The New York Tombs Inside and Out! / Scenes and Reminiscences Coming Down to the Present. A Story Stranger Than Fiction, with an Historic Account of America's Most Famous Prison.

by John Josiah Munro

“While I am about it, I might just as well tell you that there have been 130 murders in the last two years in which the perpetrators have escaped. Put that down. I say there have been 130 of them. Doesn’t it seem fine for a city of this size to have a police department that can’t catch a murderer unless he handcuffs himself and gives himself up?”

Then the Coroner remarked: “In the last twelve months more murders have been committed in this city and more murderers have escaped than in any other place on the face of the globe. Let the police explain that, if they can.”

The Stool Pigeon

An important link between the police and the criminal is found in the stool pigeon. The old saying that “It takes a thief to catch a thief” was never truer than in its application to what the ward detective calls “the stool.” When a uniformed or plain clothes policeman is assigned to a precinct the first and foremost thing he does is to find out “What he is up against.” In other words, he sets himself to study carefully the situation; he finds out who are the thieves, pickpockets and all round crooks in his bailiwick. Then he seeks out some one of this class he can trust, and forthwith makes a confidant of him. Indeed, he enters into a regular agreement with the “stool” of the district or ward that in return for “inside information” on crookedness he will give him full protection and even immunity from arrest. The work of the stool pigeon is to associate with criminals as a sort of spy, so as to find out all that is worth knowing and even assist them in crime, then report to the ward detective.

When a burglary has been committed that baffles the police, one or more stool pigeons are put on the case and are paid for their services. If they cannot locate the crooks or the gang, perhaps they can tell where “the goods” may be found and by their help the police are able to recover wagon loads of “loot,” the accumulation of many robberies. Some time back in the seventies of last century Thurlow Weed, who exerted a commanding influence in the counsels of the Republican party second to none in his day, was riding in a Broadway ‘bus and had his gold watch stolen. Mr. Weed deeply deplored the loss of his time piece which had been given to him as a present by some friends. He communicated his loss to the police. The pawn shops were searched, but it could not be found. A score of stool pigeons were implored to find it without delay. Then one of them found the man that stole it and requested him to return it at once to the police, which he did, after which the police were highly commended for their smartness.

Some time ago a noted forger and counterfeiter was sent up the River for five years. He had been doing “crooked” work for some years in this city and would doubtless never have been detected had it not been for a “stool pigeon” with whom he had been in prison in former years, whom he had befriended not long before by giving him meals and lodging when out of employment. The stool pigeon reported everything to the police and the old man was caught “red-handed.”

As a rule there is no honor among thieves. One old criminal who is also a well known “stool pigeon” is in great demand by the police when out of prison, but he is hardly out before he is back again. He knows the criminal classes well and is able to furnish the police with first class information on crookdom. And they in turn see that he is not sent to State Prison but to the penitentiary for short terms. He has sent so many men to “do time” by the information with which he has furnished the police that if they found him in State Prison they would kill him. A traitor, a spy and a spotter are always detested by criminals. It is true, stool-pigeon ethics is not of a high order, but what else can the police do? In resorting to such expedients they simply fight the Devil with the Devil’s own weapons. Without this a large number of the crimes that are committed would never be detected.

Ex-Policeman Bissert who had been sent to Sing Sing by Recorder Goff in November, 1901, was detested by scores of crooks whom he had been instrumental in sending there. After reaching Sing Sing Bissert became a marked man. Many of the old time crooks knew him well. When the Appellate Division decided that he should have a new trial and had returned him to the Tombs, he made the remark to one of the desk keepers, that he would rather go to hell than go back to Sing Sing again, as his life was made miserable all the time he was there. One who was then serving a sentence afterwards informed me that whenever Bissert showed himself in the shops, the dining room, or in the yard his associates took a delight in “jeering” at him and calling him all kinds of profane names!

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