crack my whip and shout, 'Let them come,' Out slink the striped cats, snarling and roaring, leaping at each other or at me. It's a matchless thrill, and life without it is not worthwhile to me."

She died on April 20, 1968 and was found dead by her housekeeper. According to her 1938 autobiography Hold That Tiger, Stark would have preferred to “die at the hands of a tiger than by any other means.”

In 2001 a fictionalized biography of Stark's life by author Robert Hough, entitled The Final Confession of Mabel Stark was published. The story is based in 1968, the same year that Stark committed suicide. The screenplay was optioned by director Sam Mendes with the hopes of making a film starring his wife Kate Winslet, however no production schedule has yet been announced. Apparently Winslet, has been interested in playing the role of Mabel Stark since 2003.

In the meantime if you want to find out more about the real Mabel Stark read her autobiography and watch the fantastic new documentary Mabel Mabel Tiger Trainer. 

 http://mabeltigermovie.com

Margaret Bechstein Hays & The Kidnapped "Titanic Orphans"

Margaret Hays

Margaret Bechstein Hays was born in New York city on 6 December 1887 and was a 1st class passenger on the RMS Titanic. She and her dog Bebe survived the ship's sinking, escaping on lifeboat no. 7. Following the disaster, she cared for two small children - known in the press as the "Titanic Orphans" - in her New York City home until their distraught mother came from France and claimed them. It transpired that they had been kidnapped by their father after a marriage breakdown, and all three had been traveling on the Titanic under assumed names, which made it much harder to trace their mother.

Margaret Bechstein Hays was 24 years old when she boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg. She was accompanied by Olive Earnshaw and Lily Potter who occupied first class cabin C-54. Gilbert Tucker, a handsome 31-year-old Cornell University graduate had originally travelled with his parents and sister to Europe, but he left them to head home earlier than planned in order to spend more time with Margaret and join her on the Titanic. He occupied cabin C-53.

When the ship hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912, Margaret Hays and Miss Earnshaw were in their cabin. When the engines stopped they went to Lily Potter's room, and then went off to inquire about the situation. When they returned to Potter's room they told her: "We have hit an iceberg but the steward told us we should not worry and should go back to bed." Although Margaret Hays was not concerned, Lily Potter was scared. They dressed and wrapped Hays' Pomeranian dog in blankets. and headed to C Deck, where Gilbert Tucker helped them collect life jackets.

Bebe - Margaret Hays' Dog

The group then went to the Boat Deck. As Margaret stood waiting and holding her Pomeranian, James Clinch Smith passed by and jokingly commented, "Oh, I suppose we ought to put a life preserve on the little doggie, too."

The three women and the dog boarded lifeboat no. 7, which was the first boat prepared. Lily stepped into the boat first, closely followed by Olive Earnshaw and Margaret Hays, still holding her Pomeranian dog. Little did she know that a few days later she would be caring for two children, whose own tragic story was not yet known

The occupants of boat 7 were rescued early on April 15 by the RMS Carpathia. Also on the Carpathia were two fatherless young boys who spoke only French. Margaret spoke French fluently and was concerned that they would be separated from one another. She volunteered to take the children into her care until their family could be located. The boys played with Bebe, while they were on the boat.

Once the two boys were settled in New York, a newspaper journalist named Nicola Greely-Smith visited the Hays home with the French Consul and interviewed Margaret Hay's father:

"Of all the survivors of the Titanic those two whose impressions would be most worth gathering remain resolutely silent. The two little waifs whose father perished in the disaster and who gained a temporary home with Miss Margaret Hayes, a fellow passenger on the ill fated steamer, they are still at Miss Hayes' home at No. 304 West Eighty Third Street, and not a word have they vouchsafed to anyone as to their names, their relatives or any other matter which might shed a ray of light on their antecedents or identity.

Under the shadow of a giant azalea they sat yesterday afternoon, each with a brand-new boat in hand with which they entertained themselves while the French Consul to New York strove vainly to extract some enlightening word from the elder boy, whose age has been given as three and a half.
To every question the little curly haired chap replied with a polite and baffling "Oui" and said nothing more.

   "Do you like to play with your boat?" asked the Consul, taking the little fellow on his knee.
   "Oui," came the monotonous reply.
   "What city do you come from?"
   "Oui."
   "Do you remember the big boat that brought you away from France?"
   "Oui."

