George Appo’s Autobiography

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Table of Contents

Appo’s Life
Why Appo Became a Criminal
Why Appo Wrote His Autobiography
Appo’s Solutions for Prison Reform
References

Appo’s Life

In his memoirs, George Appo made startling revelations about his criminal life and NYC’s criminal underworld in the 19^th Century. Born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1858, Appo’s early exposure to crime and drug abuse in Manhattan turned him into an accomplished pick pocket and a swindler.

Appo’s father, Lee Ah Bow, was an immigrant from China, whose violent outbursts saw him in prison for murdering his landlord after a protracted argument (Appo 2000). Around the same time, Appo’s mother and sister perished after their California-bound ship was destroyed by a storm.

At age three, Appo found himself destitute. A poor family residing in Donovan’s Lane, a crime-ridden street in Manhattan, accepted to adopt him. Appo describes the Five Points area in Donovan Lane as a multi-cultural, overpopulated and impoverished neighborhood in NYC (2000).

While growing in Donovan’s Lane, Appo learnt to steal from unsuspecting people. He joined criminal gangs, and begun abusing drugs (opium) and alcohol. All through his life Appo embraced the ethics of a “good fellow” by being generous to his underworld friends in the opium dens and “dives” he patronized (Appo 2000, p. 4).

It is at this point that Appo began his pick pocketing and prison stints at various prisons. In 1891, Appo joined a con game called the “green goods game”, which was very lucrative (Appo 2000, p. 3). It is while participating in this lucrative game that a victim shot him in the face. As a result, he became partially blind after losing an eye.

Appo was tried and imprisoned at different institutions for his crimes, but “never howled for the police for satisfaction in the courts” when wronged (Appo 2000, p. 8). At the ‘Sing Sing’ prison, where he served most of his sentences, Appo describes the brutality and torture he and the other convicts experienced at the hands of the guards.

He lost his teeth and had several scars on his body because of the beatings. His numerous trials and prison stints brought him a lot of notoriety and fame. In his autobiography, Appo gives insights into the corruption and brutality that characterized the prison system.

After his reform, Appo advocated for an overhaul of the justice system as one step towards ending corruption in prisons. His revelations to the Lexow Committee regarding graft that dogged the American justice system underscore his stance towards the American justice system.

Why Appo Became a Criminal

Appo, at a tender age of 3, was forced to live with a poor foster family, named Allen, after his father was imprisoned and his mother killed in a shipwrecking incident. His foster family resided in Donovan’s Lane (Five Points), an area inhabited by “poor people of all nationalities” (Appo 2000, p. 7).

The area where Appo spent his childhood was densely populated and crime-ridden, which exposed him to other delinquents at an early age. He started picking other people’s pockets in this neighborhood at age 15. Thus, the neighborhood’s multi-cultural nature, drug (opium) use in saloons and crime-driven economy influenced Appo’s criminal activities.

As Appo writes, as a newspaper vendor, he “learned how to pick pocket” from “two boys who always well dressed and had plenty of money” (2000, p. 5). Thus, the deplorable social conditions of this notorious neighborhood propelled Appo into opium abuse, heavy drinking and crime.

Appo’s memoirs give insights into the social differentiation apparent in the 19^th Century American society. Notorious neighborhoods such as Donovan’s Lane were inhabited by immigrants of all cultures and the “all Chinamen of the city lived” in the Lane (Appo 2000).

According to Stephen (2007), race, in the 19^th Century, influenced relationships, identity formation and social inequalities that defined the American society. The people’s lives and relationships were influenced by hierarchies such as gender, class and racial backgrounds.

The upper class white families lived in mansions while the poor immigrant communities lived in over-crowded neighborhoods in cities such as New York. The effects of the social exclusion emerge in Appo’s autobiography as crime and drug abuse.

Though Appo did not represent any particular social hierarchy, his childhood encounters with his compatriots portray the alienation that was present in the American society. Appo portrays the 19^th Century urban neighborhoods as poor and lawless, which allowed the underworld to thrive.

He narrates how corrective institutions, including the Sing Sing, Blackwell Island and the Eastern Penitentiary were crippled by corruption (Appo 2000). Police corruption and the social hierarchies in NYC, allowed crime and drug (opium) abuse to thrive in neighborhoods inhabited by immigrant communities.

