Episode 27: Crime-Fighting Broad 003: Isabella Goodwin, Detective

The story behind New York’s first-ever female detective! In 1896, Isabella Goodwin was a quiet, hard-working police matron who wrangled murderesses, made up the prison beds, and earned about half of what her male coworkers did. As far as she knew, she’d be a police matron forever…until one day, a gruff captain called her over to his desk and asked if she’d like to take a crack at going undercover.

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Sources:

 The Fearless Mrs. Goodwin: How New York's First Female Police Detective Cracked the Crime of the Century, by Elizabeth Mitchell

“Robbers Hold Up Bank Messengers in Taxi; Steal $25,000 and Escape in an Auto,” Brooklyn Times Union, 15 Feb 1912

“The First Municipal Woman Detective in the World,” The New York Times, 3 March 1912

“Mrs. Isabella Goodwin is a Sherlock Holmes in Skirts,” Daily Long Island Democrat, 26 March 1912

“Who Mrs. Isabella Goodwin Really Is,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 7 April 1912

“Bandits’ Sentences Pile High,” New-York Tribune, 13 April 1912

“Woman Detective is Secret Bride,” The Standard Union, 28 Nov 1921

“Overlooked No More: Isabella Goodwin, New York City’s First Female Police Detective,” New York Times, 13 March 2019

Ticket Scalping: An American History, 1850–2005, by Kerry Segrave (p. 68)

Music:

“Guilty” by Richard A. Whiting, Harry Akst, and Gus Kahn, sung by Anna Telfer.

“Shake It and Break It” by Lanin's Southern Serenaders, licensed under a Public Domain / Sound Recording Common Law Protection License

“La Traviata, Brindisi (Verdi)” by MIT Symphony Orchestra, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License