Max Neumaier

Summary

Max was the firstborn of his parents Josef und Theres and was born in Lauchheim in the district of Jagst in the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1863. One year later Josef and Theres moved to Ellwangen. There are not many records of Max to be found in Germany. His name is on the family register of the city of Ellwangen during that period (see media). Max first pops um on a passenger manifest on a steam ship to America in 1882 with the profession of merchant. Max was the first Neumaier to immigrate into the US as far as I could determine. When he arrived in New York he lived in Manhattan in the East Village at various addresses and had the occupation of «clerk» in his naturalization documents. Max became a naturalized US citizen in 1888. In 1891 Max became a Patrolman for the NYPD and in December 1891 was quickly promoted to the rank of «Roundsman». Max was in the local newspapers concerning his police activity fairly often it seems. His first mention was the bust of a gambling den where he played a central role in arresting Theodore Allen, the head of a criminal family.

In 1891 Max also married a Jewish women from German Posen, part of Prussia, who had immigrated to New York in 1884, Minna Friedländer. In 1894 the grandfather of the person authoring this text, Martin Alan, was born. In July 1897 Max’s second son Adolf was born. A couple months later, in December 1897 Max, while breaking into a room to arrest a person being drunk and disorderly, was shot at twice. One bullet missed him and one bullet struck his belt buckle, saving his life. In the 12^th census of 1900 Max and his family are living on East 79th Street in Manhattan, in building 335, room 317. Obviously an area of German speaking immigrants. Of the other residents in this building 17 of 33 were born in Germany or Austria. The rest were born in New York. To the question of where the father or mother of the resident was born: All residents answered Germany or Austria except for two who stated Holland. From the family names in Max’s building the residents look like a mix of Jews and Christians (Gotthelf, Kahn, Lowenthal, Müller, Weil, Freibusch, König, Morgenstein, etc.). The occupations listed in Max’s building in 1900 where quite varied. Printer, Doctor, Plumber, Tailor, Clerk, Conductor, and Salesman for example. It was not a tenement it seems.

In 1907 Max was a Sergeant at the Brownsville Station in Brooklyn. Later in 1907 Sergeant Neumaier accidently blew himself and some others up through inadvertently causing a gas explosion and was hospitalized for some weeks. In 1909 Max was a lieutenant at the 165th Precinct. In 1916 Lieutenant Neumaier was charged and then acquitted of police brutality charges. He is mentioned in the article with the following words «[Lieutenant] Neumaier is rated as an especially capable clerical man and did most of the work in laying out a new flag and patrol booth system In Queens». In 1913 it even made it into the local newspaper when lieutenant Max Neumaier visited his son Martin at a Cornell agricultural program and called on the local police chief.

Around 1918 Max was on Police Commissioner Frederick Hamilton Bugher’s staff. In 1923 Max was «acting» Captain at the Greenpoint Ave. Station in Brooklyn. In 1925 Max was discharged from the Meserole Ave. Station in Brooklyn at the age of 62 as part of one of Police Commissioner Richard Enright’s purges of officers he did not want on the force.

After leaving the force Max moved to remote Brightwaters on Long Island. Max’s wife Minnie died in 1935. Max died in 1948 and was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens alongside his wife Minnie.

Police Storm “The” Allen’s – 1896

Beat Down Doors of the Notorious Poolroom with Sledges and Captured Sixty-Eight Matt.

ALLEN THE FIRST TAKEN.

Detectives play the Races in «The West Side Social and Political Club.»

TRAP «SPORTS» LIKE RATS.

Wreck the Premise in Their Enthusiasm At Reaching Allen After Twenty-Six Years.

«The» Allen, sometimes referred to as the wickedest man in New York, will chalk down yesterday as one of three particularly exciting days in his twenty-six years› experience as a dive keeper. The other two days were when he killed «Ed» Molloy and when John Carero attacked him with an icepick and left him for dead before twenty astonished «bad» men could spring to his defense. Thirty policemen carried «The» Allen’s pool room, at No. 513 West Broadway, by storm yesterday afternoon, battered down his strong doors with big sledges, tumbled down through his roof, swarmed up his fire escapes, wrecked the whole establishment and captured every man in the building. The Mercer street police had done what the police have been trying to do at intervals since 1870, when «The» Allen first came into prominence in the ranks of the lawless. He has been in trouble many times in those twenty-six years, but until yesterday, all in all, he had had the best of it.

RESORT TO STRATEGY.

