Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century Book

The only police officer to ever be executed for crimes committed as an officer--and still debated if Charley Becker was the one ultimately responsible for the death of Herman Rosenthal. I think the author presents enough evidence to suggest that no, but Becker was certainly taking advantage of the uniform, terrorizing prostitutes in particular, to the end where he was collecting 20 times his annual take home pay in protection money, and even if he had nothing to do with the murder, the catalyst of the whole affair was him.

That graft was so endemic in the police culture was interesting--from the bribe to get hired to begin with, to all the money you had to pay as outlay to just BE a police officer, because it was quietly winked at by the Tammany politician, since besides "policing" the real job was as bag men for the politicians. This book hops from one subject to the next, which I enjoy--so you'll get detailed explanations about the different gambling games popular (I had no idea that faro was the #1 game in the US and still survives in idiom with "keeping tabs," "broke even," and "stringing along.") I liked the attention the author had in this book--saying that there is no quote in this book or description not backed up by newspapers and eyewitness statements, which is nice because far too many history books lately have fallen into pseudo fiction lately.

The reformers that brought the whole Satan's Circus down were no better than the criminals really. The judge was a lunatic and it's amazing that those court room shenanigans and blatant violations were permitted. And the DA resposible, Charles Whitman (NJ Gov Christine Todd Whtiman's grandfather-in-law) definitely put aside his principles for power. The important of Charles Becker dying for his political ambitions took precedence in whatever the truth was--hence bribes and payoffs for witnesses to perjure themselves--but then a hopeless alcoholic haunted by the men he killed (there were 4 others who got the electric chair for this). Crooked cops, self-serving politicans, colorful gangsters (Gyp the Blood for example)--Rothstein makes a pretty big character in the story.

One thing that did bother me though was the insistence that this was the biggest trial of all time and unparalleled, but the Stanford White murder trial was in 1906 and probably more people remember that one than the Becker trial of 1912. Overall a very interesting book and beyond the trial, describes the genesis of organized crime in America.