This time the child's assent was rather bored as though he wished to add: "Why do you bother me with questions about that old boat when I have this new shiny, painted, wonderful boat of tin in my hands?"

Probably I am the only person to whom it seemed in the least incongruous that these two babies should be playing with brand new tin boats. The boats obviously delight them and bring back no memory of the night of horror which saw the younger boy tossed naked from the Titanic into a lifeboat while the older boy followed later clad in a flannel shirt.

That the two children are brothers is evident from their striking resemblance to each other. There is said to be a difference of a year in their ages, but I think the older boy is more than three and a half years of age. If not, he is very tall for his years. Both children have unusually beautiful chestnut brown hair which curls in loose ringlets about their heads. Their eyes are dark. Their faces of cherubic plumpness wear that expression of mingled melancholy and mischief so charactristic of children of the Latin races.

"I have read in the papers that the older boy has said his name is Louis" the French Consul remarked, "but I can get nothing from him to prove it. It seems more likely to me that as he answers oui-oui to everything, he is understood to say that his name is Louis, which might seem to have the same saound to an American. I cabled to France and will do everything I can to find the relatives of the children, but as yet I have gained nothing from them to aid in the search."

Yet the children are by no means stupid. They are sweet, well-mannered, gentle little fellows, and my only hope for them is that having survived the perils of the iceberg and the open sea they may not be adopted by some American family which was born with a gold knife in its mouth.

Incidentally, the question of their adoption in the event that no relatives can be found remains unsettled.

"We have no intention of keeping them," remarked Miss Hays's father, beyond the time when their relatives are found or the search for them is given up. A Montreal family who were passengers on the Titanic are anxious to adopt them, and my daughter says they shall have the preference. Of course, many persons here in New York have also offered to take them.

"The published story that the children were in the same boat with my daughter and clung to her instinctively, is a misstatement. My daughter left in the first lifeboat and the two children followed on in later boats. The smaller boy was tossed from the deck of the Titanic into a lifeboat without a stitch of clothing. The older child wore only a shirt when he was taken aboard the Carpathia. The survivors of the Titanic on board formed a ladies' committee, and as my daughter was the only one among them who had not suffered some personal loss through the disaster she was asked to care for the two children, and gladly did so. She was told that the two children had been in the second cabin of the Titanic in the care of a man named Hoffman, but we have been unable to get any clue to their whereabouts from the White Star line or anywhere else.

"But I believe the companies exact certain definate information as to the destination, etc., from purchasers of second cabin tickets," I said. "Why is it not possible to get such information from the office where a man named Hoffman purchased his ticket?"

"I'm sure I can't say." Mr. Hays replied grandiloquently. "I have never travelled second cabin or steerage, so I don't know anything about such matters."

Why, oh why, can I never learn to keep my distance from the aristocracy of West End avenue, even when it has given shelter to two charming, well-mannered little children of the second cabin? I dont know, I'm sure.

Lawrence Beesley - Titanic Survivor

Later, Titanic Passenger Lawewnce Beesley wrote about seeing the boys - whom he only knew to be called Hoffman - with their father on the Titanic and commented on the sensational story surrounding them being on the ship :

Through the (second class library) windows there is the covered corridor, reserved by general consent as the children’s playground, and here are playing the two children with their father –devoted to them, never absent from them.

Who would have thought of the dramatic history of the happy group at play in the corridor that afternoon? – the abduction of the children in Nice, the assumed name, the separation of father and children in a few hours, his death and their subsequent union with their mother after a period of doubt as to their parentage!

How many more similar secrets the Titanic revealed in the privacy of family life, or carried down with her untold, we shall never know.

- Lawrence Beesley, The Loss of the Titanic, Its Story and Its Lessons

Mr Lawrwnce Beesley visited the address at West 83^rd Street, New York City, which was the home of Miss Hays. He confirmed that the children were the same Hoffman boys who were playing outside the second class library on the Titanic. Mrs Hays said that she had made some progress communicating with the boys in French.

At the time, there was a Mr Lefebre who was coming all the way from Iowa, in case they were his children. There was also a woman coming from Nice who wasn't called Hoffman, and another woman coming on a liner from Liverpool - both who thought they may be their sons.

Hugh Woolner, a First Class survivor gave evidence concerning the boys to the US Inquiry on Monday, April 29, 1912. While in Collapsible D one of the boys had been fed biscuits by him.

