Kenneth R. Cobb
Yankees v. Dodgers v. Giants
Kenneth Cobb
Race to the Top
NYC Municipal Archives
Open House New York
Kenneth Cobb
Documenting Indigenous Peoples  
Kenneth Cobb
Moses v. Tweed

NYPD

The Handschu Collection

The Municipal Archives recently completed processing a significant portion of the New York Police Department Intelligence Unit records. Also known as the “Handschu” collection, the material totals 560 cubic feet and dates from 1930 to 2013. This exceptional material has already supported dozens of research projects. Processing and publication of the finding guide will expand its utility and encourage further exploration of important events and people during a significant period of American history. This week’s article will highlight the unusual origin of the collection and summarize series contents.

NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

Most record collections are accessioned into the Municipal Archives in accordance with an official “retention schedule.” This document is created by DORIS record analysts. It specifies how long a series remains accessible to the record-creators in-house, and how long the records are maintained in an off-site storage facility (and retrieved by the record creators when needed). The schedule also indicates if the series has been designated as having long-term historical/archival value, and when it should be transferred to Municipal Archives for permanent preservation. If the record series does not have historical/archival value, it is disposed when it is no longer needed by the creating agency. Schedules are approved by the relevant agency Commissioner, DORIS Commissioner, and the Law Department.

Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) identification record, 1963. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Handschu collection, however, experienced a somewhat different trajectory to the Archives. The New York Police Department (NYPD) Intelligence Unit can be traced back to early decades of the twentieth century when police began investigating anarchists and other people and organizations thought to be a danger to public safety. During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the NYPD Bureau of Special Services (BOSSI), called the Bureau of Special Services after 1971, investigated the Communist Party and organizations like the Black Panthers, Nation of Islam, and the Nazi Party. They monitored labor disputes, provided security detail for various dignitaries, secured information relating to political or social activities of individuals or groups seen as a threat, and cooperated with investigations conducted by the Immigration and Naturalization Services and other federal agencies. To support information gathering, the NYPD engaged in infiltration, wiretapping, and gathered information at events. Their tactics included overt and hidden photography, eavesdropping, and filming of various suspects and events.

In 1971, New York prosecutors tried members of the Black Panther Party for conspiring to blow up police stations and department stores. Evidence presented during the trial revealed the NYPD had infiltrated and kept dossiers on not only the Black Panthers but also on anti-war groups and other activists and civic organizations. The jury acquitted the Panthers after 90 minutes of deliberation.

Black Panther Party, free breakfast poster, n.d. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

Shortly after the acquittal, attorney Barbara Handschu, and others affiliated with various political organizations filed a lawsuit against the City of New York. The plaintiffs claimed that NYPD “informers and infiltrators provoked, solicited and induced members of lawful political and social groups to engage in unlawful activities.” They also alleged that the NYPD maintained files about “persons, places, and activities entirely unrelated to legitimate law enforcement purposes, such as those attending meetings of lawful organizations.” The case, known as Handschu v. Special Services Division was affirmed as a class action suit in 1979.

Environmental protest, 1967. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

In March 1985, federal judge Charles S. Haight, Jr. approved a settlement. It restricted surveillance of political activity by the NYPD. He agreed that  surveillance of political activity violated constitutional protections of free speech. His ruling resulted in a consent decree which prohibited the NYPD from engaging “in any investigation of political activity except through the … Intelligence Division [of the Police Department]” and then only in response to suspected criminal activity. The decree required that any investigations shall be conducted only in accordance with the Guidelines incorporated into the Decree.

“Files” is the important word in the above narrative. In September 1989, Judge Haight appointed Joseph Settani, a certified records manager, and former DORIS staff member, to audit records created by the NYPD’s Intelligence Division. Settani identified the records by series and created a retention schedule that designated the material as having permanent historical/archival value. In accordance with that schedule, the NYPD transferred the records to DORIS' Municipal Records Center in 2008-2009. In further accordance to the schedule, the Municipal Archives accessioned the collection in 2015. Archivists conducted surveys of the series in 2016, and formal processing began the following year and continued until February 2024.

The New York Police Department Intelligence Unit records is comprised of two groups of similar records: (ACC-2015-022) New York Police Department Intelligence Unit records, circa 1930-1990, and (ACC-2018-014) New York Police Department Intelligence Unit records (“Handschu, part 2”), circa 1960-2013.

Subgroup 1 is arranged into ten series.

Columbia University, student protests, 1968. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

1.1 Photograph files, 1961-1972, 16 c.f. Surveillance images of events and demonstrations, including the Columbia University protests in 1968, the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, civil rights rallies, and anti-war demonstrations. It also includes images of foreign dignitaries' visits and surveillance taken during covert operations. 

1.2 Numbered communication files, 1951-1972, 99 c.f. 

Numbered police reports addressed to the police commissioner. The reports detail surveillance and investigation activities. The files contain both drafts and final reports.

1.3 Columbia University disturbance files, 1968-1970, 2.75 c.f. 

Records related to the protests that took place at Columbia University during April and May 1968, including newspaper clippings, press releases, injury claims filed by students, letters received protesting police brutality, statistical data outlining arrests and injuries, and numerous photos and reports of areas affected by the protests. 

