In the summer of 1957, old conflicts among black, white, and Hispanic youths over access to a public pool in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan exploded in the murder of one white youth and the wounding of another. Despite a history of white gangs harassing young people of color on the way to municipal pools in New York, the possibility that racial and ethnic conflict had something to do with the killing was dismissed. In the courts, journalism and city government, the slaying was framed as an incident of juvenile delinquency. This ignored a long tradition of informal segregation at formally integrated public pools. It also overlooked growing tensions among white, black and Hispanic New Yorkers, and perpetuated the illusion that New York was a liberal city that would escape battles over integration.
For an insightful account of the Farmer case, see Eric C. Schneider, Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 79-91. Schneider’s account of the actual killing is on 79-83. Also see "Who Killed Michael Farmer?" April 21, 1958, CBS Radio Network (on file at the Edward R. Murrow Library at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University). The fullest study of the Farmer case written in the era of the murder and trial is Irwin D. Davidson and Richard Gehman, The Jury is Still Out (New York: Harper, 1959); it provides a figure of eighteen members of the Dragons and Kings’ raiding party and calls it the best available estimate (p. 1). However, other books from the period explore the case or the issues that framed it. See David Wilkerson, with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, The Cross-and the Switchblade (New York: Pyramid Books, 1962); Lewis Yablonsky, The Violent Gang (New York: Macmillan, 1962); William M. Kunstler, First Degree (New York: Oceana Publications, 1960); and Harrison E. Salisbury, The Shook-Up Generation (New York: Harper, 1958).
2.
For accounts of the background of the assault, see Martin Sullivan memorandum of testimony, "Martin Sullivan" folder, box 2-42348, People versus Leroy Birch et al., (hereafter referred to as Farmer case), case number 2630-57, Municipal Archives of New York City. All testimony and related documents cited hereafter are from the New York City Municipal Archives records for this case. Also see interview with James Ricks in "James Ricks" folder, box 2-42348; and Francis McCosh memorandum of testimony, "Jesters" folder, box 2-42348. On some of the Dragons and Egyptian Kings drinking the night of the killing, see Louis Alvarez testimony, 4274-4277, 4307-4309. On the assault, see testimony of Dennis DeLeon, 3333-3334 and 3340-3342; also testimony of Louis Alvarez, 4267-4268. On the actions of the Dragons and Egyptian Kings on the night of the killing see DeLeon testimony, 3330-3333, 3342-3347 and 3350-3351; also see testimony of Richard Hills, 3907.
3.
On McShane and Farmer’s evening prior to the assault, see Roger McShane memorandum of testimony, "Roger McShane" folder, box 2-42348; John Boucher memorandum of testimony, "Jesters" folder, box 2-42348; Raymond Farmer testimony, trial transcript, 1342-1343; and McShane trial testimony, 1346-1356 and page 1357 on the boys’ plan to swim. Members of the Dragons and Egyptian later said that they asked Farmer if he was a Jester; in their version, Farmer said that he was. However, other sources in the neighborhood did not identify Farmer as a Jester. Martin Sullivan told the prosecutor that Farmer was not a member of the Jesters, see "Memorandum of Testimony," Martin Sullivan folder, box 2-42347; DeLeon testified that he had first met Farmer among groups of boys from the Heights who had confronted him and that Farmer had swung a pipe at him; see 3341-3342. According to an interview with John McCarthy in the "John McCarthy" folder, box 2-42347, Farmer was friendly with the Jesters but not a member while McShane was a member but would deny it. For different accounts of the assault, also see statements made to an assistant district attorney on July 31, 1957 by Charles Horton, Louis Alvarez, and Edward Valderrama in box 2-42347. Valderrama revised his story in trial testimony, 4180-4191, as did Jose Garcia, who said that he admitted to stabbing Farmer only to avoid a beating, 2739. Horton also said that he initially testified falsely to avoid a beating, 3659-3695. Fifty years after the incident, Farmer’s exact status with the Jesters is the subject of disagreement. Jack Boucher, former captain and member of the Jesters, describes Farmer as a member. Farmer’s brother Raymond, however, says that he and Michael were friends of the gang without being members. See author’s interview with Jack Boucher, May 22, 2007, and his telephone interview with Raymond Farmer, June 18, 2007.
