Sawing-off of Manhattan Island
The sawing-off of
The story did not appear in any known newspapers (although the press supposedly did not report on such pranks in that era) and no records have been found to confirm the existence of the individuals involved. This has led to speculation that the incident never occurred and the original report of the hoax was itself a hoax, which is the conclusion Joel Rose suggests in his book, New York Sawed in Half: An Urban Historical (2001).[2] The hoax was first documented in Thomas F. De Voe's (1811-1892) [3][4] volume The Market Book (1862), as conveyed by his uncle who was Lozier's supposed associate, and was told again in Herbert Asbury's work All Around The Town: Murder, Scandal, Riot and Mayhem in Old New York (1934, reissued as a Sequel to Gangs of New York). Another condensed retelling occurs in the 1960s Reader's Digest book, Scoundrels and Scallywags: 51 Stories of the Most Fascinating Characters of Hoax and Fraud (1968).[5][6][7]
See also
References
- ^ Asbury, Herbert (April 3, 1956). "Sawing Off Of Manhattan". The Gazette. Montreal.
- ISBN 9781582340982.
- ^ De Voe, Thomas F. De Voe (1862). The Market Book (full text online ed.). pp. 462–64.
- ^ De Voe, Thomas Farrington. Feeding America. Retrieved October 14, 2010.
- ASIN B000H35TCY.
- ^ "I Saw New York". Snopes. February 10, 2006. Retrieved April 30, 2009. (reviewing literature and concluding that original claimed event likely did not occur, and the story of the hoax is a hoax itself)
- ISBN 1-58234-098-6.
Further reading
- "The Day They Almost Sawed Off Manhattan". History Buff. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
- "Just a little spin of the land and our problem will be solved". nycap.rr.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-12.