See also: Earl Lind: The Cercle Hermaphroditos, c. 1895 link added September 5, 2020, 3:19 PM EST

Note that his/her pronouns and the name Ralph Werther/Jennie June are used throughout this article. He/she or he-she is considered a derogatory term for transgender people contemporarily and is only used here because Werther/June refers to him/herself using “he,” “him,” etc. In an effort to portray historical accuracy, but also modern thoughts about being transgender, he/she is used.

Trigger warning: much of LGBTQIA+ terminology utilized herein is considered pejorative or derogatory today and is not censored.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Ralph Werther/Jennie June Timeline (1874 – 1934)
3. Alfred Waldemar Herzog Timeline (1866 – 1933)
4. William J. and Victor Robinson Timeline (1867 – 1947)
5. Clark Bell Timeline (1832 – 1918)
6. James T. “Biff” Ellison Timeline (1861 – 1925)
7. Master Timeline (1825 – 2018)
8. Notable Terms
9. Notable Groups
10. Notable People
11. Notable Locations
12. Personal Bibliography
13. Chronological Bibliography
14. Secondary Bibliography
15. Other Resources

Introduction

Ralph Werther/Jennie June may have been one of the first transgender people to have penned an autobiographical text. However, it wouldn’t be until 1965 that Columbia psychiatrist John F. Oliven would coin the term transgender in his Sexual Hygiene and Pathology.

Werther/June’s Autobiography of an Androgyne was from a different era however. He/she refers to his/herself primarily as an androgyne, but also as a fairie (fairy), a sexual intermediate, a sexual invert, a girl-boy, and as a psychic hermaphrodite. The term androgyne dates back at least to 1387 with varied spellings like androginem, adrogumus, Androgyne, Androgyni, and Androgyna. However, usage of the term to indicate “effeminate” men or men with “feminine appearance” would occur sometime later, with a 1587 work discussing “[t]hese vile and stinking androgynes, that is to say, these men-women, with their curled locks.”

The term androgyne derives directly from the French androgyne, which in turn derives from the Latin androgynus, meaning “hermaphrodite.” This, coming from the ancient Greek ἀνδρόγυνος, with the prefix ἀνδρο- (andro-, meaning ‘male’ or ‘man’) and the suffix -γυνή (-gynous, meaning ‘female’ or ‘woman’). Werther/June uses the definition of the physical man who is psychically or spiritually female. In turn, the physical woman who is psychically female is the gynander. The gynander has a decidedly shorter linguistic history, being used to describe “short-haired women” in 1888. But it does share the same ancient Greek origins as androgyne.

Returning to Werther/June, however, several questions remain—who was he/she? He/she published several works from October 1918 until some time in 1922. Werther/June outlined nearly his/her entire life in two well-known monographs: Autobiography of an Androgyne and The Female-Impersonators. Additionally, Randall Sell found 35 manuscript pages of The Riddle of the Underworld and announced their discovery jointly with Jonathan Ned Katz, co-director of OutHistory.org, on Coming Out Day, 11 October 2010. But not much was cleared up. The mysteries only seemed to deepen. Why was this third volume which was advertised at length, never published?

Here, we aim to summarize all known information about Ralph Werther/Jennie June, in the hopes of possibly answering some of these burning questions and better shine a light on transgender history in the United States.

 

Ralph Werther/Jennie June Timeline

Ralph Werther, Jennie June, and Earl Lind were all pseudonyms used by someone in the early 20^th century to publish several autobiographical sexology manuscripts. The information provided here is based on material from these publications and may not reflect actual events.

 

1874 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June was supposedly born in a mill town in Connecticut. At least one researcher has suggested that it may have been the town of Bridgeport. He/she was the fourth of his/her mother’s eleven children.

1890 — Werther/June made his/her secret known to his/her “family physician” and like “most physicians… he did not understand the deepseated character of my perversion.”

1891, September — Ralph Werther/Jennie June claims to be a freshman at a university in New York City which was an hour by train from Werther/June’s home in Connecticut.

1891 — Werther/June begins working as a law clerk for Clark Bell, a lawyer and editor of the Medico-Legal Journal. Bell was also a director of the Medico-Legal Society.

1892, June — Werther/June’s “First Nocturnal Ramble” to Hell’s Kitchen.

1892, Fall — Werther/June returns to college as a sophomore and enters a deep depression.

1892, November — Werther/June’s “Second Nocturnal Ramble” to Mulberry Street. He/she meets “Red Mike.”

1892, Late — Werther/June consulted New York medical professors Dr. Prince A. Morrow and Dr. Robert S. Newton about his/her “condition.” He/she appeals for castration.

1893, May — Ralph Werther/Jennie June suffers a “[n]ervous breakdown” and cannot complete his/her junior year in university. He/she leaves New York City in mid-May.

1894, Summer — Werther/June is arrested for the first time. The village where the jail is located is four miles from Werther/June’s parents’ home. Werther/June’s father hears of the incident and states that he wished Werther “had never been born.”

1894, December — Werther/June, having returned to college for his/her senior year, wins college prizes.

1895, January — One of Werther/June’s earliest visits to Paresis Hall.

1895, January Early — Ralph Werther/Jennie June approached by Roland Reeves, Manon Lescaunt, and Prince Pansy to join the Cercle Hermaphroditos at Paresis Hall.

1895, April — Werther/June visited Paresis Hall.

1896 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June claimed to have read Psychopathia Sexualis and other sexology works at the New York Academy of Medicine.

1897 — Werther/June was in his/her second year of graduate school and was expelled after a doctor (with whom Werther/June had consulted) consults with the president of the university. This is not one of the doctors mentioned by name.

1899 — Werther/June began writing Autobiography of an Androgyne, covering the period up to that point.

1900 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June felt his/her autobiography was ready for publication and submitted it to Anthony Comstock.

1902 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June was castrated at the age of 28 in New York. This must have been a physical castration because the first use of chemical castration was in 1944.

1905, July — R. W. Shufeldt’s “The Medico-Legal Consideration of Perverts and Inverts” was published in the Pacific Medical Journal Vol. 48 No. 7. This detailed Ralph Werther/Jennie June approaching Shufeldt with a manuscript (probably “Autobiography of an Androgyne”) sometime before July 1905. Werther/June is familiar with Krafft Ebing and Havelock Ellis. This is the earliest textual evidence of Werther/June.

1914 — Werther/June notes that he/she is 40 years old at this time in Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1917 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June reports he/she contracted gonorrhea this year in his/her Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1918, April — Ralph Werther/Jennie June pens the preface to Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1918, October — Ralph Werther/Jennie June writes the conclusion of Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1918, October — Werther/June’s “The Fairie Boy” was published in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1918, November — Ralph Werther/Jennie June publishes “The Girl-Boy’s Suicide” in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1919, January — Autobiography of an Androgyne by Ralph Werther/Jennie June is published.

1919, March — Werther/June’s “Boy—But Never Man” was published in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1919, April — Werther/June’s “The Sorrows of Jennie June” was published in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1919, June — Werther/June began working on a supplement to Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1919, July — Ralph Werther/Jennie June publishes “Protest from an Androgyne” in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1920, December — Ralph Werther/Jennie June publishes “The Biological Sport of Fairieism”  in Medical Life as part of his/her “Studies in Androgynism.”

1921, March — Serial publication of The Riddle of the Underworld was to begin in Medical Life no later than this date, and to be completed in not less than twelve, nor more than fifteen numbers. However, it appears this never happened.

1921, October — Werther/June visits Whitestone station.

1921, November — Ralph Werther/Jennie June’s reply to Dr. Lichtenstein’s “The ‘Fairy’ and the Lady Lover” was published in volume 27 of Medical Review of Reviews. It was entitled “A Fairie’s Reply to Dr Lichtenstein.”

1921, December — Werther/June’s Female-Impersonators goes to press.

1922, January — Three of Werther/June’s four “attempts” at verse were conceived. He/she notes that this is after The Female-Impersonators had gone to press. This is perhaps the last date that we know Werther/June is certainly still alive.

1922, March — Book publication of The Riddle of the Underworld was to occur not earlier than this date. However, this appears to have not occurred.

1922 — The first edition of The Female-Impersonators was published, edited, with introduction by Alfred W. Herzog.

1922, October 27 — The copyright for The Female-Impersonators was assigned.

1922, Fall — Ralph Werther/Jennie June announce that the third party of their trilogy including Autobiography of an Androgyne and The Female-Impersonators is to be published at this time. The work is to be entitled The Riddle of the Underworld.

1934 — Werther/June’s “The Biological Sport of Fairieism” is republished in Medical Review of Reviews as “The Biologic Sport of Fairieism.” Was Werther/June still alive by this point?

 

Alfred Waldemar Herzog Timeline

Alfred Waldemar Herzog was the editor of several of Ralph Werther/Jennie June’s publications.

 

1866, March 30 — Alfred Waldemar Herzog was born in Vienna, Austria to Moritz and Sophia Delia Herzog.

1885 — Alfred W. Herzog became a student in the Medical College of New York University.

1887 — Herzog graduated with a degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Medical College of New York University.

1888 — Herzog became Assistant Surgeon to St. Mary’s Hospital in Hoboken, New Jersey.

1891 — Herzog became Assistant Surgeon to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.

1892 — Herzog became Director of the Hoboken Dispensary.

1919, January 26 — A. W. Herzog’s copyright for Autobiography of an Androgyne was given this date.

1922, March — Alfred W. Herzog pens his introduction to Ralph Werther/Jennie June’s The Female-Impersonators.

1922 — The first edition of The Female-Impersonators was published, edited, with introduction by Alfred W. Herzog.

1922, October 27 — The copyright for The Female-Impersonators was assigned.

1933, May 30 — Alfred W. Herzog died in the morning from cerebral hemorrhage in his home at 149 West Eighty-second Street.

 

William J. and Victor Robinson Timeline

William J. Robinson and his son Victor Robinson both interacted with Ralph Werther/Jennie June at some point regarding the publication of some of his/her manuscripts.

 

1867, December 8 — William Josephus Robinson was born.

1886, August 16 — Victor Robinson was born in Ukraine to William Josephus Robinson and Marie Halper.

1920, December — Victor Robinson published Werther/June’s “The Biological Sport of Fairieism”.

1936, January 6 — William Josephus Robinson died.

1947, January 15 — Victor Robinson died. Note that New York City Municipal Deaths indicate that death occurred on January 8th and burial occurred on January 10th.

 

Clark Bell Timeline

Clark Bell employed Ralph Werther/Jennie June for a short period, one of the only certain facts of Ralph Werther/Jennie June’s narrative.

 

1832, March 12 — Clark Bell was born in Whitesville, Jefferson County, New York.

1858 — Clark Bell married Helene Taylor. The couple would later have two daughters, noted as “Miss Kate Bell and Mrs. John Fleming McClain” in 1918.

1872 — Clark Bell, Esq., of 20 Nassau Street served as President of the Medico-Legal Society from 1872 until 1873.

1890, July 31 — Clark Bell thanked The New York Times for its “suppression of the Sixth Avenue Hotel… or at least the revocation of its license” while he was on vacation. The letter was sent from the Bell View Farm in Dundee, New York.

1891 — Werther/June begins working as a law clerk for Clark Bell, a lawyer and editor of the Medico-Legal Journal. Bell was also a director of the Medico-Legal Society.

1892, March 12 — Clark Bell turned 60 years old. Thus marking the beginning of the window that June/Werther could have worked with him.

1893, December 13 — At Hotel Imperial, Vivian Hawken, Esq., was named by the President of the Medico-Legal Society, Judge Dailey, as an Inspector of Election. Clark Bell acted as Secretary during that meeting.

1894, May 19 — William R. V. Hawken was charged with forging the name of Clark Bell to a money order for $7.

1894, November 24 — William R. V. Hawken was examined before United States Commissioner Shields. Clark Bell testified that Hawken had “come to his office about a year ago and asked for employment, saying that he had been private secretary of Lionel Cohen, a member of Parliament.” During this testimony Bell produced a letter received from Chief Clerk of the London Police Office John Whatley. The letter claimed that William R. V. Hawken was William Ralph Vivian Hawken, who had been arrested in London in February 1892. Another newspaper spelled his name “William Ralph Vyvyan Hawken”.

1895, April 17 — William R. V. Hawken was convicted of having endorsed the name of Clark Bell as payee on the back of a post office order for $7.

1895, May 24 — William R. V. Hawken, former managing clerk for Clark Bell (specifically noted as “the lawyer”) was sentenced to three years in Elmira Reformatory by Judge Benedict. Hawken was convicted of forging Clark Bell’s name as Secretary of the Medico-Legal Society to a Post Office money order (noted in another paper as a “$7 Check”).

