" A Pickpockets Tale" by Timothy J. Gilfoyle

For lovers of old New York, the years 1850- 1910 represent a special era in the city's history. There was the great influx of Irish, German and Jewish immigrants. There were the Draft Riots of 1863, the Great Blizzard in the 1880's, the list goes on and on. There has always been a fascination with the past in New York, particularly if you lived there and walked the streets. You can sometimes feel a sense of that history as you look at the old brickwork, or the alleyways, which were once dangerous and unhealthy places. The ghost of Jacob Riis hangs heavily over these scenes. His documentary photos of New York in the late 19th Century speak to us from every image.

But here is a different tale, and an unusual one. Timothy J. Gilfoyle has authored an authentic and detailed account of life in New York during these years. He has done so in a very unusual way - through the diary of one of Old New York's nost notorious criminals, George Washington Appo.

Born on July 4th, 1856 to a Chinese father and an Irish mother, he was 3 years old when he was orphaned. His father was in jail for murder and his mother was dead. Originally placed with a foster family of longshoreman in Donovan's Lane, he quickly became acclimated to a life of crime in the notorious Five Points area.

Apparently he taught himself to read while peddling newspapers at age 12. This was an era where you had to fight for your corner, or lose it. He branched off to picking pockets and by age 14 was arrested and placed aboard a prison ship for juveniles.

This is a no holds barred look at life in New York during some of it's most formative years as an emerging metropolis. Appo kept a diary which is surprisingly well written and informative of the times in which it takes place. His descriptions of the Mott Street opium dens is fascinating. If I ever get back to New York for a visit I am going to number 4 Mott Street just to look at the building and remember some of the things I've read in this book.

At times, Appo made several hundred dollars a night picking pockets. He also gambled and smoked opium. He was shot several times and spent many years in prison. Eventually he wound up in Matteawan Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where he met his father after more than 20 years! And yes, his father was also an inmate.

More than just a book about crime, this is a valuable resource on the social makeup of the times. African, European and Asian immigrants lived side by side in some of the most deplorable conditions. This made for strange alliances. Inter-marraige between these disparate groups was not uncommon.

Using Mr. Appos self penned journal, Mr. Gilfoyle paints a sharp portrait of the history of The Tombs, Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island) and the beginnings of Rikers Island as a jail facility. Along the way the reader is introduced to a variety of criminals that make Damon Runyon's characters look like choir boys.

This book is strongly recommended for lovers of Old New York, as well as the characters that inhabited the city in it's nefarious heydays of the late 19th Century.