Searching Sing Sing for My
Father,
historian Robert L. Gold's original text of an article
printed in edited-down form by
The Westchester
Historian
Just three of the many interesting
elements in the 9-page web presentation:
-
Babe Ruth helping a baseball make a 620-foot
escape over a 40-foot high Sing Sing wall during an exhibition game with an
inmate team.
-
A professional historian detecting features like
his father's in the shadowy face of a player in a prisoners team
photo among Warden Lewis E. Lawes' papers in John Jay College of
Criminal Justice Lloyd Sealy
Library.
-
His tracking down particulars
on the 1924 Bronx prosecution of his dad for robbery, his father having been
arrested fleeing the scene of the last in a string of drug store
holdups, attempting the getaway in a hired
taxi.
The Searching Sing Sing for My Father web
presentation, illustrated with more than three dozen images, is accessible
by clicking the Babe Ruth-at-bat/Sing Sing Prison bars icon near the top
of the home page of the NYCHS site at www.correctionhistory.org
This very readable account of Dr. Gold's late-in-life
discovery of and research into his father's secret
past reveals the real challenges that even a professional
historian encounters when embarked upon unraveling hidden family
history.
Dr. Gold has taught history at universities in Illinois, Michigan,
Florida and Mexico. He also taught inmates at four prisons in Illinois. His
professional career has included service as a museum executive director, an
editor of historical journals, and leadership in educational conferences
and councils.
His extensive published writings have explored, among
other subjects, the histories of Florida and Ecuador. His
article, "Babe Ruth at Sing Sing Prison: The Story of the 620 Foot
Homerun," is to appear in The National Pastime (a publication of
the Society for American Baseball Research) in June, 2004. In the fall, he will
deliver a talk at the Ossining Public Library on "Alabama Pitts, Sing Sing's
Star Athlete."