Gotham's First Crime Boss Defends  Himself     " The Captain," as Isaiah Rynders (1804-1885) was known, was a violent man and a violent racist.  He earned the captain's title for briefly captaining a sloop (one sail) packet boat along the Hudson River before becoming a gambler and knife fighter. Some time in the late 1830s he appeared in New York City and worked his way up in politics as the enforcing arm of the Tammy Hall Democrats.        Rynders owned a string of saloons in the city and gathered around him men who were young, violent, and looking for money.  He was head of the crime gang Dead Rabbits, a  thoroughly  criminal enterprise, and president of The Empire Club," which generally did the  rough  enforcement  for Tammy Hall.      "The Captain"  Rynders was a leader in what was called "The Astor Opera House Riot in May,1849.  (Worthy of its own future blog entry.)  In the 185...

Murder in Front of the White House --February 27,1859  From Harper's Magazine      The Honorable Daniel E. Sickels (D-NY) murdered the DC Federal Attorney, Philip Barton Key II in broad daylight in front of the White House.   Key, son of the composer of the Star Spangled Banner, a widower with four children, was known as the most handsome and eligible bachelor in town.      At least a dozen witnesses testified Sickels shot Key several times using two of the three pistols he carried. Sickels himself immediately confessed to the murder to the Assistant DC Federal Attorney.      It took the jury almost no time to acquit Sickels.        He was the first person to use the temporary insanity plea in America.     " Scoundrel" would have been a great first, middle, and last name for Daniel Edgar Sickels. He lived to be 94, so had ample time to be involved in too many scandals to cover in one blog entry....

     While the West was being won, slavery was an issue and Queen Victoria sat on her throne, there were a few ultra modern things going on, hilariously phrased by modern standards, but modern nonetheless.    Another Girl in Pants Boston, MA  Jan 1, 1853      Both Emma and Harriet would be arrested several more times in various places for wearing pants. When Harriet was arrested for a third time in New York she claimed she had only worn trousers "to get more wages" as a man.  As early as 1845 American cities were passing ordnances forbidding crossdressing or men wearing makeup.  Cross dressing was considered "being in disguise."  When not being lampooned, bloomers were sharply criticized as immoral because "women shouldn't wear men's clothes."      Today, we'd hardly think of "bloomers" or "Turkish Trousers" as being pants.  Named for an advocate of dress reform, Amelia Bloomer, the clothing was loose p...