4.
See McShane memorandum of testimony; also statement by McShane in Murrow, "Who Killed Michael Farmer?," 9-14. In a different retelling of the opening exchange between the two groups, Leoncio DeLeon testified that Farmer grabbed him, after which he, DeLeon, hit Farmer with a stick and the incident was underway, 3391. A defendant interviewed by the author over the telephone on December 21, 2006, who wished to remain anonymous, said he overheard the boys exchange words before the assault erupted but did not actually witness the opening of the attack. For the initial summary of the prosecution’s version of the case, which remains persuasive in its general outline of the incident, see M. G. Guerreiro, "Original Case Report," July 31, 1957, "Original Case Reports and Memo" folder, box 2-42348.
5.
On the wounds, see report of Dominick D. Di Maio, MD in "Autopsy" folder, box 2-42348. Also see McShane memorandum of testimony.
6.
On Farmer’s words, see December 23, 1957 statement of police officer John Collich in "Ptl. John Collich" folder, box 2-42349. Also see John Boucher memorandum of testimony in "Jesters" folder, box 2-42348, and Davidson and Gehman, The Jury is Still Out, 26.
7.
See Wiltse, Contested Waters, 121, 123, 140-41. On integration and segregation in New York City pools, see Gutman, "Highbridge Pool and Bathhouse," in Robert Moses and the Modern City, ed. Hillary Ballon and Kenneth Jackson (New York: W. W. Norton & Company), 81-83. I thank Brad Parks, formerly of the Star-Ledger for pointing out that journalists tell the stories that people are ready to hear.
8.
On race, crime, and conservative ethnic politics in the mayoral election of 1965, and the dynamics of the Civilian Complaint Review Board debate, see Vincent J. Cannato, The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 37-38, 44-45, 52-55, 56-63, and 183-88.
9.
Thomas Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 13, 210-11, 213-15, 235-37, 246-55; Nelson Lichtenstein, State of the Union: A Century of American Labor (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), 75; Stephen Grant Meyer, "As Long as They Don’t Move Next Door: Segregation and Racial Conflict in American Neighborhoods," (PhD diss., University of Alabama, 1996); and Kevin Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta an the Making of Modern Conservatism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005); and Arnold R. Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1969 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), xi on "hidden violence, also 63-67, 68-69, 74-75, 81-87, 90, 99, also 63-67, 68-69, 74-75, 81-87, 90, 99.
10.
On the conflicts and attractions of pools and amusement parks, see Victoria W. Wolcott, "Recreation and Race in the Postwar City: Buffalo’s 1956 Crystal Beach Riot," Journal of American History93, no, 1, 63, 64, 65, 66. On sex and the volatility of pools, see Wiltse, Contested Waters. On integration and segregation in the use of New York City pools, see Gutman, 81-83. On the Palisades Park struggle in the context of New York City’s civil rights movement, see Martha Biondi, To Stand and Fight: The Struggles for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), 82-84.
11.
On "hidden violence," see Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto, xi.
12.
On the history of the neighborhood, see Ira Katznelson, City Trenches: Urban Politics and the Patterning of Class in the United States ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 73-79; The WPA Guide to New York City (New York: The New Press, 1939, 1982), 293-306; and Lee A. Lendt, "A Social History of Washington Heights, New York City," Columbia-Washington Heights Community Mental Health Project ( New York, 1960), 11-13, 58-59. On Highbridge Pool, see Gutman, "Highbridge Pool and Bathhouse," 142-43; on the larger story of Moses and public recreation also see, in the same volume, Gutman, "Equipping the Public Realm: Rethinking Robert Moses and Recreation," 72-85. For Farmer’s address see his autopsy report in "Autopsy" folder, box 2-42348.
13.
Bayor, Neighbors in Conflict, 87-104, 152-55, 156-57; Lendt, "A Social History of Washington Heights ," 75-77; and author’s interviews with Michael Cohn, 1990 and Paul O’Dwyer, 1992, audiotapes in author’s possession.
14.
On the boundary, see The WPA Guide to New York City, 294, 296. On the vandalism see Dominic J. Capeci , Jr., The Harlem Riot of 1943 ( Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1977), 161.
15.
