4 "Notorious Offenders" Prostitutes and the Law
1. Times , 29 March, 2 April 1855. [BACK]
2. In 1854 Fernando Wood was elected mayor of New York on a platform promising municipal reform and a crackdown on vice. Citizens had increasingly
voiced their concern about the rise of corruption and vice, including "the shameful disgrace of prostitution." Letters to the editor of the Times early in 1855 reflect this heightened citizen concern about the public visibility of prostitution. Writers complained about the constant parade of prostitutes seen on Broadway and other respectable thoroughfares at all hours of the night and day. These letters called for the new mayor to "act to end the disgrace" ( Times , 3, 20 January, 2 February 1855).
In the months following the public's appeal, on order of the mayor, police arrested large numbers of alleged streetwalkers under the vagrancy law. The first arrests of the mayor's campaign against the streetwalkers occurred on two evenings in the last week of March 1855 in a simultaneous "surprise attack" in four of the city's wards. Seventy-nine women were arrested for walking in the major thoroughfares in wards 3, 4, 8 and 14. The press referred to this as a "limited number of arrests" and attributed the small number to the fact that "word had spread as by telegraph" among the streetwalkers as soon as the first arrests were made ( Times , 28-30 March 1855). See table 7, Chapter 2. [BACK]
3. From 1674 until 1895, the mayor's office functioned as a court of law when necessary or when a mayor wished to act in that capacity. See "Appraisal Recommendations for New York County Court Records." [BACK]
4. Sanger, History of Prostitution , 599. [BACK]
5. Times , 2 April 1855. [BACK]
6. On women's position in society see Stansell, City of Women ; Cott, Bonds of Womanhood ; Berg, Remembered Gate . [BACK]
7. Times , 2 April 1855. [BACK]
8. In addition to prostitutes, vagrants included the unemployed or poor who were identified as "beggars, loafers, and the diseased." [BACK]
9. Strong, Diary , vol. 2, 218 (entry for 31 March 1855). [BACK]
10. Times , 23 May 1855.
11. Ibid., 30 March 1855. [BACK]
10. Times , 23 May 1855.
11. Ibid., 30 March 1855. [BACK]
12. See James Hurst, The Growth of American Law: The Law Makers , for a discussion of law within a cultural context. [BACK]
13. Advocate of Moral Reform , 1 November 1841. For a full discussion of the vagrancy law see New Era , 20 July to 15 August, 1838; Sanger, History of Prostitution , 25, 634-35, 638-40; Times , 29 March-15 June 1855. [BACK]
14. New Era , 20, 28 July, 6, 7 August 1838; Advocate of Moral Reform , 1 November 1841; Arthur Barnett Springarn, Laws Relating to Sex and Morality in New York City , 10. [BACK]
15. McDowall's Journal , June 1833; New Era , 20 July, 6, 7, August 1838; Times , 30 March 1855. [BACK]
16. Police Gazette , 24 February 1849; New Era , 20 July, 6, 7 August 1838. [BACK]
17. Ernst, Immigrant Life , 191. A greater population increase is shown by Albion in Rise of the New York Port , 418-19. [BACK]
18. Times , 30 March 1855. For some examples of arrests, see Sun , 31 May 1834; 24 January, 27 March 1835; 27 January, 27 February, 30 April, 4 May 1840; 1 September 1841; Tribune , 14, 21 June 1841; Courier and Enquirer , 29 June, 26 July 1830; Herald , 23 April, 10 June 1836, 23 January 1844; Police Gazette , 18 July, 16 December 1846; Times , 28 March-15 June 1855. [BACK]
19. Semi-Annual Report of the Chief of Police , DBA, Doc. 3:55-63, 70:1131-45, 54:851-60 (1850); 26:545-47, 42:729-35, 55:1041-44 (1851); 7:116-19 (1852); 14:2 (1854); 22:2, 32:2 (1855); 16:2-13 (1856). [BACK]
20. It is certain that the two volumes of arrest records in the New York City Archives for this period do not represent all the wards in New York, but it is not certain that they contain all the arrests for the wards they do include. (Apparently only wards 1-6 are covered.) However, by comparing docket statistics with the police chiefs' semi-annual reports for 1850, one can make a relative comparison of the arrests for vagrancy and prostitution, especially in ward 6. For example, the two available dockets list approximately 400 prostitute/vagrants arrested from January to December 1850 in ward 6. The semiannual police report for April-September 1850 (only six months) lists a total of 1,234 male and female vagrancy arrests in ward 6. (Ward 3 listed 127 vagrants, ward 5 had ninety-nine, and ward 4 had eighty-four in this same six-month period.) For all of New York City during this period, there were 1,889 vagrancy arrests, so ward 6 accounted for over sixty-five percent of all vagrancy arrests in the city. [BACK]
21. From late March through June 1855, with Mayor Wood's reform program in effect, one could expect a change in vagrancy arrests. At this time police were concentrating on the wards bordering Broadway--wards 3, 5, 8, and 14. [BACK]
22. Robert H. Morris (1802-1855), the son of a New York merchant, was one of the city's most successful lawyers and a major presence in the local Democratic party. He served as district attorney, state legislator, and city recorder before being elected mayor in 1841. After three one-year terms as mayor, he served as postmaster of New York, and in his last years, as a justice of the State Supreme Court (Spann, The New Metropolis , 54). [BACK]
