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The Wicked John Goode
Spine #44
Author
Horace Winthrop Scandlin
Translator
First Edition
March 1917
Heathen Edition
May 7, 2023
Refreshed
Pages
154
Heathen Genera
Convictions
Paperback ISBN
978-1-948316-44-6
Hardcover ISBN
978-1-963228-44-1
". . . I was taken over the New York Central to Sing Sing to serve my last 'bit.' The fact that I was going to ‘stir’ didn’t disturb me. I felt no shame or remorse over that. Nor did I regret the act for which I had been sent away. My friends had deserted me, the old 'pull,' which had safeguarded me so many times, had been withdrawn, and I was sore. I wanted to get even.
"One by one the big events in my life passed in review before my eyes. I saw my mother and my father. I saw the Judge who drove me out of St. Louis as a boy. I saw the 'screws' and keepers who had mauled and beaten me in all the different places where I had done time. And then I saw my wife in her poverty and anguish of heart. All emotion, all feeling of right, all honor, were buried in me. Buried under years of dissipation and sin, buried so completely that I was as vicious and heartless a man as ever lived."
Horace Winthrop Scandlin (1880-1948), who claimed to have neither art training nor formal education, was a multi-award-winning photographer, journalist, and editor who took an especial interest in the convicts of New York during the era of reformer Thomas Mott Osborne’s “new penology.” While working as the associate editor of the Christian Herald, Scandlin met, heard, and serialized the powerful true story of “wicked” John Gordon Goode (1864–1934), whose 40-year career of robbery, rustling, gambling, drinking, and pickpocketing began at age 11 and ended — while employed as a New York City police officer! — with a conviction and sentence to Sing Sing for grand larceny. And then, while John Goode was at his lowest, he heard a calling from the Highest and vowed to become better than his name — evolving into a renowned leader of New York City’s legendary Bowery Mission in the process.
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"A product of the foul underworld becomes a child of the Light."
Methodist Review
Heathenry
Contents
Praise
Details
Preview
Heathenry
Here, we present another compelling nonfiction addition to our Convictions Series following My Life in Prison by Donald Lowrie, Within Prison Walls by Thomas Mott Osborne, and The Story of Canada Blackie.
What’s more, John Goode name-drops all three and was directly linked to two: Osborne contributed the introduction for this book and, while he doesn’t state it in this story, Goode and Canada Blackie were imprisoned at Sing Sing at the same time.
But what makes John Goode’s story intriguing, and by degrees vastly different from those of other reformed criminals from the “new penology” era, is that John Goode, stubborn knucklehead though he was, didn’t just ultimately “make good,” he reformed by devoting his life to God.
Although he needed real convincing because his wasn’t a spiritual “flip of the switch” transformation; once he was on the path to redemption, Goode stumbled and fell many times, but — and this is the crucial part — every time he got back up he was even more convinced than before that he was on the right path.
Now, as for the text, we have updated some hyphened words to their modern equivalents: to-day is now today, good-bye has become goodbye, and so on. And since Goode and Scandlin were both American, we have swapped many British words for their American counterparts: realise is now realize, labour is now labor, and so on.
The bulk of our work, however, lies in the 80 footnotes that we’ve appended throughout the text to provide context, clarity, and commentary where needed.
In addition to the Introduction by Thomas Mott Osborne and the Epilogue by Rev. John G. Hallimond, which were included in the original book, The Christian Herald featured some ancillary articles during the story’s serialization which we found relevant enough to include here as well.
The first is “Love” by Arthur H. Howland, which digs into the Bible chapter that forever altered John Goode’s life, 1 Corinthians 13, and dissects its use of the word “charity” in the King James Version.
The second is “The Mission of John Goode,” an editorial answer to a question about the serial posed by a reader of The Christian Herald concerning “the wisdom and spiritual profit of publishing the characters of bad men.”
We believe both articles are spot-on in their analyses.
We have also included, as appendices, three articles that Scandlin wrote for another religious magazine, World Outlook1World Outlook, the official mission magazine of The United Methodist Church, began publication in 1911, then changed its name to New World Outlook in February 1968, before ceasing publication in October 2018., which details his thoughts on the “prison problem” as it existed at the time and relays some stories he heard while mingling with ex-cons on the streets of New York City.
Finally, on the last page, we’ve included a few letters from Christian Herald readers who reacted to the serial upon its conclusion in 1917.
Perhaps you will share their opinions?
Contents
Heathenry: Thoughts on the Text
Introduction by Thomas Mott Osborne
Love by Arthur H. Howland
The Mission of John Goode
The Wicked John Goode
Appendices
The Prison of Today Does Not Cure Crime
Prison Products
What Kind of Citizens Do Our Prisons Turn Out?
Introduction by Thomas Mott Osborne
Love by Arthur H. Howland
The Mission of John Goode
The Wicked John Goode
- My Start
- An Eleven-Year-Old Runaway!
- My First Arrest—Age Eleven
- In New York and In Trouble in One Night
- Doing My First “Bit”
- In Which I Am Bound Out
- On Board Ship—Bound Out
- In Which I Meet My Aunt
- Now a Professional Thief
- Getting in Right
- In Which I Marry
- In Which I Begin to Slide Downhill From Which There is But One Path Back
- My Last Prison Term
- At the Bottom of the Bottom
- Just Before I Turned!
- In Which I Visit the Bowery Mission
- Hard Manual Labor—A New Sensation
- I Join the Brotherhood and Meet Dr. Hallimond
- Out of Work
- In Which I Fall
- In Which I Suffer as Never Before
- In Which is Hell
- Together—At Last
Appendices
The Prison of Today Does Not Cure Crime
Prison Products
What Kind of Citizens Do Our Prisons Turn Out?
Praise
“Every minister in the United States should have a copy of this book.” —The Christian Herald
“It is about the most convincing story in the brand-from-the-burning line that has come along.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“A narrative, true in every particular, of almost incredible depravity, degradation, and squalor; and of a yet more unbelievable rescue and reformation. The age of miracles is not past. A product of the foul underworld becomes a child of the Light.” —Methodist Review
“These are the two chief points in this remarkable story of John Goode’s youth and early manhood—the marvel of his fall and rise, and the lesson that his experience holds in its sad commentary upon the institutions and the efforts at ‘reform’ which touched John Goode’s life. Personally and socially, this is a suggestive and challenging book.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Here is an astonishing narrative. A plain, unvarnished tale with a glory that demonstrates anew the redemptive and transforming power of Christ. John Goode was everything that was evil—a drunkard, a jail-bird, a thief. Today he is one of the leaders of the famous Bowery Mission. This story of his redemption blazes with the light of the Cross—a final and perfect answer to every doubting Thomas who cries for ‘proof.’” —The Book News Monthly
“Here we have a ‘vital document’ out of the real life of the Bowery Mission in New York. The portrait shows us the face of a genuine man; the tale matches the rugged countenance. The story is told with fine reserve; there is no maudlin sentiment about it but rather the deep sincerities of a true and self-revealing soul. This is an experience that reveals the power of genuine Christianity. We commend this book to everyone who craves a fresh breath of sincerity and conviction and who is ready to have his heart kindled by another chapter of the acts of Christ.” —The Biblical World
Details
The Wicked John Goode
Heathen Edition #44Format: Paperback
Interior: Black & White on Cream Paper
Pages: 154 (+2 POD)
Language: English
Annotations: 81 Footnotes
Illustrations: 10
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