5 “I couldn’t risk a load”: “Devery: A Study,” NYT, August 3, 1902.
6 “Have you noticed any stray graft”: Lincoln Steffens, The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens, Vol. 1, p. 333.
7 “people who monkey with the police”: The People of the State of New York vs. Charles W. Gardner: Stenographer’s Minutes—General Sessions Before Recorder Smyth (New York, 1893) (hereafter People vs. Gardner), Feb. 3, 1893, p. 23.
8 “playing cards with a lot of prostitutes”: Ibid.
9 “I will get square with you”: Ibid.
10 “tall, well-developed woman”: NYW, Feb. 2, 1893. Newspaper coverage provides key details omitted from bare-bones trial transcripts. Key dates: Feb. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 1893.
11 “three or four ladies”: People vs. Gardner, Feb. 1, 1893.
12 “lot of disgusting pictures”: “Paid Money to Gardner,” NYT, Feb. 2, 1893; “How She Trapped Gardner,” NYW, Feb. 2, 1893; People vs. Gardner, testimony.
13 “everything on the calendar except keep a w-h-o-r-e”: Ibid.
14 “An inmate of a house of prostitution”: “The Eight French Women,” NYW, Jan. 15, 1893.
15 “Joseph Lewis, alias ‘Hungry Joe’ ”: Thomas Byrnes, Professional Criminals of America, pp. 167–70, 205–206.
16 “peach on his confederates”: Richard Wheatley, “The New York Police Department,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Mar. 1887, p. 513.
17 “I’ll have it for you on Monday morning”: Steffens, Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 222.
18 “chased the thieves all the way to Europe”: Riis, Making of an American, p. 219.
19 “You’re a nice girl”: People vs. Gardner, Feb. 1, 1893.
20 “terrible rumpus in this town”: Ibid.
21 “you stop short of co-habitating”: Ibid., Feb. 6, 1893.
22 “these psalm-singing sons-of-bitches”: Ibid., Feb. 1, 1893.
23 “Where is our little wife?”: Ibid.
24 “Search his left hand pocket”: Ibid., Feb. 2, 1893.
25 “If it was good enough for you to take”: Ibid.
26 “Don’t give us any chin music”: Ibid., Feb. 6, 1893.
27 “100 school-teachers like you on my list”: “Parkhurst’s Man Trapped,” NYS, Dec. 6, 1892, p. 1.
28 “If the police would only show as much interest”: Ibid.
29 “You are a BAD woman, are you not?”: People vs. Gardner, Feb. 1, 1893.
30 “she was too under the influence”: Ibid., Feb. 3, 1893.
31 dubbing Gardner the “vilest” of men: “Gardner and Parkhurst,” NYT, Feb. 10, 1893.
32 “objected to Gardner’s blackmailing anyone”: Parkhurst, Our Fight with Tammany, p. 148.
CHAPTER 3: THE REWARD
1 “Jewtown”: Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, chap. 10.
2 “New Israel”: Frank Moss, American Metropolis: From Knickerbocker Days to the Present Times, New York City Life in All Its Phases, Vol. III, p. 160.
3 hosted the “Pig Market”: Riis, How the Other Half Lives, chap. 10.
4 “disorderly house connected with licensed saloons”: Gardner, Doctor and the Devil, p. 46.
5 “disorderly women and drunken men sang low songs”: The [New York] Press. Vices of a Big City: An Expose, p. 51. An extraordinary block-by-block guide to the brothels and gambling joints of Manhattan.
6 “I’m prettier than your wife”: Citizens Union, Campaign Book of 1901, Citizens Union Papers, Rare Book Room, Butler Library, Columbia University.
7 “I would be protected to run along quiet”: New York State, Report and Proceedings of the Senate Committee to Investigate the Police Department of the City of New York (Albany, 1895; New York: Arno Press/NYT, 1971) (hereafter Lexow), Vol. I, p. 1124.
8 “We had very little conversation”: Ibid., pp. 958, 964.
