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17 reviews for:
The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld
Dan Slater
3.61 AVERAGE
17 reviews for:
The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld
Dan Slater
3.61 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
A breezy tour following an earnest vigilante in the Jewish ghettos & underworld during immense growing pains in NYC & America.
Standout characters for me were the resilient prostitute Tony the Tough (though we don’t get an ending for her…maybe it’s better we don’t), Jack Zelig who’s end gave me chills just as he discovered his backbone, and Mayor Gaynor, a progressive fair-minded politician (even by today’s standards) who lays waste to the tired refrain “but those were different times.”
The colorful baddies were almost as interesting though most of them quickly fall victim to their lifestyle. As they say, such is life.
Standout characters for me were the resilient prostitute Tony the Tough (though we don’t get an ending for her…maybe it’s better we don’t), Jack Zelig who’s end gave me chills just as he discovered his backbone, and Mayor Gaynor, a progressive fair-minded politician (even by today’s standards) who lays waste to the tired refrain “but those were different times.”
The colorful baddies were almost as interesting though most of them quickly fall victim to their lifestyle. As they say, such is life.
informative
slow-paced
informative
fast-paced
informative
slow-paced
Very densely informative. Little hard to keep track of, but a good read nonetheless
adventurous
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
Overall a great book- I have some critiques on what Slater chose to and not to include/emphasize (would have appreciated a section with an overview early 1900s Jewish life on the LES and placing crime within that context over the somewhat inexplicable digressions on the origins of the ghetto and the history of the court Jew), but overall a really interesting and readable account of a particular era of the Jewish pre-organized and organized crime and the Kehillah's surprisingly successful efforts to bring it down during the reform movement. Abe Shoenfeld was clearly a fascinating guy and I don't blame Slater for wanting to write a book that focused on him. For the story of Charley Becker I preferred Mike Dash's book (Satan's Circus), which I think gave a better general overview of the situation including the involvement of Tammany, other NYC criminals, and police corruption- and overall I found the intended focus of this book somewhat confusing, except the threads that go through the Kehillah's efforts- but these are all nitpicks. Overall a really fun if sometimes sobering read, and made me try to imagine the life of my great-grandfather, who arrived on the Jewish LES around the time that this book's main events were set.
Content Warnings
Semi-graphic depictions of prostitution and its effects on women
Fantastic book. A lot of books in this era rightfully focus on the labor struggles of early New York. This book does a great job of weaving together the criminal element as well as the cultural issues that came with everything. I agree with some of the comments that the book goes off on tangents - but I liked the side quests. I'm fascinated with this time in New York, and this goes well with similar books but provides a nice perspective.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Talk of "immigrant crime" isn't new. At the turn of the 20th century, an influx of Jewish and Italian immigrants into New York City swelled their Lower Manhattan neighborhoods.
In that time, there was truth to the allegations. In the world's most densely populated neighborhood, prostitution of poor, young Jewish girls was so common the pimps had a fraternal organization that provided insurance and burial plots. Some 4,000 women went missing every year, most of them lured into the sex trade. Small-time gangs ran rackets like illegal gambling halls and "horse poisoning" that crippled transportation unless teamsters paid to keep the poisoners at bay.
City officials were unable or unwilling to do anything (the former because of the scope of corruption in the city, the latter because there was money to be made taking payments to look the other way)
But in 1914 a small group of Jewish immigrants led by Rabbi Judah Magnes, lawyer Harry Newberger, and activist Abe Schoenfeld formed a group to do what others couldn't - clean up the Lower East Side.
Obtaining police commissions from the mayor, they found others from the immigrant community willing to help. They raided the brothels and casinos, more interested in disrupting their business than in taking cases to trial. And it worked. Their squad, known as the "Incorruptibles," largely succeeded until the advent of Prohibition in 1919 gave the gangsters a new line of work.
Author Dan Slater, who traces his ancestry to the Lower East Side, also introduces us to the corrupted, such as racketeer Arnold Rothstein (portrayed by actor Michael Stuhlbard in the first four seasons of "Boardwalk Empire") and his proteges, Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano. We also meet prostitute-turned-madam-turned-reformer Antonia "Tony the Tough" Rolnick, who became a sex worker after being wooed by a suitor whom she only learned too late was actually a pimp, and eventually became a vital source of information for the Incorruptibles.
Slater's meticulously researched history reads like a novel. His sources include collections in both New York City and Jerusalem, where Rabbi Magnes would go on to become one of the founders of Hebrew University.
Ultimately, while the squad was successful in uprooting prostitution and gambling, they failed at stamping out all vice in their quarter of the city. Demand for illegal liquor and the new, better-organized criminal gangs that provided it, proved too much for the reformers. Not only that, but the reformers' overreach in enacting Prohibition created an atmosphere of disdain for law enforcement that made the era's colorful gangsters folk heroes among many residents.
In that time, there was truth to the allegations. In the world's most densely populated neighborhood, prostitution of poor, young Jewish girls was so common the pimps had a fraternal organization that provided insurance and burial plots. Some 4,000 women went missing every year, most of them lured into the sex trade. Small-time gangs ran rackets like illegal gambling halls and "horse poisoning" that crippled transportation unless teamsters paid to keep the poisoners at bay.
City officials were unable or unwilling to do anything (the former because of the scope of corruption in the city, the latter because there was money to be made taking payments to look the other way)
But in 1914 a small group of Jewish immigrants led by Rabbi Judah Magnes, lawyer Harry Newberger, and activist Abe Schoenfeld formed a group to do what others couldn't - clean up the Lower East Side.
Obtaining police commissions from the mayor, they found others from the immigrant community willing to help. They raided the brothels and casinos, more interested in disrupting their business than in taking cases to trial. And it worked. Their squad, known as the "Incorruptibles," largely succeeded until the advent of Prohibition in 1919 gave the gangsters a new line of work.
Author Dan Slater, who traces his ancestry to the Lower East Side, also introduces us to the corrupted, such as racketeer Arnold Rothstein (portrayed by actor Michael Stuhlbard in the first four seasons of "Boardwalk Empire") and his proteges, Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano. We also meet prostitute-turned-madam-turned-reformer Antonia "Tony the Tough" Rolnick, who became a sex worker after being wooed by a suitor whom she only learned too late was actually a pimp, and eventually became a vital source of information for the Incorruptibles.
Slater's meticulously researched history reads like a novel. His sources include collections in both New York City and Jerusalem, where Rabbi Magnes would go on to become one of the founders of Hebrew University.
Ultimately, while the squad was successful in uprooting prostitution and gambling, they failed at stamping out all vice in their quarter of the city. Demand for illegal liquor and the new, better-organized criminal gangs that provided it, proved too much for the reformers. Not only that, but the reformers' overreach in enacting Prohibition created an atmosphere of disdain for law enforcement that made the era's colorful gangsters folk heroes among many residents.
challenging
informative
tense
slow-paced
challenging
informative
tense
medium-paced