Anthony Rud and the Tango Dancer Murder-Part One

Anthony M. Rud

Aka Anson Piper, Ray McGillivray

Author, Editor

Born January 11, 1893, Chicago, Illinois

Died November 30, 1942, New York, New York

Anthony Melville Rud was born on January 11, 1893, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of two physicians, Dr. Anthony Rud (1867-1928) and Dr. Alice Florence (Piper) Rud (1871-1941), both of whom practiced in the Chicago area. Anthony M. Rud wrote of his father:

My father, who is Dr. Anthony Rud of Chicago, was born in Kongsberg, near Mt. Gausta, Norway, but came alone to America at the age of 12, as soon as he had completed the grammar school. He lived for five years on Koshkonong prairie, seven miles north of Edgerton [Wisconsin], and two miles south of Rockdale, Dane county (at that time Clinton). From 17 until 20 he raised three crops of tobacco on shares, and was very successful. He worked his way through Milton prep and two years of Milton college [sic], getting his B.S. degree in 1887. After that Northwestern Medical, the Physicians and Surgeons of New York and on to Berlin and Vienna. In 1891 he received his M.D. degree from Northwestern University Medical school and also his M.S. from Milton. (1)

Dr. Rud was on the staff of West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois. He was also a fellow of the American Medical Association and a member of the Illinois State Medical Society and the Chicago Medical Society. Dr. Rud died on February 23, 1928, in Orlando, Florida.

Dr. Alice Florence (Piper) Rud, of Canadian descent but also a Daughter of the American Revolution, was from Austin, Illinois. She received her medical degree from Women's Medical College of Chicago on April 2, 1889, one of two-dozen women in her class. Dr. Rud competed by written examination with twenty-four men and five women for internships at Cook County Hospital. She was one of only two women to win that position in that round of testing. After completing her internship, Dr. Rud practiced medicine in the Austin neighborhood of west Chicago, from 1895 onward. She was also a member of many clubs and groups. Dr. Alice Rud died on May 23, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois.

The two doctors were married on March 15, 1892, in Cook County, Illinois. Their children were Anthony Melville Rud, Natalie Margaret Rud (later Mrs. James Chandler Hatcher), and Bertha Piper Rud, who died in 1901 at age six.

Anthony Melville Rud attended St. John's Military School in Delafield, Wisconsin, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1914. Afterwards, he studied medicine for two years at Rush Medical College in Chicago. In 1913, when he was only twenty years old, Rud had his name tied to a murder, though only in the most peripheral way. Once mentioned, his name was never again brought up in relation to the case. For a time, though, he and his parents must have been filled with alarm and anxiety.

To be continued . . . 

Note

(1) Quoted in "Alexander Corstvet and Anthony M. Rud, Norwegian-American Novelists" by Albert O. Barton in The Norwegian-American Historical Association [NAHA] Online (Vol. VI, p 146), here.

A portrait drawing of Anthony Melville Rud by pulp artist Hubert Rogers (1898-1982).

Text copyright 2016, 2023 Terence E. Hanley