On film footage of pool use, see Gutman, "Highbridge Pool and Bathhouse," 143; also see author’s telephone interview with New York State Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell, 2007.
16.
On the East Harlem episode, see Robert Moses, Theory and Practice in Politics: The Godkin Lectures, 1939 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1939), 17-18. On the struggle to integrate a pool at Palisades Park, just across the Hudson from Washington Heights in New Jersey, see Biondi, To Stand and Fight, 82-84; for an illuminating discussion of ethnic rivalries and the Thomas Jefferson Park pool in East Harlem, see Elena Martinez and Marci Reaven, "Thomas Jefferson Park Pool" in Hidden New York: A Guide to Places that Matter , ed. Marci Reaven and Steve Zeitlin (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006), 95-105, especially 102-05 on Puerto Rican efforts to overcome Italian opposition to their use of the pool. On police violence and the 1943 Harlem Riot, see Marilynn S. Johnson, Street Justice: A History of Police Violence in New York City ( Boston: Beacon Press, 2003), 198-200. On the geography of the riot, see Capeci, The Harlem Riot of 1943, 101.
17.
On changes in the southern Heights in the 1940s, see Schneider, Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings, 83-85. On the decline of the German Jewish population south of 155 Street in the 1940s, see Steven M. Lowenstein, Frankfurt on the Hudson: The German-Jewish Community of Washington Heights, 1933-1983, Its Structure and Culture (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989), 218. On changes in northern Manhattan’s Irish community, see Robert W. Snyder, "The Neighborhood Changed: The Irish of Washington Heights and Inwood since 1945" in Ronald H. Bayor and Timothy J. Meagher , editors, The New York Irish (Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 444-46.
18.
See Ira Rosenwaike, Population History of New York City (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1972), 174.
19.
Lee, "Upper Manhattan ," 7, 17. The quotation is from page 17. For an insightful analysis of the changing demography of the southern Heights and gang conflict (which is not indicated by the article’s headline), see "No Racial Bias Seen in Teen Warfare," Amsterdam News, August 10, 1957.
20.
See Marta Gutman and Robert Snyder interview with Robert Greenfield, March 21, 2007, New York City; also Snyder interview with Greenfield and Frank Estrada, June 21, 2007, New York City.
21.
On delinquency, see Schneider, Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings, 50; also Grace Palladino, Teenagers: An American History (New York: Basic Books, 1996); and James B. Gilbert, A Cycle of Outrage: America’s Reaction to the Juvenile Delinquent in the 1950s ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). On the shift in perspective in the late fifties, see Michael W. Flamm, Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 16. On the bitterness of the linkage of crime and race in the 1965 mayoral election, see Cannato, The Ungovernable City, 59-63.
22.
"Juvenile Delinquency in Critical Areas," 1957, Wagner Papers, box 163, 1957 folder; "Perspectives on Delinquency Prevention," submitted by Deputy Mayor Harry Epstein, Wagner Papers, box 159, 1955 juvenile delinquency folder; "$976,936 Added to Youth Board Appropriation; Agency to Open 4 New Areas, Extend 4 Old Ones," in Youth Board News, June 1955, 1, in Wagner Papers, Box 48, January-June 1955 folder; "Washington Heights Project" report. Also see Ralph Whelan memorandum, "Explanation of Proposed Expansion of Youth Board Program for 1955/56," June 13, 1955, Wagner Papers, box 48, "Community Activities" folder for January-June 1955. The report of Maurice H. Greenhill, MD, compiled after the Farmer murder, found evidence of widespread dissatisfaction with the policing of Washington Heights. See "Washington Heights Inquiry" memo in "Juvenile Delinquency-Manhattan Health Board" folder, Box 165, Wagner Subject Files, New York City Municipal Archives.
23.
On the importance of print media, particularly newspapers, in the city’s political life, see Herbert Kaufman and Wallace S. Sayre, Governing New York City: Politics in the Metropolis (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1960), 81-82.
24.
