Murder on the High Seas of Staten Island
Murder on the High Seas of Staten Island, a pre-recorded online lecture by Historian Patricia Salmon. Staten Island was not the quiet place that people thought it was in years gone by. On May 12, 1889, Mary Tobin’s remains mysteriously washed up at the dock of the Clifton Boat Club. Two years later a man’s body was discovered bound and gagged floating off of Tottenville. From South Beach to West New Brighton, the waters around Staten Island and its surrounding coastline have yielded some disturbing secrets.
In “Murder on the High Seas of Staten Island,” historian Patricia M. Salmon presents several of the most meticulously researched murders and mysteries that have occurred in and around the bays, harbors, and inlets of our borough.
Patricia M. Salmon retired as Curator of History at the Staten Island Museum in 2012. A Staten Island resident for almost fifty years, she was a Naturalist/Historian at Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve in that borough for eight years. Ms. Salmon has authored the books Realms of History: The Cemeteries of Staten Island, The Staten Island Ferry: A History, Murder & Mayhem on Staten Island and Staten Island Slayings: Murderers and Mysteries of the Forgotten Borough. A board member of the Tottenville Historical Society, she is a consultant to the Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries of Staten Island and an adjunct professor at Wagner College in Staten Island.