9 “if you hadn’t a dollar in your pocket”: “She Paid Them All,” NYH, Aug. 17, 1894, p. 4 (testimony before Police Board). See also coverage in the NYT, NY Trib, and NYS.
10 “$1.50 for Man Shark”: Ibid.
11 “if one of them women cows”: Lexow, Vol. II, p. 1538.
12 find a “condom” or to use a “syringe”: “In the Matter of Charges Preferred Against Jos. B. Eakins,” p. 1004.
13 “You did some high kicking?”: “Parkhurst’s Little War,” NYS, Oct. 28, 1893.
14 “smash him in the face?”: Ibid.
15 he told reporters he was “disgusted”: “Superintendent Byrnes Vexed,” NYT, Oct. 29, 1893, p. 10.
16 “criminal charge of neglect of duty”: NYW, Apr. 2, 1894, p. 7.
17 “drinks,” “merry-making,” and “high-kicking”: “Devery Failed to Act,” NYW, Apr. 5, 1894, p. 1; trial coverage from NYS, NYH, NYW, NYT, NY Trib, Apr. 5–10, 1894. (Often each reporter heard the testimony slightly differently.)
18 “fight somewhere on Fourth Street”: “Byrnes Called as a Witness,” NYH, Apr. 6, 1894, p. 4.
19 reputation on the force was “good”: “Supt. Byrnes’s Testimony,” NYT, Apr. 7, 1894, p. 9.
20 His “leonine” mane of now graying hair: “Capt. Devery on Trial,” NYT, Apr. 5, 1894.
21 “Parkhurst movement directed against”: “Dr. Parkhurst Testifies,” NY Trib, Apr. 6, 1894, p. 3.
22 he called reformers “little tin soldiers”: “Mr. Devery’s Opportunity,” NYT, Aug. 26, 1901. “wings”: “Devery Raps Croker and the Triumvirs,” NYT, June 4, 1902.
23 dismissed Parkhurst as an “enthusiastic ecclesiastic”: “Captain Devery Is Acquitted,” NYH, Apr. 10, 1894, p. 5.
24 he felt the “building tremble”: “Capt. Devery Acquitted,” NYS, Apr. 10, 1894, p. 1.
25 “to discriminate among disorderly houses”: “Capt. Devery’s Acquittal,” New York Evening Post, Apr. 10, 1894, p. 2.
26 “No event has transpired”: Parkhurst, Our Fight with Tammany, p. 231.
27 “it all ran on depraved lines”: Charles Parkhurst, My Forty Years in New York, p. 140.
CHAPTER 4: POLICE ON THE GRILL
1 “division of political patronage”: E. L. Godkin, ed., The Triumph of Reform, p. 118.
2 “Me and the Republicans are enemies”: Plunkitt, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, p. 51.
3 Prince of Plasterers: M. R. Werner, Tammany Hall, p. 162.
4 “a miserable contemptible liar”: Lexow, Vol. I, p. 592ff. for McClave testimony; “Evidence of Bribery,” NY Trib, May 22, 1894, p. 1.
5 “smiling as if he were going to the circus”: “McClave and Bribery,” NYW, May 22, 1894.
6 “in the form of a check on the Fifth Avenue Bank”: NYW, NY Trib, and NYS, May 22, 1894.
7 a “scoundrel” and a “forger”: Ibid.
8 “railroaded to Sing Sing”: Godkin, Triumph of Reform, p. 125.
9 “a ship sighted the Statue of Liberty”: “The Lines are Broken,” NYW, June 22, 1894, p. 1.
10 “I have given up more scissors”: Ibid., p. 2.
11 “lots of men swearing to anything”: Lexow, Vol. V, p. 4896.
12 “What the hell do I care”: Ibid., Vol. II, p. 2086.
13 thirteen serious “symptoms”: “Barred Out the Doctors,” NYT, Aug. 12, 1894, p. 8; “Tried Though Away,” NYH, Aug. 16, 1894.
