The Heroic Gangster_The Story of Monk Eastman, From the Streets of New York to the Battlefields of Europe and Back

by Neil Hanson

  2 BLACKER THAN A WOLF’S THROAT

  1 “BRUTAL IN FACE” Helen Campbell, Thomas W. Knox, and Thomas F. Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 359–60.

  2 “I GAVE MY NAME” Court of General Sessions, People of the State of New York versus William Delaney, alias Monk Eastman, 260.

  3 AT CONEY ISLAND New York Times, September 25, 1893.

  4 MONK’S FIRST ARREST, WILLIAM MURRAY, and ON THE ISLAND New York Times, December 28, 1920; The Sun, April 13, 1904; Court of General Sessions, People of the State of New York versus William Delaney, alias Monk Eastman, 271–72.

  5 A THOUSAND SILVER DOLLARS Albert Fried, The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America, 28.

  6 THE NIGHT COURT George Kibbe Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York by Professional Criminals,” 128.

  7 “THE USE OF THE FIRST” Theodore A. Bingham, “The Organized Criminals of New York,” 30.

  8 “A DIVE NOTORIOUS” and A BLOODIED HEAP Jay Robert Nash, Bloodletters and Bad Men, 189; Jorge Luis Borges, A Universal History of Iniquity, 33.

  9 “DANCING ACADEMIES” Benjamin Antin, quoted in Fried, The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster, ix.

  10 “BOISTEROUSLY DRUNK” and “IT WAS NOT UNUSUAL” John M. Oskison, “Public Halls of the East Side,” 38–40; Herbert Asbury, Sin in New York, Asbury Papers, manuscripts box 1; 4, 9.

  11 “THE FOULEST OF ALL” and “TOUGH RACKETS” Herman Melville, quoted in Timothy J. Gilfoyle, “Street-Rats and Gutter-Snipes,” 4; Verne M. Bovie, “The Public Dance Halls of the Lower East Side,” 32.

  12 “HE BULLDOZES THE MERCHANTS” Abraham H. Shoenfeld papers, P3/1768, 109–10.

  13 “WERE IN THE HABIT,” “A BLOW BEHIND THE EAR,” and “FORTY-NINE NICKS” The Sun, June 20, 1909; Henry Collins Brown, ed., Valentine’s Manual of Old New York, 21; Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York, xvi.

  14 “WITH AN APTITUDE” and “I ONLY GIVE HER” Asbury, The Gangs of New York, 257.

  15 “A PIMP, A THIEF” and “HE LEARNS HOW” Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 122; Gilfoyle, “Street-Rats and Gutter-Snipes,” 6; Abraham H. Shoenfeld papers, P3/1768, 107.

  16 “THOSE LITTLE BOYS” Washington Post, May 27, 1906.

  17 “A TRIUMPH OF EFFICIENCY” Tyler Anbinder, Five Points, 74.

  18 “SLAUGHTER ALLEY” and “BLACKER THAN A WOLF’S THROAT” Campbell, Knox, and Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 89; Stephen Crane, “New York Sketches,” in Last Words, 159.

  19 “ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO PASS” quoted in Anbinder, Five Points, 89.

  20 “NO WASTE” Jacob A. Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 108.

  21 A SINGLE BLOCK and “THE MOST CROWDED BLOCK” Moses King’s 1893 Handbook of New York City, quoted in Nathan Silver, Lost New York, 74; Tenement Commission report 1903, www.immigrantheritagetrail.org.

  22 40 PERCENT TO BE A FAIR AVERAGE and A QUARTER TO A THIRD HIGHER Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 7, 11.

  23 “PACKED IN LIKE HERRINGS,” “ONE MAY SLEEP,” and “REVOLVERS” Campbell, Knox, and Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 423; Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 70; Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 238.

  24 “TOUCHED UP WITH DRUGS,” ON BAYARD STREET, and “THE WASHINGS OF THE BAR” Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 61; Campbell, Knox, and Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 358, 198–201, 496.

  25 “THE THEATER OF,” “EXPLORED THE BOWERY,” and “SHOW YOU THE BOWERY” “Bowery Amusements,” 14; M. B. Levick, “Tough Girl of New York Remains Only a Memory”; Alvin Harlow, Old Bowery Days, 501–5.

