Stacy Horn

“A riveting character-driven dive into 19th-century New York and the extraordinary history of Blackwell’s Island.” —Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica On a two-mile stretch of land in New York’s East River, a 19th-century horror story was unfolding . . . Today we call it Roosevelt Island. Then, it was Blackwell’s, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals. Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world ever seen, Blackwell’s Island quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, “a lounging, listless madhouse.” In the first contemporary investigative account of Blackwell’s, Stacy Horn tells this chilling narrative through the gripping voices of the island’s inhabitants, as well as the period’s officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated Nellie Bly. Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Horn brings this forgotten history alive: there was terrible overcrowding; prisoners were enlisted to care for the insane; punishment was harsh and unfair; and treatment was nonexistent. Throughout the book, we return to the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwell’s residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about man’s inhumanity to man. In Damnation Island, Stacy Horn shows us how far we’ve come in caring for the least fortunate among us—and reminds us how much work still remains.

Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York

Damnation Island

Investigates the scientific community's attempts to prove or disprove the existence of the paranormal world, tracing a half century of ghost stories and other unexplained phenomena as investigated by a Duke University team.

Investigations Into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory

Unbelievable

"As Horn relates her funny and profound experiences as a choir member [of the Choral Society of Grace Church in New York], she treats us to an eclectic history of group singing and the music that moves us--whether we're hearing it for the first time or the hundredth--, the dramatic stories of conductors and composers, and discoveries from the new science of singing, including the remarkable physical benefits of song"--Amazon.com.

finding happiness singing with others

Imperfect harmony

The founder of Echo, a virtual salon based in New York City -- where people log in to talk about art, movies, books, and the minutia of everyday life -- provides a frank and realistic picture of life online.

Clicks, Culture, and the Creation of an Online Town

Cyberville

Between 1985 and 2004 a staggering 8,894 unsolved homicides were committed in New York City. Here is the first ever inside look at the elite NYPD squad that cracks these “unsolvable” cases. In this fascinating, in-depth narrative, Stacy Horn uses her unprecedented access to the NYPD Cold Case Squad to immerse herself into four unsolved murder cases—cases going back as far as 1951—investigated by three indefatigable Cold Case detectives. Each detective uses his own contacts, informants, and resources and sifts through decades-old evidence, searching for new leads, looking for what others missed, and uncovering any possible connections. These Cold Case detectives are on a constant hunt for the needle in the haystack, and Stacy Horn puts you there every step of the way. From the grisly circumstances and desperate reconstructions of the crimes, through the endless legwork, the scientific advances that don’t always yield hoped-for answers, and the harrowing politics and tangled history of the storied NYPD, Horn depicts the drama of each case, and lays out the puzzle as seen through the eyes of the detectives. At once contemplative and energetic, The Restless Sleep is a completely addictive, fly-on-the-wall story of a subculture of crime solving, and of the people who must beat the odds to offer a final resolution for the unavenged.

Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad

The Restless Sleep

There is no statute of limitations on murder. It is one crime you pay for - but first you must be caught. And in New York City, thousands of murders remain unsolved... It was while working as a volunteer post 9/11 that New York-based writer and broadcaster Stacy Horn first learned of the existence of the NYPD's 'Cold Case and Apprehension Squad'. This small but elite unit has but a single purpose: to pursue murder cases that have, for whatever reason - the passage of time, lack of evidence, loss of investigative momentum - gone 'cold'. These are the deaths that have been forgotten, that languish in dusty filing cabinets in precinct HQ basements, some dating back over fifty years. The Cold Case team's job is to reach into the past and rescue the victims from oblivion, to answer the questions 'who were they?', 'what happened to them?' and 'who did this to them?', to lay their ghosts to rest. Theirs is the world that inspires and informs television series such as CSI and Waking the Dead. Given unprecedented access to the Squad, Stacy Horn worked alongside the talented, indefatigable, sometimes ill-at-ease and all-too human detectives as they investigate four cases from inception to resolution. An enthralling chronicle of the two years she spent with the team, The Restless Sleep is both a compelling insider's view of a real-life subculture of crime solving - from its tangled history, the politics and bureaucracy to the science, the emotional and physical toll, and the lucky breaks - and a singular exploration of human nature itself.

Stacy Horn

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