At last however, the police beat him with his own weapon—cunning. One of the men who put his money down on Hailstone in the fourth race yesterday was Max Neumaier, a policeman, brought up from the Church Street station because he could get past «Jimmy» Burke, «The» Allen’s outer guard, who knows the face of every man. In Captain Groo’s command in Mercer street. Neumaier and a citizen who knew how to pass the lookout had been playing the races in the West Broadway house for a week.  They had obtained the evidence necessary, and, most Important of all, knew the building from roof to cellar.  Acting upon information given by them Captain Groo obtained warrants yesterday morning in Jefferson Market Police Court. Neumaier went to the poolroom yesterday afternoon as usual. Four o’clock was agreed upon as the hour of attack, and Detectives Worden and Brownell, who led the main storming party, carried sledges.

Those who wonder why the police sometimes know of pool selling without stopping it will be instructed by a glance at No. 513 West Broadway just before the raid. There is a little shop on the street level. A button, hidden there rings a bell two floors above. To the left of the shop- there is a hallway. The street door is open. Five feet beyond it is another door, with a push button on each side. Over one button is the sign «West Side Club,» over the other «Brown & Co.» Both are «bluffs.» Inside the door, which has two panes of glass, stands the lookout.  If he doesn’t know you and approve of you, you can’t go in. At the top of the flight of stairs behind him there are two doors, one bearing the sign in big letters, «Brown & Co.» This is the door which a storming party would naturally attack. It is built to resist a battering ram, and, besides, it leads nowhere.  In other words, it is a «blind.»

A MEETING DELAYED.

To the right of it is another door, not so stout, which leads into the clubroom. In it is a buffet bar, a demijohn of whiskey, a mourning picture inscribed «In Memoriam;» a picture of William McKinley, a picture of Mr. John C. Heenan, a god of battle revered by pugilists; the Declaration of Independence, a picture of Mary Stuart’s first night in Scotland, and a sign announcing a special meeting of the West Side Social Club for yesterday afternoon, signed «J. Phelps, President.» Thus, even when you have reached the bar and seen the sainted countenance of John Heenan, you have three doors between you and the street, two of which are very strong, and there are still two between you and the poolroom proper. It is on the floor above and is a very remarkable place in its way. You see a big box, ceiling high, at one side of the room. It serves a double purpose. It hides the men with whom you deal, so that you can’t Identify them, and it contains a stairway leading to the roof, whence escape is possible by fire escapes and over other roofs.

IN FANCIED SECURITY.

This room at four o’clock yesterday was crowded with «sports» of all kinds, ranging from «Charlie» Bennett who was with «The» Allen when Carew nearly killed him, to a college boy all excitement over his first shy at the horses. It seemed a safe: enough place surely, with three doormen and four doors between it and the street. Captain Groo chose four o’clock, because then the betting up stairs would be most brisk. Men were told oft to guard the rear and the fire escapes, and there were two men on the roof ready to catch any one who climbed the stairway leading up from the big box in the poolroom. Captain Groo, Detectives Brownell and Warden, with sledges; Detectives Rooney, Schwarz and Bellinger, to guarantee them room to swing, and a flying wedge of twenty-five plain clothes men were ready in West Broadway. Then, at Captain Groo’s signal. Roundsman Edward J. Burke, who was once a sailor, ran across the street with a ladder, reared it against the fire escape in front and ran up like a monkey. As soon as he had fairly started the whole party charged the street door. The lookout fled, shouting. The door was locked. «Brownell!» shouted the Captain. The big man swung his sledge. 

THE LAST ANNOUNCMENT.

«Hailstone at the half!» drawled the announcer to the sixty sports in the room above.  Bang! Brownell’s hammer had fallen, and Warden’s fell after it.  Crash! Sailorman Burke was kicking in the poolroom window from the fire escape, three flights up.  «Hailstone,» for all the sixty sports know, is running yet. Door after door was beaten down or Knocked clear off its hinges, and thus in a few seconds Captain Groo and his men were in the clubroom, on the second floor.  Detective Rooney in the meantime saw a short, well dressed, quiet looking man. With keen, shifting gray eyes, moving quickly out a side door into Bleecker street.  «Mr. Allen,» he said, «we’re holding a reception over at the station. You’ll have a front seat.» And «The» Allen went along.  There were twelve men in the clubroom proper. These were placed under arrest and guarded, while the sledge men forced the two doors above. … „ The «sports» had swarmed to the windows at the first sound of the hammers. That sound filled every window with the faces of grinning policemen. The profanity was astonishing.

LIKE RATS IN A TRAP.