The distinction between a journalism of policy and a journalism of experience was first made by Daniel Hallin with regard to the Times and Daily News, but in this period it also applies to the front pages of the Times and the Post. On the editorial traits of the Post, see Sanford A. Lakoff, Max Lerner: Pilgrim in the Promised Land (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 193, 195, 207-08. For stories that broke the story of Farmers’ murder in the Times and Post, see "Youth, 15, Killed in Park Stabbing,"New York Times, July 31, 1957; and " Polio-crippled Boy Slain," New York Post, July 31, 1957. The Post quoted the policeman who found the mortally wounded Farmer saying that "the boy told him that ‘lots’ of Negroes had attacked the two boys."
25.
On the photograph, see Daily News, August 1, 1957 and Herald Tribune, August 1, 1957. For different explanations of the origin of the incident, see "Grill 9 Youths in Gang Killing," Daily News, August 1, 1957; "4 Youths Held Here . . . ," New York Times, August 1, 1957; "Cops Guard Gang-War District . . . ," New York Post, August 1, 1957; "Book 12 Gang Youths . . . ," World-Telegram and Sun, August 1, 1957; and "Youths Tell of Slaying," Journal-American, August 1, 1957.
26.
See "No Racial Bias Seen in Teen Warfare," Amsterdam News, August 10, 1957; also Benjamin Luke Marcus, "Last One In: Community, Conflict and the Preservation of McCarren Park Pool," (master’s thesis, Columbia University, May 2006), 41, 42, 74-75; also Gutman, "Equipping the Public Realm,"82-83.
27.
This paragraph is based on the following interviews: Farrell interview; author telephone interview with Isaiah Bing, 2007; author telephone interview with defendant who requested anonymity, December 21, 2006; author interview with Bob Greenfield and Frank Estrada, June 21, 2007. On the atmosphere inside the pool, see Marta Gutman and Robert Snyder interview with Bob Greenfield, March 21, 2007. For a reference to fights in the locker room at Highbridge Pool, see Edwin Torres’ novel, Carlito’s Way (New York: Saturday Review Press, 1975), 7.
28.
On race in the neighborhood, see Boucher interview; author’s telephone interview with Farmer case defendant, December 21, 2006; and author and Marta Gutman interview with Robert Greenfield. On gang composition, see Boucher, Memorandum of testimony. Also see McShane trial testimony, 1353-1354. For the mention of "a colored boy" in the Jesters, see "Memo of Interview with James Ricks by Det. Griffin," "James Ricks" folder, box 2-42348. For an analysis of how a mostly white group of young men in a housing project can accept a black member and yet still maintain deep feelings of racism, see Jay MacLeod, Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood (Boulder: Westview Press, [1987] 1995), 36-38; for MacLeod’s points on how these white men’s respect for individual African Americans in a mostly black rival group does not diminish their hostility to the black group overall, see 40-44. For Schneider’s analysis of gang composition, which first alerted me to the complexity of the situation, see Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings, 86-88.
29.
See author’s interview with Boucher.
30.
In Oakland, California in 1944 city officials’ claimed that a race riot between blacks and whites was a "spontaneous outburst" with no link to previous racial conflicts or police harassment of blacks. See Marilynn S. Johnson, The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and The East Bay in World War II ( Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 169, 167-68. Also see Capeci, The Harlem Riot of 1943, 119-20.
31.
For the quote from the Youth Board source on the Wadsworth Avenue precinct in Washington Heights, see "Cops Guard Gang War District," New York Post, August 1, 1957.
32.
For explanations of the origin of the incident, in the Daily News and Times, see "Grill 9 Youths in Gang Killing," Daily News, August 1, 1957; and "4 Youths Held Here," New York Times, August 1, 1957. Also see "12 Youths Held," Herald Tribune, August 1, 1957; "Cops Guard Gang-War District," New York Post, August 1, 1957.
33.
For the El Diario photograph and caption referring to racial questions, see El Diario de Nueva York, August 1, 1957. For the August 2 "Crimen de Michael Farmer " headline in El Diario see El Diario de Nueva York, August 2, 1957. On El Diario, see Joseph P. Fitzpatrick , "The Puerto Rican Press," in The Ethnic Press in the United States: A Historical Analysis and Handbook, ed. Sally Miller (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987), 307-09.
34.
See "No Racial Bias in Teen Warfare,"Amsterdam News, August 10, 1957; also Capeci, The Harlem Riot of 1943, 119-20.
35.
For "Teen Terror Wave Rolls Over City" see World-Telegram and Sun, August 2, 1957.