1.4 Small organizations files, 1955-1973, 24. 5 c.f. 

“Small Organizations” refers to the extent of material on a particular topic or organization rather than the size of that group.

1.5 Large organizations files, circa 1934-1990, bulk: 1955-1973 

“Large Organizations” refers to the extent of material on a particular topic or organization rather than the size of the group. Organizations documented include the Black Panther Party, Nation of Islam, International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and the East Coast Homophile Organization (ECHO). Events documented in this series include the Harlem “riots” of 1964 and the March on Washington (1963).

1.6 Individuals files, 1931-1973, 18.5 c.f. 

Documents pertaining to national and international personalities, Hollywood celebrities, politicians, and activists. Types of materials range from newspaper clippings to extensive surveillance and wiretaps.

1.7 Hard Hat demonstration files, 1968-1970, 1981-1985, 11 c.f. 

Hard Hat Riots, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

Records related to the May 8, 1970 riots in lower Manhattan during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration and memorial for the four students shot and killed at Kent State in Ohio. Consists of documents created in the months following the riots including reports, interviews, NYPD roll calls and rosters, forms, and newspaper clippings.

1.8 Index cards, 1960-1973, 200 c.f. 

Index cards of people and organizations surveilled by NYPD between 1960-1973.

1.9 Binder master lists, 1986-1987, 11 c.f. 

Binders contain name indexes of individuals, organizations, and events listed throughout the collection. The indexes were printed out on a dot matrix printer. There are three groups of binders; one group corresponds to Small Organizations Files otherwise known as Organization 1; Organization 2 corresponds to the Large Organizations Files; and the last grouping is a binder that serves as a master list for all organization names, photographs listed, and individuals in the collection. The indexes can include last name, first name, and page numbers the names are referenced in.

1.10 Audiovisual material, 1959-1971 3 c.f. 

There are two subseries:1.10.1 includes a/v material maintained by the New York Police Department (NYPD); and 1.10.2 consists of items separated from other series in the collection and removed for reformatting and preservation.

Sister Marlane, candidate for governor of New York, 1969. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

The second subgroup, ACC-2018-014) has content similar to the first group, but date from a later time period, generally 1960 through about 2013. There is documentation on organizations such as Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), Black Liberation Army (BLA), Jewish Defense League, Black Panther Party, Students for a Democratic Society, the Ku Klux Klan, and more. Many of the later records document the surveillance of Muslim individuals and communities in New York City. Other records concern surveillance of and NYPD preparation for significant events like the Republican National Convention (2004), Democratic National Convention (1992), the Presidential inauguration of George W. Bush, and the Million Youth March. There are also documents related to court cases concerning NYPD surveillance of private citizens and social/political organizations, including Raza v. City of New York (2013), the Matter of Fernandez v. The New York Police Department (2014), Handschu v. Special Services Division (1985), as well as the NYPD's role in the investigation, arrest, and federal criminal trial of Ahmad Wais Afzali. This material has not been processed.

For the Record has referenced the Handchu collection in several previous articles. Most recently, Finding Bayard Rustin, explored how records in the collection documented Rustin’s influence on some of the most successful demonstrations in civil rights history.  Finding Marsha P. Johnson celebrated gay rights activist Marsha P. Johnson’s influence on New York City history using materials from Handschu.  The Playboy Plot told the bizarre story of how Cuban Nationalists plotted to fire bazookas at the Playboy Club, based on records in the collection. NYPD Surveillance Films highlighted newly digitized film footage from the collection.

Researchers are encouraged to explore the newly processed materials.

The Playboy Plot

As an intern at the Municipal Archives this fall, it has been my privilege to help process the NYPD Intelligence Records, aka the Handschu collection. Very large—more than 520 cubic feet—and in high demand, this collection is made up of records created by a unit of the New York Police Department Intelligence Division, the Bureau of Special Services, which had the goal of monitoring “subversives.”

Playboy Magazine, January 1967. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

The material now held by the Archives is the result of decades’ worth of NYPD surveillance and investigation of both groups and individuals. This material spans the 1930s–1990s but is concentrated in the 1950s–1970s, and is divided into several series: for instance, Series 1.1 is for photographic records, while Series 1.4 and 1.5 are dedicated to small and large organizations respectively. Most of my hands-on work involved Series 1.2: Numbered Communications Files, which are thousands of reports created between 1951 and 1972. The reports are eclectic in their subject matter but tend to coalesce around topics like demonstrations, labor disputes, and security for public figures. The amount of material in the folders ranges from a single sheet to multiple brochures and clippings.

While processing these files, I recently came across a manila envelope with the arresting inscription: “Alleged plot by Cuban Nationalist Assoc. to fire bazooka at N.Y. Playboy Club.”

NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

Both pro- and anti-Castro activities are widely represented in the collection, but this particular case merited a closer look. Why the Playboy Club? And why a bazooka? Reading the enclosed Bureau of Special Services report, it became clear that despite their alleged target, the Cuban Nationalists Association’s grievance was actually with Playboy magazine. I also found that there had been previous terrorist incidents involving anti-Castro Cubans and bazookas.

