PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS OF AMERICA. BY THOMAS BYRNES INSPECTOR OF POLICE AND CHIEF OF DETECTIVES NEW YORK CITY. "PRO BONO PUBLICO."
New York: Cassell & Company, [1886]. Large 4to. 36 plates containing 204 numbered photo illustration portraits. [12], 433 pp. Frontis portrait of Byrnes, with original tissue guard. Bound in contemporary half calf [worn, crudely rebacked and separating]. Blank gutters with wear and discoloration. Good+.
The Introduction to this first edition explains that the book "contains over two hundred photographs of important and dangerous criminals, thus forming a public Rogue's Gallery. In addition, among its pages will be found the methods and records of several hundred Burglars, Bank Thieves, Forgers, Swindlers, and law-breakers of every description. The book also contains valuable criminal information relative to a large number of bank burglaries, notable forgeries and mysterious murders, all of which have been collected from the best possible sources, together with the Prison Commutation Laws and other interesting matter."
The criminals include a section of eighteen women, numerous Irish Americans and Jewish Americans, and about four hundred of the Nation's leading criminals. Each profile details the crimes committed and the circumstances leading up to arrest and conviction. Also included are chapters on criminal methods, opium addiction, fugitives from justice, prison commutation laws, executions in the Tombs in New York, unsolved murders, and a list of every prison and state penitentiary in America. A second edition was published in 1895.
FIRST EDITION. I Harv. Law Cat. 287. Item #40634
Price: $750.00