Prisoners

Prisoners

George Appo – pickpocket and con artist[475]

Ethel Byrne – sentenced to 30 days for distribution of information about birth control;[476] became the first woman in the U.S. ever to be force-fed in prison after going on a hunger strike there[477]

Ida Craddock – convicted for obscenity under the Comstock laws[478]

Ann O'Delia Diss Debar – served six months for fraud as a medium[479]

George Washington Dixon – served six months for libel against Reverend Francis L. Hawks[480]

Fritz Duquesne – Nazi spy and leader of the Duquesne Spy Ring, the largest convicted espionage case in United States history[481]

Becky Edelson – for "using threatening language" during a speech[482]

Carlo de Fornaro – for criminal libel[483]

Emma Goldman – several times, for activities in support of anarchism and birth control and against the World War I draft[484]

Billie Holiday – served on prostitution charges[485]

Mary Jones – 19th-century transgender prostitute who was a center of media attention for coming to court wearing feminine attire[486]

Eugene Reising – firearms designer convicted of violating the Sullivan Act[487]

Madame Restell – for performing abortions[488]

Margaret Sanger – sentenced to 30 days for distribution of information about birth control; jailed after her sister Ethel Byrne[476][489]

Boss Tweed – served one year on corruption-related charges; had a private room and secretary on the island[50]

Mae West – served eight days on public obscenity charges for her play Sex[490]