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.)
In the fall of 1898 Mrs. F. M., a woman noted for her beauty and charm
of manner, and said to be a belle of old Kentucky, spent many weeks in
the Tombs. She and her husband were charged with attempting to blackmail
a Broadway hotel keeper. Mrs. M. was known as a most refined and
accomplished woman and well educated. As she came from a Southern family
of respectability, many people interested themselves in her behalf.
Her husband, however, charged with the same crime, was convicted
speedily and sent to prison for nineteen years. It seems to be an
impossible task nowadays to convict a woman of crime, provided she has
plenty of money and can secure the services of a good lawyer who can
play on the “feelings” of the jury. In nearly every case judge and jury
are more lenient and extend more mercy to them.
Another woman who received a good deal of notoriety in those days was a
Mrs. V——, who hailed from Philadelphia. She was charged with passing
forged checks. She was ably defended on both trials. On her last trial
her accomplishments counted for a good deal. She had winning ways about
her, was well dressed, and to secure sympathy could drop a tear at the
proper time. During the few weeks they were in the Tombs Mrs. M—— and
Mrs. V—— spent most of their time on the tier or in the
corridor—refusing to mix with the other (naughty) female prisoners or to
have any dealings with them whatever. Their meals were sent to them from
without and with the select company which they received daily were
seldom lonely or disconsolate.
The case of Miss Fanny T——, who spent several months in the Tombs during
the summer of 1903, is indeed sad and should be a warning to all young
girls who at first are admired for their beauty, then betrayed, seduced
and cast off by the so-called manly sex and finally disgraced.
She was confidential clerk in a large corporation. Finally she was
charged with stealing $37,000 belonging to the firm. This she stoutly
denied and showed that it was a conspiracy to save certain men in the
office who were the guilty ones.
Several male scoundrels made her sign checks, cash them and turn the
money over to them. As she had nothing to show for the money she gave
them, she was found guilty and sent to Auburn Prison for several years.
What mean cowards! To put a poor woman into such a trap and then gloat
over her downfall!
Mabel P—— is another woman of this class. She is what the world calls
“smart” and is educated to a certain extent but not cultured. She was
brought up in a convent in this state, but left it to become the wife of
her present husband, who is a graduate of Elmira Reformatory. She is
said to be an expert forger and is able to imitate any handwriting. This
was proved at her two trials by a Central Office detective who got into
her graces by representing that he was a “pal” of her husband who was
then in the Tombs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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