Skip to Main Content
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

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

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

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 Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, Yale University.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 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) The bifurcation of the self: the history and theory of dissociation and its disorders. (New York, NY : Springer). Stacks-RC553 .D5 R54 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) America is the prison: arts and politics in prison in the 1970s.  (Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press). Stacks - NX164 .P7 B47 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.