14 “My husband’s life”: Ibid.
15 “in the best of health”: “M’Laughlin The Next!” NYS, Aug. 16, 1894, p. 1
16 “hearty” appetite: “Four Sergeants Dismissed,” NYT, Aug. 16, 1894, p. 8; NYH, Aug. 16, 1894, p. 5. (Her name appears as Laura Schilling, Louise Schilling, and Louisa Scheuler.)
17 “I got tired of earning money”: Ibid.
18 “I would literally have given my right arm”: TR to Henry Cabot Lodge (hereafter HCL), Oct. 24, 1894, Roosevelt, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Vol. VIII, ed. Elting Morison and John Blum, p. 1433.
19 “some of the clubbers ‘looked the part’ ”: “Clubbing a Minor Offense,” NYT, Oct. 3, 1894; “Brutal Police Before Lexow,” NYW, Oct. 3, 1894; Lexow, Vol. III, p. 2825ff.
20 “The city is redeemed”: “Strong and Reform!” NYW, Nov. 7, 1894, p. 1.
21 “The wildest hopes of Republicans”: “W. L. Strong Elected,” NY Trib, Nov. 7, 1894, p. 1.
22 “cohesion of public plunder”: Godkin, Triumph of Reform, p. 126.
23 “I am sorry, almost”: Lexow, Vol. V, p. 4923ff., Dec. 14, 1894; “$15,000 for Creeden!” NYS, Dec. 14, 1895, p. 1.
24 “take great risks even to your own danger”: Lexow, Vol. V, p. 4966ff.; “Creeden Confesses,” NYS, Dec. 15, 1894, p. 1.
25 “the Crowning Exposures”: NY Trib, Dec. 22, 1894, p. 1.
26 “a battering ram could not have lodged another unshattered human”: “Police Secrets Out,” NYS, Dec. 22, 1894, p. 1.
27 a tall, “handsome,” imposing: Ibid.
28 “These dives were resorts for the criminals”: Lexow hearings, Vol. V, p. 5325 (Schmittberger’s testimony on pp. 5311–5384).
29 “And who was the captain”: Ibid.
30 “He did ask me one time”: Ibid., p. 5370.
31 “I was given the tip”: Ibid., p. 5373.
32 “Unless an absolute emergency arises”: Ibid., p. 5374.
33 “told me to take care of her”: Ibid., p. 5376.
34 “Send that man back there”: Ibid., p. 5363.
35 “only $200 a month in the Tenderloin?”: Ibid., p. 5375.
36 “I feel that the pillars of the church”: Ibid., p. 5382.
37 “Few well-posted citizens”: “The Crowning Exposures,” NY Trib, Dec. 22, 1894, p. 1.
38 “Byrnes Alone in Favorable Light”: Ibid.
39 “I own my residence at 58th Street”: Lexow, Byrnes testimony, Dec. 29, 1894, Vol. V, pp. 5709–5758; see also “Byrnes Large Fortune,” NY Trib, Dec. 30, 1894, p. 1; “Byrnes May Quit,” NYS, Dec. 30, 1894, p. 1; “Byrnes and His Money,” NYT, Dec. 30, 1894.
40 “to detect Limburger cheese”: Quoted in M. R. Werner, It Happened in New York, p. 112.
41 shut down the city’s “pool rooms”: Ibid., p. 5745.
42 “I desire not to be an obstacle”: Lexow, p. 5755.
43 “Scotland Yard, Paris or New Jersey”: Ibid., p. 5756.
44 “the sensation of the country”: “What the Committee Has Done,” NYT, Dec. 30, 1894.
45 “all-controlling and overshadowing dread”: Lexow, Vol. I, p. 24.
46 “established caste … with powers”: Godkin, Triumph of Reform, p. 126.
CHAPTER 5: ENTER CRUSADER ROOSEVELT
1 “by killing the man who objected”: New York Advertiser, Apr. 10, 1896, TR Scrapbook, in Theodore Roosevelt Papers, TRP.
