Читать книгу 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 онлайн

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John Scannel, a Tammany politician, having filled a number of offices within the City Government, but who more recently was Fire Commissioner during Mayor Van Wyck’s administration, was an inmate of the Tombs in the fall of 1871.

On September 19th of that year he shot Thomas Donohue whom he supposed to have been the man who had assaulted his brother Florence. The charge against him was homicide. But like many other Tammany officials, he had a tremendous “pull” and was soon afterwards admitted to bail in the sum of $20,000. He was finally cleared.

The Tombs’ authorities have always been indulgent to the men who lived on “Murderers’ Row.” The foolish idea that comes down through the ages, which pictures the murderer resting on a pallet of straw with a chain around his neck, has certainly never been experienced in the Tombs. Twenty years ago and even later, nearly all the cells on Murderers’ Row received bouquets of flowers almost every morning. And some of them had bird cages, swinging shelves, lace curtains, carpets and draperies. When you entered such a cell, your feet did not touch the stone floor, but a rug or a Kidderminister. And the prisoner—he usually wore an elegant dressing gown, silk slippers and beautiful clothing; he is shaved and groomed daily; when he sleeps it is on a real bed of comfort. When the old prison was yet standing, every afternoon after he had made his toilet and was booted and gloved he walked into the yard for a stroll. Between four and five o’clock he dines; he never ate prison fare. His food came from the outside and consisted of a variety of dishes, such as oysters, quail, clams, fish, fowl, roast beef and vegetables—the best the market could provide, that is, for rich prisoners. The poor crooks had to be content with prison fare and take “pot luck.”