Stay with me, this gets a bit complicated. A couple of weeks ago, we brought you a post about an 1898 novel that uncannily foretold the Titanic disaster. The Titanic sunk on April 14, 1912. Another work of fiction had been published in the May 1912 issue of Popular magazine (which was already on newsstands in early April) about a huge and supposedly unsinkable ocean liner that struck an iceberg and sank. “The White Ghost of Disaster” was written by Captain Mayn Clew Garnett, a name that hid an ugly story that had nothing to do with ships. Was Garnett a prophet? No, as we saw in the previous post, the Titanic sinking was a disaster that more people should have seen coming. Not only was Garnett not a prophet, he wasn’t even Garnett.
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The author’s real name was Thornton Jenkins Hains, and he was writing under a pseudonym to hide his real identity, as Hains was extremely unpopular after his second murder trial. After the first murder trial in 1891, Hains managed to relocate and build a career as a writer. But after the second trial in 1908, he could only get published by changing his pen name. “The White Ghost of Disaster” became a sensation, though, because of the eerie timing, and was reprinted in newspapers across the country. It wasn’t long before Hains’ detractors figured out who the author was. Read about Thornton Jenkins Hains, the two murders, and the sea story that blew his cover at Smithsonian.
(Illustration: Meilan Solly)
Source: neatorama