2 “The tenements stank”: Steffens, Autobiography, p. 239.
3 “Hello, Jake”: Ibid., p. 257.
4 “Every police attendant”: “New Police Board,” NYH, May 7, 1895, TR Scrapbook, TRP.
5 “It was all breathless and sudden”: Steffens, Autobiography, p. 258.
6 “my main prop and comfort”: TR to Riis, Apr. 18, 1897, TRP.
7 “closest to me” during those years: Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography, p. 168.
8 “knew nothing of police management”: “Commissioner Roosevelt,” NYH, July 14, 1895.
9 found the department completely “demoralized”: “Administering the New York Police Force,” Atlantic Monthly, Sept. 1897.
10 “with a minimum of clients”: Avery Andrews, Citizen in Action: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt as Police Commissioner (unpublished manuscript, 1945), p. 23. Available at the New York Police Department Museum (hereafter NYPD); this version appears more candid than the one in the Theodore Roosevelt Collection (hereafter TRC), Houghton Library, Harvard.
11 bringing a “can of coffee”: “New Board Tries Cops,” NYS, May 9, 1895, p. 9.
12 “Are there not hundreds”: “Trials Are Trials Now,” NYW, May 9, 1895, p. 3.
13 “How are you goin’ to interest”: Plunkitt, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, p. 15.
14 “What is the distance between Tokyo and Canarsie”: “Points About Policemen,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 27, 1895, p. 2.
15 “open competitive examinations for all positions”: “Civil Service Reform,” NYT, May 9, 1895, p. 8.
16 “Of Corset Will Be Necessary”: NYW, Apr. 10, 1887.
17 “took the breath out of the old stagers”: “Roosevelt’s Girl Secretary,” NYW, May 10, 1895, p. 1.
18 “young, small and comely, with raven black hair”: Ibid.
19 “obliged to restrain the virtuous ardor”: Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, My Brother Theodore Roosevelt, p. 159.
20 “I should be content with a copper cent”: “A Slap at Byrnes,” NYES, May 10, 1895, TR Scrapbook, TRP.
21 “This bill is thoroughly bad and vicious”: “Rejected by the City,” NYW, May 11, 1895.
22 “He slays a hippopotamus”: “Roosevelt in New York,” Washington Post, June 14, 1895, p. 6.
23 “No matter how grave the charge” “If I were an eloquent man”: “Vetoed by the Mayor,” NYT, May 11, 1895, p. 9.
24 “intermittent delusion that he was a shrewd politician”: Riis, Making of an American, p. 211.
25 “a lovable gentleman of the Old School”: Avery Andrews, Citizen in Action, p. 14, NYPD.
26 “The old man is a brick, isn’t he?”: “Rejected By the City,” NYW, May 11, 1895.
27 “Parker is my mainstay; he is able and forceful but a little inclined to be tricky. Andrews is good but timid and ‘sticks in the bark.’ Grant is a good fellow but dull and easily imposed on; he is our element of weakness”: TR to HCL, May 18, 1895, Henry Cabot Lodge Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society (hereafter HCL Papers). (These lines were deleted from published letters edited by Morison.)
28 “need not be ashamed to show ourselves”: Jacob Riis, Theodore Roosevelt the Citizen, p. 131.
29 “The ordinary politician is as keen”: “Police Appointments,” New York Evening Post, May 14, 1895.
30 “It is time that an example was made”: “Police Reform Begins,” New York Journal, May 16, 1895.
31 “I want every decent man on the force”: “They Do Mean Business,” NY Trib, May 14, 1895.
32 “beds in constant vibration”: “Charges Preferred Against Captain Jos. B. Eakins,” testimony by Arthur Dennett, p. 389.
33 “man content to live on his salary”: “No Need Now of Kelly,” NYT, Dec. 17, 1894.
34 “I have never worked harder”: TR to (Anna) “Bamie” Roosevelt, May 13, 1895, Roosevelt, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Vol. I, ed. Elting Morison and John Blum (hereafter MOR I), p. 456.