  26 “IF YOU WILL STAND FOR” and STREETCAR CONDUCTORS Gilfoyle, “Street-Rats and Gutter-Snipes,” 3; Harlow, Old Bowery Days, 501–5.

  27 “THE MOST BRILLIANTLY” and “AN ANEMIC” Levick, “Tough Girl of New York”; Julian Ralph, “The Bowery,” 234; Theodore Dreiser, quoted in Luc Sante, Low Life, 67.

  28 “COMBINED ELEMENTS” and “FREE AND EASYS” Sante, Low Life, 64, 113.

  29 DIME MUSEUMS cf. Robert Bogdan’s Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit (University of Chicago Press, 1988) for a fuller exploration of the phenomenon.

  30 “COCAINE ROW” and “DIVES AND HOUSES” Abraham H. Shoenfeld papers, P311768, 153; Ezra R. Pulling, “Report of the Fourth Sanitary District,” 15; Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 159.

  31 CHLORAL HYDRATE Benjamin P. Eldridge and William B. Watts, Our Rival the Rascal, 288–89.

  32 “THE NEARER THE RIVER” Campbell, Knox, and Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 360.

  33 OOZED THROUGH THE WALLS Pulling, “Report of the Fourth Sanitary District,” 2, 11.

  34 “GENERATIONS” OF PROSTITUTES Sante, Low Life, 180.

  3 AS A POOL REFLECTS THE SKY

  1 THIS “MODERN GOMORRAH” Herbert Asbury, “Gangland USA,” 14; Lewis J. Valentine, Night Stick, 124.

  2 “AN ABYSS OF MANY GENERATIONS” and “FORMALLY CAST THEM OFF” Lincoln Steffens, Autobiography, vol. I, 246; George Kibbe Turner, “The Daughters of the Poor,” 47.

  3 “EVERY AFTERNOON, JUST LIKE MECHANICS” and “AS A POOL REFLECTS THE SKY” Alvin Harlow, Old Bowery Days, 501–5; Gustavus Myers, History of the Great American Fortunes, quoted in Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 233–34.

  4 “SALESMAN, BIRDS” and LARGE PROFITS United States of America, Bureau of the Census: Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, New York (Manhattan), New York City, Greater New York, roll T623 1092; page 5B, ED 240; Harlow, Old Bowery Days, 501–5.

  5 A TOUGH SCHOOL and “OBJECTS FOR TARGET PRACTICE” “Young Mayors Govern a Once Unmanageable School,” New York Times, May 29, 1910.

  6 “HARD-FISTED, TOUGH-FACED” and “TOITY-TOID” Brooklyn Eagle, December 27, 1920; F. Raymond Daniell, “The Big Business of the Racketeer.”

  7 “MONKEY-LIKE FACE” and CLAMBERING UP AND DOWN George Kibbe Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York by Professional Criminals,” 122; New York Times, December 27, 1920.

  8 “LONG JOHN” GARVEY Thomas Byrnes, Professional Criminals of America, 23.

  9–10 “BEAT UP A GUY” and “THE EASTMAN PAVILION” Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York, 258, 257.

  11 HUNG OUT IN TWO STORES New York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1903.

  12–13 $75,000 ANNUALLY and “A SORT OF LICENSED BANDIT” Asbury, “Gangland USA,” 18, 17; Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 122.

  14 “I WANT FIFTY” New York Times, June 9, 1912.

  15 “A REAL GANGMAN” Abraham H. Shoenfeld papers, P311768, 151, 110.

  16 TWENTY THOUSAND FULL-TIME PROSTITUTES and FIFTY CENTS Herbert Asbury, Sin in New York, Asbury papers, manuscripts box 1; 1–2; Albert Fried, The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America, 7.

  17–18 “HALF-EXPOSED WOMEN” and “STAKHANOVITE OF SEX” Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham, 805, 996, 1163.

  19 “SOUBRETTE ROW,” “JENNIE THE FACTORY,” and “ON CERTAIN DAYS” Timothy Gilfoyle, City of Eros, 165; Abraham H. Shoenfeld papers, P311768, 210; Asbury, Sin in New York, Asbury papers, manuscripts box 1; 6, 12.

  20 “THE TREASURE-LADEN,” “THE MORGUE,” and MCGURK’S SUICIDE HALL Asbury, The Gangs of New York, 234, 207; Mike Dash, Satan’s Circus, 31n.