The numbered BSS report is dated November 25, 1966, and has the subject line “Information that anti-Castro Cubans have discussed planting of a live bazooka shell at the Playboy Club, 5 East 59th Street, Manhattan.” Passing on information received by an FBI agent from an unknown source, it discloses: “The Cubans are allegedly angry with the Playboy management because of an article written in the October issue of Playboy magazine titled ‘Tropic of Cuba,’ by Pietro di Donato, in which the author described prostitution and homosexual circuses in Havana in 1939. They consider the article vicious and dirty and apparently are not satisfied with the apology tendered by the magazine.” Because the Cuban Nationalist Association had been tied to previous explosions between 1964 and 1966, the agent felt that this intelligence could not “be discounted.” This opinion may or may not be counterbalanced by the fact that interviews with group members led to statements like “the organization is currently disorganized and has no meeting place,” and also that a subsequent FBI report describes the information as coming from “a source, contact with whom has been insufficient to determine his reliability.”

NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

Along with the bombing of a Cuban ship, the bombing of Karl Marx’s grave, and the detonation of a bazooka in a suitcase at the Cuban Embassy in Canada, the Cuban Nationalist Association had been connected with the firing of a bazooka at the United Nations during an address by Che Guevara on December 11, 1964. The event was covered in the New York Times in articles such as “Bazooka Fired at U.N. as Cuban Speaks; Launched in Queens, Missile Explodes in East River,” “Three Castro Foes Arrested in Firing Of Bazooka at U.N.” and “Bazooka hearing is set for Jan. 6; 3 Cuban Suspects Called ‘Cooperative’ in Court.”

The first article reports: “A single shell from the bazooka, a portable rocket launcher used by the Army, arced across the river from Queens and fell harmlessly about 200 yards from shore. The blast sent up a geyser of water and rattled windows in the headquarters just as Major Guevara, Havana’s Minister of Industry, was denouncing the United States. [...] Later, strolling through the delegates’ lounge in his green fatigue uniform and highly polished black boots, he said, with a languid wave of his cigar, that the explosion ‘has given the whole thing more flavor.’ But the police saw no humor in the incident. Had the rocket shell crashed against the glass-and‐concrete facade of the headquarters building, there would almost certainly have been casualties.” The weapon was identified as U.S. made. The “three Castro foes” of the second headline were members of the Cuban Nationalist Association, although the director of the group claimed to have no knowledge of the events. At their hearing, “Assistant District Attorney Edward N. Herman told the court, ‘Regardless of where one’s sympathies may lie…the United Nations is here in the City of New York, our guests if you will, and they have the right, I think, not to have bazookas fired at them.’”

FBI Report, December 5, 1966. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

FBI Report, NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

FBI Report, NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

Also included in the manila envelope were two pieces from the newspaper El Tiempo. The first was a Spanish-language article condemning Playboy, dated October 25, 1966 and entitled “Una Infamia de ‘Playboy’: ‘El Trópico de Cuba’” (English: “A Disgrace from ‘Playboy’: ‘Tropic of Cuba.’”

El Tiempo, October 25, 1966. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

El Tiempo, 1966. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

The second was a photocopy of an undated English-language article entitled “The Playboy Incident.” “No one sympathizes more with the anti-Castro Cubans than EL TIEMPO,” it begins. “In fact, many now in the picket lines against Castro, were in 1959 picketing the editor of EL TIEMPO at his home and his office, because he said Fidel Castro was a Communist and deserved no support from this country.” Having established the publication’s bona fides, it continues, “But we cannot understand the fanatics who get out of hand, who make use of an article in EL TIEMPO to commit crimes and wreak violence.”  The article makes the points––not in this order––that the Playboy Club is a separate entity from the magazine, that the author of the offending article and the editor of Playboy had already both issued a public apology, and that “on careful reading, not one of the women with whom [the author] claims to have been intimate were Cuban. They were all foreigners living in Cuba.” Finally, the author exposes and repudiates the (alleged) plan to attack the club: “What the public did not know––and what we are revealing here for the first time is a result of the insidious rumours to the effect that EL TIEMPO, ‘sold out’ to the Playboy magazine: some hot-headed Cubans were planning to set off a bomb at the Playboy Club––which could have cost many innocent lives, including anti-Castro Cuban employees of the club itself.”

Playboy memo, December 6, 1966. NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

NYPD Intelligence Records, NYC Municipal Archives.

Anticipating more controversy ahead of the publication of an interview with Fidel Castro in the January 1967 issue, Playboy Club co-owner Arnold Morton sent out a memo on December 6 in which he reminded his staff of the journalistic context behind this and other controversial interviews (“If you read Playboy regularly, I am sure you are aware of the wide range of personalities and subjects it deals with in each issue”) and rallies them to a defense of the brand’s core values (“This Castro interview may meet with strong reaction too, but Playboy Magazine has always believed in the right of groups or individuals to disagree. It is for this reason that the magazine often serves as a forum for persons and viewpoints that would otherwise never be published in a mass magazine”). With respect to the original “Tropic of Cuba” controversy, he quotes an apology from the article’s writer Pietro Di Donato: “At no point was it my intention to insult or defame the wonderful people of Cuba. As a man of 100% Latin origin, I have long been sympathetic with the plight of the Cuban people.” It should be noted however that this pan-Latin camaraderie was not shared by the author of the critical El Tiempo article, Miguel Angel Martin, who refers to Di Donato throughout as an “‘escritor’ ítalo-americano” (“Italian-American ‘writer’”).