A sailor offered me some biscuits, which I was using for feeding a small child who had woken up and was crying. It was one of those little children for whose parents everybody was looking; the larger of those two. 

Senator Smith: Its mother was not on this boat? - No.
How old was that child? - I should think it was about five, as nearly as I can judge.
Do you know of what nationality it was? - I could not quite make out.
Do you know whether it was English or American? - I should say it was not either. I should think it was -
Senator Smith (interposing): I mean whether it belonged to an English parent or American parent? - It looked like a French child; but it kept shouting for its doll, and I could not make out what it said before that. It kept saying it over and over again.
Were there two of these children in the boat? - I cannot tell. This is the only one that I had anything to do with. There were several other children in the boat. We handed them into a bag, and they were pulled up the Carpathia's side.
Have you seen them since? - Yes, I think I saw it once on the Carpathia. It had very curly hair. Light, brownish, curly hair.
Was the child identified on the Carpathia? - Not as far as I know.

When the real story about the boys emerged it was one of kidnap and marital breakdown.

Michel Navratil

The boys father, Mr Michel Navratil  had been born in Szered, Slowakia, he later moved to Hungary and then, in 1902 went to Nice, France where he became a tailor. He married Marcelle Caretto from Italy, in London, on 26 May 1907. They had two sons, Michel M. and Edmond Roger - known as Lolo and Momon, however, by 1912 the business was in trouble and Michel claimed that Marcelle had been having an affair. The couple separated, the boys going with their mother.

They went to stay with their father over the Easter weekend, but when Marcelle came to collect them, they had disappeared.

It was the recovered Titanic victims corpse in the well-cut brown suit that yielded plenty of paper clues, and led to the formal identification of Louis M. Hoffman AKA Michel Navatil Snr.” There was a receipt in the name of Hoffman from the offices of the travel agency Thomas Cook & Company, in Monte Carlo.

It appeared that Mr Hoffman made trips there in March, the Daily Mirror reported on April 23 1912:

“Mr Hoffman paid several visits to the office with his children, and appeared to be an antiquarian, specially interested in old prints.The employees there believed that he came from Bavaria, and that he was making a tour round the world. He had been staying at Nice, at the Hotel des Voyageurs.”

Navratil had decide to take the boys with him to America. After stopping in Monte Carlo, they sailed to England where they stayed at the Charing Cross Hotel, London. He purchased second class tickets (ticket No.230080, £26) and boarded the Titanic at Southampton, the boys were booked on the ship as as Loto and Louis Hoffman. His assumed name of "Louis M. Hoffman" was stolen from a friend who helped him and the boys to leave France.

He led his fellow passengers to believe "Mrs Hoffman" was dead and rarely let the boys out of sight. Once, he allowed himself to relax at a card game and let one of his tablemates, Bertha Lehmann, a Swiss girl who spoke French but no English, to watch the boys for a few hours.

Mr Navratil wrote to his mother in Hungary, while on board, asking if his sister and her husband could care for the boys; possibly as a backup plan if they couldn't stay in America.

On the night of the sinking, Michel aided by another passenger, dressed the boys and brought them to the boat deck. When Second Officer Charles Lightoller ordered a locked-arms circle of crew members around Collapsible D so that only women and children could get through, Navratil handed the boys through the ring of men. Michel, Jr., recalled that just before placing him in the boat, his father gave a final message:

Michel Navratil Grave

"My child, when your mother comes for you, as she surely will, tell her that I loved her dearly and still do. Tell her I expected her to follow us, so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the New World."

His fathers body was recovered with a revolver in his pocket. Because he had used the Jewish surname of Hoffman on his ticket, Mr Navratil was interred on May 15th, 1912 in the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery which was designated for the Jewish victims.


Whilst the "Titanic Orphans" were being sheltered at the New York home of Margaret Hays under the auspices of the Children's Aid society, their mother Marcelle Navratil, recognized her boys from the many newspaper stories about their plight and was brought over to America by the White Star Line where she was finally reunited with her sons on May 16.

The three sailed back to France on the Oceanic.

REUNITED WITH THEIR MOTHER

The Titanic Orphans are reunited with their mother

Mrs Navraril then took the White Star Line to court in 1914

Action in the French courts

Nice, February 9th (1914).
An action against the White Star Line arising out of the loss of the Titanic began today before the Civil Court here. The Plaintiff, Mme Navratil, sues for £6,000 damages for the loss of her husband. Her two children, who were also on board, were saved.