1902, March 12 — Clark Bell turned 70 years old. Thus marking the end of the window that June/Werther could have worked with him.

1918, February 22 — Clark Bell, once President of the Medico-Legal Society, died suddenly of a heart attack in the reception room of the Union Street Club at Fifth Avenue and Thirty-ninth Street. He was 86 years old.

 

James T. “Biff” Ellison Timeline

James T. “Biff” Ellison was the supposed proprietor of Paresis Hall, an institution which Ralph Werther/Jennie June reportedly frequented. Because there was another Biff Ellison active around the same period, each entry in the Master Timeline should note which documents/events are ascribed to whom.

 

c. 1861 — James T. “Biff” Ellison was born around this time, according to testimony he gave which was presented in the June 1911 article “Ellison Convicted of Manslaughter.” It was reported in The Apaches of New York that Ellison “came from Maryland.”

Early 1880s — James T. “Biff” Ellison moves from Maryland to New York City. He would be employed as a bartender at a variety of establishments, most notably Fat Flynn’s (Barney Flynn’s) and Pickerelle’s. It would be at these bars that he would develop friendships leading to his career in organized crime and at Tammany Hall.

c. 1886 — James T. “Biff” Ellison was said to have made his “initial appearance along the Bowery” around this time, in his “angular, awkward twenties”. Ellison would later become a member of the Jack Sirocco gang.

1892 — Columbia Hall, better known as “Paresis Hall,” was reportedly opened by James T. “Biff” Ellison. According to Alice Sparberg Alexiou’s “Devil’s Mile: The Rich, Gritty History of the Bowery”. She lines up its opening with the closing of The Slide.

1903, March 10 — Police Captain Gallagher of the East 22nd Street Station, along with several detectives, made an unsuccessful attempt to raid the alleged poolroom of Frank “Biff” Ellison on Fourteenth Street between Second and Third Avenue. They referred to the place as the “Ellison Club.” Although this was noted as ‘Frank,’ this is definitely James T. “Biff” Ellison, given the location of the poolroom.

1903, March 27 — Around 5:00pm an axe and sledge hammer raid was executed by the police of the Fifteenth and Eighteenth Precincts, under the direction of Inspector McLaughlin and Captain Gallagher of the West 22nd Street Station. The raid was on an alleged poolroom on the parlor floor at 231 East Fourteenth Street and ended with 33 men being hauled off to the station house. Of the 33, only four were held, including James F. Ellison, known as “Biff” Ellison the second (“Biff” Ellison II). Ellison was the proprietor of the 231 East Fourteenth Street establishment. During the raid, it appeared Ellison was presiding over a meeting of the William Cumiskey Association.

1905, November 23 — James “Biff” Ellison allegedly went into Paul Kelly’s saloon on Great Jones Street and shot and killed John J. Harrington[1], a member of the Paul Kelly gang. A 24 November 1905 news article identifies Harrington as “W. E. Harrington” of 56 First Street and says the murder was committed at 57 Great Jones Street. Ellison had not been identified at that time. An article the previous day identified Harrington as “John Harrington of 1,543 Third Avenue.” When Ellison was convicted, Harrington’s name was listed as “William J. Harrington.” The Wikipedia page for Ellison notes that he fled to Baltimore, only returning to New York six years later, although this appears to be unsourced. (Sometime later, I found the source as being Asbury’s “The Gangs of New York”).

1905, December 20 — A bench warrant was obtained for “Biff” Ellison for the murder of “James Harrington.”

1911, April 26 — Detectives approached James T. “Biff” Ellison for manslaughter. He did not resist arrest. The next day it was reported that Ellison was “once a broker… and afterwards ran a gambling house, finally sinking to the level of the Bowery and becoming a member of the Five Points gang”. Detective John J. Cray was among the detectives who arrested Ellison.

1911, June 8 — James T. “Biff” Ellison was convicted of first-degree manslaughter. Ellison said “he was 49 years old” during the proceedings, placing his birth year as either 1861 or 1862. Another paper reported that he had been in the Tombs Prison from this date until 2 January 1912.

1911, June 9 — A New York Times Article noted that James T. “Biff” Ellison was a member of the Jack Cirocco gang at the time of his conviction the previous day. Later in the same article, it is noted that, by this time, the Five Points Gang had “taken the place of the Cirocco gang”.

1911, June 14 — James T. “Biff” Ellison was sentenced to eight to twenty years in Sing Sing for manslaughter.

1911, July 3 — James “Biff” Ellison obtained an order from Supreme Court Justice Giegerich requiring District Attorney Whitman to show causes on July 10 why he should not receive a certificate of reasonable doubt which would permit his release on bail pending an appeal.

1912, January 2 — James “Biff” Ellison was released in $15,000 bail following the issuance by Justice Lehman of a certificate to show cause why he should not have a new trial.

1912, Spring — James “Biff” Ellison committed to the Central Islip Insane Asylum “by friends”. He later escaped and was found in New Jersey.

1912, October 21 — James “Biff” Ellison surrendered. Judge Swann turned Ellison over to the charge of Deputy Sheriff Schmidinger to take Ellison before Justice Blanchard in the Supreme Court. Blanchard ordered Ellison sent to the Tombs for observation. Another newspaper noted that he was taken to the Tombs to “await the execution of a Supreme Court order committing him to Matteawan. A 1925 article (listed below) collaborates this. “Matteawan” is the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane (established in April 1892), also referred to as “Matteawan Asylum.” Ellison was said to be 50 years old at the time.

1925, September 16 — A New York Times article reporting the death of Detective John J. Cray noted that “Biff” Ellison, a “ward politician and fighter… who shot and killed ‘Big Bill’ Harrington”, had some time before escaped and was sent to “Matteawan.” Was Ellison still alive at this point?

 

Master Timeline

This master timeline includes all of the above “cast” of characters, alongside other researched information which may or may not be relevant (time will tell) and “framing” events.

 

1825 — 35 Cooper Square (original 391 Bowery) was believed to have been constructed. It was owned by Nicholas William Stuyvesant, great-grandson of Peter Stuyvesant. The building that would house Paresis Hall would later be constructed nearby, at 392 Bowery.

1832, March 12 — Clark Bell was born in Whitesville, Jefferson County, New York.

1844, March 7 — Anthony Comstock was born in New Canaan, Connecticut to Polly Ann Lockwood and Thomas Anthony Comstock.

1854, January 9 — William Stephen Devery was born in New York City. He would later testify as to the whereabouts of Paresis Hall.

1858 — Clark Bell married Helene Taylor. The couple would later have two daughters, noted as “Miss Kate Bell and Mrs. John Fleming McClain” in 1918.

c. 1861 — James T. “Biff” Ellison was born around this time, according to testimony he gave which was presented in the June 1911 article “Ellison Convicted of Manslaughter.” It was reported in The Apaches of New York that Ellison “came from Maryland.” James T. “Biff” Ellison has been cited as the founder of the so-called Paresis Hall.

c. 1865 — Berthard Jones, later a “Client Gent” at Paresis Hall, was born.

1865 — 392 Bowery, later home to Paresis Hall, was the location of a gentlemen’s furnishing store (Carter James), a boot and shoe maker (Ford Samuel), and a variety store (Rafael Moses). According to the 1865 edition of Wilson’s Business Directory of New York City.

1866, March 30 — Alfred Waldemar Herzog was born in Vienna, Austria to Moritz and Sophia Delia Herzog.

1867, December 8 — William Josephus Robinson was born.

1868 — The Medico-Legal Society of the City of New York was organized under a charter from the State of New York.

1870 — W. G. Peckham, from 392 Bowery, sent a telegram to Thos. N Dwyer at 59 Second Place, Brooklyn. Recorded in the Google Books document available here, page 72. 392 Bowery was later the location of Paresis Hall.

c. 1872 — Julius Burke, later a “Client Gent” at Paresis Hall, was born.

1872 — Clark Bell, Esq., of 20 Nassau Street served as President of the Medico-Legal Society from 1872 until 1873.

1873 — Anthony Comstock created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.

1874 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June was supposedly born in a mill town in Connecticut. At least one researcher has suggested that it may have been the town of Bridgeport. He/she was the fourth of his/her mother’s eleven children.

1875 — Edward “Monk” Eastman was born.

1876, December 23 — Paul Kelly (birthname Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli) was born to Italian parents from Potenza, Basilicata. Note that this is the date listed on his gravestone in Calvary Cemetery, although other reports have him born in 1871.

Early 1880s — James T. “Biff” Ellison moves from Maryland to New York City. He would be employed as a bartender at a variety of establishments, most notably Fat Flynn’s (Barney Flynn’s) and Pickerelle’s. It would be at these bars that he would develop friendships leading to his career in organized crime and at Tammany Hall.

1882 — “Big” Jack (Johnny) Sirocco was born.

1882, April 8 — Roundsman Delaney and Officer Finn, members of the Tombs Police Court squad, were involved in a scuffle with members of the Five Points Gang. James T. “Biff” Ellison, founder of Paresis Hall, would later be a member of this gang.

1882, April 10 — Earliest found print reference to the “Five Points Gang” in The New York Times.

1883 — Allan McLane Hamilton’s A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence is one of the first English works to discuss the phenomenon of “sexual inversion”:

It is difficult to conceive… the peculiar inversion of the sexual feeling, arises from any thing else than a congenital defect… In New York are a large number of unfortunate men who prowl about the public squares at night soliciting members of their own sex. These men delight to dress in women’s clothes and masquerade in the streets… In this city [New York] during the past few years I am informed by one of the most intelligent police judges that a great many arrests have been made for violations of public decency, and no less than six of these were within the past year of men dressed in women’s clothes who were engaged in soliciting for a purpose too vile to mention. This sexual inversion has been described by several German writers. The prisoners are usually young men of mincing gait and manner, with soft high voices, wide lips and large thyroid cartilages.

1884 — Volume 1 of the Medico-Legal Journal published by the Medico-Legal Journal Association.

1885 — Alfred W. Herzog became a student in the Medical College of New York University.

c. 1886 — James T. “Biff” Ellison was said to have made his “initial appearance along the Bowery” around this time, in his “angular, awkward twenties”. Ellison would later become a member of the Jack Sirocco gang.

1886 — Psychopathia Sexualis was first published in German by Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing. It was one of the first texts to discuss sexual pathology.

1886, August 16 — Victor Robinson was born in Ukraine to William Josephus Robinson and Marie Halper.

1887, February 21 — Perry M. Lichtenstein was born in New York around this time according to the 1940 U.S. Census, his U.S. World War II Draft Registration Card (1942), and his U.S. World War I Draft Registration Card. His parents were Joseph (born in Russia; age 22 at the time) and Dora Wolf Lichtenstein (born in Germany; also age 22 at the time).

1887 — Herzog graduated with a degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Medical College of New York University.

1888 — Herzog became Assistant Surgeon to St. Mary’s Hospital in Hoboken, New Jersey.

1888, May 13 — “Big” Jack Zelig (birthname Selig Harry Lefkowitz) was born on New York’s Lower East Side.

c. 1889 — Benjamin “Dopey Benny” Fein was born in New York City.

1890 — Werther/June made his/her secret known to his/her “family physician” and like “most physicians… he did not understand the deepseated character of my perversion.”

1890 — The Trow City Directory Co.’s Business Directory of New York City 1890 Vol. 43 mentions 392 Bowery as home to “Meyer Anton & Son”, under the title “Wines, Liquors & Lager Beer” on page 909.

1890, July 31 — Clark Bell thanked The New York Times for its “suppression of the Sixth Avenue Hotel… or at least the revocation of its license” while he was on vacation. The letter was sent from the Bell View Farm in Dundee, New York.

1891, January — Berthard Jones (26 years old) and Julius Burke (19 years old) gave a photograph of themselves to Jacob M. Miller. The back had “P.H. January 1891” scrawled on it, proof that Paresis Hall was open at least a year earlier than Alexiou’s “Devil’s Mile” contends.

1891 — Herzog became Assistant Surgeon to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.

1891, September — Ralph Werther/Jennie June claims to be a freshman at a university in New York City which was an hour by train from Werther/June’s home in Connecticut.

1891 — Werther/June begins working as a law clerk for Clark Bell, a lawyer and editor of the Medico-Legal Journal. Bell was also a director of the Medico-Legal Society.

1892 — Herzog became Director of the Hoboken Dispensary.

1892, February — William Ralph Vivian Hawken was arrested in London, charged with stealing securities valued at £800 from his employers Woodhouse, Rauson & Co. He was released on the condition that he leave the country.

1892 — Volume 5 of The International Annual of Anthony’s Photographic Bulleton noted that the Association of Operative Photographers of New York has its meetings at 392 Bowery. This is the location of Paresis Hall.

1892, March 12 — Clark Bell turned 60 years old. Thus marking the beginning of the window that June/Werther could have worked with him.