  21 THIS WAS THE HEYDAY and THE LATTER’S ACOLYTES New York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1903; The Bookman, December 1905, 303.

  22 “BY WAY OF TESTING” and “IF LITTLE KISHKY” New York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1903; Alfred Henry Lewis, “The Cooking of Crazy Butch.”

  23 “THE HEART OF THAT,” “ALL TRAINED,” and “THE RASCAL NOTICE” Lewis, “The Cooking of Crazy Butch”; Asbury, The Gangs of New York, 226.

  24 MOST EFFICIENT BLACKJACKERS and “THE FIRST OF THE GANGSTERS” Asbury, The Gangs of New York, 234, 247; New York Times, May 13, 1915; Leo Katcher, The Big Bankroll, 276, 238.

  25 “NOT TENDER” Helen Campbell, Thomas W. Knox, and Thomas F. Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 513, 95.

  26 ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN Katcher, The Big Bankroll, 23.

>   27 A COMPREHENSIVE LIST Jenna Joselit, Our Gang, 25, 44; Asbury, The Gangs of New York, 211.

  28 “A BLONDE OF STRIKING APPEARANCE” and “THE CONSPIRACY” New York Times, November 11, October 22, 1903.

  29 TRACED A SCORE and “IN THE THREE YEARS I WAS” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 27, 1920; Turner, “Tammany’s Control,” 122; New York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1903.

  4 A MODERN ROBIN HOOD

  1 REVOLVERS INSTEAD OF CUES New York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1903.

  2 “A HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE” and “SECURE THEIR HARD-” George Kibbe Turner, “The Daughters of the Poor,” 53–54; Albert Fried, The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America, 19; Frank Moss, The American Metropolis, quoted in S. S. McClure, “The Tammanyizing of a Civilization,” 118–19.

  3 THOROUGHLY PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS New York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1903.

  4 “THE GANG NEEDED THE POLITICIAN” George Kibbe Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York by Professional Criminals,” 123.

  5 “THE SWELLEST GINMILL” Alvin Harlow, Old Bowery Days, 501–5.

  6 “NEVER TASTES TOBACCO,” “THE POLITICAL BOSS OF DOWNTOWN,” “THE KING OF THE UNDERWORLD,” and “POLITICALLY HE IS CORRUPT” Alfred Henry Lewis, “The Modern Robin Hood,” 186; Tammany Times, November 4, 1895; Daniel Czitrom, “Underworlds and Underdogs,” 539; Hutchins Hapgood, Types from City Streets, 58.

  7 “REPULSIVE ENOUGH” and “THE SCENE OF MORE MURDERS” The World, April 18, 1889; Herbert Asbury, Chinatown, Asbury papers, manuscripts box 1, 3.

  8 “THE SOCIETY OF POLITICIANS, PIMPS” Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 121.

  9 “WORD IS LAW” and “HARRISON GOT ONE MORE” Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 126; Czitrom, “Underworlds and Underdogs,” 541, 538; Albert Fried, The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America, 53.

  10 TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, “THE GREAT DANCING HALL,” and “LEADS THROUGH THE HAPPY” Lewis, “The Modern Robin Hood,” 186; Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 132.

  11 “NOT A SPLINTER” Lewis, “The Modern Robin Hood,” 186; John Carter, “Master of Manhattan,” 203.

  12 “THINK OF THE HUNDREDS” Quoted in Werner, Tammany Hall, 449–50.

  13 CONTROLLER METZ and $80 MILLION Gustavus Myers, History of Tammany Hall, 338; Lewis, “The Modern Robin Hood,” 186.

  14 SHOESHINE STAND and “I SEEN MY OPPORTUNITIES” The Old Time Saloon, Asbury papers, manuscripts box 1, 7; William L. Riordan, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, 310.

  15 “GUERILLAS” the words guerillas and gorillas seem to have been used interchangeably by writers of the era.

  16 “ANY POLITICAL WAVERING” and “THE NERVOUS HEBREWS” Lewis J. Valentine, Night Stick, 125; New York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1903.

  17 IMMUNITY and “YOUTHS WHO, ALONE” The Sun, June 20, 1920, October 11, 1903; New York Times, June 9, 1912.

  18 PARTICULARLY TRUE IN cf. Turner, “The Daughters of the Poor,” 53–54.

  19 “WORD WAS SENT OUT” Brooklyn Eagle, November 1, 1901.

