The New York Tombs Inside and Out!: Scenes and Reminiscences Coming Down to the Present. A Story Stranger Than Fiction, with an Historic Account of America's Most Famous Prison.Munro, John Josiah
History
The New York Tombs Inside and Out!: Scenes and Reminiscences Coming Down to the Present. A Story Stranger Than Fiction, with an Historic Account of America's Most Famous Prison.
Munro, John Josiah
Crime -- New York (State) -- New York; Halls of Justice (New York, N.Y.)
On June 29th, 1897, a man named Max H. was married to an actress on the
train between New York and Sing Sing. Max had just received a sentence
of four years and six months in State Prison. He had asked the
authorities to allow him to be married in the Tombs several days before,
but they positively refused. At the Grand Central Depot his lady love
boarded the same train on which he was, with an Episcopal minister named
Lindsay, who was a Tombs missionary. They were bound to be married. Dave
Burke was deputy sheriff in charge of the prisoners going to Sing Sing
that day. He consented to the marriage of Max and his lady love on the
train, and they were married. Cupid could not be put off under any
circumstances. The marriage would not have been known, but when the
commitment papers were carefully examined at State Prison after the
prisoner’s pedigree was given, it was found that when Max was sentenced
he was single, but when he reached Sing Sing he was married. This
marriage on the railroad train created a great furore in New York, and
as a result, the deputy sheriff was dismissed, and the minister soon
afterwards left the city.
A few years ago, Lawyer Patrick, who was convicted of the murder of
Millionaire Rice, wished to be married before he was sent to Sing Sing,
where he has been ever since. Mr. Patrick took pains to sound the
feelings of the authorities on the subject, with the result that
objections were made against any such ceremony taking place in the
prison. But Cupid in this case was smarter than the authorities. On the
Sunday previous to his receiving the death sentence, three persons came
to the prison, a lawyer, a friend and Patrick’s lady love. The lawyer
requested permission from the Warden to see the condemned man, which was
granted in the Women’s Prison, where a civil contract was signed, which
made them husband and wife, according to the new law. The following day
Patrick was taken to Sing Sing.
During the past six years a number of convicted men awaiting trial have
begged to be married before going to prison, but I have positively
refused, as I found on inquiry that the object in view was solely to
secure clemency for some miserable scoundrel on the day of sentence. A
recent case was that of a girl named Stella Hamilton, a native of
Connecticut. She called at the Tombs more than a dozen of times, and
begged to be married to a convict named Williams or Willinsky. This man
was a convicted pickpocket, and had served three or four terms in prison
already. She told a romantic story that moved many hearts. Her story was
that more than a year ago she had been saved from drowning by this man,
and now she wished to marry him in return for saving her life on that
occasion. Since then it has turned out that the whole romance was a
scheme to get clemency for Williams.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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