Bowery by Stephen DeVillo

Author:Stephen DeVillo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2017-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

What finally put McGurk’s on the cheese was the series of deaths that earned it the nickname of “McGurk’s Suicide Hall.” How many died there is not known, but about fifty suicides in the space of its five-year career is a fair estimate. Although not actually a brothel as many people believed, the upper three floors of the building were rented out by McGurk to small-time pimps for use as a “crib,” where they housed their exploited streetwalking prostitutes. This was the lowest and most brutal form of prostitution, one that quickly left its victims burned out mentally and physically. “There are very rough people that go to McGurk’s,” one of these women, Emma Hartig, would later testify to the investigating Mazet Committee, “Very rough men indeed … some of the girls live over McGurk’s…. There are quite a number of such men hanging around McGurk’s saloon and watching the girls and making them work for them.”

Some of these women, at the end of their rope after three or four years on the street, chose to end their lives where their downfall had begun by taking poison with their beer in the downstairs saloon at McGurk’s. It isn’t known exactly how many suicide attempts, successful or otherwise, took place at McGurk’s, but the ongoing suicide epidemic soon became well-known on the street, and the resulting notoriety drew even more patrons. A few men also made their way to McGurk’s to take their fatal swallow.

While not entirely unhappy with the increased business, McGurk was nervous about the legal implications of the suicides raging out of control under his very nose. Knockout drops had caused him enough trouble when he was at 267 Bowery, and this was far more serious. Inquiring reporters were summarily ejected from the establishment after hearing McGurk vehemently deny that he had ever encouraged either prostitution or the suicides. McManus and Charlie soon had their instructions. They kept a sharp eye on the crowd, and if they spotted anyone either taking poison or nodding off they would organize the waiters and bouncers into a squad, roughly snatch her up, and make straight for the door, where they would unceremoniously drop the dying girl on the sidewalk. That way, anyone who died didn’t do it in McGurk’s establishment, and whatever happened on the sidewalk outside was no concern of his.

It didn’t work perfectly, however, and like many of its erstwhile patrons, McGurk’s Suicide Hall was doomed to a short life. The young Emma Hartig survived her suicide attempt in 1899, and was called to testify before the Mazet Committee investigating the various corruptions of New York City. Hartig’s testimony shone an uncomfortable light on both street prostitution trafficking and McGurk’s. “The police never arrested me before I took the poison,” she told them. “I was one of the girls that got tired and took poison, at McGurk’s, and then of course I was arrested, and that resulted in my changing my life.”

It changed McGurk’s life also. Prodded by another

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