1892 — Columbia Hall, better known as “Paresis Hall,” was reportedly opened by James T. “Biff” Ellison. According to Alice Sparberg Alexiou’s “Devil’s Mile: The Rich, Gritty History of the Bowery”. She lines up its opening with the closing of The Slide.

1892 — Charles Gilbert Chaddock published an authorized translation of the seventh enlarged and revised German edition of Psychopathia Sexualis.

1892, June — Werther/June’s “First Nocturnal Ramble” to Hell’s Kitchen.

1892, Fall — Werther/June returns to college as a sophomore and enters a deep depression.

1892, November — Werther/June’s “Second Nocturnal Ramble” to Mulberry Street. He/she meets “Red Mike.”

1892, Late — Werther/June consulted New York medical professors Dr. Prince A. Morrow and Dr. Robert S. Newton about his/her “condition.” He/she appeals for castration.

1893 — Frank “Biff” Ellison[2], a minor Manhattan society figure, was convicted of assault and sent to Sing Sing.

1893, May — Ralph Werther/Jennie June suffers a “[n]ervous breakdown” and cannot complete his/her junior year in university. He/she leaves New York City in mid-May.

1893, November 8 — At Hotel Imperial, W. R. Vivian Hawken, Esq., of Cornwall, England, was present as an active member of the Medico-Legal Society. Dr. Randall L. Sell has postulated that Hawken may have been Werther/June.

1893, December 13 — At Hotel Imperial, Vivian Hawken, Esq., was named by the President of the Medico-Legal Society, Judge Dailey, as an Inspector of Election. Clark Bell acted as Secretary during that meeting.

1894, May 19 — William R. V. Hawken was charged with forging the name of Clark Bell to a money order for $7.

1894, Summer — Werther/June is arrested for the first time. The village where the jail is located is four miles from Werther/June’s parents’ home. Werther/June’s father hears of the incident and states that he wished Werther “had never been born.”

1894, October — William R. V. Hawken was arrested and locked up in the Tombs.

1894, November 24 — William R. V. Hawken was examined before United States Commissioner Shields. Clark Bell testified that Hawken had “come to his office about a year ago and asked for employment, saying that he had been private secretary of Lionel Cohen, a member of Parliament.” During this testimony Bell produced a letter received from Chief Clerk of the London Police Office John Whatley. The letter claimed that William R. V. Hawken was William Ralph Vivian Hawken, who had been arrested in London in February 1892. Another newspaper spelled his name “William Ralph Vyvyan Hawken”.

1894, December — Werther/June, having returned to college for his/her senior year, wins college prizes.

1894, December 18 — William R. V. Hawken was held in $2,500 bail for trial by United States Commissioner Shields.

1895, January — One of Werther/June’s earliest visits to Paresis Hall.

1895, January Early — Ralph Werther/Jennie June approached by Roland Reeves, Manon Lescaunt, and Prince Pansy to join the Cercle Hermaphroditos at Paresis Hall.

1895, April — Werther/June visited Paresis Hall.

1895, April 17 — William R. V. Hawken was convicted of having endorsed the name of Clark Bell as payee on the back of a post office order for $7.

1895 — Volume 55 of the Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide notes 392 Bowery as a “saloon and restaurant” fixture. The entry, on page 750, reads:

            Dietzmann, H.            392 Bowery….Bavarian Star

                                                                                                3,850

1895, May 24 — William R. V. Hawken, former managing clerk for Clark Bell (specifically noted as “the lawyer”) was sentenced to three years in Elmira Reformatory by Judge Benedict. Hawken was convicted of forging Clark Bell’s name as Secretary of the Medico-Legal Society to a Post Office money order (noted in another paper as a “$7 Check”).

1896, January — Colin A. Scott’s article “Sex and Art” was published in The American Journal of Psychology Vol. 7 No. 2. It discusses the “Fairies” of New York as a sexually inverted “secret organization.” Scott was a fellow in psychology at Clark University at the time of publication. Scott mentions that the subject matter was suggested by President G. Stanley Hall. Clark University is in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1896, February 16 — A “gentlemanly thief”, who was once a member of Mike Ryan’s gang, was quoted in The New York Press saying that “Mike Ryan was for a long time the proprietor of a place that was known as Paresis Hall” and that it “was on the Bowery, opposite Fifth street.” He recounts further:

For awhile Mike had there a bartender named McCarthy. The man is now dying of consumption. He is said to be the real owner of a little saloon at Bleecker street, near the Bowery whose ‘sign board and license’ owner is one Otto Zoeffel.

He went on to state that Detective McManus and Inspector Billy McLaughlin had been to Paresis Hall. The thief goes to say:

His [Mike Ryan’s] old place, Paresis Hall, is out of existence. There are two cafes near Second avenue, another on Fifth street, between Second and Third avenue, the place known as Zoeffel’s, and a place on the Bowery, near Houston street, where members of the [Mike Ryan] gang still linger and occasionally congregate.

This brings up the possibility that their might have been multiple Paresis Halls or that “the” Paresis Hall changing hands at some point between Mike Ryan and James T. “Biff” Ellison.

1896, March 23 — The Liquor Tax Law of 1896 became law with approval of the Governor.

1896 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June claimed to have read Psychopathia Sexualis and other sexology works at the New York Academy of Medicine. This was probably the 1892 edition by Chaddock, see above.

1896 — According to testimony in a New York state report, Paresis Hall “and other dens of vice” were closed following the passage of the Liquor Tax Law of 1896. This must have taken place in mid to late 1896 given the 23 March passage of the law.

1896, December 24 — Presents were brought to Sing Sing for “Biff” Ellison. It would be the last Christmas Ellison would pass in Sing Sing. This is Frank “Biff” Ellison.

1897, January 5 — James T. “Biff” Ellison released from Sing Sing. This is also Frank “Biff” Ellison; his referral as “James T.” is possibly erroneous.

1897 — Werther/June was in his/her second year of graduate school and was expelled after a doctor (with whom Werther/June had consulted) consults with the president of the university. This is not one of the doctors mentioned by name.

1897, December — George P. Hammond, Jr., claimed that the institution known as Paresis Hall “came into existence” during the “latter part of 1897” somewhere “along in December” (or about that time). This is almost certainly incorrect, with the institution probably having been opened several years earlier.

1898 — “Monk” Eastman was arrested and convicted under the alias “William Murray.”

1898, October 26 — New York newspaper The Sun reported that “[t]here ain’t any ‘Slide,’ but there’s ‘Paresis Hall,’ and you can see there all you could at the Slide, and more, too.” The article continues:

Paresis Hall is said to be the worst resort, in most ways, in the city. It is officially known as Columbia Hall and numbered 392 Bowery. There is a saloon downstairs with a backroom, and three room upstairs. If you get there after 1 o’clock in the morning you get whatever there is by joining a club. The place is frequented by male solicitors, who assure you that for $3 you can see a show upstairs that is really worth seeing. This is said to be a reproduction of the disgraceful scenes at the old “Slide,” called the “rag-time dance.”

1899 — Werther/June began writing Autobiography of an Androgyne, covering the period up to that point.

1899, April 1 — Hammond began visiting Paresis Hall under Mr. Moss’ direction. He mentions “one woman who goes there they call a hermaphrodite.”

1899, May 31 — Joel S. Harris was with Mr. Wood at Paresis Hall, 392 Bowery.

1899, June 1 — Hammond testified that he knew of the “place called Paresis Hall” and had visited it under Mr. Moss’ “direction… a number of times.” Joel S. Harris testified that he was at Paresis Hall with Mr. Wood “last night.” Harris noted that the “people that run this place used to run the Palm Club, and on account of tearing the building down they have come up there.” He further testified:

These men that conduct themselves there [in Paresis Hall]—well, they act effeminately; most of them are painted and powdered; they are called Princess this and Lady So and So and the Dutchess of Marlboro, and get up and sing as women, and dance; ape the female character; call each other sisters and take people out for immoral purposes.

1900 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June felt his/her autobiography was ready for publication and submitted it to Anthony Comstock.

1901, April — A comment in JAMA, it was noted that the “disreputable resort” Paresis Hall had “just closed its doors under the stress of police surveillance and regulation.”

1901, July 18 — In the morning, Detective Sergeant Jeremiah Murphy was severely beaten in Henry Wulfer’s saloon at 148 East Fourteenth Street by “Biff” Ellison and “Joe” Manafield. The article notes that this “Biff” Ellison is not the same Ellison who severed a term in Sing Sing for assaulting Broker Henriques. This was, notably, in the building opposite Tammany Hall. Ellison was described as a “frequenter of the race track” in the news article citing the incident.

1902 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June was castrated at the age of 28 in New York. This must have been a physical castration because the first use of chemical castration was in 1944.

1902, March 12 — Clark Bell turned 70 years old. Thus marking the end of the window that June/Werther could have worked with him.

1903 — 392 Bowery was listed at $40,000, owned by Levi Merris estate (240 W. 102nd Street). The architect was labeled as Pollard & Steinam (3 E 14th Street). The description of the building was given as “6-sty brk and stone lofts and stores, 22.0 3/4˙117.2. According to entry in the Building Permits Database, 1900-1986, at the Office for Metropolitan History. This is backed up by an entry on page 58 of “The Engineering Record, Building Record and the Sanitary Engineer”, Volume 48.

1903, March 10 — Police Captain Gallagher of the East 22nd Street Station, along with several detectives, made an unsuccessful attempt to raid the alleged poolroom of Frank “Biff” Ellison on Fourteenth Street between Second and Third Avenue. They referred to the place as the “Ellison Club.” Although this was noted as ‘Frank,’ this is definitely James T. “Biff” Ellison, given the location of the poolroom.

1903, March 27 — Around 5:00pm an axe and sledge hammer raid was executed by the police of the Fifteenth and Eighteenth Precincts, under the direction of Inspector McLaughlin and Captain Gallagher of the West 22nd Street Station. The raid was on an alleged poolroom on the parlor floor at 231 East Fourteenth Street and ended with 33 men being hauled off to the station house. Of the 33, only four were held, including James F. Ellison, known as “Biff” Ellison the second (“Biff” Ellison II). Ellison was the proprietor of the 231 East Fourteenth Street establishment. During the raid, it appeared Ellison was presiding over a meeting of the William Cumiskey Association.

1903, September 17 — Warfare between the Five Points Gang (led by Paul Kelly) and the Eastman Gang reached a fever pitch with a protracted shootout on Rivington Street. One man was killed and a second reported fatally wounded. Numerous innocent civilians were injured.

1903, December 23 — “Biff” Ellison was arraigned before Magistrate Hogan in the West Side Police Court, having been charged with assaulting Policeman Frank McGowan of the West 47th Street Police Station. Ellison apparently gave his name as ‘Frank Jamison.’ This is Frank ‘Biff’ Ellison, not James T. ‘Biff’ Ellison.

1903, December 26 — An adjourned case charging assault on Policeman McGowan against Frank “Biff” Ellison and two of his friends was scheduled to occur at the West Side Court before Magistrate Hogan. It was rescheduled until January 5, 1904. This is Frank ‘Biff’ Ellison, not James T. ‘Biff’ Ellison.

1904, February 27 — Frank “Biff” Ellison died of pneumonia at some time in the afternoon in his home at 130 West 34th Street. This is Frank “Biff” Ellison, not James T. “Biff” Ellison.

1905 — The first volume of The American Journal of Urology, covering the period from October 1904 to September 1905, was published.

1905, July — R. W. Shufeldt’s “The Medico-Legal Consideration of Perverts and Inverts” was published in the Pacific Medical Journal Vol. 48 No. 7. This detailed Ralph Werther/Jennie June approaching Shufeldt with a manuscript (probably “Autobiography of an Androgyne”) sometime before July 1905. Werther/June is familiar with Krafft Ebing and Havelock Ellis.

1905, November 23 — James “Biff” Ellison allegedly went into Paul Kelly’s saloon on Great Jones Street and shot and killed John J. Harrington[3], a member of the Paul Kelly gang. A 24 November 1905 news article identifies Harrington as “W. E. Harrington” of 56 First Street and says the murder was committed at 57 Great Jones Street. Ellison had not been identified at that time. An article the previous day identified Harrington as “John Harrington of 1,543 Third Avenue.” When Ellison was convicted, Harrington’s name was listed as “William J. Harrington.” The Wikipedia page for Ellison notes that he fled to Baltimore, only returning to New York six years later, although this appears to be unsourced. (Sometime later, I found the source as being Asbury’s “The Gangs of New York”).

1905, December 20 — A bench warrant was obtained for “Biff” Ellison for the murder of “James Harrington.”

1909, May — Perry Maurice Lichtenstein had just finished his sixth term as part of his third year as a medical student at Cornell University.