In addition to the above typewritten reports and periodicals, the folder created by the Bureau of Special Services held a piece of paper covered in handwritten notes relating to the investigation. The sheet includes phrases like “Lee Lockwood, author of article, works with Cuban Mission,” the names of the Puerto Rican independence activist Juan Brás and El Tiempo editor Stanley Ross connected by arrows to the word “fight,” and my favorite, if I am reading it correctly: “4 plans to dynamite––none came off.”

NYC Undercover

This week, For the Record highlights two exceptional opportunities to experience innovative interpretations of archival material. Both make use of historical New York Police Department (NYPD) surveillance films from the Municipal Archives collection.

The first is the annual Photoville festival where the Municipal Archives has debuted “NYC Undercover: Post-War Sound and Vision from NYPD Surveillance and WNYC Radio” a film exhibit combining historic NYPD silent surveillance films from the 1960s and 70s, with vintage WNYC radio broadcasts.

Spring Mobilization Committee March, April 15, 1967. NYPD Special Investigations Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. The Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (later called the National Mobilization Committee) organized some of the first large-scale protests of the war in 1967.

DORIS archivist Chris Nicols created NYC Undercover using video from various events and WNYC radio broadcasts. The end results include ticker-tape parades for the Gemini III and Apollo 11 astronauts paired with an interview with legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson, who expressed his view that the astronauts were heroes, as well as an NAACP and Congress for Racial Equality protest in Southeast Queens matched with audio from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech to the City Council after winning the Nobel Prize, and more.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (third from right), Andrew Young (1), Bernard Scott Lee (2) and other supporters in the Spring Mobilization march near the Hotel St. Moritz, Central Park South and 6th Avenue, April 15, 1967. NYPD Special Investigations Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The NYPD surveillance films had been originally created by the Bureau of Special Services and Investigations (BOSSI) between 1960 and 1980. During their heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, BOSSI gathered information on individuals and groups arrayed along the political spectrum, but particularly civil rights, anti-war and feminist activists.

Nicols selected the audio from the Archives’ collection of broadcasts recorded by the municipal radio station, WNYC. Launched in 1924, reporters from the city-owned station turned up at events for more than seven decades, recording everyone from news announcers, musicians, and celebrities, athletes, poets and politicians. In 1996 the radio station was sold by the City to the nonprofit WNYC Foundation and it will celebrate its centennial next year.

Earth Day, Union Square, April 22, 1970. NYPD Special Investigations Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. Earth Day celebrations in Union Square Park included cleanup crews composed of school children and community members. Con Edison, often criticized for their environmental policies, donated brooms, mops, and other supplies for the cause. Other events in the park included Frisbee games and a massive plastic bubble filled with “fresh air.”

NYC Undercover will be on display through Sunday, June 18 at the Emily Warren Roebling Plaza in Brooklyn Bridge Park, from 12-6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 12-8 p.m. Friday through Sunday. For more information, visit https://photoville.nyc.

The second opportunity also makes use of historic NYPD surveillance films. On June 16, 2023, Department of Records and Information Services’ Public Artist in Residence, Kameron Neal, will debut Down the Barrel (Of A Lens). The screening will take place at the Brooklyn Army Terminal’s Annex Building. The program is free and will run from June 16, through June 18, 2023. More information and RSVP is available here.

During Neal’s residency at DORIS he examined the digitized NYPD surveillance footage from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. As noted above, the films capture a turbulent time in the City’s history. Mostly shot by plainclothes officers from 1960-1980, Neal’s interpretation focuses on a constellation of moments in the film collection when people stopped to look back directly into the camera lens; acknowledging they were being surveilled. 

Columbia students climb a barricade during protest, May 21, 1968. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. In the Spring of 1968, student protests broke out at Columbia over links with the Department of Defense and plans to build a gymnasium in Morningside Park. Students occupied several buildings.

Designed as a two-channel film installation, one channel contains footage of civilians looking directly into the camera, while the other creates an abstracted portrait of the NYPD through jittery shots of their shadows, trench coats, and shoes. The two channels face one another as a symbolic reimagining of these police encounters.

The Public Artist in Residence (PAIR) program is a municipal residency run by the Department of Cultural Affairs that embeds artists in city government to propose and implement creative solutions to pressing civic challenges. 

While both exhibits use some of the same film, the resulting projects are vastly different and illustrate how these rich collections can be used in creative pursuits. 

