Gotham by Gaslight

A Victorian True Crime Tour

Life in 19th Century New York City seethed with murder, scandal, crime and vice of all flavors. “Gotham by Gaslight: A Victorian True Crime Tour” takes us back to this bloody and violent era as we examine four true crimes of Antebellum and Gilded Age New York – some of which remain unsolved to this day.

On the very first days of January 1800, the city awoke to news of a fresh murder that was unlike anything they’d ever seen. Over the next hundred years – a time of roiling social and political growth, strain, pressure, and change for New York – each new “murder of the century” gripped the city and whipped it into a panic, aided in no small part by tabloid journalists… and a writer named Edgar Allan Poe. By 1891, we’d even gone so far as to (possibly) have Jack the Ripper on American soil, slashing his way through the waterfront dives of the East Side.

On this walking tour we’ll stroll through the places where it all happened, from Federal Hall to the notorious old Five Points. This is the perfect excursion for a foggy November afternoon, ideal for anyone who loves mystery, true crime, film noir, horror, Edgar Allan Poe, New York City history, or Jack the Ripper studies.

You’ll never see the city the same way again once you’ve seen it by gaslight.

Local Legends, true crime, Urban History