1910, January — Perry Maurice Lichtenstein had just finished his seventh term as part of his fourth year as a medical student at Cornell University.

1910, April — Lichtenstein had just finished his eighth term as part of his fourth year as a medical student at Cornell. According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Perry M. Lichtenstein was 23 years old at the time and living with his parents in Bronx Assembly District 34 in New York City. His father, Joseph, was 45 years old and his mother, Dora, was 43 years old. The ages of his siblings were: Isidore (21), Edna (20), Lillian (18), William (13), Jennie (11), and Daisy (9). The family also had a servant named Susie Oftag, who was 19 years old.

1910, June 15 — Lichtenstein graduated as a Doctor of Medicine from Cornell University during the Medical College’s Twelfth Annual Commencement.

1911, April 26 — Detectives approached James T. “Biff” Ellison for manslaughter. He did not resist arrest. The next day it was reported that Ellison was “once a broker… and afterwards ran a gambling house, finally sinking to the level of the Bowery and becoming a member of the Five Points gang”. Detective John J. Cray was among the detectives who arrested Ellison.

1911, June 8 — James T. “Biff” Ellison was convicted of first-degree manslaughter. Ellison said “he was 49 years old” during the proceedings, placing his birth year as either 1861 or 1862. Another paper reported that he had been in the Tombs Prison from this date until 2 January 1912.

1911, June 9 — A New York Times Article noted that James T. “Biff” Ellison was a member of the Jack Cirocco gang at the time of his conviction the previous day. Later in the same article, it is noted that, by this time, the Five Points Gang had “taken the place of the Cirocco gang”.

1911, June 14 — James T. “Biff” Ellison was sentenced to eight to twenty years in Sing Sing for manslaughter.

1911, July 3 — James “Biff” Ellison obtained an order from Supreme Court Justice Giegerich requiring District Attorney Whitman to show causes on July 10 why he should not receive a certificate of reasonable doubt which would permit his release on bail pending an appeal.

1911, October 5 — “Big” Jack Zelig was shot behind the ear and killed by “Boston Red” Phil Davidson while riding on a Second Avenue trolley car while passing East 13th Street.

1912, January 2 — James “Biff” Ellison was released in $15,000 bail following the issuance by Justice Lehman of a certificate to show cause why he should not have a new trial.

1912, Spring — James “Biff” Ellison committed to the Central Islip Insane Asylum “by friends”. He later escaped and was found in New Jersey.

1912, August 22 — Jack Sirocco was arrested early in the morning on Court Street in Brooklyn by Captain Conboy of the Hamilton Avenue Station. He was charged with interfering with an officer.

1912, October 21 — James “Biff” Ellison surrendered. Judge Swann turned Ellison over to the charge of Deputy Sheriff Schmidinger to take Ellison before Justice Blanchard in the Supreme Court. Blanchard ordered Ellison sent to the Tombs for observation. Another newspaper noted that he was taken to the Tombs to “await the execution of a Supreme Court order committing him to Matteawan. A 1925 article (listed below) collaborates this. “Matteawan” is the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane (established in April 1892), also referred to as “Matteawan Asylum.” Ellison was said to be 50 years old at the time.

1914, January 9 — A fight between the Dopey Benny and Jack Sirocco gangs occurred late at night and resulted in the death of Frederick Straus, an elderly City Court Clerk. Straus was killed in St. Mark’s Place by a stray bullet.

1914 — Werther/June notes that he/she is 40 years old at this time in Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1914, May 15 — L. Pierce Clark’s “A Critical Digest of Some of the Newer Work Upon Homosexuality in Man and Woman” proclaims:

A peculiarity of the homosexual, shared, however, with women, is a high degree of self-love or narcissism… They have an uncommonly strong tendency to write autobiographies, which they imagine to be of sufficient interest for the physician to transpose and publish. In some inverts for reasons of self-love there is a longing for confession. An unknown invert may submit a bulky manuscript perhaps in verse giving a pathetic account of his magnanimous existence—highly mendacious, however.

He goes on to mention that “the notion that clubs of inverts are maintained as ‘debating societies’ is ridiculous, as the author’s patients admit.”

1915 — Dr. Perry M. Lichtenstein, a physician at the Tombs prison, was scheduled to speak before the Harlem Jewish League at the Belvedere on the topic of the “Dope Fiend.”

1915 — Volume 11 of The American Journal of Urology was published. It was the first volume to carry the name The American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1915, September 21 — Anthony Comstock died in his home at 35 Beekman Road in Summit, New Jersey.

1917 — Ralph Werther/Jennie June reports he/she contracted gonorrhea this year in his/her Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1917, April 6 — The United States declared war on Germany, thereby dragging the country into World War I. Added for historical context.

1918, February 22 — Clark Bell, once President of the Medico-Legal Society, died suddenly of a heart attack in the reception room of the Union Street Club at Fifth Avenue and Thirty-ninth Street. He was 86 years old.

1918, April — Ralph Werther/Jennie June pens the preface to Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1918, October — Ralph Werther/Jennie June writes the conclusion of Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1918, October — Werther/June’s “The Fairie Boy” was published in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1918, November 11 — World War I ended with armistice. Added for historical context.

1918, November — Ralph Werther/Jennie June publishes “The Girl-Boy’s Suicide” in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1919, January — Autobiography of an Androgyne by Ralph Werther/Jennie June is published.

1919, January 26 — A. W. Herzog’s copyright for Autobiography of an Androgyne was given this date.

1919, March — Werther/June’s “Boy—But Never Man” was published in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1919, April — Werther/June’s “The Sorrows of Jennie June” was published in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1919, June — Werther/June began working on a supplement to Autobiography of an Androgyne.

1919, June 20 — William Devery died in Far Rockaway, New York City at the age of 65.

1919, July — Ralph Werther/Jennie June publishes “Protest from an Androgyne” in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

1920, December — Ralph Werther/Jennie June publishes “The Biological Sport of Fairieism”[4] in Medical Life as part of his/her “Studies in Androgynism.”

1920, December 26 — “Monk” Eastman was killed by Jerry Bohan.

1921, March — Serial publication of The Riddle of the Underworld was to begin in Medical Life no later than this date, and to be completed in not less than twelve, nor more than fifteen numbers.

1921, August — Perry M. Lichtenstein’s article “The ‘Fairy’ and the Lady Lover” was published in volume 27 of Medical Review of Reviews.

1921, October — Werther/June visits Whitestone station.

1921, November — Ralph Werther/Jennie June’s reply to Dr. Lichtenstein’s “The ‘Fairy’ and the Lady Lover” was published in volume 27 of Medical Review of Reviews. It was entitled “A Fairie’s Reply to Dr Lichtenstein.”

1921, December — Werther/June’s Female-Impersonators goes to press.

1922, January — Three of Werther/June’s four “attempts” at verse were conceived. He/she notes that this is after The Female-Impersonators had gone to press.

1922, March — Alfred W. Herzog pens his introduction to Ralph Werther/Jennie June’s The Female-Impersonators.

1922, March — Book publication of The Riddle of the Underworld was to occur not earlier than this date.

1922 — The first edition of The Female-Impersonators was published, edited, with introduction by Alfred W. Herzog.

1922, October 27 — The copyright for The Female-Impersonators was assigned.

1922, Fall — Ralph Werther/Jennie June announce that the third party of their trilogy including Autobiography of an Androgyne and The Female-Impersonators is to be published at this time. The work is to be entitled The Riddle of the Underworld.

1922, December 15 — “Nigger Mike” Saulter died in his home at 3052 Fourth Street in Brighton Beach.

1922, December 17 — Jack Sirocco attended “Nigger Mike” Saulter’s funeral.

1925, September 16 — A New York Times article reporting the death of Detective John J. Cray noted that “Biff” Ellison, a “ward politician and fighter… who shot and killed ‘Big Bill’ Harrington”, had some time before escaped and was sent to “Matteawan.”

1929, September 4 — The Great Depression began with a major fall in stock prices.

1929, October 29 — Black Tuesday, the stock market crash which acted as the formal beginning of the Great Depression.

1930 — The website 42Floors claims 36 Cooper Square was constructed.

1930 — The website StreetEasy claims 35 Cooper Square (formerly 392 Bowery) was constructed.

1931 — Perry M. Lichtenstein became medical assistant to the Manhattan District Attorney.

1933, May 30 — Alfred W. Herzog died in the morning from cerebral hemorrhage in his home at 149 West Eighty-second Street.

1934 — Werther/June’s “The Biological Sport of Fairieism” is republished in Medical Review of Reviews as “The Biologic Sport of Fairieism.”

1934 — Lichtenstein published A Doctor Studies Crime.

1936, January 6 — William Josephus Robinson died.

1936, April 3 — Paul Kelly died of natural causes. Note that this is the date listed on his gravestone in Calvary Cemetery, although other reports have him dying in 1927 or 1936.

1940 — Perry M. Lichtenstein (age 53) was living on West 76 Street in New York with his wife Louise M. (age 51) and his son Mortemar H. (age 21) according to the 1940 U.S. Census.

1941, December 7 — Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan. Added for historical context.

1941, December 8 — The United States declared war on Japan, beginning the country’s involvement in World War II. Added for historical context.

1945, September 2 — Japan formally surrendered, ending World War II. Added for historical context.

1947, January 15 — Victor Robinson died. Note that New York City Municipal Deaths indicate that death occurred on January 8th and burial occurred on January 10th.

1954, June 14 — Dr. Perry M. Lichtenstein collapsed and died from a heart attack in a courtroom of Supreme Court, Jamaica, New York, after testifying in a damage suit. Both his wife, Louise M. and his son Mortimar H. survived him (he had another son whose name is unavailable). It was reported that he was either 67 or 68 when he passed.

1962 — Benjamin “Dopey Benny” Fein died of cancer and emphysema.

1965 — Columbia psychiatrist John F. Oliven coins the term transgender in his Sexual Hygiene and Pathology.

1989 — Robert Baker claims that The Village Voice moved into a “partially finished space at 36 Cooper [Square], which was owned by the Stern family.” Two years later, Baker said the editorial and sales staff followed.

2010, October 11 — Dr. Randall Sell and Jonathan Ned Katz jointly announced the discovery of 35 manuscript pages of Werther/June’s Riddle of the Underworld on National Coming Out Day. Sell had discovered the manuscript in the papers of Dr. Victor Robinson in the archives of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM).

2011, May 25 — Preservationists held a vigil for the demolished 35 Cooper Square (originally 391 Bowery).

2018 — The Village Voice moved back into 36 Cooper Square.

 

Notable Terms

androgyne — Origin discussed in greater detail in introduction. From ancient Greek prefix ἀνδρο- (andro-, meaning ‘male’ or ‘man’) and suffix -γυνή (-gynous, meaning ‘female’ or ‘woman’).

• Wikipedia (androgyny)

fag — North American derogatory slang for a homosexual man or effeminate man; a “sissy.” The Oxford English Dictionary notes Perry M. Lichtenstein’s 1921 article “The ‘Fairy’ and the Lady Lover” as one of the first usages of the term:

Does the ‘fairy’ or ‘fag’ really exist? This question has been asked time and again. There is no doubt but that this type of denegerate is a reality. He is a freak of nature who in every way attempts to imitate women.

The article later discusses a “letter written by one ‘fag’ to another”:

‘My dear loving Princess: … I just wrote her [Ruth St. Denis’] brother a long letter. When you write tell me what the fags in the laundry said as I passed. They all came to the windows. Well, they had nothing to say. I got home a mess, all wet, and really looked terrible…’

Unfortunately, the word is never defined and it’s somewhat uncertain if this was the context “Ruth” was referring to. Interestingly, George W. Matsell’s Vocabulum, or, The Rogue’s Lexicon (first edition published in 1859) notes that the term fag was slang for a lawyer’s clerk. Matsell was Special Justice and Chief of the New York Police.

• Wikipedia (faggot, slang)

fairy — Also spelled fairie. The usage of term “fairy” as American derogatory slang for an effeminate or homosexual man dates back at least to 1895, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. They cite page 216, volume 7 of The American Journal of Psychology, which appears to be mostly correct (the article is dated January 1896). The article, “Sex and Art” by Colin A. Scott, recounts the following:

Inversion, or contrary sexual sensation, is a perversion which crosses all of the previous classes, but among the published cases at least, leans more to the passive of Masochistic form. This coincides with what is known of the peculiar societies of inverts. Coffee-clatches, where the members dress themselves with aprons, etc., and knit, gossip and crochet; balls, where men adopt the ladies’ evening dress, are well known in Europe. “The Fairies” of New York are said to be a similar secret organization. The avocations which inverts follow are frequently feminine in their nature. They are fond of the actor’s life, and particularly that of the comedian requiring the dressing in female attire, and the singing in imitation of a female voice, in which they often excel.