The Directors of the White Star Line contended that she was not entitled to appeal to a French court, as she was not a Frenchwoman. She thereupon asked for an adjournment for three months to enable her to prove that she was, and this was granted.
(The Times, Tuesday February 10, 1914)

Margaret Hays kept in regular contact with Gilbert Tucker after their rescue but eventually chose to marry Dr. Charles Daniel Easton, a Rhode Island physician in 1913 and the couple lived in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island. They were the parents of two daughters.

Grave of Margaret Hays Easton

Margaret Bechstein Hays Easton died in Buenos Aires, Argentina while vacationing with her daughter and granddaughter on 21 August 1956. She was buried at St. Mary's Churchyard, Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

As for the two tragic boys she had cared for, Edmond Navratil worked as interior decorator and then became an architect and builder. He was married and during World War II he fought with the French Army, was captured and made a prisoner-of-war. He managed to escape from the camp in which he was held, but his health had suffered and he died in the early 1950s aged 43.

Michel Navraril later recalled the Titanic voyage in a translated interview:

"A magnifacent ship!...I remember looking down the length of the hull - the ship looked splended. My brother and I played on the forward deck and were thrilled to be there. One morning, my father, my brother, and I were eating eggs in the second-class dinning room. The sea was stunning. My feeling was one of total and utter well-being."

He described the events on the night of the sinking:

"My father entered our cabin where we were sleeping. He dressed me very warmly and took me in his arms. A stranger did the same for my brother. When I think of it now, I am very moved. They knew they were going to die."

 "I don't recall being afraid, I remember the pleasure, really, of going plop! into the life-boat. We ended up next to the daughter of an American banker, There were vast diffrences of people's wealth on the ship, and I realized later that if we hadn't been in second-class, we would have of died. The people who came out alive often cheated and were aggressive,  but the honest poor didn't stand a chance."

"We had our back to Titanic and went to sleep. The next morning, I saw Carpathia on the horizon. I was hauled abord in a burlap bag. I thought it was extremely incorrect to be in a burlap bag!" 

Michel Navratil

Michel went to university where he married a fellow student in 1933, he went on to earn his doctorate, becoming a professor of psychology.

Marcelle Caretto, the mother of Michel Jr. and Edmond, died in 1963.

In 1987, he returned to the U.S. for the first time since 1912 to mark the 75th anniversary of the sinking.

The last living male survivor, Michel lived in Montpellier, near Nice France.

 On 27 August 1996, Mr Navratil visited his father's grave for the first time in 84 years.

Michel's daughter, Élisabeth, an opera director, wrote a book, Les enfants du Titanic (English: "The Children of the Titanic"; called Survivors in English) about the experiences of her father, grandfather, and uncle.

Michel Navratil died on 30 January 2001 at the age of 92.

Lily May Futrelle - Survivor of the Titanic

WRITER - LILY MAY FUTRELLE

Mrs Lily May Futrelle was the wife of Jacques Futrelle, a noted author of early science-fiction type novels and also a well-known newspaper reporter. Lily herself had just found success with her writing career, publishing some magazine articles and novels of her own. Before sailing home on the Titanic, the couple had been travelling in Europe for several weeks while Jacques wrote a number of magazine articles. 

On the night before sailing, friends had gathered in London to celebrate Mr Futrelle's birthday. The party did not end until 3:00am. and the Futrelle's never went to bed that evening but packed and headed straight for Southampton to board the Titanic later that day. 

This was the last written message Jacques Futrelle ever sent from Europe to a friend in Atlanta who received the message a few days before Futrelle sailed on Titanic:

"Been all over Italy, Austria, Germany, and France. Sail for home soon. Turn down a glass for me. Futrelle." 

Mrs Futrelle was later to lament that "if my husband HAD got drunk on his birthday, he might not have sailed, and he might be alive today. But he never did drink much." 

JACK FUTRELLE - AUTHOR

Jaques Futrelle had a premonition of tragedy two weeks before he and his wife sailed. They took the precaution of sending from London to Mrs. Futrelle's brother, John Peele, of Atlanta, powers of attorney for the administration of their estates should anything befall them. Directions were also given as to the future care of their children. The novelist sent a list of the banking houses where he had his money and securities.

