In his Rogues’ Gallery: The Birth of Modern Policing and Organized Crime in Gilded Age New York, biographer, historian, and former Wall Street attorney John Oller writes of the New York Police Department from its earliest days to the second decade of the 20th century.  Well-executed and researched, Rogues’ Gallery tells the story of crime and policing in Gilded Age New York – a jagged era of glitzy murders, brutality, racism, corruption, and nepotism.  This carefully indexed history provides a solid and engaging overview of turn of the century New York City crime.  With colorful characters and anecdotes throughout, this fun-to-read book explores the origins of modern-day policing with powerful echoes for our own time.

Woodlawn recommends this read to all New York City history lovers and criminology fans.