Before the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 9-11 attacks, New York City was the epicenter of other violent acts. In 1920, Wall Street was targeted by a bomb that killed 39 and injured hundreds; in 1940, a bomb killed two NYPD officers at the World's Fair in Queens; in that same year, George "Mad Bomber" Metesky embarked on a 16-year reign of terror that kept New Yorkers on edge until Metesky was finally caught; and in 1975, the bombing of Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan killed four and injured 63, an act later discovered to be the handiwork of a Puerto Rican nationalist group.
Fans of true crime and photojournalism, as well as urban historians, crime buffs, and even crime fiction authors will appreciate a reference book hot off the presses from Hachette that tells those tales and more. Robert Mladinich, an investigative journalist and retired NYPD detective who was named Cop of the Year in the South Bronx in 1985, Bernard J. Whalen, a long-serving lieutenant in the NYPD, and crime reporter Philip Messing have teamed up to cull through over 175 years of true crimes in the NYPD's police blotter. The result is Undisclosed Files of the Police: Cases from the Archives of the NYPD from 1831 to the Present, which looks through some of the most horrific and shocking moments in crime but also turns a lens on the evolution of one of the oldest and largest police departments in the U.S.
From atrocities that occurred before the establishment of New York's police force in 1845 through the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 to the present day, this visual history is an insider's look at more than 80 real-life crimes that shocked the nation: arson, gangland murders, robberies, serial killers, bombings, and kidnappings. Some of the highlighted cases include:
- Architect Stanford White's fatal shooting at Madison Square Garden over his deflowering of a teenage chorus girl.
- The anarchist bombing of Wall Street in 1920, which killed 39 people and injured hundreds more with flying shrapnel.
- The 1928 hit at the Park Sheraton Hotel on mobster Arnold Rothstein, who died refusing to name his shooter.
- Kitty Genovese's 1964 senseless stabbing, famously witnessed by dozen of bystanders who did not intervene.
- Son of Sam, a serial killer who eluded police for months while terrorizing the city, was finally apprehended through a simple parking ticket.
- The Great Taxicab Robbery of 1912 that was solved with the help of Isabella Goodwin, who became the country's first female detective.
The 320-page chronological tour in coffee table format prevents each case in a succinct but nonetheless riveting manner that offers a step-by-step overview of the events, from the discovery of the crime to how the police went about trying to solve them (and sometimes not succeeding). The narrative offers up a personal take on the otherwise horrific material by letting readers know what happened to the accused after the trial and later in life.
The project is well-timed to take advantage of the recent true-crime trend in popular culture, particularly with television documentaries such as those on Investigation Discovery and the award-winning Serial and Making of a Murderer series. In addition to essays and behind-the-scenes analyses of investigations, there are more than 500 photographs rarely seen outside the archives along with mugshots, courtroom sketches, newspaper clippings, and even paintings from the earliest cases that predated modern documentary techniques.
For more information and a calendar of book signing events and talks from the authors, visit the book's official website and Facebook page.
Looks like a great book - thanks for the post
Posted by: JUNE LORRAINE ROBERTS | November 04, 2016 at 09:12 PM
It's a lovely book, June! Very easy to sink down into with the fascinating accounts.
Posted by: BV Lawson | November 05, 2016 at 10:21 AM