36.
See "Teen-Age Burst of Brutality," Life, August 12, 1957, 34-35.
37.
One the role of the Communist Party and African American activists in creating a New York civil rights movement, see Biondi , To Stand and Fight, especially pages 221-22 on the limitations of the Wagner administration on civil rights. On the old left’s ability to outlast McCarthyism and remain vital in New York, see Joshua Freeman, Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II ( New York: The New Press, 2000), 90-95. For an analysis of Wagner, see "Wagner: The Man Out Front," in "The Shame of New York," ed. Fred J. Cook and Gene Gleason, a special issue of The Nation, October 31, 1959, 274-78. The quote is from page 275.
38.
For the quote "sick with crime," see "City Crime Scored by G.O.P. Nominee," New York Times, August 6, 1957. For other examples of Republican attacks on Wagner emphasizing crime, see "Crime is Stressed by Christenberry," New York Times, October 22, 1957 and "Teen Crime Issue Taking Spotlight in City Hall Race," August 19, 1957. On Wagner’s responses, for the "irresponsible" quote see "Wagner Attacks Critics on Crime," New York Times, September 17, 1957; for the "hard" and "soft approaches," see "Wagner Depicts Tactics on Crime," New York Times, October 10, 1957.
39.
On the evolution of the investigation and its findings, see August 16, 1957 letter of Maurice H. Greenhill, MD, to Mayor Wagner and the attached report, "Washington Heights Project" in "Juvenile Delinquency, 1957" folder, Box 160, Wagner Subject Files, New York Municipal Archives. See description of Velez family in "SUMMARIES: Inventory of Children’s Reactions" in "Juvenile Delinquency-Mental Health Board" folder, Box 165, Wagner Subject Files, New York Municipal Archives.
40.
For Greenhill’s public statement on the research, see "Washington Heights Inquiry," a press release dated August 15, 1957, Wagner Subject Files, Box 165, juvenile delinquency-Mental Health Board folder. The Greenhill quote is in "Wagner Summons Meeting Tuesday on Gang Violence," New York Times, August 17, 1992. Also see "Crime Data Plea by G.O.P Is Denied," New York Times, September 19, 1957.
41.
I am grateful to Michael Flamm of Ohio Wesleyan University for sharing with me his insights on Wagner’s mayoralty. For an account of the town meeting and indictments in the Times, see "14 Boys Indicted in Two Killings, City Parley Held," New York Times, August 21, 1957. On Wagner’s leadership as mayor, see Ruth Cowan, "The New York City Civilian Review Board Referendum of November 1966: A Case Study of Mass Politics" (PhD diss., New York University, 1970), 434-35; Biondi, To Stand and Fight, 221-22; and Chris McNickle, "Robert F. Wagner," in The Encyclopedia of New York City, ed. Kenneth T. Jackson (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991), 1231.
42.
For an account of the town meeting and indictments in the Times, see "14 Boys Indicted in Two Killings, City Parley Held," New York Times, August 21, 1957; for the Post story see New York Post, August 21, 1967. For the poem see "Verses for A Slain Boy," New York Mirror, October 3, 1957.
43.
On the crowded courtroom and court-appointed counsel, see "Court is Jammed at Murder Trial," New York Times, January 14, 1958. For further details on the hearing and court-appointed counsel, see Davidson and Gehman, The Jury Is Still Out, 7-8. On Davidson’s biography, see "Irwin D. Davidson, 75, Legislator and Jurist Who Served 40 Years," New York Times, August 2, 1981.
44.
On the selection of the jury, see Davidson and Gehman , The Jury Is Still Out, 10-16.
45.
On Reynolds, see Davidson and Gehman, The Jury Is Still Out, 18. On the opening of the trial see "7 Boys Go On Trial in Killing of Youth," New York Times, February 2, 1958, and "Ask Death for 7 Teenagers On Trial in Gang Slaying," New York Post, February 6, 1958.
46.
On Murray Kempton’s life, see "One of a Kind," Newsday, May 6, 1997, A5.
47.
On the absence of the quote from the public record during the trial, see Schneider, Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings, 280n11. For the quote from the judge, see Davidson, The Jury is Still Out, 27 and, for his further thoughts on race, ethnicity, and the gangs’ conflict, 64.
