Killing the Poormaster: A Saga of Poverty, Corruption, and Murder in the Great Depression

Despised as a miser, Hoboken, N.J., poormaster Harry Barck—responsible for doling out relief to the poor—died on February 25, 1938, after an altercation with Joseph Scutellaro, one of the city’s many unemployed citizens. Barck was known for turning away starving families, assuming the men were too lazy to find jobs. President Roosevelt’s relief program, the Works Progress Administration, did little to ease the situation, as the unemployed far outnumbered available jobs. Complicating matters was the deep-seated corruption of both City Hall and the police department, which kept anyone outside the inner circle from finding work. Scutellaro—who’d repeatedly applied for aid and received a paltry $5.70 a month to feed a family of four—claimed the poormaster fell on a sharp desk spindle and died, but he was still charged with murder. Journalist Metz recounts Scutellaro’s trial—represented by famed Scottsboro Boys attorney Sam Leibowitz—and paints a sad picture of the lives of the poor in Depression-era Hoboken. Metz also focuses on Herman Matson, whose efforts to organize Hoboken aid seekers met with mixed success. While Metz’s well-rounded historical portrait possesses a genuine human center, she fails to whittle down her wealth of interesting material into a streamlined narrative. Photos, map. Agent: Michael Carr & Katherine Boyle, Veritas Literary. (Oct.)