Laws have been passed with varying results and there have been repeated calls to legalize it—as recently as June, when several State lawmakers introduced legislation to decriminalize it.
The Municipal Library and Archives collections provide a wealth of documentation on the periodic fights to control prostitution. There are court records dating back to the s, reports from civic organizations, City agency publications, books and correspondence from several mayors including Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani. Gilfoyle drew upon scores of sources in the Municipal Archives, particularly the District Attorney Indictment Papers, dating back to the late 18th Century. In the years before the American Revolution, prostitutes worked the wharves, entertaining British sailors and local New Yorkers alike.
In addition to the women who worked the streets, there were an estimated brothels in New York City in That grew to more than by the end of the Civil War. It was so widely known that one Sunday in , the Rev. Allaire, stating that to his knowledge Rose Hertz had moved away from the Precinct. NYC Municipal Archives. She was convicted on February 3, on charges of running a disorderly house on East Ninth Street and jailed in the Tombs. This time, she threatened to name her protectors.
During all those years she paid fat prices for protection to police and more fat prices to politicians for other favors and because she was squeezed. Hertz has been in the Tombs since February 3 on the promise that she would reveal police graft in the white slave traffic.
When a woman received a patron, the money was immediately turned over to the madame. Some of the cadets came from the ranks of street gangs with ties to local Tammany Hall politicians. Subsequent committee reports described police corruption in detail. It also describes the pecking order of such places. He wrote that investigators visited parlor houses between January 24, and November 15, The book noted that police crackdowns often concentrated on low-level operations while leaving the high-class brothels alone.