23. New Era , 20 July 1838.
24. Ibid., 20 July-15 August i838. [BACK]
23. New Era , 20 July 1838.
24. Ibid., 20 July-15 August i838. [BACK]
25. Tribune , 7 August 1841.
26. Ibid., 7 August 1841. [BACK]
25. Tribune , 7 August 1841.
26. Ibid., 7 August 1841. [BACK]
27. Police Reorganization , DBA, Doc. 53:975-77 (1844). [BACK]
28. Tribune , 18 August 1843. [BACK]
29. Police Reorganization , DBA, Doc. 53:975.
30. Ibid., 53:976. [BACK]
29. Police Reorganization , DBA, Doc. 53:975.
30. Ibid., 53:976. [BACK]
31. Tribune , 18 August 1843. [BACK]
32. Police Reorganization , DBA, Doc. 53:978-80. [BACK]
33. Tribune , 20-21 November 1843; CGS, People v. Alexander Hoag and Melinda Hoag , 24 November 1843. [BACK]
34. Tribune , 21 November, 14, 16, 23 December 1843; Herald , 17 January 1844. In November 1845, the Police Gazette reported there was no truth in the rumor that Melinda Hoag, "the famous panel thief," had been pardoned from state prison. A few months later, in April 1846, a special justice with the city courts noted in his diary that he had seen Alexander Hoag while on an official visit to Sing Sing. Police Gazette , 1 November 1845; Taylor, "Diary," 9 April 1846; CGS, People v. Hoag , 24 November 1843; CGS, People v. Hoag , 5 August 1844.
That the Hoags were recipients of public comment indicates that they had achieved some degree of notoriety with New Yorkers who seemed fascinated by the prostitute, her paramour, and their involvement in a life of crime. Newspapers reported to curious readers on their status as prisoners and one book included them throughout its discussion of New York's criminals. Several years after they were sent to prison, the press referred to crimes similar to theirs as robberies "a la Hoag" ( Police Gazette , 17, 24 January 1846; George Wilkes, The Mysteries of the Tombs , 16-18, 21-23, 37, 53-58, 64 ff.). [BACK]
35. Police Reorganization , DBA, 53:692-93. [BACK]
36. Police Gazette , 8 August 1846. [BACK]
37. MM, Police Docket, 7 November 1850. [BACK]
38. Herald , 10 January 1849. [BACK]
39. See n. 13 above on sources that discuss the vagrancy law and proposed changes in the law. [BACK]
40. Times , 3 April 1855.
41. Ibid., 23, 24 May 1855.
42. Ibid., 23 May 1855.
43. Ibid., 15 June 1855. An 1855 grand jury investigating corruption and misconduct of city government officials brought an indictment against Justice Connelly for allowing prisoners charged with assault and battery to be discharged on their own recognizance (James F. Richardson, The New York Police: From Colonial Times to 1901 , 74). [BACK]
40. Times , 3 April 1855.
41. Ibid., 23, 24 May 1855.
42. Ibid., 23 May 1855.
43. Ibid., 15 June 1855. An 1855 grand jury investigating corruption and misconduct of city government officials brought an indictment against Justice Connelly for allowing prisoners charged with assault and battery to be discharged on their own recognizance (James F. Richardson, The New York Police: From Colonial Times to 1901 , 74). [BACK]
40. Times , 3 April 1855.
41. Ibid., 23, 24 May 1855.
42. Ibid., 23 May 1855.
43. Ibid., 15 June 1855. An 1855 grand jury investigating corruption and misconduct of city government officials brought an indictment against Justice Connelly for allowing prisoners charged with assault and battery to be discharged on their own recognizance (James F. Richardson, The New York Police: From Colonial Times to 1901 , 74). [BACK]
