It requires those extraordinary samples of human depravity, which have lately disgraced our city, as police officers and judges, to accomplish such deeds, at which the mind naturally revolts. —THE FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NEW YORK COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE, FOR THE YEAR 1837, TOGETHER WITH IMPORTANT FACTS RELATIVE TO THEIR PROCEEDINGS My circuit at the towering Egyptian-style sepulcher of the Tombs is pretty well established. There’s my closet at the end of a narrow passage. There’s the open quadrangle at the center of the massive hive, where the sky seems very far from the earth and the gallows is assembled on hanging days. Hangings are popular sport among the more vicious of our residents, and the more curious, and among the young philosopher types who imagine they’re more fully experiencing the world. I avoid watching the life snuffed out of rogues whenever possible. But the open square is the quickest route to the prison, and—since I’ve made a fair number of arrests in my six months here, for all manner of crimes—I use it frequently.