Havelock Ellis’ later second volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex (third edition[5], published 1915):

The favorite color among normal women, and indeed very often among normal men, though here not so often as blue, is red, and it is notable that in recent years there has been a fashion for a red tie to be adopted by inverts as their badge. This is especially marked among the “fairies” (as a fellator is there termed) in New York. “It is red,” writes an American correspondent, himself inverted, “that has become almost a synonym for sexual inversion, not only in the minds of inverts themselves, but in the popular mind…”

In his/her 1918 autobiography, Ralph Werther/Jennie June defines a “fairie” as “a youthful androgyne or other passive invert (for they are perhaps not all members of the extreme class of androgynes) whom natural predestination or other circumstances led to adopt the profession of the fille de joie.” He/she later lays out a possible explanation of the term:

The term “fairie” is widely used in the United States by those who are in touch with the underworld. It probably originated on sailing vessels of olden times when voyages lasted for months. While the crew was either actually or prospectively suffering acutely from the absence of the female of the species, one of their number would unexpectedly betray an inclination to supply her place. Looked upon as a fairy gift or godsend, such an individual would be referred to as “the fairy.”

Incorrectly, Werther/June indicates that he/she “is one of the first users of the printed word in this derived sense… [and] has elected to adopt a distinctive spelling [‘fairie’ instead of ‘fairy’]”. At this point both Ellis and Scott have used the term in the printed word.

fairy resort — Nightclub-like establishments which attracted effeminate clientele (gay men and drag queens, and transgender women, as we would contemporarily refer to them).

hermaphrodite — A complicated term with a complicated history. Used to refer to humans or animals either really or apparently possessing both male and female sex organs, but also to refer to effeminate men or masculine/virile women. The former has been traced back by the Oxford English Dictionary to at least 1398, while the latter to 1594. From the Latin hermaphrodītus which originates from the Greek ἑρμαϕρόδῑτος. The Greek terminology originally referred to the proper name Ἑρμαϕρόδιτος, the son of Hermes (Mercury) and Aphrodite (Venus). According to myth, Ἑρμαϕρόδιτος grew together with the nymph Salmacis, thus combining their male and female characters.

• Wikipedia

paresis — As in Paresis Hall. Often referred to as general paresis, general paralysis of the insane (GPI), or paralytic dementia. It was originally considered to be a type of madness caused by dissolute character when first identified. Its cause-effect connection with syphilis with discovered in the late 1880s.

• Wikipedia (paresis)
• Wikipedia (general paresis of the insane)

transgender — Ralph Werther/Jennie June never uses this term to refer to his/herself. It would not be coined until 1965.

• Wikipedia

 

Notable Groups

Biff Ellison Association — Group whose sole membership was apparently James T. “Biff” Ellison. Sponsored three rackets yearly at Tammany Hall. From each of these affairs, Ellison reportedly received an annual income of around three thousand dollars, enabling him to live a life of luxury. This is all recounted in Asbury’s The Gangs of New York. This association may have had financial links to Ellison’s other venture, Paresis Hall.

Cercle Hermaphroditos — Sometimes spelled as “Cercle Hermaphrododitos.” Advocacy group for “androgynes” and “fairies” possibly founded in 1895 in New York City. Members met at Columbia Hall, better known as Paresis Hall, and included Ralph Werther/Jennie June. Colin A. Scott’s January 1896 article “Sex and Art,” which references “The Fairies” of New York, calls them a “secret organization,” which may be referencing the Cercle Hermaphroditos.

Werther/June notes that, in early January 1895, he/she was approached by three men for whom he/she gives the aliases Roland Reeves, Manon Lescaunt, and Prince Pansy to join this “Cercle Hermaphrododitos.” Cercle means “circle” in French.

• Wikipedia

Eastman Gang — The last of New York City’s street gangs which dominated the underworld in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. It was founded by Monk Eastman, and would establish political connections through the infamous Tammany Hall. The gang was the main rival of the Five Points Gang.

• Wikipedia

Five Points Gang — Criminal organization based in the Sixth Ward (The Five Points) of Manhattan. Founded by Paul Kelly.

• Wikipedia

Jack Sirocco Gang — Criminal organization supposedly headed by Jack Sirocco. Little about it is mentioned outside of newspaper clippings.

New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV; SSV) — Institution founded in 1873 by Anthony Comstock and his supporters in the Young Men’s Christian Association. Dedicated to supervising the morality of the public. Charted by the New York state legislature.

• Wikipedia

 

Notable People

Bell, Clark — Lawyer, co-editor of the Medico-Legal Journal, and a director of the Medico-Legal Society. Werther/June worked as a law clerk for Clark Bell from 1891 to 1892. Born 12 March 1832, died 22 February 1918. A cartoon of Bell and the rest of the executive committee of the Medico-Legal Society can be found in the New York Public Libraries digital collection (here).

“College Student” — A college student mentioned by Werther/June in The Female-Impersonators (1922). Supposedly mentioned in a “New York paper” (so must be before 1922). A North Atlantic college junior mentioned as being 20 years old. “Taken from a river last Thursday night.” His college roommate “commented on the large number of neckties” he had. Werther/June highlights that the student “never took special interest in any woman.” His body was pulled from the river by a fisherman. The police suggested suicide, but the city medical examiner denounced that, saying there was “evidence of hemorrhage in… [the] wound not producible by such an injury inflicted long after death.” It was noted that the body had likely been in the river about 10 days before being found. The student had 77 cents in his pockets when located.

Maybe it was Frederick Hardy, Jr.? An art student found floating in Raritan Bay near Keysport, New Jersey by a fisherman on Wednesday, 1 November 1899. He had been missing from his boarding house on the Shore Road, near 96th Street, Fort Hamilton, since Sunday, 22 October 1899. Physicians declared that the body was thrown into the water after death and that the circumstances pointed to murder and robbery. He was 21 years old. It was said that “nothing [was] found in the young man’s pockets.” The whole affair was reported as “Art Student Murdered: Frederick Hardy’s Cards Found by Miss George” in The New York Times on 3 November 1899. The fisherman who saw the body was Captain Aumack.

Another article in New York World mentioned that Hardy’s one constant companion was a “Southerner” T. Coleman Ward (other articles indicated he was from Birmingham, Alabama). Interestingly, another newspaper article claimed that Ward had said that Hardy had borrowed $2 from him for board and tuition fees—despite Hardy receiving an allowance from his father and having no financial worries. It was reported in one paper that E. C. Moxham was Ward’s uncle (thus Mrs. E. C. Moxham was Ward’s aunt). Moxham was apparently a “friend of [Hardy’s] family” and lived in the Fort Hamilton section of Brooklyn (another article more specifically points out Ninety-sixth Street, “one block from Hardy’s lodging house”).

G. C. Hubbard of 371 West One Hundred and Twenty-third Street and Ward were at Moxham’s the night Hardy disappeared.

• True Crime Bay Ridge: The Many Murders of John Kilbride

Comstock, Anthony — United States Postal Inspector and politician dedicated to ideas of Victorian morality. Born 7 March 1844, died 21 September 1915. Ralph Werther/Jennie June supposedly submitted his/her autobiography to him in 1900:

… as soon as I had this autobiography ready, I submitted to Mr. [Anthony] Comstock in order to ascertain whether it could be circulated. He was then a Post-Office Department inspector, with power to prosecute for shipping 'obscene' matter by common carried. He read considerable of the manuscript of this book, and stated … that he would have ‘destroyed’ it but for the fact that I impressed him ‘as a person not having any evil intent.’

It is uncertain if this meeting ever took place.

Some of Comstock’s papers can be found in the YMCA of Greater New York Collection at the University of Minnesota (here). His works from 1912 to 1915, can be found in the Buswell Memorial Library archival material at Wheaton College (see here and here). Archives of the Guide to the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice records, 1875-1947, can be found at the Simmons Library here (see here also).

• Wikipedia

Devery, William Stephen “Big Bill” — Last superintendent of the New York City Police Department police commission and first police chief in 1898. Born 9 January 1854, died 20 June 1919. Visited Paresis Hall.

• Wikipedia

Eastman, Edward “Monk” — Founder of the eponymous Eastman Gang. Born 1875, died 26 December 1920.

• Wikipedia

Ellis, Havelock — English physician, writer, and social reformer. Studied human sexuality and authored first English medical textbook on homosexuality in 1897. Born 2 February 1859 in Croydon, Surrey; died 8 July 1939 in Hintlesham, Suffolk. Ellis’ work was read by Ralph Werther/Jennie June.

• Wikipedia

Ellison, James T. “Biff” — Born c. 1861 (sometimes noted as 1862). Asbury noted in his The Gangs of New York that Ellison had opened the establishment known as Paresis Hall. He also claimed that Ellison was a “fop in matters of dress” and “loved to sprinkle himself with scent, of which he had his own private blend especially compounded by a druggist sworn to secrecy.” Writing in 1927, Asbury finally notes that Ellison “was a mental and physical wreck” “long before he had completed his sentence” (which began in 1911). Also referred to as Young Biff, Fourteenth Street Biff, and Biff Ellison II.

• Wikipedia

Fein, Benjamin “Dopey Benny” — Born c. 1889 in New York City, died 1962.

• Wikipedia

Hammond, George P. Jr. — Testified on 5 October 1899 in New York City; testimony appeared in Report of the Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investigate the Public Offices and Departments of the City of New York and of the Counties Therein Included Vol. 4. He was a county detective in the year 1902. Eleventh precinct in 1886 (according to The City Record).

Harris, Joel S. — Visitor to Paresis Hall.

Herzog, Alfred Waldemar — Co-editor of the Medico-Legal Journal. Editor of Autobiography of an Androgyne (1918) and The Female-Impersonators (1922). It is indicated that Herzog took the photograph captioned “The Author—a Modern Living Replica of the Ancient Greek Statue, ‘Hermaphroditos’” in The Female-Impersonators. Born in 1866 in Vienna, Austria to Moritz Herzog, Ph.D., and Sophia Delia Herzog.

June, Jennie — Pseudonym for Ralph Werther/Jennie June.

• Wikipedia

Kelly, Paul — Founder of the Five Points Gang.

• Wikipedia

Lange, Johann Peter — Born 10 April 1802 in Sonneborn, died 9 July 1884. German Calvinist theologian.

• Wikipedia

Lefkowitz, Selig Harry — “Big” Jack Zelig’s birthname.

Lescaunt, Manon — Member of the Cercle Hermaphroditos, according to Ralph Werther/Jennie June.

Lichtenstein, Perry Maurice — Physician to City Prison, Tombs, New York. Published the 1921 article “The ‘Fairy’ and the Lady Lover” in Medical Review of Reviews to which June/Werther responded to in her 1921 “A Fairie’s Reply to Dr Lichtenstein.” Doctor of Medicine from Cornell University. Lichtenstein published A Doctor Studies Crime and A Handbook of Psychiatry, among other things.

Lind, Earl — Pseudonym for Ralph Werther/Jennie June.

Lynn, Junie — Steven L. Lewis notes this as a pseudonym for Earl Lind/Ralph Werther. However, this version of the pseudonym “Jennie June” seems to appear nowhere else.

Morrow, Prince Albert — American dermatologist, venereologist, and sociologist. Born 19 December 1846 (Mount Vernon, Kentucky), died 17 March 1913. Received his doctorate from University Medical College in New York in 1873. Clinical lecturer on dermatology at New York University in 1882. In 1884, he became a clinical professor at the University Bellevue Hospital Medical College. He was the main organizer in a lasting struggle for sexual hygiene in order to “prevent the spread of diseases which have their origin in the social evil.” Son of William Morrow, a planter, and Mary Ann Cox. Served as surgeon for Blackwell’s Island from 1884 until 1904. Attending physician at New York Hospital and City Hospital. Edited Journal of Cutaneous and Venereal Diseases from 1896 until 1901.

A small collection of Morrow’s correspondence and his movement’s records are in the American Social Hygiene Association Papers, Social Welfare History Archives Center, University of Minnesota. Morrow was one of doctors Werther/June had supposedly visited about his/her “condition.”

• American National Biography
  • DOI: 10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1200642
  • Wikisource

Moxham, Edgar C. — More commonly cited as E. C. Moxham. Born in London, England. Lived on 96th street near Shore Road in Brooklyn. It was his residence Frederick Hardy, Jr. was visiting friends, among them T. Coleman Ward and G. C. Hubbard, the night he disappeared.

Member of the firm of Edgar C. Moxham & Co. Edgar C. Moxham & Co Vice president and director of Manaos Railway Co. Treasurer and director of Metallurgical Co. Director of Automatic Telephone Construction Co. Member of the Fulton Club, the Engineers’ Club, the Crescent Athletic Club of Brooklyn, and the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Pretty busy guy in general.