35 known for his “flippant audacity”: Walt McDougall, This Is the Life, p. 107. Pulitzer biographer James McGrath Morris discovered a cache of letters that reveal that thirty-year-old star reporter Brisbane was then having an affair with Pulitzer’s forty-year-old wife, Kate. When apart, they wrote of “telegraphing” themselves to each other. The couple would break up the following year and Brisbane would quit the World and go on to have a long profitable career working for archrival William Randolph Hearst.
36 “Sing, heavenly muse, the sad dejection”: Arthur Brisbane, NYW, May 17, 1895, p. 1. Publisher Pulitzer, often out of town, forbade reporters from taking bylines but Brisbane sometimes ignored the edict.
37 TR brought a “moral purpose”: Riis, Making of an American, p. 212.
38 “good natured, half indulgent, half amused deference”: NYES, May 11, 1895, TR Scrapbook, TRP.
39 “they are cynics of the worst sort”: Lincoln Steffens, “The Real Roosevelt,” Ainslee’s Magazine, Dec. 1898.
40 “I shall move against Byrnes at once”: TR to HCL, May 18, 1895, MOR I, p. 458.
CHAPTER 6: SLAYING THE DRAGONS
1 “There is not, except among law breakers”: James and Daniel Shepp, Shepp’s New York City Illustrated, p. 415.
2 “To force Byrnes out publicly”: NYW, May 25, 1895, p. 1.
3 “the men will belong to very few clubs”: NYS, “Police Board Reforms,” May 18, 1895, TR Scrapbook, TRP.<
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4 “would have just the opposite effect upon me”: Ibid.
5 “more of a mugwump than a Republican”: Boston Daily Globe, May 19, 1895, p. 29.
6 “There is nothing of the purple in it”: TR to Bamie, June 28, 1896, MOR I, p. 545.
7 all the rules must be strictly enforced: NYS, “Police Board Reforms,” May 18, 1895.
8 put on the calendar “at once”: Ibid.
9 “practically been a dead letter”: NYW, “Byrnes Talks Reform,” May 19, 1895, p. 16; NYS, “Stirring Up the Police,” May 19, 1895, p. 3; New York Advertiser, May 21, 1895, TR Scrapbook, TRP.
10 “harsh, violent, coarse, profane or insolent language”: New York City Police Department, Manual Containing the Rules and Regulations of the Police Department of the City of New York, p. 104.
11 “Well, the instructions was”: “Charges Preferred Against Jos. B. Eakins,” testimony of Peter McCarty, p. 1424.
12 “certain evils which I fear cannot possibly be suppressed”: TR to Lucius Burrie Swift, Apr. 27, 1895, MOR I, p. 447.
13 “a wild man, ridiculous, sensational, unscrupulous”: Steffens, Autobiography, p. 215.
14 dubbing him a “good fellow”: TR to HCL, Sept. [no date], 1895, MOR I, p. 478.
15 “If a man has President Cleveland”: NYW, “Business, Not Politics,” May 22, 1895, p. 1.
16 “simple, practical and common sense”: Ibid.
17 “politeness as a sign of dignity not subservience”: Ibid.
18 “a policeman in full uniform open a door for a man”: Ibid.
19 “I’m a young man yet and never felt better”: NYS, “Wanted, More Policemen,” May 22, 1895, p. 3.
20 “full enough of brute strength and courage”: NYW, May 25, 1895, p. 1.
21 “the most venomously hated”: Wheatley, “New York Police Department,” p. 500.
22 “walking matches at Madison Square Garden”: “Will Byrnes Follow?” NYW, May 25, 1895, p. 2.
23 “I’ve been living on rump steak”: Lexow, Vol. V, p. 5569 (often misquoted as “chuck steak”).
24 “I take a liberal view of the matter”: “The Ways of the Police,” NYT, May 4, 1884, p. 3.
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