Hanging Henry Gambrill: The Violent Career of Baltimore's Plug Uglies, 1854–1860

by Tracy Matthew Melton

Street gangs were rampant in the 1850s and nowhere more than Baltimore. Tracy Melton has gone back to the newspapers, court records and every conceivable original source to recreate this colorful period. Some of it is violent and grisly, but the reader also gets descriptions of clothing and everyday life of gang members, etc. And finally we have the spectacle of four men on the gallows in the jail yard (a yard still visible from I-83 North off Centre Street) with all appeals exhausted, singing a farewell song to 15,000 spectators on a blustery cold, gray April day. Street gangs were rampant in the 1850s and nowhere more than Baltimore. Tracy Melton has gone back to the newspapers, court records and every conceivable original source to recreate this colorful period. Some of it is violent and grisly, but the reader also gets descriptions of clothing and everyday life of gang members, etc. And finally we have the spectacle of four men on the gallows in the jail yard (a yard still visible from I-83 North off Centre Street) with all appeals exhausted, singing a farewell song to 15,000 spectators on a blustery cold, gray April day.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

508 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2004

Reviews

[Zeb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big, detailed and colorful history of street gangs in old Baltimore, filled with enough details of places and locations to make me want to head downtown and walk the streets described. Murders, assaults, election day riots involving gangs like the Plug Uglies, Rip Raps, Tigers, Double Pumps, and Calithumpian; corrupt police, patronage judges and prosecuters all add to the atmosphere. Great material for a victorian street gang skirmish game.

[Tomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of promise - I knew nothing about the Plug Uglies or the violence in Baltimore during elections, so I looked forward to reading it. Unfortunately, it is so poorly written that it barely rates two stars. It reads like something written by a child. The author needs to study one of the main rules of grammar - pronouns need clear antecedents!!! Melton names three men, and then says "he" - which he? I want to read, not parse sentences!!! He talks about too many people as well; I couldn't keep everybody straight. The information was interesting, but I would have learned as much (and been less frustrated) from reading a Wikipedia article.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fact based book that mostly reads as a listing of facts. I enjoyed it because it gave a good glimpse of Baltimore in the 1850s and the gangs that really controlled the streets. I loved reading a passage and then going to the inside cover to view the map and see where things happened.