Why Appo Wrote His Autobiography

Appo, in his memoirs, exposes the widespread drug abuse by the immigrant communities, the organized crime in NYC, the brutal prison punishment, the deep-rooted graft in prisons, and the attempts of a congressional committee to fight this vice (Appo 2000).

In this way, Appo criticizes the American society’s attitude towards corruption, crime, justice system and drug (opium) abuse. Gilfoyle (2006) describes Appo as being “cognizant of the prison aristocracy, privileged inmates and the inmate economy” (p. 67) because of the many years he spent in prison.

Furthermore, Appo (2000) narrates of the thriving trade in contraband goods and the corrupt and inefficient guards. This shows that the prison warders and administrators at prisoners such as Sing Sing were poorly trained as some were illiterate and relied on inmates for information.

Appo also criticizes the organization of the inmate work programs. Private contractors paid prison administrators to get access to ‘cheap inmate labor’ for their factories and businesses (Appo 2000). Although the inmates acquired new skills such as hat-making (Sing Sing) through this program, it was “impossible” to find a job outside prison where one can apply such skills (Appo 2000, p. 9).

As a result, many ex-convicts went back to crime, which made rehabilitation of prisoners difficult. For instance, Appo’s “efforts to go straight by setting up an express business with Tom Lee” was rather short-lived because he could not find a stable job (Gilfoyle, 2006, p. 308). For this reason, Appo went back to crime (pocket picking and ‘green goods’ swindle).

The Long Depression (1873-1878) led to a decline in social welfare and massive unemployment due to decline in consumer prices (Stephen 2007). This increased in corruption in public institutions, promoted crime and stimulated the growth of neighborhoods in major cities.

Appo’s Solutions for Prison Reform

Appo mentions that reforming the convicts cannot be achieved through “brutality and tyrannical discipline”, but a “kindly act from any person of influence” can help reform the convicts (2000, p. 8).

He notes that this approach should replace the tyrannical approach used in state penitentiaries in the U.S., which only succeeds in ‘hardening’ innocent convicts due to the inhuman punishments (Appo 2000).

Moreover, the 19^th Century justice system was dominated by “immoral tyrants” who did “all sorts of graft and practiced immorality on young innocent victims” (Stephen 2007, p. 307). Appo recommends that prison administrators should focus on rehabilitation of the convicts.

Appo also decries the “inhuman treatment and cruelty” meted on convicts (Appo 2000, p. 11). Proper training of prison keepers is another solution that Appo offers that would reform the justice system. He attributes the keepers’ brutality to lack of training and corruption.

Moreover, the placement of the keepers in the 19^th Century prisons was done “through political influence” (Appo 2000, p. 4). He implies that the penal system should be run without political influence. As Appo puts it, “the brutal discipline only makes convicts to be worse criminals”, which makes them to return back to crime (2000, p. 5).

Such brutal treatment does little to reform criminals. Instead, Appo recommends that counseling would go a long way in reforming prisoners. Moreover, an overhaul of the criminal justice system would help stem out corruption from the prisons.

Appo’s stance on prison reform won him many admirers. The Lexow Committee interviewed him to get his perspective on corruption in prisons and penitentiaries in the U.S., including the Sing Sing prison.

Also, the “Society for the Prevention of Crime”, a Christian organization, facilitated Appo’s integration into society. The organization offered him a stable job and supported him throughout his life.

Despite being labeled a dangerous criminal, the society embraced him and ensured he leads a normal life. This implies that social support and counseling can help reform and integrate prisoners into society.

On the other hand, Appo’s memoirs show that brutality and inhumane treatment do not reform convicts. Instead, inhuman treatment only turns innocent convicts into dangerous criminals.

References

Appo, G 2000, ‘The Autobiography of George Appo’, Penguin, New York.

Gilfoyle, T 2013, ‘The Urban Underworld in Late Nineteenth-Century New York: The Autobiography of George Appo with Related Documents, St. Martin’s Press, Boston.

Stephen, D 2007, ‘Review of A Pickpocket’s Tale-The Underworld of the Nineteenth Century New York’, Journal Of American History, vol. 94, no. 4, pp. 307-309.

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