48.
All quotes from "The Evidence" are from the New York Post, February 7, 1958.
49.
"Race Issue Ruled Out in Trial of 7," Amsterdam News, February 22, 1958.
50.
For examples of clashes between the defense and prosecution, see trial transcript pages 1720-1722, 2187, 2305, 2424, 2934-2936, 3691, and 4439; also see Davidson and Gehman, The Jury is Still Out, 43, 192-94. On charges of police brutality, see trial testimony of Charles Horton, 3659-3665; Vincent Pardon, 2270-2274; Jose Garcia, 2750, 2755; Richard Hills, 4024-4027; Louis Alvarez, 4287-4293, 4459; Leoncio DeLeon, 3395-3397, 3448; and Vincent Carrasquillo, 2609-2610, 2611, 2616, 2618-2619. For police testimony claiming that there were no beatings at the station, see Detective Edward J. Griffin, 4631-4632; Deputy Inspector Edward F. Carey, 4691-4695; Detective Joseph Brady, 4676, 4688, 4771, 4690-4691; Detective John Vickers, 4808-4809; Detective John Weber, 4866; Detective James Mackin, 4929; Deputy Inspector John J. Green, 4703, 4705, 4706, 4725-4727, 4745-4755. Assistant District Attorney Manuel Guerreiro testified that the defendants did not complain of brutality when he interrogated them, 2954-2956. On the brutality question also see Davidson and Gehman, The Jury is Still Out, 61-62, 75, 84-85, 124-25. On defense attorney Emil Schlesinger clashing with prosecutor Robert Reynolds, see Davidson and Gehman, The Jury is Still Out, 219. On the defendant who still maintains that defendants were beaten into confessions, see Snyder interview with defendant, who wishes to remain anonymous.
51.
Davidson and Gehman, The Jury Is Still Out, 33-34, 128-29, 135, 145, 163. On the black-jacketed spectators, see 17. On the angry, name-calling letters to Davidson himself, see 128. On the letter to El Diario threatening the police, see 146. Also see Wilkerson, The Cross and the Switchblade, 18.
52.
See Davidson and Gehman, The Jury Is Still Out, 63-64.
53.
See trial testimony, 3610-3611.
54.
On firearms, see Ralph Lago testimony on pages 1620, 1621-1625, 1659-1658; for objections lodged by defense attorney Emil Schlesinger charging the irrelevance of testimony about the Dragons and Kings having access to a rifle, see 1168-1171; see testimony of Leoncio DeLeon charging that the Jesters threatened him and Lago and others with a rifle, 3333, 3340. For Alvarez on his efforts to get reinforcements, see his testimony on pages 4268-4270. For an account of the night of June 30, see Davidson and Gehman, The Jury Is Still Out, 56-57.
55.
On the summaries see, in the New York Times, "Summaries Begin in Murder Trial," April 8, 1958; "Boy Called ‘Sick’ in Murder Trial," April 9, 1958; "Hysteria Decried in Trial of 7 Boys," April 10, 1958; and "7 Youths’ Defense Hit By Prosecutor," April 12, 1958. For examples of defense attorneys raising the issue of brutality, see 4772-4773, 4745-4755, 4779, 4812-4813, 4824-4825, 4867-4869, 5073-5074, and 5120-5121. For differences in defense lawyers’ strategies, see 1856-1857, 2241-2242, 5077-5082, 5184, 5186, 5190, 5273, 5345-5346, 5348, 5302.
56.
"Trial of 7 Youths Goes to the Jury," New York Times, April 15, 1958. Also see Davidson and Gehman, The Jury Is Still Out, 286-88, 292.
57.
See "4 Teens Guilty," Daily News, April 16, 1956; also "4 Youths Convicted," New York Times, April 16, 1958; also Davidson and Gehman, The Jury Is Still Out, 295.
58.
See "Lawyers Plan Appeals for Pair Facing Life in Farmer Slaying ," New York Post, April 16, 1958.
59.
See "Farmer’s Dad," World-Telegram and Sun, April 16, 1958; "4 Teens Guilty," Daily News, April 16, 1958; "Mozalbetes Se Salvan De La Silla Electrica," El Diario, April 16, 1958; "Map Appeal in Teen Killing," New York Post, April 16, 1958; "Four Youths Convicted," New York Times, April 16, 1958.
