Five Great Books About Sing Sing
David Goewey, an Ossining native, is the author of Crash Out: The True Tale of a Hell's Kitchen Kid & The Bloodiest Escape in Sing Sing History (Crown, 2005) and will speak at the Library Feb. 15
David is a great fan of the The
Ossining Historical Society and Museum.
- Twenty-thousand Years in Sing Sing by Lewis E. Lawes (Long & Smith 1933)
Two parts life-behind-bars memoir, one part sociological treatise. It reads a bit dated today, but in its time this bestseller by Sing Sing’s most famous warden was made into a hit radio drama and then a classic crime picture starring Spencer Tracy.
- Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover (Random House 2000).
The contemporary classic by a journalist who went undercover as a Sing Sing officer and lived to write about it. Eye-opening and deserving of all its praise.
- Miracle at Sing Sing: How One Man Transformed the Lives of America’s Most
Dangerous Prisoners by Ralph Blumenthal. (St. Martin’s 2004)
Fascinating and extremely well-researched, this Lawes biography brings the multi-talented warden to life.
- Condemned: Inside the Sing Sing Death House by Scott Christianson (NYU 2000).
An off-beat work comprised of painfully intimate details, including photographs of the condemned, menus of last meals, and hand-written letters pleading mercy. It will send shivers down the spine of the most jaded reader.
- Where the Money Was: The Memoirs of a Bank Robber
by Willie Sutton, with Edward Linn (Viking 1976).
While technically not a &lquot;Sing Sing book,&rquot; master-thief Sutton’s description of his time at the prison-- and his infamous escape from it-- is told in snappy wise-guy style. Terrific fun.
For more Sing Sing history, see the website of New York Correction History Society .