Policewomen

The history of women in the New York City Police Department is long and heroic. Female officers had to fight for the right to stand shoulder to shoulder with their male colleagues. In honor of Women’s History Month, For the Record celebrates two trailblazers for women’s equality within the ranks of the NYPD. The story of how officers Felicia Shpritzer and Gertrude Schimmel broke through the glass ceiling by demanding the right for women to earn a promotion is one of determination and grit that still has the power to inspire more than sixty years after they took their first stand.

Brief History of Women and the NYPD

Letter from NYPD clerk to Mayor Hugh Grant, regarding Mary Dolan, May 28, 1891. Early Mayor’s Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

In 1845, at the urging of women’s social groups such as The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the New York Police Department hired women as police matrons to improve the treatment of females and children in police custody. In 1888, State legislation permitted female police matrons to work in station houses. New York City hired the first four matrons in 1891.

By the early 1900s, some matrons were allowed to work with the detective squads and conduct undercover investigations. Unlike their male counterparts who could be promoted to the detective squad and were paid $2,500 annually, women could not advance past the matron rank, at a salary of $1,000 per year. In 1912, Isabella Goodwin, a matron for more than ten years, finally earned the title of first-grade detective after her undercover work to crack the case of Eddie “the Boob” Kinsman and the Taxi Cab Bandits. She was the first woman in the United States to hold such rank.

Unidentified plainclothes detective and Det. Isabella Goodwin, ca. 1915. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Unidentified police matron, most likely in the Women’s Motor Corp, ca. 1918. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

During World War I, the Police Department established a non-civil service Women’s Police Reserve. On May 16, 1918, nearly 5,000 volunteers arrived at Speedway Park in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, to begin their training. The Department’s 1918 annual report stated that the women were tasked with “discovering unlawful conditions, teaching patriotism and aiding in the Americanization of the alien element of our city, reporting conditions of disloyalty and sedition and aiding the weak.”

Drilling the Women’s Police Reserve for an emergency, ca. 1918. NYPD Annual Report, 1918, NYC Municipal Library.

Instructing members of the Women’s Motor Corps in the use of the fire arm, ca. 1918. NYPD Annual Report, 1918, NYC Municipal Library.

NYPD Women’s Ambulance Corps, ca. 1918. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The 1920s and '30s saw the introduction of the first Black women to the department, the formation of a short-lived Women’s Police Precinct, and later, the Women’s Bureau where most female officers would be stationed until it was abolished in 1972.

During the latter half of the 1930s, opportunities for women improved. Men and women could not train together in police academy classes until 1958, but beginning in 1934, they could participate in pistol practice with male trainees. In 1938, the Department administered the first civil-service exam for the title “Policewoman.” In addition to passing the exam, female candidates were required to hold a college degree while men only needed the exam and a high school diploma or proof of military service.

Probationary Policewomen taking oath of office at Headquarters, March 9, 1939. Municipal Archives Collection.

From left: Detective Mary Sullivan, Mayor LaGuardia, and Paul J. Kern of the Civil Service Commission watch as NYPD Commissioner Valentine addresses a room of probationary policewomen and men at headquarters, March 9, 1939. Municipal Archives Collection.

Twenty Policewomen graduates salute at City Hall Plaza (in pouring rain), April 1939. Municipal Archives Collection. Policewomen were issued a black shoulder bag filled with their gun as well as a tube of red lipstick and powder compact. (Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia is quoted as saying “Use the gun as you would your lipstick, don’t overdo either one.”)

The Glass Ceiling Breakers

Gertrude Schimmel and Felicia Shpritzer began their training with the NYPD in 1940 and 1942, respectively, with Schimmel earning the prestigious Police Inspector’s Trophy for excellence in her class at the academy. Like most women, after graduating Schimmel and Shpritzer were assigned to the Bureau of Policewomen. In their early years with the department, both women worked in the Juvenile Aid Division, which found temporary shelter for children whose parents were unable to care for them. At that time, female officers could not be promoted above the entry-level post of policewoman, or go out on patrol; most women could expect to spend their entire career working in an office setting at the Bureau.

Swearing-in of Probationary Policewomen at Court of Peace, World’s Fair, June 1940. Municipal Archives Collection.

Mayor LaGuardia shaking hands with Probationary Policewoman Gertrude Schimmel, winner of the Chief Inspector’s Trophy, Madison Square Garden, September 26, 1940. Mayor LaGuardia Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Female cadet demonstrating self-defense techniques at the Police Academy show at the New York World’s Fair, June 28, 1940. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Felicia Shpritzer had served almost 20 years as a policewoman in 1961 when she and five other women applied to take the promotion test for sergeant. They knew the exam was not officially open to policewomen. Two weeks before the test was held, all six women’s applications were rejected. Despite their years of service, Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy maintained that women lacked the physical strength and endurance to be sergeants.

Shpritzer sued the city’s Department of Personnel, arguing that to deny policewomen the opportunity to become sergeants was “discriminatory, archaic and illegal.” Taking the battle all the way to the New York State Court of Appeals, Shpritzer won the case in June 1963. As a result, 126 policewomen took the sergeant’s exam for the first time in April 1964. After the exam, Policewoman Shpritzer told the New York Times, “Pass or fail, I will never regret having made the opportunity available to women.” Of the test-takers, only Shpritzer and Gertrude Schimmel passed. They became New York City’s first two female sergeants on March 13, 1965.