60.
See "The Jury’s Verdict," World-Telegram and Sun, April 17, 1958; and "The Farmer Verdict," Daily News, April 17, 1958.
61.
See "Question Verdict in Murder Trial," Amsterdam News, April 26, 1958. My thanks to Stanley Nelson, whose documentary Soldier Without Swords explores the history of the African American press, for discussing the Amsterdam News with me.
62.
See "The Verdict," New York Post, April 17, 1958.
63.
"4 Slayers of Boy Get Stiff Terms; Judge Indicts Public for Apathy," New York Times, May 29, 1958.
64.
See "Who Killed Michael Farmer?," April 21, 1958, CBS Radio Network (on file at the Edward R. Murrow Library at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University). The deleted narration is on page 16; the points on intimidation on 46-47; the concluding lines are on page 60.
65.
See Yablonsky, The Violent Gang, vii, xi, 195, and 193.
66.
Davidson and Gehman, The Jury Is Still Out, 299-308.
67.
See Salisbury, The Shook-Up Generation, 12, 17, and 116. For an analysis of the complex and not always benign consequences of the narrowed focus on individual and family, see Nikolas Rose, Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self (London: Free Association Press, 1990), 123, 131, 155-57, 174, 176-77.
68.
For an illuminating discussion of the efforts of black leaders and white liberals to blame a racial clash on juvenile delinquency to avoid viewing the confrontation as a sign of deteriorating race relations, segregationists’ linkage of integration and delinquency, and the difficulties of Buffalo civil rights activists trying to identify increasing segregation and declining race relations, see Wolcott, "Recreation and Race in the Postwar City: Buffalo’s 1956 Crystal Beach Riot," Journal of American History, 63, 72, 85-87.
69.
On depictions of delinquents in films, see Flamm, Law and Order, 17-19. On West Side Story, see the clipping file in the theater collection of the Lincoln Center Branch of the New York Public Library: John Chapman, "Brilliant, Daring Musical," Sunday News, October 6, 1957; Richard Coe, "West Side Has That Beat," Washington Post and Times Herald, August 20, 1957; Milton Berliner, "West Side (Success) Story," August 20, 1957; Marya Mannes, "Black and White in New York," The Listener, January 9, 1958, 59-60; Gerald Fay, "Musical With a Message," Guardian; Herbert Whittaker, "Exciting, Dazzling," Toronto Globe and Mail, November 16, 1957.
70.
See Schneider, Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings, 87-88.
71.
On the gradual racialization of perspectives on crime in the fifties, see Flamm, Law and Order, 17-21. In a 1959 survey of New Yorkers that asked them to rank problems in order of importance to them, with number one being the most important, juvenile delinquency came in eighth and race tenth, according to Joshua M. Zeitz, White Ethnic New York: Jews, Catholics, and the Shaping of Postwar Politics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 144. Significantly, Fred J. Cook and Gene Gleason’s, "The Shame of New York," a special issue of The Nation, published October 31, 1959, which sought to explore the injustices of the city, did not devote one of its eleven sections to the racial and ethnic transformation of the city. (Despite the fact that the magazine’s editor, Carey McWilliams, in the California phase of his career in the 1930s and 1940s, had been acutely sensitive to the situations of Mexican American farm workers and Japanese Americans interned during World War II.) The issue said very little about street crime. Instead, "The Shame of New York" devoted significant attention to political corruption and organized crime. It also placed great faith in Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s ability to rescue the city.
72.
For the quote see Schneider, Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings, 13.
73.
Kempton, "The Verdict," New York Post, April 17, 1958. On the murder of Julio Ramos in Jefferson Park, whose similarities to the Farmer case were noted in the New York Times, see "Four Youths Held in Harlem Killing," June 2, 1958; "Seven Boys Go On Trial as Gang Slayers," March 31, 1959; and "Five Teen-Agers Found Guilty in Slaying of Ramos in Harlem," May 29, 1959. The cry of "Spic in the park" was reported in court by assistant district attorney Robert Reynolds, who also prosecuted the Farmer case. See "Decision to Kill Laid to 7 Youths," New York Times, April 8, 1959.
