Professional Criminals of America

New York: Cassell & Company Limited, (1886). First Edition. First printing. Quarto (29cm). Preferred publisher's binding of half morocco over pebbled cloth; gilt titles; [8],433pp; frontispiece plus 35 unnumbered leaves of photographic plates (heliotypes). A tight, well-preserved copy in the original binding; spine and corners exhibiting mild external soiling and wear, with bottom corner tips just exposed; internally clean, complete and unmarked with hinges tight and strong; Very Good, free of restoration and far better than typically seen.

The book which made Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes a household name in America. In the years following (truncated) the Civil War, Byrnes (1842-1910) had risen through the ranks of the New York Police Department and along the way developed a reputation for innovative (if sometimes brutal) methods of investigation. He's credited with coining the expression "the Third Degree" to describe his preferred style of interrogation, a combination of physical and psychological torture that paid little attention to the principles of due process or habeas corpus. With the present title, Byrnes also popularized the term "Rogues' Gallery" – describing another investigative technique he's credited with perfecting, that being the accumulation of portraits of convicted criminals (i.e. "mug shots") to be used in the process of identification. Professional Criminals of America opens with substantial section describing the standard techniques of New York criminals, followed by clear mug shots and detailed biographical descriptions and criminal backgrounds of more than two hundred convicted felons, including bank robbers, forgers, confidence men (and women), sneak thieves, pickpockets, and others. If not the first, it was certainly the largest published volume of its kind at the time of publication, making it something of a landmark in the annals of criminal justice literature. A large and rather unwieldy volume which in our experience is particularly prone to wear, especially weakness at the spine – this in fact is the only unrestored example we have ever seen in the publisher's morocco binding. (Inventory #: 84800)