Mystery NYS Sing Sing Prison Guards Photo (circa 1930s):
Can you help identify any officer? Location at the prison? Date? Occasion?

Click peopled portions of photo to access close-ups of the officer groupings (left, middle, right).



Click peopled portions of photo to access close-ups of the officer groupings (left, middle, right).

To NYCHS:
I am in possession of a picture of my grandfather in a group of officers in front of prison gates. He was a Sing Sing guard from the late 1930s until the early 1960s.

Perhaps some visitors to your web site can identify the photo for me -- date, place and occasion or circumstances.

My Grandfather is the third from the left, in the second row. His cap is pulled pulled low on his brow. His name was Hobart Atkinson Gilmore. Born Oct. 23, 1891, he died in 1982. The picture has just surfaced.

My grandparents used to live on Clinton Avenue in Ossining. The house number was in the low 70s. I can remember that, when I was a small child visiting my grandparents, we used to drive by the prison.

Please forward to me the responses to this inquiry. I live in California.

Thanks,
G_____ M_____


To NYCHS:

I wish that I knew more but I can gladly tell you what I know. I have this same picture hanging in my mom's bedroom. My dad is the third person from the right in the second row and must be in his early 20s.

My dad, Marshall Yerry, was born April 7, 1907 in Phoenicia. That's in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

I know for sure that the picture is from Sing Sing prison as my dad was a guard there. I am not sure of the dates that he was there but I am working on getting that.

I remember that my dad also told me that he managed (or coached) the Sing Sing prison baseball team and that they used to play the Yankees. My dad did say that he had played in the minor leagues on a farm team for the St. Louis Browns.

After my dad left Sing Sing, he became a police officer with the Bronxville, NY police department and retired from there on a disability in 1947.

D_____ Y________


To NYCHS:

Hello,

I have identified a couple of the guards in the picture.

In the first row, to the far right, is my grandfather -- Bernard Smyth -- who was a prison guard at Sing Sing from 1928 to his death in 1945.

The third from the right in the first row is Ralph Connor Senior.

They were identified by Ralph Connor, Jr. The Connors and Smyths were very close.

Please forward this to the fellow who was asking about it on the web site.

Thank you.

R_______ S_____


E-mail --- webmaster Thomas C. McCarthy at NYCHS@NYC.RR.COM

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