"The Autobiography of a Thief" by Hutchins Hapgood. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
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Hutchins Hapgood. The Autobiography of a Thief
The Autobiography of a Thief
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. Boyhood and Early Crime
CHAPTER II. My First Fall
CHAPTER III. Mixed-Ale Life in the Fourth and Seventh Wards
CHAPTER IV. When the Graft Was Good
CHAPTER V. Mamie and the Negotiable Bonds
CHAPTER VI. What The Burglar Faces
CHAPTER VII. In Stir
CHAPTER VIII. In Stir (continued)
CHAPTER IX. In Stir and Out
CHAPTER X. At the Graft Again
CHAPTER XI. Back to Prison
CHAPTER XII. On the Outside Again
CHAPTER XIII. In the Mad-House
CHAPTER XIV. Out of Hell
EDITOR'S POSTSCRIPT
Footnote
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Hutchins Hapgood
Published by Good Press, 2021
.....
My experience in the Tombs may fairly be called, I think, the turning point of my life. It was there that I met "de mob". I learned new tricks in the Tombs; and more than that, I began definitely to look upon myself as a criminal. The Tombs of twenty years ago was even less cheerful than it is at present. The Boys' Prison faced the Women's Prison, and between these two was the place where those sentenced to death were hanged. The boys knew when an execution was to take place, and we used to talk it over among ourselves. One man was hanged while I was there; and if anybody thinks that knowledge of such things helps to make boys seek the path of virtue, let him go forth into the world and learn something about human nature.
On my arrival in the Tombs, Mrs. Hill, the matron, had me searched for tobacco, knives or matches, all of which were contraband; then I was given a bath and sent into the corridor of the cells where there were about twenty-five other boys, confined for various crimes, ranging from petty larceny to offenses of the gravest kind. On the second day I met two young "dips" and we exchanged our experiences in the world of graft. I received my first lesson in the art of "banging a super," that is, stealing a watch by breaking the ring with the thumb and forefinger, and thus detaching it from the chain. They were two of the best of the Sixth Ward pickpockets, and we made a date to meet "on the outside." Indeed, it was not many weeks after my release before I could "bang a super," or get a man's "front" (watch and chain) as easily as I could relieve a Moll of her "leather".
