The Great Taxicab Robbery: A True Detective Story

On a February afternoon in 1912, two bank messengers climbed into a Manhattan taxicab carrying $25,000 in cash. They never reached their destination. In broad daylight, on crowded downtown streets, they were ambushed by a crew of thieves with names like Dutch, Jimmy the Push, and Scotty the Lamb. The robbery stunned a city already wary of police incompetence and Tammany Hall corruption. Mayor William Gaynor, the reform-minded leader fighting to clean up New York's government, had his work cut out for him. What follows is old-school detective work at its finest: a former Pinkerton man hunting criminals through the city's underworld using psychology, deception, and relentless police work. James H. Collins, a prominent New York journalist who covered these streets, renders the chase with the intimate detail of someone who knew them well. This is a time capsule that crackles with early twentieth-century energy, a forgotten gem for readers who crave authentic historical true crime and the gritty, noir-tinged streets of old New York.