Jack Futrelle had began his career at the age of 18 when he took a job with the Atlanta Journal. The following year he went to work for the Boston Post but would soon after return to the Journal. Here he set up the magazine's first sports department.

He married fellow writer Lily May Peel on 17 July 1895 in her parent's home and they had two children, John and Virginia.

Jacques then moved to the New York Herald. Soon after this, he began writing detective stories.

In 1902, Jacques accepted the position of manager of a small repertory theater in Richmond, Virginia, where he wrote and acted in several plays.

After a two year stint with the theater, he then took a job on the editorial staff of the Boston American.

Around this period he had several of his stories printed in the "American" and began a series of stories around 'The Thinking Machine' - a detective character he created who would eventually appear in over forty stories It has been suggested that his detective was an inspiration for Agatha Christie.

Jacques became a well known and respected novelist by the early 20th century - his best known works being: "The Thinking Machine", "The Thinking Machine On The Case", "The Diamond Master" and "The High Hand".

Around this time he bought a house in Scituate, razed it and built a 'Cape Cod' style house for his wife and family.

Jack Futrelle on the deck of Titanic - April 1912

While at sea on their First Class journey home to America, Jacques and Lily enjoyed all the ease and luxury that Titanic had to offer. On the Ship’s final night, they shared a gourmet meal with famous Broadway producer Henry Harris and his wife Renee. After dinner, Lily retired to bed early to read a book. 

Then Titanic crashed into the fatal iceberg iceberg. 

Shortly afterwards, Jacques rushed into their stateroom, and told Lily to hurry and get dressed so that they might make their way to the boat deck where they encountered a group of men with "smoke-blackened faces" standing silently in a group staring at her. She later commented, "they said nothing but their eyes seemed to say, 'at least you have a chance, we have none.'"

 

As the lifeboats were loaded, Lily refused to leave her husband. But as the last of the lifeboats began to fill up he told her:“For God’s sake, go. It’s your last chance, go!” 

A Ship’s officer forced her into a lifeboat. “I didn’t want to leave Jacques,” Lily later recalled, “but he assured me that there were boats enough for all and that he would be rescued later.”   

Tragically, that proved untrue, and Jacques died in the disaster—his body was never recovered.

Later May wondered why there were fifty-one open places in the sixty-five man lifeboat. She later described her experience:

There was no panic, no confusion among the passengers.

As soon as the slight shock came we went on deck in warm clothes and lifebelts, and were ordered down to A deck, below the boat deck, to wait our turn to get off...I went up on deck as the line proceeded and saw No. 4 launched with Mrs. Astor, Mrs. Widener, Mrs. Thayer, Mrs. Ryerson, her daughters and young son and others whom I knew... I ran back to see my husband... I left him. That is why I came away and left him there. 

 

It came my turn to get into a boat, it was the last, or next to the last lifeboat launched. In it were four first cabin women passengers, eight others, either second cabin or steerage, making twelve women in all, while there were eighteen men, one a first cabin passenger, who must have sneaked in, for there were no men allowed there, and seventeen of the crew, none of them oarsmen or sailors, but stewards and cooks.

After I left the ship two collapsible lifeboats were launched. In the last one was Mrs. Henry B. Harris, wife of the theatrical manager; Mrs. Thorn and Mrs. Hoyt, that I remember....the ship at that time had sunk to within 15 feet of the first deck...A minute afterward Mr. Hoyt leaped into the water, and was found by the boat after eight minutes, almost frozen to death....then the Carpathia picked us up about 6:30 o'clock...

Lily May Futrelle went on to give her statements in court: 

Passport Photo

MRS. FUTRELLE ON STAND

Writer's Widow Describes Separation from Husband Before the ship went down

More direct testimony of witnesses re: the sinking of the Titanic in April, 1912, was heard yesterday before the Judge Julious M. Mayer in the United States District Court to the suit brought by the White Star Line to Have its liability limited.

Mrs. Jacques Futrelle, whose husband, the well-known writer, perished, was the next witness. At the time of the collision, she said, she was reading in bed, and that her husband was on deck and went to investigate. When he returned, Mrs. Futrelle said, her husband told her that an officer had told him that there was absolutely no danger. Some minutes later, she said, the stewards came around and ordered them on deck. Reaching the deck, she said the men were sent elsewhere, and this was the first intimation that there was danger, and that she was to be separated from her husband. While some women were getting into the lifeboats, Mrs. Futrelle said, she went to deck A, where she found her husband with a number of men who were smoking, walking about and chatting as if unconscious of their danger. When the ship began to sink her husband told her to go above and get into a boat, as it would give him a better chance to save himself.