Younger brother of Arthur J. Moxham. Born 1858, died 1913. Married Bessie Coleman (1861-1886), who was Helen Coleman Moxham’s sister (Murton Carpenter). Helen Coleman Moxham, also known as Helen Johnson (1856-1932), married Arthur James Moxham, E. C. Moxham’s brother, in 1876.

In 1891, Margaret Dwyer (1854-1940), daughter of Thomas Cooper Coleman and Dulcenia Payne Johnson (also known as Elsie Johnson), married Edgar C. Moxham, as Bessie had died. This is possibly the origin of “Coleman” in the name of Hardy’s “chum” T. Coleman Ward (Ward claimed Moxham was his uncle and that Mrs. E. C. Moxham was his aunt). This is even more likely given that Margaret Dwyer’s sister, Dora Morgan (1858-1933), married a Thomas Ward in 1878.

Dora Morgan and Thomas (sometimes shortened as “Thos”) Ward had three children:

• Thomas Coleman Ward (b. 1 May 1879 at the Meadows, Coleman’s country home near Sheppardsville) [sometimes written as Coleman Ward, Thos Ward, Thos C. Ward, etc.]
• Edith Ward (b. 1881 in Birmingham, Alabama)
• Richard Donigan Ward (b. 1886 in Birmingham, Alabama) [sometimes written as Dick Ward]

And voila! We have “T. Coleman Ward” a Southern born in 1879, making him 20 years old in 1899.

Dora Morgan Coleman/Ward (also known as Dora C. Ward) died on 27 November 1933 and was buried on 28 November 1933 in New York & New Jersey Crematory in North Bergen, New Jersey. She had died at the age of 75 and was widowed.

By 1900, T. Coleman Ward was back in Birmingham with his parents and siblings (in time for the U.S. Census at least).

From 1917-1918, Thomas Coleman was registered for the draft in World War I in Pittsburgh. Sometime before 1916, T. Coleman married a woman named Lucy in Pittsburgh and the pair had a daughter, also named Lucy. They lived on Walnut Street. In 1928, Lucy (their daughter) was a senior at Smith College. Thomas Coleman Ward and his wife were well-known social entertainers in Pittsburgh.

• Google Books (Biographical Directory of the State of New York, 1900; p. 328)
• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski (The New York Press; 22 Jun. 1896)
• The Johnson Company – Archive of Historical Photographs and Other Images (Part II – 1889-1929)
• Genealogies: The Coleman Family Connection
• The Family Lineage of Thomas Coleman of Louisville

Murray, William — Alias used by Edward “Monk” Eastman.

Newton, Robert Safford — Born 1857 or 1858 (or 2 September 1855 in Cincinnati, Ohio), died 26 March 1903 (of cerebrospinal meningitis; sometimes indicated as 25 or 28 March 1903). Neurologist and alienist, not to be confused with his father, the Ohio surgeon of the same name who was born in 1818 and died in 1881. Received M.D. from New York eclectic medical college in 1876. Studied and acted as a clinical assistant in Europe for several years. Upon returning to the United States, became professor of diseases of the eye, throat, and skin, in the New York eclectic medical college from 1881 until 1886. May have actually received M.D. from New York University in 1892. In 1902, Robert S. Newton was acting as Joseph H. Sutton’s physician when he killed himself (his body was discovered on 21 April 1902). Newton’s opinion was that the cause was “a recent attack of gout from which Mr. Sutton was suffering” and that the gout “had invaded his brain and caused the condition which resulted in the insane act [the suicide].” Robert S. Newton was attending neurologist to the Presbyterian Hospital and to St. Mary’s Hospital, Brooklyn, at the time of his death. He is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Werther/June recalls, in his/her The Riddle of the Underworld:

The alienist Dr. Robert S. Newton was the third physician whom I consulted but the first who had any inkling of the true nature of my malady. His frankness put an end to my chronic melancholia. I thenceforth merely suffered from it at rare intervals. I ceased the worse than useless longing and praying for a different nature than it had seemed good to the All Wise to predestinate. The alienist opened my eyes. He taught me that the androgyne’s proclivities are not the depth of depravity that every one, even the two preceding medical advisers, had previously given me to understand.

Pansy, Prince — Member of the Cercle Hermaphroditos, according to Ralph Werther/Jennie June.

“Red Mike” — An individual Werther/June met in November 1892 and again close to April 1893.

Reeves, Roland — Member of the Cercle Hermaphroditos, according to Ralph Werther/Jennie June.

Robinson, William Josephus — Born 8 December 1867, died 6 January 1936. American physician, sexologist, and birth control advocate. Editor of American Journal of Urology and Sexology.

• Wikipedia

Robinson, Victor — Physician and medical journalist, born 16 August 1886 in Ukraine (indicated as Russia in certain records), died 15 January 1947 (New York City Municipal Deaths indicate that death occurred on 8 January and burial occurred on 10 January). His father was William Josephus Robinson (8 December 1867 – 6 January 1936) and his mother was Marie Halper. Buried at Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn. His wife’s name was Bertha Stein Robinson. Published Werther/June’s “The Biological Sport of Fairieism” in December 1920. Had contract with Werther/June to publish The Riddle of the Underworld. It is known that Robinson and Werther corresponded about publication of Riddle.

A collection of his papers (1898-1947) is held at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) (see here and here)[6]. Duke University’s Rubenstein Library has a collection of Victor Robinson’s papers, 1910-1947 and undated (see here). The Morris Library at Southern Illinois University has a collection of Robinson’s papers, 1863-1968 (see here).

• Wikipedia

Shufeldt, Robert Wilson — Listed in photograph credits for photographs of Ralph Werther/Jennie June in his/her work The Female-Impersonators. He was born 1 December 1850 (in New York, the son of Admiral Robert Wilson Shufeldt and Sarah H. Abercrombie) and died 21 January 1934 (in Washington D.C.). R. W. Shufeldt took the photo captioned “Front View of Author at Thirty-three” and “Rear View of Author at Thirty-three”. Both of these photos would have been taken around 1907 if Werther/June was indeed born in 1874.

• Wikipedia

Sirocco, “Big” Jack (Johnny) — Founder of the eponymous Jack Sirocco Gang. He was an early member of the Five Points Gang, but later defected to the Eastman Gang.

• Wikipedia

Taylor, Bayard — Ralph Werther/Jennie June recalls that Taylor discussed ‘eunuchs’ from the ‘east.’ It is likely that Werther/June is referring to Bayard’s 1880 work A Visit to India, China, and Japan in the Year 1853. However, the term ‘eunuch’ is only used on page 225 of that work. Bayard was born 11 January 1825 and died 19 December 1878.

• Wikipedia

Vaccarelli, Paolo Antonio — Paul Kelly’s birthname.

Ward, Frank E.[7] — A “check swindler” caught 1 August 1894 by Detective Sergeants Armstrong and Dowling. Reported that his real name was “Harry D. Houghton” and that he lived in the Palma Lodging House in the Bowery[8]. A drawing of Ward appears in a 1 August 1894 article of The Sun. He was later held in the Tombs on the charge of forgery.

Werther, Ralph — Pseudonym for Ralph Werther/Jennie June. Sometimes misspelled as “Ralph Werner.”

Zelig, “Big” Jack — American gangster, one of the last leaders of the Eastman Gang. Born 13 May 1888, died 5 October 1912.

• Wikipedia

 

Notable Locations

Bowery — Street and neighborhood in the southern portion of Manhattan. Marked the eastern border of the slum of “Five Points.” Housed one of America’s earliest street gangs, the Bowery Boys. The first YMCA opened here in 1873 (or 1872, depending on the source)[9]. Became a center for prostitution by the 1890s. Included The Slide at 157 Bleecker Street and Columbia Hall (Paresis Hall) at 392 Bowery (later 32 Cooper Square).

• Wikipedia

Columbia Hall — Better known as Paresis Hall. Called a “fairy resort.” Located at 32 Cooper Square[10] in the Bowery. Opened in 1892 by James T. “Biff” Ellison, a member of the Five Points Gang who occasionally worked for Tammany Hall. However, Steven L. Lewis noted that Paresis Hall “flourished roughly from the mid-1880s to the early 1900s. According to testimony in a New York state report, Paresis Hall “and other dens of vice” were closed following the passage of the liquor tax law in 1896.

The Society for the Prevention of Crime and the City Vigilance League investigated and denounced the Hall’s male prostitutes in 1899 as part of their campaign against the police corruption that was seen as allowing prostitution to flourish in New York. Through this investigative process, it was revealed that then police chief William Stephen “Big Bill” Devery was familiar with Paresis Hall (“Mr. Moss” is ‘Q’ and Devery is ‘A’):

A.— … The “Paresis” is better known as Columbia Hall, at Eighth Street and Fourth Aveanue. I located it, and it is a Raines law house.

Q.—Why, Chief, where did you learn all that? [Laughing.]

A.—And so is the Palm.

Q.—Where did you learn all that? You didn’t know it Saturday.

A.—I know, but I learned that from the records of this department, which I referred to, and I thought I would straighten it out.

Q.—Have you got it out of the records with the name “Paresis Hall”?

A.—No, Columbia Hall.

In an April 1901 comment in JAMA, it was noted that the “disreputable resort” Paresis Hall had “just closed its doors under the stress of police surveillance and regulation.” By May 1903, an article in the Boston Woman’s Journal had noted “Where are the low resorts? … Where is Suicide Hall? Where is Paresis Hall? They are all gone.”

Alfred Henry Lewis noted in his 1912 The Apaches of New York preface that his “stories are true in name and time and place” and that “[n]one of them in its incident happened as far away as three years ago.” Later, he notes that one Biff Ellison “challenged fortune as part proprietor of Paresis Hall” “[a]t one time”. However, he later ended up “[t]erminating his connection with Paresis Hall,” and “lived a life of leisure between Chick Tricker’s Park Row ‘store’ and Nigger Mike’s at Number Twelve Pell.”

In June 1913, George Kibbe Turner noted “the unspeakable Paresis Hall” in his article “The Man-Hunters.”

Asbury, in his The Gangs of New York (1927), supports the fact that Paresis Hall was opened by James T. “Biff” Ellison, saying that he “opened a sink of sin in the Bowery near Cooper Union, which he aptly named Paresis Hall.” However, Asbury also claims that the facility was “closed after a few months.” This does help a bit with the timeline though, as we can say that Ellison began working with Tammany Hall before opening Paresis Hall.

• Wikipedia

New York Academy of Medicine — Health policy and advocacy organization founded in 1847.

• Wikipedia

Sing Sing Prison — Fifth prison built by New York state. Named from the Native American words “Sinck Sinck” (meaning “stone upon stone”). First opened in 1826.

• Wikipedia

Tombs Prison — Sometimes referred to as the Tombs. Colloquial name for the Manhattan Detention Complex (formerly the Bernard B. Kerik Complex, and the Halls of Justice before that). Originally built in 1838. Consists of four buildings, with two existing before 1941. Tombs I (1838–1902), also known as the New York City Halls of Justice and House of Detention, and Tombs II (1902–1941), also known as City Prison.

• Wikipedia

 

Personal Bibliography

Werther, Robert (Jennie June; Earl Lind)

1. Autobiography of an Androgyne. 1st ed., edited by Alfred W. Herzog, New York, Medico-Legal Journal, 1918.
2. “The Fairie Boy.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 14 No. 10, Oct. 1918, p. 433-6.
3. “The Girl-Boy’s Suicide.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 14 No. 11, Nov. 1918, p. 495-8.
4. “Boy—But Never Man.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 15 No. 3, Mar. 1919, p. 97-100.
5. “The Sorrows of Jennie June.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 15 No. 4, Apr. 1919, p. 160-4.
6. “The Female-Impersonator,” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 15 No. 6, Jun. 1919, p. 241-5.
7. “Protest from an Androgyne.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 15 No. 7, Jul. 1919, p. 313-6.
8. “Studies in Androgynism.” Medical Life Vol. 27 No. 12, Dec. 1920, p. 235-46.
9. “A Fairie’s Reply to Dr Lichtenstein.” Medical Review of Reviews, Vol. 27, 1921, pp. 539-42.
10. The Female-Impersonators. 1st ed., edited by Alfred W. Herzog, New York, Medico-Legal Journal, 1922.

 

Chronological Bibliography

Taylor, Bayard. A Visit to India, China, and Japan in the Year 1853. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1880.

• Google Books (original from University of Wisconsin – Madison, digitized 12 January 2011)

“The Five Points Gang: Brutal Attack on Officer Finn—Three of the Ruffians Captured,” The New York Times, New York, 10 Apr. 1882, p. 8.

• ProQuest Document ID: 94087703

Hamilton, Allan McLane. A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence, New York, Bermingham & Company, 1883, p. 185.

