Circa 1935 NYS Sing Sing Prison Guards Photo:
Can you identify any other officers besides Sheehy and Goewey? Date? Occasion?

Click peopled portions of photo to access close-up sections of group (left, second left, second right, right).



Click peopled portions of photo to access close-up sections of group (left, second left, second right, right)..

In conferring with the NYCHS webmaster, Crash Out author David Goewey noted that his grandfather, Robert S. Goewey, can be seen in a 1935 group picture of Sing Sing officers posed in front of the prison administration building, that photo appearing in Guy Cheli's Images of America: Sing Sing Prison. The sepia image above is derived from a b&w photo appearing on Page 97 of Chelie's book. Cheli's caption under the Page 97 photo reads:

"This smartly dressed group of guards shown c. 1935 is wearing Sam Brown, leather belts across their chests. The leggings that some wore, called "Patties," were worn mostly by mounted personnel and were being phased out at the time. Principal Keeper [John J.] Sheehy is shown standing at the far right in this photograph."

Grandfather Guard
Robert S. Goewey

The above NYCHS web site sepia version of the Page 97 b&w photo has been mapped into four hyperlink sections. Clicking on one of those peopled sections brings up that section's close up image. The leggings mentioned in Cheli's caption can be seen on the officer standing left on the first step in the "second left" closeup section. So can the boots that go with the outfit. Goeway's grandfather Robert S. Goewey can be seen in the second right closeup section -- left, on the top step.

Since John Hartye had been a Sing Sing guard nearly 20 years when he was killed in the April 1941 prison break, the question arises -- is he also in this circa 1935 group photo of Sing Sing guards? Is he the third officer to the right of Grandfather Goewey in the second right closeup section? Is he the officer just over the right shoulder of Principal Keeper Sheehy in the far right closeup section?

Anyone with an informed opinion on that question, can e-mail it to NYCHS webmaster at NYCHS@NYC.RR.COM


Return to Crash Out excerpts page of NYCHS Revisiting Deadly 1941 Sing Sing Escape presentation.