The men in the betting box tried their secret stairway and saw a policeman peering down at them from the roof. From the sounds in the room outside they knew what had happened, but only opened when Brownell and Warden set to work on the box with their sledges. Sixty-one men were held as «Inmates of a pool room,» and the following were charged with aiding and abetting and conducting it: Theodore Allen, fifty years old, real estate dealer No. 122 Clinton place; Edward Hoppe. No. 6 Bedford street; James F. Ryan, No. 222 East Thirty-fourth street; Andrew Mullen, No, 9 Charlton street; Charles Bennett, No. 24 First street: James Conlin, No. 75 Morton street and James Burke, No. 430 West Twenty-eighth street.  Telegraph Instruments, betting slips, top row cards, pocket relays, one thousand poker chips and six packs of cards were among the material seized as evidence.

13.11.1896 – NEW YORK HERALD

09.07.1897 son Adolf born.

Charles Reinhardt, a Married Man, Horsewhipped by a Young Girl – 1897

COMMERTERS CHEERED HER ON. She Was Ida Albrecht and She He Had Promised to Marry Her.  CHASED HIM FOR BLOCKS IN WEST ST. 

Both Arrested by a Bluecoat and Locked Up on a Charge of Disorderly Conduct.

Just where Duane street runs into West street stood a young woman while the commuters were making ferryward at 6 P. M. yesterday. More than one of them looked around at her—the girl was a model of comeliness, pink-cheeked, blue-eyed and well rounded. For an hour she waited patiently, keeping her cape well over something she had in her hand. At last there came a good-looking young fellow stepping Jauntily along, and the girl—anyone could see she wasn’t more than eighteen –brightened up and closed in behind him. Then something flashed from out beneath her cape. It was a long, limber rawhide. «Scoundrel, liar, dog!» she screamed, laying the whip In telling blows all over the man’s head and face.

For a moment he stood dumfounded; then he started off at full speed, the young woman following, curling her whip in savage blows around his head and neck. With bulging eyes he ran; she with disheveled hair. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Went the whip. «Hit him again” yelled the Commuters, giving chase in legion. Down West Street sped the pair. At Park Place the man forsook the sidewalk for the street, making for the Hoboken ferry at Barclay street. But still the girl kept up, raining down a shower of blows. There stood Policeman Neumaier. Plump Into his arms ran the terrified man «Save me! Save me!» he yelled. Even the bluecoat for the moment was helpless before the girl’s onslaught. With her quarry locked In Neumaier’s arms it was easy to lash him. The blows were redoubled. Neumaier had to wrench the rawhide from the girl’s hands before he could stop her. Then he arrested both of them for disorderly conduct and marched them off to the Church Street Station.

She was Ida Albrecht, eighteen years old, of No. 108 Bloomfield street, Hoboken; he Charles Reinhardt, thirty years old, of No. 118 Clinton street, Hoboken. It was the old, old story that the girl told in the station—acquaintance, courtship, ruin, and then a realizing sense that her deceiver was a married man and unable to keep his pledges.  Reinhardt, the girl said, was a bartender at No. 183 Duane Street, and she a waitress at No. 152 East Houston street. Two months ago they met. Last Wednesday the girl began to realize that her little romance was at an end, for when she approached Reinhardt he broke away and disappeared.

«I only heard today.» sobbed the girl, «that he had a wife already!» Smarting under the wrong done her, Ida Albrecht bought the whip. Then she waited for him to come out from work In Duane Street. The commuters saw the rest. Reinhardt refused to say anything more than “I’ll tell my story in court.”  The two were kept in custody for disorderly conduct, the girl going to the Oak Street Station for the night and the man to Leonard Street. To-day they will be arraigned in the Centre Street Police Court.

1897.12.08 – Rochester NY Democrat Chronicle, Special Dispatch to Democrat and Chronicle.

Struck a Buckle – 1897

Policeman Neumaier Had a Very Narrow Escape.

New York, Dec. 6.—A man crazed with drink and bent on wrecking a West street hotel shot twice at Policeman Max Neumaier late last night.  Both shots were fired through a door. One went wide.  The other struck a buckle on the front of the policeman’s belt, and wedged itself under the edge.  This no doubt saved his life.

The man, who ‹is William Schapka, is a prisoner in the Church Street Station.  He is young, but very powerful. He lives at No. 140 West street, and is a barkeeper. Schapka was very drunk when he rolled into the hotel at No. 116 West Street, about 10 o’clock.  Frederick Lillienthal, the manager, tried to put him out, but Schapka was not ready to go. He went to the second floor und began to throw the furniture around. Lilienthal knows something of such characters and grappled with him, but he was no match for the burly barkeeper.  Schapka got his thumb in his mouth during the fight and bit it nearly off. Lilienthal threw him off, and ran to the Cortlandt Street ferry, where he met Policeman Neumaier. They returned to the hotel, to find that Schapka had barricaded himself in a room on the second floor.  He refused to come out when told to do so by the policeman.  Neumaier commenced to break in the door. As the first blow fell two shots rang out.  The policemen felt the shock when the bullet struck his belt, but, not waiting to see whether he was injured or not, he threw his weight on the door and it fell inward.  When searched, Schapka had, besides the revolver, with four chambers full, a razor and a small dirk knife.

