Links and information on historical research on documents produced by NYC, NY State and Federal court proceedings in NYC.
We suggest the following format for citing one of our transcripts:
Transcript of, People of the State of New York V [defendant] Court of General Sessions of the County of New York [date of trial]. Case [number]. Criminal Trial Transcripts Collection, Special Collections, Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College. Retrieved [date] from [URL]
for example: Transcript of, People of the State of New York v Sheik Hadj Tahar, Court of General Sessions of the County of New York March 15, 1900, case 204. Criminal Trial Transcripts Collection, Special Collections, Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College. Retrieved 3/2024 from https://dc.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/3952
If your research assignment is to read and write a paper on a transcript in the John Jay Criminal Trial Transcript Collection it is best to browse for a transcript digitally available. You can also make an appointment to view the transcript on microfilm if your find a transcript not digitally available on our long list of all 3,369 trial transcripts , but it is going to be much easier to read a transcript that is digitally available - there are hundreds to choose from.
The transcripts can be read quickly, so choose carefully it will be easier to write a paper on an interesting and complete one than a short and/or incomplete one. Sometimes there is no additional information on the specific case documented in the transcript specifically. For example, the many cases in our collection in which the defendant(s) are charged with burglary and/or larceny are not reported upon in newspaper reports. But there are plenty of supporting materials that place the transcript in context of the history of crime and the general situation in NYC at the time. This page is intended to provide you with helpful resources for researching your paper.
If you would like to contribute your research to help us enhance our digitally available transcripts with more information and citations to the case, we would love to hear from you. Email us at libspcoll @ jjay.cuny.edu - please include the transcript number in your email.
Research suggestions:
Try searching for articles on the crime and trial by defendant or victim's name (if known) in the New York Times Historical File (CUNY use only) or other New York State Newspapers (John Jay use only) or The New York Tribune (freely available from the Library of Congress Newspapers Chronicling America). Try searching OneSearch, Academic Search Complete or America: History and Life for the historical or criminal context to the case.
Be sure to remember that there are often variant spellings of names and aliases, particularly those of immigrants and sometimes intentionally by defendants. Sometimes crimes and charges are described differently in the press. For example the charge/crime of Abortion was reported in the newspapers as an "Illegal Operation" as in this 1893 article: "DOLORES GLODECK'S ILLNESS.: SHE DENIES THAT SHE HAS BEEN ILLEGALLY TREATED." (1893, Feb 11). New York Times
Case on Appeal and Court/Case Reports:
Search Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) by defendant name to determine if the case was appealed. You can also try searching Google Scholar Case Law for New York (State). There are/were many such NY State case reporters published, with overlapping information, some volumes are searchable on Google Books - such as this title, and this title, and this title. The works listed below provide historical context for specific transcripts in the collection as well as crimes that were prosecuted in the transcripts.
District Attorney Reports and Indictments
Try looking up the case in the Annual report of the Chief Clerk of the District Attorney's Office, county of New York. freely available on HathiTrust Library. The individuals involved in the case including District Attorney (prosecutor) or Defense Lawyer or Judge may have Wikipedia pages - several appear there.
Books
We also have a few books that discuss some some individuals and crimes appearing in our transcript collection- try searching their names on OneSearch - but first look at the lists below.
Resources related to jury trials of the time:
Tales from the Criminal Court a website based upon John Jay's Criminal Transcript Collection and others.
Courtroom warrior; : the combative career of William Travers Jerome - Stacks - KF373 .J47 O26 William Travers Jerome was NY County District Attorney who appears often as prosecutor in the transcripts.
Tappan, P. W. (1969). Delinquent girls in court; a study of the Wayward Minor. Montclair, N.J., Patterson Smith. Stacks - KFX 2007.35 .T3 1969
Underwood, Richard (2017) Gaslight lawyers: criminal trials & exploits in gilded age New York. Stacks - KF355.N4 U53 2017
Murphy, Cait (2010) Scoundrels in law: the trials of Howe & Hummel, lawyers to the gangsters, cops, starlets, and rakes who made the Gilded Age. New York, N.Y.: Smithsonian Books Stacks-KF355 .N4 M87 2010