![]() He even penned a book on police brutality. Humpty spent the majority of his stretch reading: Herbert Spencer, Thomas Paine, Darwin, Voltaire, and Huxley. Jackson pulled a hidden revolver and beamed four shots at Detective Ed Reardon, those shots would earn Humpty 2 ½ years in Sing Sing where the hunchback was treated to a regimen of: “Twelve hours a day in solitary…paddling, and thumb hanging exercises…” However, his time in the can wasn’t all bad. They returned fire with their service revolvers and roaring gun battle erupted.įrom the tenements, bricks and potted plants and bottles rained down on the police. Suddenly an army of 30 mobsters appeared on 11 th Street, a pistol shot rang out and the cops ducked for cover. The small army of cops put the collar on Humpty Jackson, the Riley Brothers, and William Noble and marched them back to the precinct. McDermott raced to the cemetery with five plainclothesmen, Detective Ed Reardon, and a team of reservists. Seeing an opportunity to put Jackson away for good, Capt. Keller broke away and sprinted to the Police precinct on 5 th Street. A fist fight broke out, and one of Humpty’s goons put a revolver to Keller’s head and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. The remains of the 11th Catholic Cemetery today. The gangsters sat up and took notice after they spied Fredrick Keller, a former member of the gang, strolling down 11 th Street. That night Humpty and his pals were lounging on the headstones in their graveyard hangout. The tipping point came on the night of September 12, 1904. According to the newspapers, every mugging, shooting, and petty theft in the district was the work of the Humpty Jackson gang. Smack a couple of Republican ballot watchers over and swipe the boxes and throw them in the river.”Īrmed robbery, assault, and vagrancy charges disappeared like magic courtesy of Tammany Hall, and with political backing, Jackson carved out a fiefdom strong enough to repel both Monk Eastman and Paul Kelly’s Five Points Gang. Humpty later bragged to Collier’s Magazine: Repeat voting, ballot box stuffing, and good old Republican slugging, granted Humpty a license to steal. With the help of Big Tim Sullivan, Humpty was soon stumping for Tammany Hall. The veteran election rigger immediately saw potential in the young hunchback. Election Rigging 101: Tammany Hall Recruits Jackson Tammany Boss Silent Charlie Murphy employed Jackson as a key election rigger. By twenty, Humpty was a professional stick-up kid, heisting grocery stores up and down the Lower East Side, which eventually landed Jackson his first holiday in the penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island.Īfter his release, Humpty Jackson earned his first newspaper mention for stabbing a policeman in the hand and neck, but by now the Hump was a well known character in the Gas House District, the domain of Tammany overlord Silent Charley Murphy. ![]() For his heinous crime, he was sent to the reformatory on Wards (Now Randall’s) Island, turning the little hunchback into a lifelong cop hater. ![]() Nothing for strong kids to do…but commit depredations…”-Humpty JacksonĪt the age of thirteen, Jackson caught his first pinch for stealing a horse blanket. “Take the Gas House District… no playgrounds and no gymnasiums. After he quit the rackets and started giving interviews (hotlink), Humpty would later reminisce: It’s impossible to say when Humpty, who was born in 1879 according to the 1925 census, first jumped the fence of the cemetery. The fences have been broken by boys, and… it has become a great source of trouble to the church…” –The New York Times, 1883 “The old cemetery has been neglected and has become a scene of desolation. Fifteen years, and forty thousand corpses later, tenements sprouted up around the graveyard, and the city banned burials in Manhattan, forcing the Eleventh Street cemetery to lock its gates. ![]() Patrick’s overflowing graveyard on Mulberry Street, the Eleventh Street Catholic Cemetery stretched from the east side of First Avenue to Avenue A. The infamous hunchback of East 11th Street, Thomas Humpty Jacksonīuilt in 1832 to replace Old St.
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