As a news photographer, Herbert Gehr had seen a lot — wars, Egyptian sphinxes, heads of state, movie stars, and a slew of celebrities. He was renowned for building drama into an image with his skillful use of artificial light. But when a scene of high drama — a love nest slaying — came straight to his doorstep, there were no special lighting and no camera in his hands.
He was holding a gun. “Kills Raiding Wife as Nude Runs From Nest,” was how a Daily News headline summarized the action at Gehr’s secluded cottage near Brewster, N.Y.
, on July 10, 1950. Andrea Goldschmidt Gehr, 30, lay dead on the lawn, a bullet hole right between her eyes. “The woman who scrambled in the raw from the window was red-headed Mrs.
Dorothea Matthews, 31,” The News noted. Matthews had been embroiled in a nasty divorce battle with her husband, Mark Matthews, a New York messenger service tycoon. She had been keeping company with Gehr for a few months.
The angry wife came to her husband’s love nest at around 2:30 a.m. with four private detectives in tow, seeking evidence that he was cheating so she could get a divorce.
It was hardly a stealth raid. Her bumbling private eyes stumbled over rakes and a watering can on the lawn as they tried to sneak up on the lovebirds. When they reached the house, they started rattling a screen door.
When it didn’t open, Andrea gave it a try. Moments later, a bullet blasted through the door and slammed into Andrea’s forehead. A second shot followed, .