T H E   S I N S   O F   N E W   Y O R K

As  "Exposed" by the Police Gazette

By:   Edward  Van  Emery

FOREWORD  BY  THE  AUTHOR


The Police Gazette!
      Against the background of American newsprint, this oldest of
illustrated periodicals stands out a scarlet silhouette. While it flourished
in other genertions, the name, POLICE  GAZETTE, still intrigues as a
cherished though bawdy souvenir of the bygone. Even if our impressions as to
what the Gazette once stood for, be merely something that has been handed
down to us, we are yet alive to the fact that this glamorous roue of
journalism was conceived and thrived on sins.

      In fitting this epitome of sin between book covers I have carried my
researches only to the end of the gaslit era. Even so, it has meant delving
into five decades; decades that embrace the middle Forties to the early
Eighties; decades that picture a New York suffering from growing pains,
obstreperous adolescence and other ills a young and eager nation falls
naturally heir to. My task has been to select out of  this overgenerous
wealth of material, what I may be permitted to describe as the "Gazette's"
best worst features. I have chosen liberally from "Lives of the Felons,"
"Glimpses of Gotham, " Tales of the Tombs," "Deadly Dives," "Vice's
Varieties," and similar popular serials and departments peculiar to the
Gazette, together with generous excerpts from its accounts of big murders,
misdemeanors and mysteries.

      Against the fact that the POLICE GAZETTE esteemed itself a national
weekly, and was so known, I have confined myself to the sinning that went on
in New York. For did not New York, even in those halcyon days, set the pace?
      A survey of these sins brings realization that the monster sins which
the city of New York combated were Poverty and Politics. The fight against
political corruption, of which New York had more than its share, has been
ably and extensively dealt with in recent books, such as the history of
Tammany Hall and others which single out the Tweed and Fernando Wood
regimes. For this and various reasons, I have gone but lightly, if at all,
into such momentous happenings as the Draft and Police Riots, the Fisk
killing, the raid of the ghouls on the Stewart tomb, as  well as some other
historical occurrences. And the following still remains a fairly
comprehensive survey of the sins of the times. What is more, most of the
foregoing transpired when the fortunes of the Gazette were at a low ebb, or
when the paper was a tool of corrupt powers, and when its handling of the
sins we have  neglected was nowise noteworthy.

      In the matter of such famous cases as the Nathan and Richardson
murders, both extraordinary crimes when the Sixties were giving way to the
Seventies, the Gazette was quite its vigorous self. These cases, which show
a different side of the Gazette, were touched upon by both the original and
the modern Gazette. As years went by and persons who had played a prominent
part in these affairs were brought to public attention through death or some
other cause, these murders were always reviewed anew and additional matter
brought to light. It is of interest, particularly in the Richardson affair,
to note the change in attitude that came over the Gazette with advancing
years. A distinctly new tone is evident in the ultimate treatment as
compared with its handling of the first important murder case that  engaged
its outraged attention, the tragic deaths for which Polly Bodine was thrice
tried.

      The POLICE GAZETTE came into existence in 1845, and so dates back
beyond such contemporaries as Harper's Weekly, Frank Leslie's Weekly and
Robert Bonner's Ledger, eminent publications in their respective days, and
in competition with which the GAZETTE shone in its own special fashion, and
all of whom the GAZETTE outlived, being still in existence. There were two
distinct GAZETTES, the first, strangely enough, being a crusading journal.
Then, in the Seventies, Richard K. Fox took it over and made it into the
pink periodical of sensations and sports, and  of which most of us still
retain vivid recollections. Its heyday, under Fox, extended beyond the Nifty
Nineties, when it began to take on the complexion of a more sophisticated
newspaper; one more reason why I have not extended these delvings beyond the
gaslit era. The GAZETTE ceased to be funny when it started to take itself as
a joke.

                                E.  V.  E.
______________________________________________

                    Transcribed by Miriam Medina

Transcribed by Miriam Medina
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