In their new roles, the sergeants alternated supervising about 160 policewomen. In an article titled “The Police Give In, Name Two Women Sergeants,” the New York Times quoted Commissioner Murphy as saying “This day marks a significant milestone in our department’s history—the emergence of our policewomen from our ranks. For the first time two of our policewomen will wear three stripes. We welcome them and wish them well.” The article concluded by stating that no policemen would be supervised by women.

The two women didn’t stop there. In 1966 they took and passed the lieutenant’s exam and were promoted the following year. Felicia Shpritzer would remain in the title until she retired in 1977, while Gertrude Schimmel continued to make gains for women’s equality in the NYPD. On August 26, 1971, the 51st anniversary of women’s suffrage, Gertrude Schimmel became the department’s first female captain. At her swearing-in ceremony, Schimmel stated that it was Felicia Shpritzer who won the landmark case and that she should be the one receiving the praise.

In her new position, Schimmel helped lay the groundwork for assigning women to street patrols and radio cars. Again, there was pushback on expanding the roles of female officers. This time, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and wives of some officers maintained that women were not capable of providing adequate backup for their male partners. Schimmel, now in a command position would have none of it. When she spoke to the Times in November 1974, she said “nothing is factual, it’s all emotional.”

In 1978, Gertrude Schimmel was promoted to deputy chief and served as commander of the Community Affairs unit until she retired in 1981. When she left, she expressed no regrets, but did wish that she had been able to take part in the kind of police work that has become routine for women today. She said that she “never answered a call on the radio and ran up five flights of stairs and called the ambulance. When I was starting in the department, women didn’t do that. And by the time they did it, I was already promoted. I’m sorry I missed that, but you can’t have everything, right?”

The Alien Squad

The Municipal Archives collection of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s papers includes a series, titled Public Meetings. It contains reports from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) on public meetings between 1940 and 1945. The bulk of the reports date from 1941 and 1942. Like the records in the NYPD Special Investigations Unit (a.k.a.) Handschu Collection in the Municipal Archives, these reports offer a glimpse into the activities of New Yorkers across the political spectrum.  

Memorandum, December 12, 1940, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The reports were created by precinct-based officers and those in the so-called “Alien Squad” within the Bureau of Operations. Reports of upcoming events were also sent to Mayor LaGuardia’s secretaries, indicating that City Hall was keeping a keen eye on political gatherings. A summary of meetings reported that there were 866 meetings resulting in 23 arrests between January and September 30, 1941, in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.  

Some years ago, the Municipal Archives offered an exhibit, Unlikely Historians, that provided access to materials gathered in the 1960s and 1970s by undercover NYPD officers. The Alien Squad monitored people and events perceived to be left or right of the center. Based on the LaGuardia records, that appears to have been the case in the 1940s. There are reports about a broad array of organizations: several different Communist Party groups; labor unions; the America First party opposing any intervention in World War II; the American Appeals Forum with the opposite viewpoint which supported “Americanism vs. All other Isms;” the Committee to Defend America supporting the Allies; organizations supporting President Roosevelt; one group of Italians supporting the war effort and another opposing Italian soldiers in the Allied army killing Italian soldiers under Mussolini’s command; the American West Indian Association opposing racism; and more.

German American Bund rally, Madison Square Garden, February 20, 1939. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

German American Bund rally, Madison Square Garden, February 20, 1939. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mostly, the reports record the date, name of the officer making the report, the name and address of the organization, location of the meeting, the speakers, number of attendees, topic discussed and whether there was disorder or arrests. One exception seems to be reports of meetings of the German Bund, which go into more detail, all of which seems mundane. Consider this from November, 1940: “A dance ensued for which a four man band furnished the music, all members of that local. It lasted until 12:45 a.m. the following morning. There was no disturbance at any time.” Another exception is a thirteen-page memo to the Police Commissioner from October 1941 that summarized the development of the nativist Christian Front between 1938 and 1941. It differs from all other reports in its format, analysis and length.

The earliest item in the files, dated September 13, 1940, summarizes an interview that Detective Stanley Gwazdo from the Alien Squad conducted with Joseph Loeb, resident of 85th Street. The report concerned the activities of Joseph E. McWilliams and his group. McWilliams was a notorious anti-Semite who held nightly street-corner rallies filled with hateful tropes. An August, 1940 New Yorker article described him as the “handsomest and meanest-talking man ever to run for a public office.” As the leader of the American Destiny Party and a failed Congressional candidate, this former follower of nativist Father Coughlin intended “to do in the United States what Hitler has done in Germany,” according to the New York Times. 

Speaker at the meeting of Christian Mobilizers taken at Innesfield Park for the Alien Squad, September 20, 1939. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

In the report, the detective relates his advice to Mr. Loeb: freedom of speech was protected by the Constitution. “The police department, he was told, had no power to prevent any one from exercising his right of free speech and that it was up to the courts of law to decide whether that privilege was being used or misused.” The detective offered Loeb several suggestions for objecting in court to McWilliams nightly sidewalk meetings, including organizing the property owners to ask for an injunction, applying for the courts to issue a summons for violating the Public Nuisance Law, and business owners petitioning the magistrate to consider the impact of McWilliams speeches in front of their establishments. He further noted that McWilliams had been convicted of disorderly conduct and awaited sentencing for his second disorderly conduct conviction.

