In the opening decades of the 20th century, New York City was growing rapidly, and every form of crime kept pace with it, particularly murder. Culled from the archives of the NYPD, these 150 crime scene images—while certainly grisly—show a considerable degree of artistry in how they were photographed. Capturing a bygone Manhattan in all its film noir splendor, the pictures are paired here with the headlines they generated and excerpts from related newspaper articles, bringing a feeling of immediacy to these crimes of passion and gangland assassinations. Also included are a sampling of mug shots, and a photo of the somewhat surprising tools used by a burglar.