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...

  Kidnapped!  In March, 1834, seven year old Henry Scott sat quietly at his desk practicing writing letters.  Most seven year boys find this boring, and Henry probably did, too.  His life was about to become far more exciting. The door to the classroom slammed open and a New York sheriff and a well dressed Southerner, Richard Haxell, burst into the room. Haxell nodded at Henry, “That’s the one, Sheriff.”  The sheriff yanked Henry out of his seat, announced Henry was a runaway (at seven?!) and left, Henry  tightly in tow  and squalling. Free Blacks had been snatched off the streets of New York more frequently as cotton plantations sprouted in the South, creating more demand for slaves. Naturally, this produced more “runaways.” Free Blacks were not exempt.  Kidnapping Free Blacks right off the street became profitable.  The kidnappers whisked their prey South to Baltimore to be sold. If stopped, they claimed to be returning a slave.   A v...