  20 “STRONG ON THE SIDE,” “MORE THAN ONCE,” and THE GRAVEYARDS Jacob A. Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 61, 71; New York Times, November 2, 1903.

  21 “DISORDERLY RESORTS” Brooklyn Eagle, November 1, 1901.

  22–23 “BRING DOWN A LOT OF FOOTBALL-PLAYING” and “A REGULAR COMMISSARY” Big Tim Sullivan, quoted in Czitrom, “Underworld and Underdogs,” 549; Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 122–25.

  24 “MET WITH INDIFFERENCE” New York Times, November 4, 1903.

  25 “OLD-TIME IRISH RESIDENTS” and “PROBABLY EXCEEDED ALL PREVIOUS” Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 133.

  26 FIVE TO TEN VOTES and “GUYS WITH WHISKERS” Ibid., 123; Brooklyn Eagle, November 1, 1901; Big Tim Sullivan, quoted in Harlow, Old Bowery Days, 501–5.

  27 “LIKE A CROWD OF” Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 132–33.

  28 QUIET DAY AT THE POLLS and “A RIDDLE” New York Times, November 4, 1903.

  29 BIG TIM SULLIVAN PERSONALLY PROVIDED, “WORKING THE RATTLER,” and “THE POLITICIANS ALWAYS SPRUNG HIM” Czitrom, “Underworlds and Underdogs,” 546, 129; New York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1903; Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York, 256.

  30 “INSTANTLY THE WORD WAS PASSED” New York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1903.

  31 “OVER THEM HIS POWER” and “THE CONDUCT OF THE POLICE” Lewis, “The Modern Robin Hood,” 186; Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 124.

  32 “OUR PEOPLE COULD NOT STAND” Lincoln Steffens, Autobiography, 256.

  33 “TO HELL WITH REFORM!,” “TAMMANY IS NOT A WAVE,” and “A NEW, PERFECTED SYSTEM” Virgil W. Peterson, The Mob, 92; a “reform chief of police” quoted in Steffens, Autobiography, vol. 1, 281; Lincoln Steffens, “The Real Roosevelt,” in Ainslee’s Magazine, December 1898.

  34 “THE GOVERNMENT OF THE,” “CORRUPTION WITH CONSENT,” and “THE PEOPLE ARE NOT INNOCENT” Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 125; Alexander B. Callow Jr., Introduction to Gustavus Myers, The History of Tammany Hall, ix; Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities, 14, 290, 292.

  5 THE ROGUES’ GALLERY

  1 EIGHTY OF THE ONE HUNDRED Raymond A. Mohl, The Making of Urban America, 98.

  2 THE U.S. MURDER RATE and “PERFECT DEVILS” Henry Collins Brown, ed., Valentine’s Manual of Old New York, 3; Helen Campbell, Thomas W. Knox, and Thomas F. Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 511.

  3 LOCUST WOOD, “SLAUGHTERHOUSES” and AN UNNERVING DRUMMING SOUND Campbell, Knox, and Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 512; Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham, 1,192; Brown, ed., Valentine’s Manual, 24.

  4 NUMBER 5,844 and ARRESTED MEN The Argus (Albany), May 18, 1915; Campbell, Knox, and Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 693.

  5–6 PICTURES OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS, “NO END OF DIRKS,” and “A SENSATIONAL MINUTENESS” Abraham H. Shoenfeld papers, P3/1768, 131–42, 141; Campbell, Knox, and Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 525; Jacob A. Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 164.

  7–8 IN THE 1890S THE GOING RATE, “OF COURSE THERE ARE COPS,” and ANY DISTRICT REMOTE Virgil W. Peterson, The Mob, 89; Cornelius Willemse, quoted in Mike Dash, Satan’s Circus, 55; Brown, ed., Valentine’s Manual, 11.

  9 THERE WAS A GAP Campbell, Knox, and Byrnes, Darkness and Daylight, 167.

  10 WALL STREET HAD ONCE and A HABITUAL CRIMINAL Ibid., 520.

  11 WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF and A HANDSOME $500 GOLD WATCH Ibid., 520–21; Steffens, Autobiography, 221–22.

  12 “FENCE OFF THE GOOD” Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 120–21.

