Allen M. Hornblum

The Philadelphia Prison System during the 1970s consisted of three prisons; Holmesburg, House of Correction, and the Detention Center. The inmate population of over 3,000 inmates housed some of the area's top athletes and artists. W. Freeman, awaiting trial, was one of them.

A relic of the late 19th century, the prison became infamous for its horrid treatment of those confined. Opened in 1896 with a traditional spoke and wheel design, the county prison usually held Philadelphia’s most infamous and dangerous felons such as Chicago mobster Al Capone, bank robber Willie Sutton, and Atomic spy Harry Gold. In addition to typical prison violence such as clever escapes, prisoner revolts, and exercise yard violence, Holmesburg also “cooked” prisoners alive in 1938, and used inmates as raw material for human experimentation.

A frequent lecturer at an array of institutions, universities, and medical schools ranging from the British Medical Association and FBI to Princeton and East Carolina University, Hornblum is pictured here with Adrienne Jones-Alston before a college presentation in Virginia. Adrienne’s father, Leodus Jones, was one of the first Holmesburg Prison inmates to take a stand against the exploitation of prisoners as subjects for medical research.

Attending this holiday get-together were representatives of more than a half-dozen law enforcement agencies including the Philadelphia and Camden County Sheriff’s Office, Philadelphia Police, New Jersey State Police, and Pennsylvania Crime Commission.

Though known to most people as the MI-6 sidekick of James Bond in "Octopussy," the 1983 edition of the British spy drama, Vijay Amritraj was known to tennis enthusiasts long before as a top Indian player. Amritraj collected match wins over Rod Laver, Jimmy Conners, Bjorn Borg, and John McEnroe during his career, and ranked among the world’s best.

A former Big-8 Conference tennis champion at the University of Colorado, Richard Hillway went on to become a highly successful high school tennis coach. His love of the game evolved into his becoming one of the world’s leading tennis historians and manuscript collectors. His book, "The Birth of Lawn Tennis," (with Robert Everitt), is considered the most authoritative account of the game’s early years.

At the La Quinta resort during the Indian Wells Masters 1000 Tennis Tournament, Hornblum and Hillway welcome John Carpenter to the ranks of tennis scribes with his new book charting the history of tennis instruction in America.

Las Vegas is not only a gambling Mecca, but also home to the Mob Museum, one of the nation’s best repositories of organized crime memorabilia. Devoting a night to organized crime in Philadelphia, guest speakers included Hornblum; George Anastasia, former crime reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer; criminal defense attorney, James J. Leonard Jr. (and George “Cowboy” Martorano, not in photo).

Many Merion Cricket Club members can name the participants at this 1968 trophy presentation that includes Marty Reissen, Arthur Ashe, and Bill Clothier, but are usually stumped when asked to identify the gentleman on the far left. His name: Richard Helms, the controversial Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1966 To 1973.

Vic Seixas was a multi-sport star at Penn Charter High School in Philadelphia and went on to athletic stardom at North Carolina University. After his college career, which was interrupted by his service as a test pilot during World War II, he returned to become one of the world’s most formidable tennis players during the 1950s.

A sterling physical specimen who won the British (Wimbledon) and American championships - and starred on the North Carolina freshman basketball team and many years later as a national senior squash champion - Seixas lived a long, active life but his powerful legs eventually failed and he was confined to a wheelchair. Seixas died in July 2024, just weeks before his 101st birthday.

A high school dropout and self-described “functional illiterate," Edward “Yusef” Anthony was arrested at the age of 20 for selling a small amount of marijuana. Unable to make bail and awaiting trial in Holmesburg Prison, he was told by social workers he could make some money as a test subject for the University of Pennsylvania’s medical experiments. The experience would prove devastating, both mentally and physically.

As young children, Gordon Shattuck, Austin Larocque, and Charlie Dyer were taken by the state of Massachusetts from their homes and placed in the Fernald School for the Feebleminded. In addition to being forced to work for their keep - making brooms, harvesting crops, and coming under sexual assault by school staff - they were used as medical guinea pigs and injected with radioactive isotopes for diet studies by MIT and Harvard researchers.

Charlie Pasarell was America’s top tennis player in 1967 and amongst the country’s Top Ten for more than a decade. He was Arthur Ashe’s roommate at UCLA, doubles partner on court, and the founder and longtime chief operating officer of the Indian Wells Masters Tennis Tournament.

Tommy Haas was the No. 2 ranked tennis player in the world in 2002 and possessed one of the most beautiful single-handed backhands in the game. More currently, Haas is the Director of the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament.

Though one of Philadelphia’s greatest athletes and a world renown sports figure during the first half of the last century, the only public plaque, marker, or signpost dedicated to this athletic icon is his gravestone at Ivy Hill Cemetery.

Jack Frost was a Top 10 player from the 1950s who defeated the likes of Rod Laver, Vic Seixas, and Roy Emerson. Frost earned a Ph.D. from Stanford after his tennis career, learned Arabic and Swahili, and served in various diplomatic posts including Sudan, Ghana, and India.

Philly police produced a book of criminal mugshots to help in recognizing men wanted for various crimes. Designed to help police identify and arrest K&A Gang burglars who were becoming an increasing problem in Philadelphia and the surrounding area, arsonists, stick-up men, and organized crime figures were included in the pocket-sized bluebooks. On this page alone are burglars, bank robbers, boosters, drug dealers, and Mafia members.

A highly-experienced psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist, Dr. Ketchum was involved in numerous chemical warfare experiments for the US Army during the 1960s and 70s. Believing war with the Soviet Union was imminent, Cold War researchers tested various potions and incapacitants on Edgewood Arsenal soldiers and Holmesburg prisoners.

Chick Goodroe and Jimmy Dolan, standing in front of their former abode, Eastern State Penitentiary, were consummate criminals with a penchant for second story work. They traveled the country from coast to coast, relieving upscale homes and businesses of their most prized possessions.

Recalling their years on the bleak, unforgiving cellblocks of “Cherry Hill” and the “House” -two of the nicknames for Eastern State Pen - Goodroe and Dolan recounted both grim and humorous stories from their imprisonment in the early 1960s. Consistent with prisons as schools of crime, Dolan cited his time with and growing admiration for Effie Burke, one of the K&A Gang’s crew chiefs. Upon his release, Dolan became a key member of Effie’s crew and devotee of “production work.”

Jimmy Dolan’s funeral was attended by friends, family, and former criminal associates Charles "Chick" Goodroe and William “Cowboy” Barnes.

During the years Allen Hornblum spent tracking down and interviewing former K&A criminals and Irish Mob associates, he spent many days and nights in Kensington bars and Philly river ward shot and beer joints.