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Lloyd Sealy Library
John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Special Collections - Lloyd Sealy Library: Works Written from Research in our Special Collections

This is a guide to the Manuscript Collections, Rare Books and John Jay College Archives in the Special Collections at the Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Books and Articles From Research in our Special Collections

From research with our Lewis Lawes Papers
Kathryn Lawes, the Mother of Sing Sing (03/09/2023) post by Carolyn on Ossining History on the Run
 
From research with the Marvin Frankel Papers
Kate Stith, Kenneth P. Coleman; Marvin Frankel’s Sentencing Reform Journey: 1970–1978. Federal Sentencing Reporter 1 June 2023; 35 (4-5): 288–292. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/fsr.2023.35.4-5.288
 
From research with several of our Special Collections
Fesperman, Dan (2016) The Letter Writer: A Novel. Knopf.
Cole, Dan. (2009).  Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification
 
From research with our collections on the NYPD
Darien, Andrew T (2013) Becoming New York's finest; Race, gender, and the integration of the NYPD, 1935-1980. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan -   This book is available as an e-book to CUNY users (log in required) 

From research in our Fraud and Swindles Collection
Arnsdorf, Isaac (2011) Ponzi’s Best Publicist: The Expose of Charles Ponzi and the Contest for the Soul of the Middle Class. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, Yale University.
Reading, Amy. (2013) The Mark Inside, A Perfect A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con. Knopf.
From Research in our Normal Johnston Collection of Prison Plans
Gracenea. Iñaki. (2015) SELFCODE

From research in our Shibels Family Papers
Freeland, David, (2009). Automats, taxi dances, and vaudeville: excavating Manhattan's lost places of leisure. NYU Press. [Available as an e-book to CUNY users]
 
From research in our Burton Turkus Papers.
Clark, Neil G (2017) Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and The West Side Waterfront. Barricade Books - Stacks HV6248.M46537 C53 2017
Whalen, Robert (2016) Murder Inc. and the Moral Life: Gangsters and Gangbusters in LaGuardia’s New York. Fordham University Press
From research in our Papers of Lewis Lawes, Warden of Sing Sing 1920-1941
Griffiths, A.
(2013). A Portal to the Outside World: Motion Pictures in the Penitentiary. Film History, 25(4), 1-35. doi:10.2979/filmhistory.25.4.1
(2016). Carceral Fantasies: Cinema and Prison in Early Twentieth-Century America. Columbia University Press. Stacks - HV8860 .G85 2016
 
Bernstein, L. (2013).
The Hudson River School of Incarceration: Sing Sing Prison in Antebellum New York. American Nineteenth Century History, 14(3), 261-282. doi:10.1080/14664658.2013.822145
 
Blumenthal, Ralph (2004)
Miracle at Sing Sing: How one man transformed the lives of America's most dangerous criminals. (New York: St. Martins Press) Stacks - HV9470 .B58 2004

Goewey, David (2005)
Crash out : the true tale of a Hell's Kitchen kid and the bloodiest escape in Sing Sing history. (New York: Crown) Reserve - HV8658 .R56 G64 2005

For more works written from research with our transcript collection, see this page

Donovan, Brian. (2016). Respectability on Trial: Sex Crimes in New York City, 1900-1918.  SUNY Press

Livingston, J. D. (2010).
Arsenic and clam chowder: murder in gilded age New York. Albany, NY: Excelsior Editions, State University of New York Press. Stacks - HV6534 .N5 L58 2010
Recounts the sensational 1896 Manhattan murder trial [our Criminal Trial Transcript #70] of Mary Alice Livingston Fleming.
 
Murphy, Caite. (2010)  
Scoundrels in law: The trials of Howe and Hummel, lawyers to the gangsters, cops,
starlets, and rakes who made the Gilded Age. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian. Stacks - KF355 .N4 M87 2010
Based in part on many cases in our Criminal Trial Transcript Collection which record the courtroom drama in the Court of General Sessions, New York County, a story of the most colorful and notorious law firm in American history.
 
From research in our Flora Rheta Screiber Papers
Borch-Jacobsen, M. (2000)  
Folies à plusieurs:de l'hystérie à la dépression. Paris: Empecheurs de Penser en Rond. Stacks -BF173 .B67 2002
 
Nathan, D. (2011)
Sybil Exposed: the extraordinary story behind the famous multiple personality case.  (New York: Free Press). Stacks- RC569.5 .M8 N38 2011
 
Rieber, R. W. (2006)
 
Suraci, Patrick (2011)
Sybil In Her Own Words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings. (New York: Privately published) special collections room- RC569.5 .M8 S87 2011
 

 

 
From research in our Theatre for the Forgotten Collection
 Bernstein, Lee (2010)
 