40. Times , 3 April 1855.
41. Ibid., 23, 24 May 1855.
42. Ibid., 23 May 1855.
43. Ibid., 15 June 1855. An 1855 grand jury investigating corruption and misconduct of city government officials brought an indictment against Justice Connelly for allowing prisoners charged with assault and battery to be discharged on their own recognizance (James F. Richardson, The New York Police: From Colonial Times to 1901 , 74). [BACK]
44. Times , 18 June 1855. [BACK]
45. Wilber R. Miller, Cops and Bobbies: Police Authority in New York and London, 1830-1870 , 150-51; Richardson, New York Police , 76. [BACK]
46. MM, Police Docket, 1849-1855. [BACK]
47. Semi-Annual Reports of the Chief of Police , DBA, Doc. 7:119 (1852), Doc. 16:12-13 (1856); BCMP, Annual Reports , no. 9:81-82 (1866), no. 13:98-99 (1867), no. 13:88-89 (1868), no. 14:102-103 (1869); Gilfoyle, "City of Eros," 255. [BACK]
48. Sanger, History of Prostitution , 565; Advocate of Moral Reform , August 1835. [BACK]
49. Advocate of Moral Reform , 1 March 1840. [BACK]
50. Sanger, History of Prostitution , 565. [BACK]
51. Advocate of Moral Reform , 15 August 1836; New Era , 30 January 1837; Police Gazette , 28 April 1849. [BACK]
52. Sun , 12 February, 29 June 1842; Police Gazette , 4 July 1846, 13 January 1849; Tribune , 29 July 1841, 12 February 1842. See also disorderly house cases, CGS, Case Records, 1830-1870, NYMA. [BACK]
53. CGS, People v. Rosina Townsend (Thompson), 13 July 1830.
54. Ibid. [BACK]
53. CGS, People v. Rosina Townsend (Thompson), 13 July 1830.
54. Ibid. [BACK]
55. CGS, People v. Rosina Townsend (Thompson), 13 July 1830; People v. Valentine , 11 March 1833; and Jewett murder case, People v. Robinson , 19 April 1836. [BACK]
56. CGS, People v. Julia Brown , 13 October 1834. [BACK]
57. CGS, People v. Mary Louise Clark, et al ., 17 October 1834.
58. Ibid. [BACK]
57. CGS, People v. Mary Louise Clark, et al ., 17 October 1834.
58. Ibid. [BACK]
62. Advocate of Moral Reform , 1 March 1840.
63. Ibid., Sun , 14 February 1840. [BACK]
62. Advocate of Moral Reform , 1 March 1840.
63. Ibid., Sun , 14 February 1840. [BACK]
64. Police Gazette , 20 January 1849; U.S., Census, 1840; City Directory, 1838; James Monaghan, The Great Rascal: The Life and Adventures of Ned Buntline , 184. [BACK]
65. Police Gazette , 20 January 1849.
66. Ibid.; Gilfoyle, "City of Eros," 23; PCR, People v. Ella , 1841. Prostitution was considered a legal offense only on public streets. Prostitutes who solicited indoors had legal problems only if they were disorderly. [BACK]
65. Police Gazette , 20 January 1849.
66. Ibid.; Gilfoyle, "City of Eros," 23; PCR, People v. Ella , 1841. Prostitution was considered a legal offense only on public streets. Prostitutes who solicited indoors had legal problems only if they were disorderly. [BACK]
67. Police Gazette , 13, 20 January 1849. [BACK]
68. See Chapter 3 on changing attitudes. See also Police Gazette , 12 May 1849. [BACK]
69. Tribune , 1 April 1843. [BACK]
70. Herald , 22 April, 21 October 1849; Police Gazette , 28 April 1849; MM, Police Docket, 20 April, 9 July 1849. On Delaplaine's extensive property holdings that were occupied by prostitutes, see Records of Assessments, 1840s-1850s, and Gilfoyle, "City of Eros," 131. [BACK]
71. Herald , 7 April 1849. [BACK]
72. In 1857, on behalf of a Committee on Immigration, a bill was presented to Congress to make it a penal offense for an officer or sailor on an immigrant ship to have carnal intercourse with a passenger, with or without the passenger's consent (Sanger, History of Prostitution , 462). [BACK]
73. See Claudia D. Johnson, "That Guilty Third Tier: Prostitution in
Nineteenth-Century American Theaters," 579; Meade Minnigerode, The Fabulous Forties: 1840-1850; A Presentation of Private Life , 154-55; Sanger, History of Prostitution , 557. [BACK]
74. Herald , 29 October, 1, 6 November 1842. [BACK]
75. Police Reorganization , DBA, 53:799, 844. [BACK]
76. Sanger, History of Prostitution , 557; Johnson, "Guilty Third Tier," 579. [BACK]
77. Sanger, History of Prostitution , 644, 671. [BACK]
78. Times , 5 April 1855. [BACK]
79. Police Reorganization , DBA, 53:692-93; [Smith], Madam Restell , 40. [BACK]
80. Police Reorganization , DBA, 53:692-93. [BACK]
81. [Smith], Madam Restell , 40. [BACK]
82. Walkowitz, "We Are Not Beasts," 49-50; John Griscom, The Sanitary Conditions of the Laboring Population of New York , 5. [BACK]
83. Sanger, History of Prostitution , 627-76, 573, 586-89. [BACK]