1897.12.08 – Rochester NY Democrat Chronicle, Special Dispatch to Democrat and Chronicle.

Commissioner A.R. Piper: Ordered, That Acting Roundsman Max Neumaier, 1st Precinct, be and is hereby commended for promptness and activity displayed by him in subduing what might have been a very bad fire at Nos. 64 and 66 Nassau Street on the forenoon of March 25, 1903.

25.03.1903 – City Record

FOUR MEN IN HOSPITAL BURNED IN EXPLOSIONS – 1907

Gas Escaped and Charles Duker Struck a Match in Bathroom.

POLICE SENT TO THE SCENE.

Sergeant Neumaier Ignited Match, and Another Explosion and Fire Followed.

As a result of two explosions in a bathroom at 34 Bristol street, four men, including a sergeant and a patrolman of the Brownsville Station, are now in St. Mary’s Hospital, suffering from severe burns.  At about 2:30 this morning an alarm was sent in by Morris Sach, the landlord of the house on Bristol street, to St. Mary’s Hospital that there was a man severely injured from an explosion In his house. Dr. Sullivan of the hospital immediately went to the scene, and there he found Charles Dukler, 42 years of age, lying on the floor of his apartment, having been burned by an explosion of gas in the bathroom, which he had entered shortly before.  He was burned about the head and arms, and his hair was nearly all gone. His 17-year-old son was also suffering from a lacerated wound of the hands, received from broken glass, and shock. Dr. Sullivan Immediately took the two under his charge and dressed their wounds.

In the meanwhile the Brownsville Station had been informed of the accident by police headquarters, and the lieutenant at the desk had Immediately sent Patrolman Hellman and. Sergeant Neumaier to the house to investigate the case.  The two officers went to the scene, the sergeant in the lead. They both noticed the smell of gas and the sergeant felt the gas cocks to see whether they were all turned off. He also saw that the window in the bathroom in the rear of the house, where the explosion had taken place, was opened.  Then he struck a match. Instantly there was another explosion and before either of the officers could escape, flames enveloped them. Neumaier was burned on the face and hands and Hellman on the head, face and hands. The flames also leaped into the room where the Duklers were being attended by the surgeon and caused further burns to the father. It was by merest chance that the doctor and the little Dukler baby escaped injury.  The whole neighborhood was awakened by the concussion.

The four men were all removed to St. Mary’s Hospital, where they will probably have to stay for some weeks to come, although all are expected to recover from the burns. On hearing of the second explosion the reserves were sent out and the fire engines were summoned to the scene. The damage to the furniture did not amount to more than $100 and the flames were soon extinguished. Hellman, one of the officers, was bitten earlier in the evening by Abraham Freedman of 235 Watkin Street while endeavoring to place him under arrest.

09.11.1907 – The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The City Record 1908-09

The following extensions of temporary assignments are hereby ordered: Sergeants. Max Neumaier, One Hundred and Sixty-fifth Precinct to Corporation Counsel’s office, Manhattan, for five days, from 8 p. m., May 1, 1908

15.05.1908 – The City Record. Vol. XXXVI. New York Number 10650

The following temporary assignments are hereby ordered: Lieutenants Max Neumaier, One Hundred and Sixty-fifth Precinct, assigned to Central Office Squad, duty in Chief Inspector’s office, for two days, from 4 p.m., December 25, 1909; Max Neumaier, One Hundred and Sixty-fifth Precinct, assigned to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, during absence of Lieutenant William H. Ward on vacation, from 4 p.m., December 27, 1909;

11.01.1910 – The City Record

Photo of Max Neumaier looking like a real NY Police Officer. Date unknown.

The following extensions of temporary assignments are hereby ordered: Lieutenant Max Neumaier. One Hundred and Sixty-fifth Precinct, to Corporation Counsel’s office, for five days, from 2p m., August 2 1909.

02.08.1910 – The City Record. Vol. XXXVI. New York. Number 11026

Max Neumaier, police lieutenant of the New York City Department. Called on Chief Buch this
morning. Mr. Neumaier has a son who is a sophomore in the agriculture curse at Cornell.