When Lily May Futrelle was rescued, some of the Futrelle family were wrongly informed that both Jacques and Lily had survived the disaster. When Lily Futrelle returned to New York the newspapers printed the story of how she broke the tragic news to them and described to them how Jacques had died like a hero:

New York, April 19 1912: 

Mrs. May Futrelle, whose husband, Jacques Futrelle, the short story writer and novelist, went down with the ship, was met here by her daughter, Miss. Virginia Futrelle, who was brought to New York, from the convent of Notre Dame in Baltimore. Miss. Futrelle had been told that her father had been picked up by another steamer. Mrs. Charles Copeland of Boston, a sister of the writer, who also met Mrs. Futrelle was under the same impression. Miss. Futrelle and Mrs. Copeland with a party of friends awaited at a hotel the arrival of Mrs. Futrelle from the dock.

"I am so happy that father is safe too," declared Miss. Futrelle, as her mother clasped her in her arms. The girl and Mrs. Copeland alone of the party did not know that Mr. Futrelle was dead. It was some time before Mrs. Futrelle could compose herself.

"Where is Jack?" Mrs. Copeland asked.

Mrs. Futrelle was afraid to let her daughter know the truth.

"Oh, he is on another ship," Mrs Futrelle replied.

Mrs. Copeland then guessed at the truth and became hysterical, Miss. Futrelle also broke down.

" Jack died like a hero." Mrs. Futrelle said, when the party became composed. "He was in the smoking room when the crash came- the noise of the smash was terrific- and I was going to bed. I was hurled from my feet by the impact. I hardly found myself when Jack came rushing into the stateroom. The boat is going down, get dressed at once, he shouted. When we reached the deck, everything was in the wildest confusion."

"Jacques is dead, but he died like a hero. That I know. Three or four times after the crash I rushed up to him and clasped him in my arms and begged him to get into one of the boats."

"For God's sake go" he fairly screamed at me as he tried to push me away and I could see how he suffered. It's your last chance, go. Then one of the ship's officers forced me into a lifeboat and I gave up all hope that he could be saved."

"The screams of women and the shrill orders of the officers were drowned intermittently by the tremendous vibrations of the Titanic's deep bass fog horn. The behavior of the men was magnificent. They stood back without murmuring and urged the women and children to get into the lifeboats. A few cowards tried to scramble into the boats but they were quickly thrown back by the others. Let me say now that the only men who were saved were those who sneaked into the lifeboats or were plucked up after the Titanic sunk."

"I did not want to leave Jack but he assured me that there were boats enough for all and that he would be rescued later."

"Hurry up May, your keeping the others waiting were his last words as he lifted me into a lifeboat and kissed me goodbye. I was in one of the last lifeboats to leave the ship. We had not put on many minutes when the Titanic disappeared. I almost saw as I saw her sink that I could see Jack standing where I had left him and waving at me."

Jack and Lily May Furtrelle and their car 

Mrs. Futrelle said that she saw the parting of Col. John Jacob Astor and his young bride, Mrs. Astor was frantic. Her husband had to jump into the lifeboat four times and tell her that he would be rescued later. After the fourth time, Mrs. Futrelle said, "he jumped back on the deck of the sinking ship and the lifeboat bearing his bride made off."

 May wrote, "The last I saw of my husband, he was standing beside Colonel John Jacob Astor. He had a cigarette in his mouth. As I watched him, he lit a match and held it in his cupped hands before his face. By its light I could see his eyes roam anxiously over the water. Then he dropped his head toward his hand and lit his cigarette. I know those hands never trembled." 

May survived the horror of that night, but the thoughts of Jacques standing on the deck never faded from her mind.

Jacque's last work, "My Lady's Garter", was published posthumously later in 1912. His wife inscribed in the book, "To the heroes of the Titanic, I dedicate this my husband's book" under a photo of her late husband.

Two months later Jaques Futrelle's mother passed away - some said from inconsolable grief.  

Jaques Futrelle is used as the protagonist in Max Allan Collins' Disaster series novel The Titanic Murders (1999), about two murders aboard the RMS Titanic.