From the
History of the New York Police Department These Watchmen, or Bellmen as they were sometimes called, or among the Dutch, "Kloppermannen,"
carried with them a kind of bell, a lantern, and an hour-glass. At every house, with loud clattering of the "Klopper,"
they cried out "the time of the night, and the season of the weather." They were employed only during the winter
tine, or from first of November to the twenty-fifth of March, and received £15 each. They furnished their own fire and
light. The expense of the Watch varied from £ 60 to £36, or £9 per man, during winter season.
Source: Our Police Protectors Holice and Debbie
|
|
|
If you have information on James Reardon's biography, please contact there editor.
Publisher’s Weekly said of Big
Time Tommy Sloane, “Ex-cop Reardon (The Sweet Life of Jimmy Riley has almost written a strong cautionary
tale about a crooked New York cop. Tommy Sloane, son of a bent, philandering NYPD detective, hates his father, but after Tommy's
discharge from the Navy in the 1950s he joins the force. After a few lean years in uniform, Tommy (with some help from his
"connected" best friend) becomes a plainclothesman in "Manhattan West," a notorious hotbed of cops on
the take. Tommy enjoys 10 years of graft and high livingduring which he himself becomes a serious philanderer. But he runs
smack into the ambitious Sinclair commission investigating police corruption and is turned into a stoolie and an outcast.
Reardon's New York color is good, and he provides interesting inside-the-force background, but the writing and events
are too often flat and repetitious, and the narrative seems padded. Tommy's venality is matter-of-fact, and only at the
end, when he's forced to trap others "on the job," is there much heat. Then Reardon vents his spleen on "finks."
The nuts and bolts are here but, unfortunately, no real people. The possible portrait of a "good guy" ruined by
the "everybody's-doing-it" rationale just slips away.”
|
|
|
|