• HathiTrust Digital Library (original from Harvard University)

The Medico-Legal Journal Vol. 1, New York, Medico-Legal Journal Association, 1884.

• HathiTrust Digital Library (original from University of Michigan)

Bell, Clark. “Mr. Clark Bell Thanks ‘The Times’.” The New York Times, 3 Aug. 1890, p. 12.

• ProQuest Document ID: 94806850

“November Meeting,” The Medico-Legal Journal Vol. 11 No. 1, edited by Clark Bell, 1893, p. 355.

• Google Books (original from Harvard University, digitized 11 May 2007)

“This Is How He Looks: A Swindler Photographed by His Intended Victim,” The Sun, New York, 1 Aug. 1894, p. 7.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Check Swindler Ward Caught,” The Sun, New York, 24 Aug. 1894, p. 9.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Check Swindler Caught,” New York Herald, 24 Aug. 1894, p. 5.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Houghton’s Persuasive Tongue,” The Evening Telegram, New York, 24 Aug. 1894, p. 6.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“City Jottings,” New York Herald, 25 Aug. 1894, p. 4.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Seamy Side of Town Life,” The Press, New York, 25 Aug. 1894, p. 2.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“London Police Aid Clark Bell,” The Evening Telegram, New York, 24 Nov. 1894, p. 5.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Forged Clark Bell’s Name,” The Sun, New York, 25 Nov. 1894, p. 5.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“News From the Courts in Brief,” The New York Times, New York, 19 Dec. 1894, p. 14.

• ProQuest Document ID: 95119154

“Clark Bell’s Veracity,” The Evening Telegram, New York, 17 Apr. 1895, p. 2.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Sent to Elmira for Forgery,” The New York Times, New York, 25 May 1895, p. 5.

• ProQuest Document ID: 95240351

Scott, Colin A. “Sex and Art,” The American Journal of Psychology Vol. 7 No. 2, Jan. 1896, p. 153-226.

• HathiTrust Digital Library (original from University of Michigan)

“Extraordinary Revelations of a Gentlemanly Thief,” New York Press, New York, 16 Feb. 1896.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Bowery Never to Wide Open,” The Sun, New York, 26 Oct. 1896.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Presents for Convicts.” The New York Times, New York, 25 Dec. 1896, p. 9.

• ProQuest Document ID: 1016236315

Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac, 1898. 2nd ed., Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 485.

• Google Books (original from University of Michigan, digitized 17 December 2008)

“Mazet Board and Frank H. Croker: He Tells About his Connection with the New Roebling Company.” The New York Times, 11 Apr. 1899.

• ProQuest Document ID: 95730763

“Murdered and Sunk in Bay with Stones,” New York World, 2 Nov. 1899.

• Newspapers.com

“Art Student Murdered,” Fair Haven Register, Fair Haven, New York.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski (note that a large portion of this article is whited out)

“Various Notes,” The Evening Post, New York, 2 Nov. 1899, p. 11.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Hardy Slain by a Blow,” The Evening Telegram, New York, 2 Nov. 1899, p. 2.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Art Student Murdered,” The New York Times, 3 Nov. 1899.

• Newspapers.com

“Hard Slain by Blow on Temple,” New York Herald, 3 Nov. 1899, p. 7.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“A New Hardy Murder Clue,” The Albany Evening Journal, 3 Nov. 1899, p. 9.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Hat and Pocket Book Found: No Double Now That Frederick Hardy Was Murdered,” The Evening Star, No. 14565, Washington, D.C., 3 Nov. 1899, p. 1.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“No Light on Hardy Murder,” New York Daily Tribune, 4 Nov. 1899, p. 10.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Murder Mystery Unsolved,” New York Daily Tribune, 6 Nov. 1899, p. 10.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Art Student Murders,” Democratic Herald, Vol. 14 No. 37, Clyde, New York, 8 Nov. 1899, p. 1.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

Report of the Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investigate the Public Offices and Departments of the City of New York and of the Counties Therein Included Vol. 1. Albany, New York, James B. Lyon, 1900, p. 174-6, 277-8, 280.

• Google Books (original from Cornell University, digitized 6 August 2012)

Report of the Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investigate the Public Offices and Departments of the City of New York and of the Counties Therein Included Vol. 2. Albany, New York, J.B. Lyon, 1900, p. 1395, 1429-35.

• Google Books (original from Columbia University, digitized 9 July 2009)

Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York Vol. 27. Albany, New York, James B. Lyon, 1901, p. 174-6, 277-8, 280.

• Google Books (original from Cornell University, digitized 21 August 2013)

“Fools Make Mock at Sin.” Christian Advocate Vol. 76 No. 14, 4 Apr. 1901, p. 539.

• ProQuest Document ID: 125825335

“Fools Make a Mock of Sin.” JAMA Vol. 36 No. 15, 13 Apr. 1901, p. 1048.

• DOI: 10.1001/jama.1901.02470150044008

“Detective Badly Beaten,” The New York Times, 19 Jul. 1901, p. 5.

• ProQuest Document ID: 1986388077

Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York Vol. 31, Albany, James B. Lyon, 1901, p. 5125-30.

• Google Books (original from Cornell University, digitized 21 August 2013)

“Counsel for Croker Forced to Withdraw,” The New York Times, New York, 28 Oct. 1902, p. 16.

• ProQuest Document ID: 96167410

“Raiding Party Foiled.” The New York Times, 3 Mar. 1903, p. 3.

• ProQuest Document ID: 96339150

New York University: Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics, with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Founders, Benefactors, Officers and Alumni Vol. 2, R. Herndon Company, 1903, p. 324.

• Google Books (original from New York Public Library, digitized 30 March 2010)

“Axe and Sledge Hammer Raid: Police Belie Boast of ‘Biff’ Ellison II. That They Would Not Descend on His Place Again.” The New York Times, 28 Mar. 1903, p. 1.

• ProQuest Document ID: 96324576

“Recent Deaths,” Boston Medical and Surgical Journal Vol. 148 No. 2, 1903, p. 38.

• Google Books (original from Harvard University, digitized 13 July 2007)

“For Social and Civic Betterment.” The Woman’s Journal Vol. 34 No. 19, 9 May 1903, p. 148.

“Devery Attacks Grady: Declares He Paid Senator $5,000 for Police Legislation.” The New York Times, 2 Nov. 1903, p. 5.

• ProQuest Document ID: 96373077

“‘Biff’ Ellison Arrested.” The New York Times, 24 Dec. 1903, p. 14.

• ProQuest Document ID: 96351916

“‘Biff’ Ellison Hearing Postponed.” The New York Times, 27 Dec. 1903, p. 20.

• ProQuest Document ID: 96371407

“Death of ‘Biff’ Ellison: Well-Known New York Character Succumbs to Pneumonia.” The New York Times, 27 Feb. 1904, p. 6.

• ProQuest Document ID: 96383121

The Liquor Tax Law of the State of New York, 4^th annotated ed., Frank M. Cornell, 1 May 1904.

• HathiTrust Digital Library (original from Cornell University)

Shufeldt, R. W. “The Medico-Legal Consideration of Perverts and Inverts.” Pacific Medical Journal Vol. 48 No. 7, July 1905.

• Google Books (original from University of Michigan, digitized 6 February 2008)

The Doctor’s Who’s Who, Edited by Charles Wells Moulton, Saalfield Publishing Co., 1906, p. 114.

• Internet Archive (original from University of Toronto, digitized 13 November 2008)

McCarty, Louis Phillipe. The Statistician and Economist. L.P. McCarty, 1906, p. 365.

• Google Books (original from Harvard University, digitized 23 April 2008)

The Register. Ithaca, Cornell University, May 1909, p. 690.

• Google Books (original from Cornell University)

Report of the Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investigate the Public Offices and Departments of the City of New York and of the Counties Therein Included Vol. 5. Albany, New York, J.B. Lyon, 1910, p. 5125-5128, 5130.

• HathiTrust Digital Library (original from Columbia University)

The Register. Ithaca, Cornell University, Jan. 1910, p. 697.

• Google Books

The Register. Ithaca, Cornell University, Jul. 1910, p. 704.

• eCommons

Official Publications of Cornell University Vol. 2, Ithaca, Cornell University, 1 Jan. 1911, p. 127.

• Google Books (original from University of Michigan, digitized 15 March 2012)

“Police Get ‘Biff Ellison.” The New York Times, 27 Apr. 1911, p. 4.

• ProQuest Document ID: 97157122

“Ellison Convicted of Manslaughter,” The New York Times, 9 Jun. 1911, p. 5.

• ProQuest Document ID: 97140071

“‘Paresis Hall.’” International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics Vol. 69, MD Publications, 10 Jun. 1899, p. 823.

• Google Books (original from University of Minnesota, digitized 14 May 2012, contributed by Washington Institute of Medicine)

“‘Paresis Hall.’” New York Medical Journal Vol. 69, D. Appleton & Company, 10 Jun. 1899, p. 823.

• Google Books (original from Harvard University, digitized 14 May 2007)

Munro, John Josiah. The New York Tombs Inside and Out!, Brooklyn, John Josiah Munro, 1909.

• Google Books (original from University of Minnesota, digitized 13 April 2016)

“Four Gangsters Sentenced: Brooklyn House Thief Gets 20 Years—Eight or More for ‘Biff’ Ellison.” The New York Times, 1 July 1911, p. 20.

• ProQuest Document ID: 97148289

“‘Biff’ Ellison Seeks Release.” The New York Times, 4 July 1911, p. 4.

• ProQuest Document ID: 97133171

Lewis, Alfred Henry. The Apaches of New York. New York, G. W. Dillingham Company, 1912, p. 258-9.

• HathiTrust Digital Library (original from University of California)
• Internet Archive (original from University of California)

“‘Biff’ Ellison Freed; May Get New Trial,” The Evening Telegram, New York, 2 Jan. 1912.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Gangsters Again Engaged in a Murderous War,” The New York Times, New York, 9 Jun. 1912.

• ProQuest Document ID: 97279704

“Jack Sirocco Arrested: Interfered with Police When They Started to Arrest a Chauffeur,” The New York Times, New York, 23 Aug. 1912, p. 18.

• ProQuest Document ID: 97281153

“‘Biff’ Ellison Surrenders,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York, 21 Oct. 1912, p. 2.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“‘Biff’ Ellison, Bail Jumper, Back Again,” The New York Call, New York, 22 Oct. 1912, p. 2.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

“Once Mighty ‘Biff’ Wasted and Insane,” The New York Press, New York, 22 Oct. 1912, p. 12.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

Sadger, Isidor Isaak. “Welcher Wert kommt den Erzählungen und Autobiographien der Homosexuellen zu?” (trans. “What Value Shall We Give to the Narratives and Autobiographies of Homosexuals?”), Archiv für Kriminal Anthropologie und Kriminalistik Vol. 53 No. 1-2, 1913, p. 175-9.

• JSTOR (title found in bibliography within Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology)

Turner, George Kibbe. “The Man-Hunters.” McClure’s Magazine Vol. 41 No. 2, Jun. 1913, p. 81.

• ProQuest Document ID: 135642721

Clark, L. Pierce, “A Critical Digest of Some of the Newer Work Upon Homosexuality in Man and Woman,” State Hospital Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 7 No. 1, New York, State Hospital Press, 15 May 1914, p. 378.

• Google Books (original from University of Chicago, digitized 4 January 2012)

“Echo of Straus Murder: Police to Look into Italian Prisoner’s Movements on Jan. 9,” The New York Times, New York, 9 Aug. 1914, p. 15.

• ProQuest Document ID: 97524757

Valentine’s Manual of the City of New York for 1916-7, New Series, Founders ed., edited by Henry Collins Brown, New York, The Valentine Company, p. 111.

• Google Books

“Narcotic Hearing Continues,” International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics Vol. 107, MD Publications, 5 Jan. 1918, p. 35.

• Google Books (original from University of Michigan, digitized 18 October 2012)

“Clark Bell Dies in Union League Club,” The New York Times, 23 Feb. 1918, p. 13.

• ProQuest Document ID: 99978140

Lind, Earl (Ralph Werther; Jennie June). Autobiography of an Androgyne. 1st ed., edited by Alfred W. Herzog, New York, Medico-Legal Journal, 1918.