  13–14 “WE SEE THE POWERS” and ENTERTAINING SEVERAL CITY OFFICIALS Peterson, The Mob, 94; Herbert Asbury, Sin in New York, Asbury papers, manuscripts box 1, 7.

  15 “RUSTIC INNOCENCE” and “TO PROTECT AND FOSTER” Charles Parkhurst, Our Fight with Tammany, 5; Charles Parkhurst, My Forty Years in New York, 126–30.

  16 “WHILE WE FIGHT INIQUITY,” “POLLUTED HARPIES,” and SLUM AND WHOREHOUSE Peterson, The Mob, 87; New York World, February 15, 1892; Justin Kaplan, Lincoln Steffens, 118.

  17 “THE COAT WAS CUT” Charles Gardner, The Doctor and the Devil, 17.

  18 “HEY WHISKERS,” “SOLICITING MEN,” and “WOULD NOT PERMIT” Gardner, The Doctor and the Devil, 24–26, 56; Asbury, Sin in New York, Asbury papers, manuscripts box 1, 5.

  19 “ONE OF THE MOST INFAMOUS,” “SHOW ME SOMETHING WORSE!,” and IN EACH ROOM WAS Charles Gardner, The Doctor and the Devil, 56, 52.

  20 TEA AND COOKIES Luc Sante, Low Life, 286.

  21–22 “TRUE IN NO OTHER,” “URGENT BUSINESS,” and “WITH APPROPRIATE SUBTRACTIONS” S. S. McClure, “The Tammanyizing of a Civilization,” 126–27; Gustavus Myers, History of Tammany Hall, 278; V. O. Key, “Police Graft,” 624; Peterson, The Mob, 86.

  23 “WE WILL PARADE” Theodore Roosevelt, quoted in Peterson, The Mob, 90.

  24 “WIDE OPEN” and $680,000 OF ICE COMPANY STOCK Gustavus Myers, History of Tammany Hall, 283; Dash,
Satan’s Circus, 24n.

  25 “OPERATORS ENCROACHING,” PAID THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR, “THERE’S MORE LAW,” and PROPERTY SPECULATION IN JAPAN Key, “Police Graft,” 629; Peterson, The Mob, 89; Asbury, Sin in New York, Asbury papers, manuscripts box 1, 3; Steffens, Autobiography, 252.

  26 SOMETHING OVER THREE MILLION DOLLARS and “GAMBLING HOUSE COMMISSION” William Devery, quoted in Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities, 294; New York Times, March 9, 1900; Landesco, Prohibition and Crime, quoted in Key, “Police Graft,” 631.

  27 “A GRAFT-RIDDEN TOWN” and “PAID DEAR TRIBUTE” Abraham H. Shoenfeld papers, P3/1768, 199; Myers, History of Tammany Hall, xvi.

  6 THE GANGLAND CODE

  1 UPMARKET SUBURB United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Queens Ward 4, Queens, New York, roll T623_1149; Pages 19B, 20A, ED677; Census of the United States, Brooklyn Ward 28, Kings, New York, New York, roll T624_982; page IB, ED 917, image 495.77; Census of the United States, Brooklyn Ward 28, Kings, New York, New York, roll T624 973; page 12A, ED 695, image 747.

  2 “THE BY-BLOW OF” Jorge Luis Borges, A Universal History of Iniquity, 32.

  3 BAT JARVIS P. G. Wodehouse, PsmithJournalist, chapter 4.

  4–5 “A FEUD CODE,” “GREAT ITALIAN BAND,” “A BLANd HEATHEN,” and “AN ODOR OF STALE BEER” New York Times, September 20, 1903; George Kibbe Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York by Professional Criminals,” 122, 125; The Sun, October 11, 1903.

  6 PAOLO CORRELLI The Sun, October 11, 1903.

  7 “AFTER THE COMMON CUSTOM,” AN ITALIAN BANK, and “ACQUIRED SOME REPUTATION” Turner, “Tammany’s Control of New York,” 124; The Sun, October 11, 1903.

  8 SALVATORE LUCIANA, SELLING HEROIN AND MORPHINE, and “ARTICHOKE KING” George Walsh, Public Enemies, 45; Craig Thompson and Allen Raymond, Gang Rule in New York, 23; Robert J. Kelly, Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States, 293–94.