Rogues' Gallery

The Birth of Modern Policing and Organized Crime in Gilded Age New York

By: John Oller

Narrated by: Steve Marvel

From the beginnings of big-city police work to the rise of the Mafia, Rogues' Gallery is a colorful and captivating history of crime and punishment in the bustling streets of Old New York.

Rogues' Gallery is a sweeping, epic tale of two revolutions, one feeding off the other, that played out on the streets of New York City during an era known as the Gilded Age. For centuries, New York had been a haven of crime. A thief or murderer not caught in the act nearly always got away. But in the early 1870s, an Irish cop by the name of Thomas Byrnes developed new ways to catch criminals. Mug shots and daily lineups helped witnesses point out culprits; the famed rogues' gallery allowed police to track repeat offenders; and the third-degree interrogation method induced recalcitrant crooks to confess. Byrnes worked cases methodically, interviewing witnesses, analyzing crime scenes, and developing theories that helped close the books on previously unsolvable crimes.

Yet as policing became ever more specialized and efficient, crime itself began to change. Robberies became bolder and more elaborate, murders grew more ruthless and macabre, and the street gangs of old transformed into hierarchal criminal enterprises, giving birth to organized crime, including the Mafia. As the decades unfolded, corrupt cops and clever criminals at times blurred together, giving way to waves of police reform at the hands of men like Theodore Roosevelt.

This is a tale of unforgettable characters: Marm Mandelbaum, a matronly German-immigrant woman who paid off cops and politicians to protect her empire of fencing stolen goods; "Clubber" Williams, a sadistic policeman who wielded a twenty-six-inch club against suspects, whether they were guilty or not; Danny Driscoll, the murderous leader of the Irish Whyos Gang and perhaps the first crime boss of New York; Big Tim Sullivan, the corrupt Tammany Hall politician who shielded the Whyos from the law; the suave Italian Paul Kelly and the thuggish Jewish gang leader Monk Eastman, whose rival crews engaged in brawls and gunfights all over the Lower East Side; and Joe Petrosino, a Sicilian-born detective who brilliantly pursued early Mafioso and Black Hand extortionists until a fateful trip back to his native Italy.

Set against the backdrop of New York's Gilded Age, with its extremes of plutocratic wealth, tenement poverty, and rising social unrest, Rogues' Gallery is a fascinating story of the origins of modern policing and organized crime in an eventful era with echoes for our own time.

©2021 John Oller (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A fascinating page-turner, Rogues’ Gallery will appeal to true crime buffs and anyone interested in the dark side of life in late nineteenth century New York City.”—New York Journal of Books

“Oller takes an epic and engrossing look at the history of New York City crime and law enforcement from the early 1870s to about 1910. Drawing on a wide range of sources . . . Oller weaves an enthralling narrative that presents both the origins of the NYPD and of organized crime in the Big Apple. . . . True crime fans will relish what is likely to be the definitive account of this seminal period for lawbreakers and law enforcers alike.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Mr. Oller could not have chosen a better moment for the publication of his book. . . . Rogues’ Gallery provides useful context for today’s continuing conversation about the importance and limits of policing—and even what constitutes a crime.”—The Wall Street Journal

The Dark Side of Gilded Age New York

What could be more relevant - and interesting - these days with the news routinely headlining issues of crime, punishment and the behavior of police than the historical perspective provided in this fascinating new book, Rogue’s Gallery, on just those topics. Tracing the roots of many of today’s police practices, and shortcomings, historian John Oller shines a bright light on the violent and sordid underbelly of the gilded age (which ran from the 1870's past the turn of the century to about 1910) in New York City. Oller gives equal time to the bad guys and the good guys in his detailed accounting of major crimes and characters of the age, starting with the then crime of the century, the $3 million robbery in 1878 of the Manhattan Savings Institution and the man who solved it, Detective Thomas Byrnes. Byrnes quickly became the most famous cop in town and pioneered such police practices as the titular “rogue’s gallery” - collecting photographs of criminals for reference in solving future crimes - the lineup of suspects and, more insidious, the “third degree” method of interrogation. Today we forget that solving crimes in an era before such tools as fingerprinting, wiretapping or surveillance cameras were available was a difficult endeavor - often requiring the extraction of confessions from the malefactors. One of Byrnes’ most feared deputies in this regard was one Alexander “Clubber” Williams, so called because of his eagerness to use his heavy billy club on suspects, and who memorably quipped to a reporter that “there is more law in the end of a policeman’s nightstick than a Supreme Court decision”. Oller reports (shades of current day) that Clubber was charged 347 times with police brutality but never had his badge taken away. Clubber’s reputation had a distant echo in the admonition by Teddy Roosevelt (himself a future gilded age NYC Police Commissioner) to speak softly and carry a big stick. There are too many great characters to mention here but readers (and listeners) will be fascinated by vignettes among others of a detective known as the Italian Sherlock Holmes, Giuseppe (Joe) Petrosino (whose name lives today in Petrosino Square in New York's Little Italy); by Fredericka (Marm) Mandelbaum, a 250-pound matron who was the undisputed “Queen of the Fences” and the founding mother of "syndicated" crime; and by the famous gangs including the brutal Whyos gang and the Dead Rabbits, familiar to fans of Martin Scorsese’s 2002 film, Gangs of New York.
For history buffs, the book provides a welcome companion to the better-known tales of the gilded upper crust of the age - of Vanderbilt, Morgan, Frick, Rockefeller etal. - and gives a detailed guided tour of the brutish dark alleys, gin mills and dens of iniquity of a wild and surprisingly uncivilized New York. It's a terrific read.