• (Yale University Library, request for use in the Beinecke Reading Room, has autograph of J. Carey Thomas, 25 Apr. 1921, bought from Lindmark’s Book Shop Poughkeepsie, New York) [No. 73 of 1,000 copies] (catalog entry here)
• (Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, 800 W Jefferson, Kirksville, MO, Accession number 1997.42) [No. 190 of 1,000 copies] (catalog entry here)
• (Brown University, Hay Star copy, sold to Willard E. King, Esq., Call # HQ76.3.U5 W469 1918, see here) [No. 229 of 1,000 copies]
• HathiTrust Digital Library, Internet Archive (original from Duke University, digitized 21 August 2017) (Mayo Clinic Libraries reports that this copy is located in MLAC Monographs, Call # HQ76 .L7 1918, see here for more information) (Library of Congress reports that this copy is located in the Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms, Call # HQ75 .L7, see here) (University of Chicago, see here) [No. 447 of 1,000 copies]
• (Cornell University, Rare and Manuscript Collections, Pre-1973 Nonfiction Bibliography, Call # HQ76.3.U5 L74, see here) [No. 458 of 1,000 copies] (this copy is apparently signed by author, see here)
• (University of South Carolina, Columbia Rare Books & Special Collections, Call # HQ76 .L7, see here) [No. 513 of 1,000 copies]
• (University of California Los Angeles, Biomed Special Collections, see here) [No. 653 of 1,000 copies]
• (New York University Libraries, Bobst Special Collections SpecCol, Call # HQ76.3.U5 L56 1918) [No. 735 of 1,000 copies] (see here)
• (Cornell University, Krock Library Rare & Manuscripts, Call # HQ76.3.U5 L74, see here) [No. 917 of 1,000 copies]
• (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Call # 176 L64a, see here) (acquired 5 Dec. 1923) [No. 951 of 1,000 copies]

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “The Fairie Boy.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 14 No. 10, Oct. 1918, p. 433-6.

• Internet Archive (original from Columbia University, digitized 24 April 2014)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “The Girl-Boy’s Suicide.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 14 No. 11, Nov. 1918, p. 495-8.

• Internet Archive (original from Columbia University, digitized 24 April 2014)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “Boy—But Never Man.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 15 No. 3, Mar. 1919, p. 97-100.

• Internet Archive (original from Columbia University, digitized 24 April 2014)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “The Sorrows of Jennie June.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 15 No. 4, Apr. 1919, p. 160-4.

• Internet Archive (original from Columbia University, digitized 24 April 2014)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “The Female-Impersonator,” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 15 No. 6, Jun. 1919, p. 241-5.

• Internet Archive (original from Columbia University, digitized 24 April 2014)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “Protest from an Androgyne.” American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Vol. 15 No. 7, Jul. 1919, p. 313-6.

• Internet Archive (original from Columbia University, digitized 24 April 2014)

“Books Received.” Long Island Medical Journal, vol. 13, 1919, pp. 160.

• Google Books (contributed by Associated Physicians of Long Island, original from University of Michigan, digitized 7 November 2008)

Review of Autobiography of an Androgyne, by Earl Lind. The Chicago Medical Recorder Vol. 41, 1919, p. 83.

• Google Books (contributed by Chicago Medical Society, published by W. T. Keener, original from University of Michigan, digitized 28 February 2012)

Review of The Female-Impersonator, by Ralph Werther (Jennie June). The American Journal of Urology and Sexology Vol. 15 No. 6, June 1919, p. 241-5.

• Google Books (published by Grafton Press, original from University of Michigan, digitized 13 February 2008)

Review of Autobiography of an Androgyne, by Earl Lind. Medical Record Vol. 96, 5 July 1919, p. 37.

• Google Books (published by W. Wood, original from Cornell University, digitized 21 April 2011)

Review of Autobiography of an Androgyne, by Earl Lind. American Journal of Surgery Vol. 34-35, Apr. 1920, p. 116.

• Google Books (published by Cahners Publishing Company, original from University of Michigan, digitized 27 September 2012)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “Studies in Androgynism.” Medical Life Vol. 27 No. 12, Dec. 1920, p. 235-46.

• HathiTrust Digital Library (published by Medical Life Company, original from University of California)

The United States Catalog Supplement, January 1918—June 1921. Edited by Eleanor E. Hawkins and Estella E. Painter, H. W. Wilson Company, 1921, p. 1735.

• Google Books
• Google Books (original from University of Minnesota, digitized 21 January 2014)

Lichtenstein, Perry M. “The ‘Fairy’ and the Lady Lover.” Medical Review of Reviews, Vol. 27, 1921, pp. 369-74.

• Google Books (published by Austin Flint Association Incorporated, original from University of Michigan, digitized 11 November 2008)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “A Fairie’s Reply to Dr Lichtenstein.” Medical Review of Reviews, Vol. 27, Nov. 1921, pp. 539-42.

• Google Books; Hathitrust Digital Library (published by Frederic H. Robinson, original from University of Michigan, digitized 11 November 2008)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “A Fairie’s Reply to Dr. Lichtenstein.” The Medico, Vol. 1-4, 1921, pp. 25-30.

• Google Books (published by Medico Publishing Company, original from University of Michigan, digitized 30 January 2006)

Ellis, Havelock. Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2, 3rd ed. revised and enlarged, Philadelphia, F. A. Davis Company, 1922.

• Google Books (original from Harvard University, digitized 20 November 2007)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June; “Earl Lind”). The Female-Impersonators. 1st ed., edited by Alfred W. Herzog, New York, Medico-Legal Journal, 1922.

• (University of South Carolina, Columbia Rare Books & Special Collections, Call # HQ76 .L72, sold to Dr. E. H. Tunison, see here) (Thomas Cooper Library Special Collection copy; from Library of Alfred Chapin Rogers, courtesy of Mrs. Elizabeth F. Pyne) [No. 90 of 1,000 copies]
• Google Books; Hathitrust Digital Library (original from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Call # 176 W49f, see here) (acquired 5 December 1923 [Stech]) [No. 101 of 1,000 copies]
• (Cornell University, Kroch Library Rare & Manuscripts, Non-Circulating, Call # HQ76.3.U5 W49, see here) [No. 434 of 1,000 copies]
• (Harvard University, Countway Library of Medicine, Rare Books, Call # RC560.G45 W49 1922, see, here) [No. 470 of 1,000 copies]
• Internet Archive; Hathitrust Digital Library (original from Duke University, digitized 15 December 2011, unnumbered)
• (“State with wrapers. Imperfect: Wrapper rubbed, with some loss of text. Unnumbered copy. Original wrappers.”) (Yale University Library, request for use in the Beinecke Reading Room, see here, unnumbered)
• (“State with cloth binding. Unnumbered copy. From the library of Laura Bailey. Accompanied by photocopies of 2 advertisements (contemporary?) for the book (2 sheets).”) (Yale University Library, request for use in the Beinecke Reading Room, see here, unnumbered)
• (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Call #             176 W49f, see here) (acquired 3 March 1954, gift of H.E. Babbitt, unnumbered)
• (University of Chicago, Mansueto Library, Call # HQ76.L72 1922, see here)
• (Northwestern University, Main Library, Special Collections, Call # 155.334 W499f, see here)
• (Brown University, Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, Call # Ref. W4537f, see here)

“Werther, Ralph, pseud.” Catalog of Copyright Entries: New Series: 1922. vol. 19, part 1, no. 58-123. Copyright Office, Library of Congress, 1922, p. 952.

• Google Books (original from University of California, digitized 7 October 2009)

“‘Nigger Mike’s’ Funeral,” The New York Times, New York, 18 Dec. 1822, p. 12.

• ProQuest Document ID: 100077296

Catalog of Copyright Entries. Vol. 19, part 1, no. 124-139. Copyright Office, Library of Congress, 1923, p. 1561.

• Google Books (original from University of California, digitized 7 October 2009)

Catalog of Copyright Entries. Vol. 19, part 1. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1923, p. 952.

• Google Books (original from Cornell University, digitized 1 March 2013)

Medical Art and Indianapolis Medical Journal, vol. 26, 1923, pp. 57.

• Google Books (original from University of Michigan, digitized 6 February 2008)

Smith, M. Hamblin. Review of The Female-Impersonators, by Ralph Werther (Jennie June). Journal of Mental Science, Vol. 69 No. 285, Apr. 1923, pp. 239-41.

• DOI: 10.1192/bjp.69.285.239

Asbury, Herbert. “The Passing of the Gangster,” The American Mercury, Mar. 1925, p. 358-67.

• The Unz Review

Cornell Alumni News Vol. 28 No. 20, 11 Feb. 1926, p. 243.

“John J. Cray Dies; Noted Detective,” The New York Times, 16 Sep. 1925, p. 25.

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards by Tom Tryniski

Driscoll, Joseph. Dock Walloper: The Story of “Big Dick” Butler, New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1933.

• HathiTrust Digital Library (original from University of California)

Richmond, Frank C. “Alfred W. Herzog,” Medico-Legal Journal Vol. 50 No. 3, May-Jun. 1933, p. 33-4.

• HeinOnline (provided by Robert S. Marx Law Library)

Werther, Ralph (Jennie June). “The Biologic Sport of Fairieism.” Medical Review of Reviews Vol. 40, p. 185-6.

• Google Books (published by Austin Flint Association Inc., original from University of Michigan, digitized 16 May 2011)

Supreme Court: Appellate Division—First Department. Dulcenia Proctor against the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, Walton, New York, The Reporter Co., 1935, p. 105-7.

• Google Books

Lambrecht, Kalman. “In Memoriam: Robert Wilson Shufeldt, 1850–1934.” The Auk Vol. 52 No. 4, p. 359-61.

• DOI: 10.2307/4077508

“Dr. Perry M. Lichtenstein, 68, Psychiatrist and Criminologist,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 15 Jun. 1954.

• Newspapers.com

“News and comment,” The Psychiatric Quarterly Vol. 28 No. 1-4, January 1954, p. 544-8.

• SpringerLink
• DOI: 10.1007/BF01567073

 

Secondary Bibliography

Alexiou, Alice Sparberg. Devil’s Mile: The Rich, Gritty History of the Bowery. St. Martin’s Press, 2018.

• Google Books
• ISBN-10: 1250021383
• ISBN-13: 9781250021380

Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld. Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2001.

• ISBN-10: 1560252758
• ISBN-13: 9781560252757

Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld. Vintage Books, 2008.

• Google Books
• ISBN-10: 0307388980
• ISBN-13: 9780307388988

Bender, Geoff. “Recomposing Werther,” Image & Text: A Journal for Design Vol. 30 No. 1, 2017, p. 94-117.

• Persistent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-c60d35748

Biederman, Marcia. “Journey to an Overlooked Past.” The New York Times. 11 June 2000.

• NYTimes.com

Chauncey, George. Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940. New York, Basic Books, 1995.

• ISBN-10: 0465026214
• ISBN-13: 9780465026210

DeVillo, Stephen Paul. The Bowery: The Strange History of New York’s Oldest Street. Skyhorse Publishing Inc., 7 Nov. 2017, p. 138.

• Google Books
• ISBN-10: 151072687X
• ISBN-13: 9781510726871

Ferrara, Eric. The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur. Arcadia Publishing, 2011.

• Google Books
• ISBN-10: 1614230048
• ISBN-13: 9781614230045

Jeffreys, Joe. E. “Paresis Hall.” Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work, Vol. 2, edited by Melissa Hope Ditmore, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, p. 343-4.

• Google Books
• ISBN-10: 0313329702
• ISBN-13: 9780313329708

Moses, Paul. An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York’s Irish and Italians. NYU Press, 2015.

• Google Books
• ISBN-10: 147981024X
• ISBN-13: 9781479810246

Steven, Lewis L. Gay masquerade: Male homosexuals in American cities, 1910 to 1940. 1988. Western Michigan University, MA thesis.

• ProQuest document ID: 193832897

Stryker, Susan. Transgender History. Da Capo Press, 2009, p. 41.

• Google Books
• ISBN-10: 0786741368
• ISBN-13: 9780786741366

 

Other Resources

Jonathan Ned Katz’s research hosted at his website OutHistory, labeled “Werther/June Research” is invaluable. See here. Continuously updated as of 2018. Additionally, the website includes transcription and photographs of the original 1921 manuscript entitled The Riddle of the Underworld here.

This list of New York City online historical directories is absolutely invaluable.

Many “Paresis Hall” photographs were found here.

This website provides a great overview of the life of Benjamin “Dopey Benny” Fein.

Information about Robert Safford Newton and his son found here.

New York City Death Records & Indexes can be found here.

The Building Permits Database, 1900-1986, at the Office for Metropolitan History is invaluable.

Old Fulton New York Post Cards has quite a bit of information.

The Riddle of the Underworld drafts seem to be located in the papers of Dr. Victor Robinson at the National Library of Medicine History of Medicine Division. See here. Summary of works:

• Box 6, Folder 24: “The riddle of the underworld,” Ralph Werther [preservation photocopy] (1921)
• Box 6, Folder 25: “The riddle of the underworld,” Ralph Werther [includes publisher’s contract; ORIGINAL FRAGILE, DO NOT USE] (1921)