The author and historian Allan Levine discusses his new book Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Café Murder (Lyons Press, 2020), with Joseph Planta.

Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Café Society Murder by Allan Levine (Lyons Press, 2020). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Details Are Unprintable

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Allan Levine joins me again. The distinguished writer and historian has written a new book Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Café Society Murder. It’s about the October 1943 murder of a young woman and mother, Patricia Burton Lonergan. She was a scion of a wealthy German-Jewish family, who loved the good life in Manhattan. Charged with the murder is her estranged husband, one Wayne Lonergan of Toronto. The arrest and trial of Lonergan causes a sensation in the American press, as it does in Canada. It’s the sort of story that has everything the public wants, sex, murder, and money. It literally knocks the Second World War from the front pages of the newspapers. Allan does a tremendous job with his research, providing a lot of the context of the players involved, but also the society and its mores of the day. He also provides those breathless, salacious headlines in the press of the day that all too often shaped the public’s perception of the people at the fore. It’s a great book, and I’ll get Allan to tell us as much as he’d like because though details can be looked up it’s likely a story few will know. Allan Levine is an award-winning author of such books as Coming of Age: A History of Jewish People of Manitoba, King: William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny, Toronto: Biography of a City, Seeking the Fabled City: The Canadian Jewish Experience, Scrum Wars, among many other books including the Sam Klein Mysteries series. Visit www.allanlevinebooks.com for more information. We taped this interview in late October, just after Allan received an honorary degree from the University of Winnipeg. This new book is published by Lyons Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Allan Levine; Mr. Levine, good morning.

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