Most of the victims were photographed twice: first in profile, among their personal effects and, second, from above, staring straight up at a camera that assumes the vantage of an impersonal archangel. These last photos are the book's highlight, each one a story. A woman pictured in an elegant hat is strangled to death at the Hotel Martinique on 32nd Street after taking a mysterious phone call. Two burglars lie interlocked at the bottom of an elevator shaft after fleeing a loft and falling five stories. An account of the murder of pugilist-turned-gangster Barney Solomon following a truce between strike breakers and the garment makers' union is paired with a 6.25 x 8.25 of a man—maybe Barney, maybe not—still clutching the balustrade of the storefront where he was gunned down.