Tocci, Laurence (2007)
The proscenium cage: critical case studies in U.S. prison theatre programs. Youngstown, N.Y. : Cambria Press. Stacks - HV8861 .T63 2007
 
From research in the Robert Martinson Papers in our Records for Knowledge in Criminal Justice Planning:
Brown, Michelle (2009)
The culture of punishment : prison, society, and spectacle. (New York: New York University Press) Stacks - HV8756 .B76 2009   
 
 

Bibliography of works related to our Trial Transcript Collection

Books and Articles resulting from research in our Criminal Trial Transcripts of New York County Collection :
Arons, Ron (2008) The Jews of Sing Sing: Gotham Gangsters and Gonuvim. Fort Lee: Barricade Books. Stacks and Special Collections Room - HV6194 .J4 A76 2008
 
Bromberg W and Thompson C. (1937) “The relation of psychosis, mental defect and personality types to crime.” Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology; 28/1 pp. 70-89.
Presents the findings resulting from the study of 9958 prisoners, conducted for four years in the Psychiatric Clinic of the Court of General Sessions.
 
Chauncey, G. (1994) Gay New York:  gender, urban culture, and the making of the gay male world, 1890-1940.  New York: Basic Books. Reserve - HQ 76.2 .U52 N53 1994. & Available as an e-book
Used sodomy cases related to bath houses in the Court of General Sessions Transcripts at John Jay as a resource for this book.
 
Donovan, B. (2005), “Gender Inequality and Criminal Seduction: Prosecuting Sexual Coercion in the Early-20th Century.” Law and Social Inquiry, 30 pp. 61–88.
Analyzes narratives of sexual consent and coercion in 15 criminal seduction cases as recorded in transcripts in the John Jay Collection.
Donovan, B. (2006) White slave crusades : race, gender, and anti-vice activism, 1887-1917. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Stacks ; HQ144 .D57 2006 (also available as an e-book)
 
Evens, E. (2020). Plainclothes Policewomen on the Trail: NYPD Undercover Investigations of Abortionists and Queer Women, 1913–1926. Modern American History, 1-18. doi:10.1017/mah.2020.22
Utilized several abortion trial transcripts in our collection as well as related Manhattan DA indictment files at the Municipal Archives, NYPD Annual reports and other primary and secondary sources to present an early history of  investigative roles for policewomen in the NYPD.
 
Faber, E.and Rowland, E. (1989). Trial transcripts of the County of New York, 1883-1927: a historical introduction with an index to the microfilm collection. New York: John Jay Press. available as an ebook
 
Arsenic and clam chowder: murder in gilded age New York. Albany : Excelsior Editions, State University of New York Press, 2010. Stacks - HV6534 .N5 L58 2010
Detailed account of a murder for inheritance in a famous NYC family, and the trial (our trial number 70).
 
Messinger, Emanuel and  Apfelberg, Benjamin C. (1961) “A Quarter Century of Court Psychiatry.” Crime & Delinquency, 7/4, pp. 343-362
This study surveys a quarter of a century of continuous operation of the Psychiatric Clinic of the Court of General Sessions of New York County
 
Mcillwain, Jeffrey Scott (March 1997) “From tong war to organized crime: Revising the historical perception of violence in Chinatown.” Justice Quarterly  14, 1 pp. 25-52.
Used the Court of General Sessions, New York County transcripts amongst other primary and secondary documents in this study.
 
Murphy, Cait (2010) Scoundrels in law: the trials of Howe & Hummel, lawyers to the gangsters, cops, starlets, and rakes who made the Gilded Age. New York, N.Y.: Smithsonian Books Stacks-KF355 .N4 M87 2010
This law firm regularly and famously represented defendants in the Court of General Sessions and many other NYC Courts.  Many of our transcripts were used as reference for this book.
 
Robertson, S. (2002), “Making Right a Girl's Ruin: Working-Class Legal Cultures and Forced Marriage in New York City, 1890–1950.” Journal of American Studies 36: pp. 199-230
___________(2002) Age of Consent Law and the Making of Modern Childhood in New York City, 1886—1921 Journal of Social History 35.4 pp. 781-798.
Used several transcripts in the John Jay Collection as material for these and forthcoming studies.
 
Towne, A. (July,1922) "Young Girl Marriages in Criminal and Juvenile Courts,"
Journal of Social Hygiene, 8 pp. 297-306.
Refers to certain cases heard in the Court of General Sessions and other Courts.
 
Underwood, Richard H. Gaslight lawyers: criminal trials & exploits in gilded age New York. Lexington, Kentucky : Shadelandhouse Modern Press, LLC Stacks - KF355.N4 U53 2017
Used several of our criminal trial transcripts amongst other library resources researching this book, which is dedicated to Lloyd Sealy Librarians.