The New York Times reported that Magistrate Edgar Bromberger committed McWilliams “to Bellevue Hospital for ten days’ examination as to his sanity.” But McWilliams returned to the streets and public stage. In September, 1941, he was a featured speaker at a meeting at the Astoria Casino where the topic was “Praising Lindbergs (sic) speech and criticizing the New Deal and the Jews.”

America First rally at Madison Square Garden showing speaker and other persons in audience, May 23, 1941. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

September 14, 1940, was a big night for meetings and generated seven separate reports of events including a Communist Party meeting against conscription, the Socialist Labor Party discussion of Capital and Labor, the American Destiny Party meeting that included McWilliams as a speaker on “Anti Roosevelt – Anti Conscription – Protesting the delivery of U. S. destroyers to England,” the American Communist Party on “Keep America Out of War,” another Socialist Labor Party Meeting at Union Square whose topic was “No Peace Without Socialism,” as well as a pro-communist independent group at the same location that discussed “Keep America Out of War” and the Young Communist League that met at Steinway St and 31 Avenue in Queens where speakers were “against conscription.”  The Remarks section of the report noted “this meeting was becoming disorderly at 9.30 PM. and Capt. Zimms in command of the police detail broke up the meeting and dispersed the crowd at that time.” 

1941 began slowly with a January 9, 1941 report on a New Masses Forum at Webster Hall, with the chief topic being Russia’s part in the World. Initially a lefty magazine it eventually because closely tied to the Communist Party. In its heyday acclaimed writers and artists contributed work. New Masses author Joseph North who edited the magazine, chaired the meeting which also dealt with increasing the periodical’s subscriptions. There was neither disorder nor arrests.

Communist meeting at Madison Square Garden for Alien Squad, Earl Browder at podium, May 26, 1938. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Things picked up. By September 1941, police officers documented ten or more meetings some nights. Held at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Hotel Diplomat, Manhattan Center, Town Hall, as well as on street corners and in parks, many of the events attracted hundreds of attendees. A September 1941 meeting of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder held in Madison Square Garden feature attracted 21,000 people to hear Congressman Marcantonio and labor activist Elizabeth Flynn among others demand the immediate release from federal prison of Browder, the head of the Communist Party-USA. 

As late as December 4, 1941, the America First Committee was attracting thousands of people advocating to “Keep America Out of War.” After December 7, the tenor of meetings changed. Reports more likely concerned meetings “Supporting America in the Present War,” backing President Franklin D. Roosevelt and “Giving all out aid to our allies to defeat the Nazi, Japs and Fascists.”

Detective Gwazdo and a colleague reported on the March-On-Washington Movement which met at Madison Square Garden in June,1942, with 15,000 in attendance to rally “Against Negro Discrimination.” Speakers included Dr. Mary Bethune, the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. as well as the President of the Baptist Ministers Alliance and the associate editor of the Jesuit magazine, America.  

Even a meeting at which Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia promoted the sale of war bonds is recorded as a meeting “protesting the atrocities against the Jews in the conquered nations by Hitler in July, 1942, attended by the Mayor, Governor Lehman and Rabbi Steven Wise.”

Report of Meeting, July 21, 1942, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The number of reports dwindled in 1942. None are filed for 1943 and only a few in 1944 and 1945. Many record meetings of the Communist Party advocating for a second front and continuing to rally around Earl Browder. Other meetings are labor rallies and events opposing racism. 

Detective Gwazdo filed the final report in the series on December 10, 1945, months after the end of the war. By this time, he had moved to the Public Relations Squad from the Alien Squad. The Seaman’s Club of the Communist Party NM and the Chelsea Club of the Communist Party held a “Memorial to Pearl Harbor and Merchant Seamen who died there” on December 10, 1945. No disorder: No arrests.

Historic District Attorney Records Capture Policewomen’s Undercover Exploits

Amongst the historical records of the New York (Manhattan) District Attorney’s office held at the Municipal Archives are the indictment files from 1916 to 1925 relating to a range of felonies; abandonment, assault, burglary, forgery, murder, rape, and numerous other criminal offenses. Some files hold only an affidavit, listing the circumstances of the case and demographics of the arrestee on bright blue card. Others consist of hundreds of pages of typed witness testimony, handwritten letters from the accused, postmarked lawyerly correspondence, notes scrawled by the district attorney, and—in one case I encountered—physical evidence from the crime scene. As such, the collection captures the work of a variety of public and private organizations, in addition to the voices of New Yorkers from all sections of society.

Curious about the history of gender and healthcare, I consulted files relating to abortion, which was illegal in New York State between 1829 and 1970. I had hoped that these records might tell me about the lives of the women that sought abortions one hundred years ago and how they came to be entangled in the criminal justice system.  

