Capitol punishment for ricky harrison, irish american gangster
One hundred years ago today … Ricky Harrison was executed by the State of New York as punishment for the crime of murder. Killed by electric chair, he was pronounced dead at 11:47 pm.
Adding insult to injury, to say the least, Harrison’s electrocution, at Sing Sing State Penitentiary, happened within earshot of a prisoners vaudeville show.
The New York Times, 14 May, 1920, p.6.
The Times article above quotes Harrison’s final words: “Let us hope and pray they will never do this thing to another man, innocent or guilty.”
Known as “the Geenwich Village Terror,” Harrison had a long career as a member of the “Hudson Dusters Gang,” a gang of Irish Americans,–notorious enough to merit mention in Herbert Ashbury’s The Gangs of New York (1927)– which operated on Manhattan’s lower west side. According to David Krajicek, robbery was their main activity, but their also served as hired muscle for labor unions and corrupt politicians. Rumours are that activist Dorothy Day spent time in the gang’s company when she was a radical journalist in the 1910s.*
In 1918, Harrison was convicted of killing a poker player at the Knickerbocker Waiters Club on 23rd Street and 6th Avenue.
New York Police Department wanted poster for Harrison, unknown date. Courtesy Jacky Tronel’s blog “Histoire pénitentiaire et Justice militaire.”
During his year-plus of incarceration, he managed to escape the Tombs at least once. He maintained his innocence until the end, but lost his last appeal on May 11.
The Daily News, 11 May, 1920, p. 16. Newspapers.com/
The transcript of Harrison’s trial is archived here at the Sealy Library of John Jay College, City University of New York.
WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN, 13 MAY, 2020.
TAGS: Capital punishment, death sentence, electric chair, Irish gangs, vaudeville, crime, incarceration
*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this entry mis-named “Dorothy Day” as “Doris Day.”