Staten Island Slayings

Historical true crime tales from this not-so-quiet New York City borough.

Despite its reputation as the least bustling of New York’s five boroughs, Staten Island has seen its share of violence and murder—dating back even to its days as a sleepy farming community in the mid-eighteenth century. The 1920 discovery of a woman’s body by two young boys walking their dog remains unsolved. An inmate at Sailors’ Snug Harbor—a retirement home for seamen—shot a preacher in cold blood. Shocking and horrific stories of killers and their victims such as these plague Staten Island’s otherwise pleasant past.

From the handsome soldier convicted of his Russian wife's shooting in New Dorp Beach to the New Brighton guard beaten to death while protecting seized whiskey during Prohibition, local historian Patricia Salmon uncovers Staten Island’s most chilling tales of crime—both the infamous and the long forgotten.

Includes photos