Affidavit listing the “deponent” as police officer Brady and the circumstances of the investigation, Ada Brady v Mollie Weiser. NYDA Closed Case Files, 1917. NYC Municipal Archives.

When scrutinizing these affidavits, I noticed the same name—“Ada Brady”—repeated as the “deponent” in a number of cases in the Spring of 1917. This surprised me. We might expect the same “defendant,” accused of performing an abortion, to reappear as practitioners were arrested, released, and then rearrested. However, it seemed unusual for a woman to give evidence for having abortions on multiple occasions within a matter of months. Upon closer inspection, it emerged that Ada Brady was in fact a police officer, a member of the New York Police Department’s first generation of female investigators. Officer Brady approached suspected practitioners and pretended to be pregnant in order to furnish the evidence for prosecution.

Abortionists office, 1927, NYPD Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Abortionists office, 1927, NYPD Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Women entered the New York City police force in the 1890s to work as ‘matrons,’ assigned to manage female arrestees and maintain the stationhouse environment. These women worked long shifts during the day and overnight completing this laborious work. Because of this, matrons tended to be working-class women and often widows. By the 1910s, a number of ambitious matrons—including Ada Brady and Isabella Goodwin, who would later become the first female detective in the United States—had begun to assist male colleagues on investigations by going undercover. They specialized in cases affecting women, such as fortune tellers, irregular medical practitioners, and confidence tricksters.

Defendant Mollie Wieser’s plea statement. Ada Brady v. Mollie Wieser. NYDA Closed Case Files, 1917. NYC Municipal Archives.

In 1913, a team of matrons-turned-detectives formed “Special Squad Number Two” to investigate vice, under the direction of Lieutenant “Honest Dan” Costigan. For these female officers, abortion cases led to newspaper renown, promotions, and honor roll commendations. But policewomen were also vulnerable to exploitation within the male world of policing. To reach the evidentiary bar of intent, plainclothes policewoman underwent a pelvic exam, as the affidavit reported “[the defendant] then inserted into the deponent’s private parts a speculum.” File after file relayed this same practice. In abortion investigations a female police officer submitted to this intimate, invasive procedure in the line of duty.

Not only did abortion investigations implicate their bodies, but lawyers and judges in the Court of General Sessions trials questioned policewomen’s personal reputations; whether they were married, how many children they had, and their character. The first woman to serve as Deputy Police Commissioner, Ellen O’Grady, described the practice as “dangerous and…degrading,” as “the female representing the Police Department was forced to voluntarily participate in the commission of a crime, and became, consequently, an accessory.” 

Policewomen’s work also affected more marginalized women. Few abortion investigations targeted the affluent white doctors and their elite clientele, but rather, police focused on midwives from central, southern, and eastern Europe. Practitioners like Mollie Wieser are typical; an Austrian midwife, she provided crucial healthcare for New York’s working-class, immigrant populations. Even though most midwives avoided prison, they endured lengthy investigations, fines, equipment seizures, and news of their arrest splashed across the thriving daily press.

Letter from defendant Elizabeth Bayer to District Attorney Edward Swann, NYDA Closed Case Files, 1917. NYC Municipal Archives

Midwives did not accept the state’s efforts to criminalize their practice, however. Elizabeth Bayer, a sixty-nine-year-old German midwife accused of abortion by Ada Brady, wrote to the District Attorney protesting her innocence. She explained that she was “33 years a midwife with a perfect record and could not have possibly committed the crime.” Attempting to use the legal system to her advantage, she offered to “waive immunity” to appear before the grand jury and “tell them my story.” Alongside narratives of police control, we hear the voices of resistance. 

As part of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, the Municipal Archives indexed and re-housed more than 41,000 indictment files dating from 1916 to 1925. The histories of policewomen’s undercover abortion investigations were captured in just 34 of these files. Without a doubt, the collection contains further lessons about how power, policing, and punishment operated in the early-twentieth-century metropole. The importance of these perspectives is evident in Dr. Mara Keire’s current research project, Under the Boardwalk: Rape in New York, 1900-1930, that draws upon an examination of more than two-thousand rape indictments. These files record the lives of marginalized populations, often silenced in the historical record. Poor New Yorkers, women, immigrants, queer residents, and people of color, whose lives might have evaded contemporary published material but whose voices appear—albeit refracted through the judicial system—in these archives.

Elizabeth Evens is a PhD candidate at University College London, U.K., where she researches the regulatory work of the first women in medicine and law enforcement.

The Municipal Archives collections of records pertaining to the administration of criminal justice constitute one of the most extensive research resources on the subject in North America. They currently total more than 20,000 cubic feet, and date from 1684 through 1980s. Major series include: Minutes of the New York Court of General Sessions, 1684-1920; Felony (a.k.a. New York District Attorney) indictments, 1790-1895; Dismissed New York felony indictments, 1844-1900; New York District Attorney Closed Case files, 1896-1984; Police and Magistrate Court docket books (all Boroughs), 1790-1949; New York District Attorney’s newspaper clipping scrapbooks, 1881-1937; New York District Attorney's official correspondence (letter press volumes), 1881-1937.