Beefsteak Pete Arrested

Background: This 1858 newspaper article described what may have been the last arrest of Peter Sewally. Sewally was known to the New York City police as “Beefsteak Pete,” a reference to Sewally’s use of a piece of meat, attached to a girdle, that helped them to simulate female genitals.  The “panel crib” where Sewally worked indicated a house of prostitution, often with secret entries, in which customers were routinely robbed of clothing and other items. The article mentions Sewally’s criminal record and sentences served at Sing Sing, one of New York’s state penitentiaries, and “the Island,” a reference to Blackwell’s Island, a New York City jail.

The notorious negro thief known as Beefsteak Pete, who is in the habit of dressing himself up as a woman and inducing men to go into alleyways and there robbing them, was brought before Justice Kelly on Monday morning and committed as a vagrant. Pete has been in this business since 1840. At that time he used to work with an old negro named Bill Thompson who kept a panel crib on the corner of  Chamber and Chapel street, the resort of thieves and prostitutes. He had frequently practiced the beefsteak game before he was convicted. When arrested the complainant was usually ashamed to appear, and Pete got scot free. Officer Bowyer was the first detective who laid for Pete, and… had little difficulty in catching him in his own trap. Pete was convicted and sent up to the Penitentiary, and since that time he has been sent to the Island times without number, besides serving two or three terms in Sing Sing. On Monday last Pete said he could get a good many white friends who could get him out of the scrape, but he would not call on them. He believes in honor among thieves.

Source: “Beefsteak Pete Arrested,” National Police Gazette, April 3, 1858, https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/q237hs039.