title: Scoundrels in Law: The Trials of Howe and Hummel, Lawyers to the Gangsters, Cops, Starlets, and Rakes Who Made the Gilded Age
author: Cait N Murphy
description: The decades following the Civil War were characterized by explosive industrial expansion and virtually unchecked urban growth. Accompanying this growth was the emergence of a new moneyed class; many of these men operated on both sides of the law, protected by corrupt police and politicians. This was what Mark Twain called the Gilded Age, where a gilt surface hid the rot underneath. Still, many of these men required legal representation, and among the most skilled (and unprincipled) New York lawyers were William Howe and Abrahm Hummel. Howe was a flamboyant, outrageous showman who flaunted courtroom decorum and excelled at playing on the heartstrings of jurors. Hummel was more restrained in court but a ruthless backroom operator. In Murphy's rendering, Howe and Hummel are fascinating and enjoyable characters when viewed at a distance, but she also sees them as worthy symbols of an age when amorality was elevated to a virtue. --Jay Freeman
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  [ALSO BY LINDSEY DAVIS](../Text/Accusers_toc.html#ad_card_1)
  
  
  
  
  
  The Course of Honor
  
  
  
  
  
  _The Falco Series_
  
  
  
  
  
  The Silver Pigs
  
  
  
  
  
  Shadows in Bronze
  
  
  
  
  
  Venus in Copper
  
  
  
  
  
  The Iron Hand of Mars
  
  
  
  
  
  Poseidon’s Gold
  
  
  
  
  
  Last Act in Palmyra
  
  
  
  
  
  Time to Depart
  
  
  
  
  
  A Dying Light in Corduba
  
  
  
  
  
  Three Hands in the Fountain
  
  
  
  
  
  Two for the Lions
  
  
  
  
  
  One Virgin Too Many
  
  
  
  
  
  Ode to a Banker
  
  
  
  
  
  A Body in the Bathhouse
  
  
  
  
  
  The Jupiter Myth
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [I](../Text/Accusers_toc.html#chap_1)
  
  
  
  
  
  I HAD BEEN an informer for over a decade when I finally learned what the job
  entailed.
  
  
  
  
  
  There were no surprises. I knew how society viewed us: lowborn hangers-on,
  upstarts too impatient for honest careers, or corrupt nobles. The lowest grade
  was proudly occupied by me, Marcus Didius Falco, son of the utterly plebeian
  rogue Didius Favonius, heir to nothing and possessing only nobodies for
  ancestors. My most famous colleagues worked in the senate and were themse