Today is Sunday, May 10th, 2020.

On this day in 1849, a riot erupted outside

the Astor Opera House in New York City, where Shakespeare's Macbeth was being performed.

Between 22 and 31 onlookers were killed, and over 120 more were injured.

Welcome to today in True Crime, a parcast original. Due to the graphic nature of today's

crimes, listener discretion is advised. Today we're covering the Astor Place Riot, when more than a hundred New Yorkers were injured,

and over 22 were killed by militia and stray gunfire in the streets of Manhattan's East Village.

Let's go back to Manhattan, specifically Astor Place, a micro neighborhood nestled between

8th and 4th streets on the east side of Greenwich Village on May 10th, 1849. Crowds gathered outside Manhattan's Astra Place Opera House, but they weren't hoping

to buy a last minute ticket for that evening's performance of Macbeth.

Instead, they were disillusioned working-class New Yorkers who were angered by the High Society

insiders only attitude of the theater.

A handful of these Boweryites who could afford a ticket and managed to meet the

Astor's dress code, even sat in the theater that evening to make a statement. Once the

performers of Macbeth began at 7.30 p.m. they repeatedly hissed and heckled the

lead actor William McCready on stage. He was wealthy, British, and

against everything these mostly Irish immigrants stood for. The managers within the opera house tried to

corral these rabble-rousing protesters in the building's basement, which did

little to ease the mounting tensions. In protest, the hecklers tried to start a fire. the Thousands of men lingered in the surrounding streets.

These were the loyal supporters of Edwin Forrest,

the American actor who'd risen from nothing to fame,

who encouraged Americans to attend his performances, not McCready's.

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