New York Prisons & Convicts
New York City Prison “The Tombs”
Transcription of inmates from 1850 US Federal Census
Kings County Prison
1880 census of inmates
Kings County Penitentiary
1880 Federal census
City Prison and Kings County Jail
1920 index of inmates
New York City Department of Corrections History Menu
Origins and timelines of different penitentiaries and commissioners
NY State Prison Pardons, Commutations, & Reprieves
1877 index of names
New York State Prisons
History and stories of prisons in New York.
New York Outlaws & Criminals
Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid was born in an Irish section of the Bowery slums of New York City in 1859. His real name was either William Bonney or Henry McCarty
New York’s Greatest Mobsters
Short Biographies on various mobsters
Charles E. Boles aka Black Bart
As history has it, Boles was born and raised in upper New York State and had been a farmer until he married and moved to Illinois just before the Civil War. He served as a sergeant in the 116th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. After the death of his family members, he moved to California to seek his fortune. After trying a number of odd jobs, even panning for gold, he turned to stagecoach robbing.
Son of Sam – David Berkowitz
The life of David Berkowitz, also known as The Son of Sam, has been exceedingly strange since the day of his birth. And the strangeness continues, and undoubtedly will continue until the day he dies…
Sadie the Goat
In 1869, in lower Manhattan, amid blocks of seedy slums, pawnshops, rescue missions, and gambling dens, there lived a young woman known as Sadie the Goat.
New York Court Records
State of New York court records table of contents
Prison pardons between 1819 – 1823
History of the Courts in Allegany County New York:
Court Cases 1807 – 1810 ~ Names of Jurors 1806 – 1810
Jury Lists 1867 – 1880 ~ Court News ~ Crime Reports
Famous Trials of People from New York
General New York Court Records
Huge index of links to various court records
Court, Government, & Criminal Records
Court records are an often overlooked, yet very valuable tool for finding information to assist you in your research. Land records, such as deeds, allow you to tie an ancestor to a specific place at a point in time. Other court records like those dealing with finances and estates often list related family members or give interesting details like the total value of property owned by your ancestors to add interest to your family history.
New York Executions
Executions in New York
1600 – 1963
1941 – 1963