84. Aaron Powell, State Regulation of Vice: Regulation Efforts in America , 48-52; Lois W. Banner, Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Women's Rights , 96; Sanger, History of Prostitution , 598-99. Sanger noted that: "Every resident of New York will remember the excitement caused in the spring of the year 1855 by the arrest of a large number of prostitutes in the public streets, their committal to Blackwell's Island, and their subsequent discharge on writs of habeas corpus , on account of informality in the proceedings; but it is not generally known that of those arrested at that time a very large proportion, certainly more than one half, were suffering from syphilis in its primary form. . .. We make this assertion from our own knowledge, the result of a professional examination " (598-99). (Italics mine.) [BACK]
85. Powell, State Regulation , 53-54; Bullough, History of Prostitution , 193. [BACK]
86. Powell, State Regulation , 53-63; John C. Burnham, "Medical Inspection of Prostitutes in America in the Nineteenth Century: The St. Louis Experiment and Its Sequel," 203-18. [BACK]
87. Kate Millett et al., The Prostitution Papers: A Candid Dialogue , 146, quoted in Edwin M. Schur, Labeling Women Deviant: Gender, Stigma, and Social Control , 169. [BACK]
88. Millett, Prostitution Papers , 143, quoted in Schur, Labeling Women Deviant , 170. [BACK]
89. Not until 1978 did New York pass legislation that ostensibly made patrons liable to the same penalties as prostitutes and that required that customers be fingerprinted, photographed, and booked on arrest (Schur, Labeling Women Deviant , 170). [BACK]
90. L. M. Child quoted in Berg, Remembered Gate , 210. [BACK]
91. Sun , 11 February 1842. [BACK]
92. Advocate of Moral Reform , 15 August 1836. [BACK]
93. See Advocate of Moral Reform , 1 March, 15 April, 15 May, 1 June 1840. [BACK]
94. CGS, People v. Norman , 23 November 1843. Norman's [Lydia Brown's] address at 51 West Broadway was on a block where several brothels were located. An 1859 brothel directory lists L. P. Brown as manager of an assignation house (with a few lady boarders) at 82 Green (Free Loveyer, Directory to Seraglios , 24). [BACK]
95. Herald , 17, 19 January 1844. [BACK]
96. CGS, People v. Norman , 23 November 1843.
97. Ibid. [BACK]
96. CGS, People v. Norman , 23 November 1843.
97. Ibid. [BACK]
98. Herald , 19 January 1844.
99. Ibid., 21 January 1844.
100. Ibid., 22 January 1844.
101. Ibid., 27 January 1844. [BACK]
98. Herald , 19 January 1844.
99. Ibid., 21 January 1844.
100. Ibid., 22 January 1844.
101. Ibid., 27 January 1844. [BACK]
98. Herald , 19 January 1844.
99. Ibid., 21 January 1844.
100. Ibid., 22 January 1844.
101. Ibid., 27 January 1844. [BACK]
98. Herald , 19 January 1844.
99. Ibid., 21 January 1844.
100. Ibid., 22 January 1844.
101. Ibid., 27 January 1844. [BACK]
102. Police Reorganization , DBA, 53:844. [BACK]
103. Herald , 10 March 1845; Smith-Rosenberg, "Beauty, the Beast," 576; Licentiousness , 8. Adultery was not included in the final bill and did not become a crime in New York until 1907. See Springarn, Laws Relating to Sex , xi. See also Sun , 11 February 1842, for an example of the difficulties in pursuing a breach of promise and seduction case.
The debate over seduction and adultery was not without its humor. In 1840 editors of the Sun argued that people could not be legislated into morality and suggested that the proposed seduction bill be entitled "An Act to Subdue the Passions and Control the Thoughts, Intents and Motives of the Human Heart" ( Advocate of Moral Reform , 15 April 1840). The Tribune quoted a reporter from Albany as saying that the bill would never be accepted unless exceptions were written into it for members of the legislature ( Tribune , 1 April 1843). A writer at the Herald voiced doubt that the legislators would pass the Seduction and Adultery bill because they would be condemning themselves in the past and abolishing their privileges in the future. He continued: "Generally the greatest knaves of the community are picked up and sent to represent the people in legislative bodies," and if the bill were to pass, "several new prisons will have to be built to meet the fashionable wants of the enlightened and Christian" ( Herald , 20 February 1844). One of New York City's legislative delegates was said to have complained that it was old men who no longer wished to transgress who were responsible for the bill. This legislator believed that the proposed bill was an abridgement of his rights ( Licentiousness , 8). [BACK]
104. Police Gazette , 20 September 1845; 20 March 1847. [BACK]
105. Police Gazette , 29 September 1849; Semi-Annual Report of the Chief of Police , DBA, 1848, 1849. [BACK]
106. Sanger, History of Prostitution , 496. [BACK]