Professional Criminals of America REVISED About a week ago, I finished researching and updating the last of the 204 criminal profiles included in Thomas Byrnes's 1886 edition of Professional Criminals of America. This had been a year-long project, and one that I undertook thinking that the result might be adapted to print format. However, after... Continue Reading →
King of Burglars
While researching old-time crooks as part of my Professional Criminals of America--REVISED blog project, I came across a "lost" treasure. Maximilian Schoenbein, known to the public as Max Shinburn, was the most famous bank robber of the 1860s. In 1913, three years before he died, 74-year-old Shinburn wrote a series of eleven articles for the... Continue Reading →
Professional Criminals of America – REVISED
I've set up a new blog site as an experiment in historical research, using as its basis the landmark 1886 book by Chief Inspector Thomas Byrnes of the New York Police Department, Professional Criminals of America. https://criminalsrevised.blog Byrnes legacy is decidedly mixed. He was an unapologetic advocate of harsh interrogation techniques, i.e. “the third degree,”... Continue Reading →