The Historical Society of Princeton will convene a panel of experts at the Princeton Theological Seminary to discuss notorious New Jersey and national crimes of the 1930s on Feb. 28.
The lecture is planned in connection with the Historical Society’s current exhibition, “Princeton in the 1930s,” on display at Bainbridge House through July.
In Mercer County, the crime news of the decade was the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. Throughout New Jersey and the United States, crime waves surged during the 1930s, including such notorious factions as John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde and Machine Gun Kelly. During this period, the FBI’s position as the nation’s premier law enforcement agency solidified.
Panelists for the “Great Crime Wave of the 1930s” will include: Lloyd Gardner, professor emeritus of history at Rutgers University; Jon Blackwell, author of “Notorious New Jersey;” and John F. Fox, Jr., FBI historian.
Professor Gardner is the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History at Rutgers University, where he has taught since 1963. Most recently, he is author of “The Case That Never Dies: The Lindbergh Kidnapping” (Rutgers University Press, 2004). Among the awards he has received are two Fulbright professorships and a Guggenheim fellowship.
Mr. Blackwell is a journalist who has often written about New Jersey. He was an editor at the Asbury Park Press and a reporter at the Trentonian and is now a copy editor at the New York Post. Mr. Blackwell also contributed to The Encyclopedia of New Jersey. “Notorious New Jersey” (Rivergate Books, 2007) is his first book.
Mr. Fox has been the FBI historian since 2003. He was awarded a doctorate in modern American history from the University of New Hampshire in 2001 and a master’s degree in political science from Boston College in 1993. He has recently had articles published in the Law Enforcement Executive Forum, Studies in Intelligence, and the Journal of Government Information.
According to Mr. Blackwell, “New Jersey in the ‘30s was the site of some of the most shocking crimes the United States had known. First and foremost, there was the Lindbergh kidnapping in 1932 — followed by the gangland execution of Dutch Schultz in Newark and the deadly fire aboard the SS Morro Castle, suspected as arson.”
The panel on Feb. 28 will be held at 7 p.m. at Princeton Theological Seminary, Cooper Conference Room in the Erdman Center, 20 Library Place, Princeton.
Suggested admission is $5 for Historical Society members and $8 for non-members. To RSVP call Jeanette Cafaro at (609) 921-6748.
The program is made possible in part by the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through funding from the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.
The Historical Society of Princeton, founded in 1938, is a museum and library dedicated to interpreting the history of Princeton. In 2004, the Historical Society of Princeton purchased the Updike Farmstead located in Princeton Township. Plans are under way to renovate the historic farmhouse and barn into permanent museum space, as well as educational space for school aged children and adults.
