Authors from Arthur Conan Doyle to George R.R. Martin and J.D. Robb have long asserted that poison is the weapon of choice for woman, but historically, there has been at least one other that has captured both the public’s fertile imagination and their irrational fears—the deadly hatpin. So when I needed a stealthy weapon of retribution for my current heroine, it was convenient to have her reach for the weapon nearest to hand—right above her head.
The choice had historical precedent. At the turn of the twentieth century, hatpins had became indispensable parts of most women’s wardrobes. Necessitated by enormous picture hats piled atop the elegantly bouffant, Gibson Girl hairstyles of the era, long, steel-shanked hatpins made a convenient and effective method of self-defense for women of every class and background.
Headlines began to appear across the country with tales of damsels defending themselves from “mashers,” as the handsy types were popularly known. Newspapers from Cleveland, Ohio to Juneau, Alaska recounted incidents in which intrepid young women saved their own virtue by a timely prick of the hatpin, with the articles often taking a tone of moral certitude that the bad element had been routed and justice had been served.
“Stuck Hatpin Into a Masher,” thrilled the New York World, in May of 1903. “Women’s Handy Weapon Against Thieves,” announced the New York Tribune, in February of 1904. And “Woman Routs Robbers,” cheered the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in August of 1909. Sometimes, the results were literally lethal: “Hatpin Brings Death,” reported Juneau’s Daily Record-Miner. The fact that women, young and old, were asserting their right to public safety, dominated the national conversation.
But it wasn’t long before the worm, predictably, began to turn. What had once been seen as a justified, moral response to aggression soon became a cautionary tale against frenzied female rage. Coverage that had once been entirely admirable soon became less laudatory, highlighting the injustice to innocent men who found themselves victimized by unrestrained, hatpin wielding harpies.
Fears for the “Hatpin Peril” spread across the country: “Ware the Hatpin; It’s Now Called a Public Peril,” cautioned the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in September of that same year, 1909. By 1910, headlines in Anaconda, Montana asked, “Are Long Hatpins a Public Menace?” And in Duluth, Minnesota, the New-Tribune editorial board advised, “Would Regulate Size of Hat Pins.”
The Hatpin Peril was soon seen as an international problem. Places as far afield as Hamburg, Germany and Paris, France joined American cites like Chicago in introducing regulations limiting the width and length of hatpins. City council proceedings ran hot, with representatives for women’s clubs declaring, “If the men of Chicago want to take the hatpins away from us, let them make the streets safe.”
Yet despite impassioned pleas, the ordinance passed, as did similar regulations in Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and New Orleans. Women had pushed back, and men reacted by pushing them out. The streets did not become safer. And perhaps have still not.
The hatpin problem was eventually solved not by changes in laws or attitudes, but by changes in fashion, both in hairstyles—the bouffant gave way to the bob—and in haberdashery, as large hats that required anchoring went the way of the dodo bird. But what has lasted, is the hatpin’s marvelous versatility as a weapon of stealthy retribution for mystery and crime novelists.
Here are seven other mysteries that hinge upon the lethal utility of the hatpin.
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Rachel Dawn Allen, The Hatpin Killer
In this 2012 mystery thriller set in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, former detective and now crime scene investigator, Libby Sloane, investigates the death of a New Orleans socialite. In the course of the investigation, Libby receives an unmarked package on her front porch of a beautiful antique hatpin stained with the blood of the victim. Libby and her partner, Sarah Thedford, must try to find enough evidence to identify the killer.
But when a second New Orleans socialite is found with an amethyst hatpin in her hair, the CSI team and the New Orleans Police Department start to suspect a serial killer. Soon after, a third body is found, launching New Orleans into a desperate race to stop the killer before he or she strikes again.
Susie Black, Death by Pins and Needles (A Holly Swimsuit Mystery #2)
This quirky, cozy murder mystery, published in 2023, features amateur sleuth and swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik expected to find when she opened the closet door was nasty competitor Lissa Charney’s battered corpse nailed to the wall with a steel hatpin. When Holly’s colleague is wrongly arrested for Lissa’s murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth sticks her nose everywhere it doesn’t belong to sniff out the real killer.
Nothing turns out the way she thinks it will as Holly matches wits with a heartless killer hellbent for revenge.
Joyce Caudel, The Hat Pin Murders
A cozy mystery published in 2010, this book hinges on a “Red Hat Society” gathering where a member is stabbed to death with a hatpin. It is up to her “Hattie” friends to find the killer and untangle the victim’s secret past.
Julianna Deering, Death by the Book
In this 1932-set historical mystery is the second book in the Drew Farthering Mystery series, Farthering finds his family solicitor dead, with an antique hatpin piercing his chest. The pin holds a cryptic message: “Advice to Jack.” More murders occur, each with a hatpin holding a puzzling note attached to the victim, often with a literary allusion.
Barbara Nadel, Last Rights
In the first of its series, this 2010 story features London undertaker Francis Hancock, who discovers the body of a man stabbed with no visible wound. The investigation unfolds against the backdrop of the London Blitz, where Francis must unravel a conspiracy of lies to find the truth, starting with the finding that the man was killed with a hatpin.
Hallie Rubenhold, Story of a Murder
This 2025 work of nonfiction recounts the real 1910 murder of music hall performer Belle Elmore, who was killed by her husband, Dr. Crippen. A hatpin is instrumental to the unfolding of the case and its context in the Edwardian era.
Victoria Thompson, Murder on Mulberry Bend (A Gaslight Mystery)
Set in turn-of-the-century New York City, this 2003 historical mystery involves the duo of midwife Sarah Brandt and Sergeant Frank Malloy. A young girl is found murdered, and Sarah’s subsequent investigation puts her in mortal danger. The hatpin features prominently in the plot as a potential murder weapon.
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