Ithaka Daily 24.11.1913

Lieutenant and Policeman Are Accused of Rough Treatment – 1916

 Lieutenant Max Neumaier and Policeman William A. Carey were picked out of Inspector John J. Collins› staff in Queens yesterday when the staff was lined up in the office of Chief Inspector Max Schmittberger at Police Headquarters. Louise Hohoach and Frank J. Schultels identified Neumaier and Carey. Miss Hohoach said they entered the kitchen at the home of her uncle, Jacob Strobel, who has a saloon at No. 25 Fresh Pond road, and roughly handled her and Schultels. Miss Hohoach’s face was scarred. She said a sharp object on Lieutenant Neumaier’s coat had scratched her when Neumaier grasped her roughly by the arms. Schultels said his arms were bruised in his handling by the policemen.  Ira G. Darrin, counsel for the complainants, reported their case to the Chief Inspector.  As they did not know the names of the men they accused, the staff was lined up for their Inspection. Neumaier and Carey were ordered to trial next week before the Deputy Commissioner in Brooklyn.

25.07.1916 – New York Herald

Begin probe of charge – Schmittberger hears tale of Maspeth girl and youth accusing policemen – 1916

Summonses for Two Officers Vacated By Magistrate Fitch in Flushing Court—Both Accused Men Rated High in Police Department.

Neither Acting Inspector. John J. Collins of the Seventeenth Inspection District, nor Lieutenant Max Neumaier, who is one of two attaches of the Inspection District Office under charges of having assaulted a young man and a girl in Maspeth on July 8, would comment this Tuesday on the hearing held Monday afternoon before Chief Inspector Schmittberger at Police Headquarters, Manhattan. The police are confident their case will result in a dismissal of the charges. The entire staff of the Acting Inspector was lined up before Frank J. Schulteis, a clerk and Louise Hohloch, 18 years old, who allege they were beaten up by two policemen. They picked out as their assailants, Lieutenant Neumaier and Patrolman William Carey. Both officers now stand accused of entering the kitchen in the rear of the saloon of Jacob Strobel at 25 Fresh Pond Road, Maspeth, on the evening of July 9, and of having there attacked Schulteis and Miss Hohloch, who is said to be a niece of the proprietor of the saloon. Miss Hohloch lives at the Fresh Pond road address and describes herself as a housekeeper.

Court Vacates Summonses.

At the time the charges were being formulated against the accused policemen by Chief Inspector Schmittberger, Magistrate Fitch in the Flushing Court cancelled summonses which had been issued for the purpose of bringing before him Patrolman Carey and Patrolman John O’Connor of the Inspection District staff. The complainants had asked for summonses for these two officers, declaring they… When neither complainants nor accused appeared in court Monday afternoon. Magistrate Fitch ordered the summonses cancelled. O’Connor was in the line-up at Manhattan headquarters on Monday afternoon, but Miss Hohloch and Schulteis passed him by and declared Lieutenant Neumaier had been one of the two officers who beat Miss Hohloch and her escort.› Miss Hohloch said it was a pin in Lieutenant Neumaier’s clothing which had scratched her face. Former District Attorney Ira Darrin told the chief inspector that he had been unable to learn the identity of the men through Acting Inspector Collins.

Have Good Records.

Both accused officers have department records which are described by their immediate superiors as excellent.  Lieutenant Neumaier came to the Queens Inspection District office shortly after Captain Collins was sent here from Brooklyn. Neumaier is rated as an especially capable clerical man and did most of the work in laying out a new flag and patrol booth system In Queens. Lieutenant Neumaier spent a comparatively long period on duty in the Greenpoint Precinct during the time Captain Collins was in charge there. Patrolman Carey came to Queens from a Brooklyn precinct. He has been very active in investigating complaints against alleged disorderly houses and saloons.

Complaint Against Saloon.

Department records are to the effect that the police received a letter which contained charges against the Strobel saloon which required investigation. It is also a matter of record that men were engaged in investigating conditions at the saloon.

25.07.1916 – Daily Star

Neumaier Acting Captain. In the absence of Police Captain Charles E. Lee, of the Greenpoint Avenue Station, who is away on vacation, Lieut. Max Neumaier is acting captain. Lieutenant Neumaier has been connected with the Greenpoint Avenue Station for a number of years.

06.09.1923 – The Brooklyn Standard Union

ENRIGHT FORCES OUT 59 ELDERLY OFFICERS

Max Neumaier, Meserole Av. Station, Brooklyn.  Members of the department said yesterday that the transfers three weeks ago probably were made in order to make it easier for the Commissioner to force some lieutenants out. All the dismissals were effective at one minute after midnight this morning.

06.04.1925 – The New York Times, age 61, Richard Enright