Murder, Vice, Police Corruption

On my somewhat long drives to and from the office (see my bio off to the right), I will usually listen to a book on CD. I get them from the local library, and pretty much pick one at random (I have a system), and have never really been disappointed with the choice. Over the past 3 or 4 years, I've probably 'read' 50 or so books, if not more, of almost every genre.

The latest one that I just finished listening to today is Satan's Circus by Mike Dash. It's the story of the only police officer in American history to be executed, and chances are that he was actually innocent of the crime he was found guilty of. It's a pretty incredible story of what New York City was like around the turn of the century, leading up to about 1915. The police were totally corrupt, gamblers (as in, people who ran illegal gambling houses - that eras version of organized crime) pretty much ran the city, along with the likewise corrupt politicians and the remnants of Tammany Hall.

Hmmm, I wonder how much has really changed?

The name of the book, btw, comes from an area of town (also known as the Tenderloin) that ran from 23rd Street to 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue, much of which is known now as Chelsea and the Garment district. It was basically the red light district of New York City.

The synopsys (from Publishers Weekly): The sole police officer to be executed in U.S. history, NYPD lieutenant Charles Becker died in the electric chair in 1915 for the murder of a lowlife gambler who pimped his own wife. Set apart from other, mostly Irish, New York policemen by his German ancestry and "markedly intelligent," Becker bribed his way in 1894 onto a force infected by Tammany Hall and worked undercover patrolling the crime-riddled midtown Manhattan district called Satan's Circus, the city's center of entertainment and vice. Acquitted in 1896 of charges of falsely arresting a woman for prostitution, a charge testified to by novelist Stephen Crane, Becker went on to commit graft, perjury and theft, but by 1911 he headed his own vice squad and by 1912 he had built up a vast extortion racket. Gambler Herman Rosenthal, one of Becker's victims, exposed him to the media and the DA, and when Rosenthal was shot to death, Becker became the notorious prime suspect although some doubted his guilt. Peopled by mobsters and crooked cops and politicians, and chronicling the early years of the NYPD as well as Becker's ruin and comeuppance, this engrossing, well-researched history by the author of Batavia's Graveyard immerses readers in the corrupt hurly-burly that was old New York.

My Rating: 4 out of 5. I guess the rating needs to be stars or something. Maybe steering wheels, as I'm driving while I'm listening to them. I really enjoyed the book, and will have to see if the library has any more of Mr. Dash's books. On CD of course.