I have reading this great new book about a gangster from the turn of the century who dominated the Lower East Side one hundred years ago. Big Jack Zelig who controlled the Lower East Side rackets before Prohibition for a few years until he was murdered by the police. He was about to testify in the murder trail of the century. Well the early part of the century where a police lieutenant was sent to the electric chair. It is a great book and if you were following "Boardwalk Empire" it is in much the same time frame and sensibility. Just a little earlier.
It is about tough Jewish gangster who would go and ride buses and wait for nudnicks to pull on somebodies beard and then they would kick the shit out of them. It is a great read.
4 comments:
I wish I could introduce Mr. Zelig to Cedarford. Just sayn'
I'll be getting it on my kindle, thanks for the lead.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning would be right up your alley. I just finished it. It is an in depth look @ your beloved City from the Yanks to mayoral election to Son of Sam and blackout. It's a good read.
The police lieutenant sent to the electric chair was the great-grandfather, if I recall the relationship correctly, of an old colleague of mine.
Only person I've ever met who had a relative executed.
My own mobbed-up (Irish, I hasten to add) relation managed to avoid jail altogether. That's because he ran a respectable racket and hardly ever needed to raise his voice or break that many arms.
Starker? I thought he worked for Siegfried.
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