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.