Howe and Hummel: Their True and Scandalous History

In its day, the firm of Howe & Hummel was the most successful – and notorious – criminal law office in the city of New York. Between 1869, when it was organized, and 1907, when the district attorney put it out of business, the firm defended more than a thousand people indicted for murder or manslaughter and seemed to have a monopoly on the rest of the criminal business in New York, as well. Howe and Hummel were also preeminent among divorce lawyers and theatrical lawyers, representing such figures as P. T. Barnum, Edwin Booth, John Barrymore, and Lillie Langtry.
When John L. Sullivan and Alf Greenfield were indicted for “fighting without weapons” in Madison Square Garden, Howe and Hummel won their acquittal. Mother Mandelbaum, the queen of New York’s underworld and chief American fence, paid them a hefty yearly retainer to defend her and her stable of thieves. Charles O. Brockway, a counterfeiter so adept that he once caused the United States Treasury to withdraw a batch of $100 bills, engaged them in his defense. Whenever Lillian Russell wanted a new husband, Howe and Hummel were the lawyers who freed her from the old one. They could find, as Richard Rovere writes, “loopholes large enough for convicted murderers to walk through standing up.”
Howe & Hummel tells the story of this raffish pair, their famous and infamous clients, and their bold methods of operation. It was a bestseller when it first appeared in 1947, and this new edition – introduced by Calvin Trillin – is sure to delight a new generation of readers.