True Crime Ink - True Crime Book Review

TRUE CRIME INK
TRUE CRIME BOOK REVIEW

GANGSTER CITY
The History of the New York Underworld 1900-1935
by
Patrick Downey
(Published 2004 by Barricade Books,
Price 23.95, 318 pp, index, Illustrated, hardcover)

There are a lot of titles out there on the modern
day New York gangster, however when it comes to the early 1900s
New York there are not a lot of titles to choose from, well,
Barricade books has just released GANGSTER CITY by Patrick Downey.

The book covers New York gangsters from 1900 thru 1935, and it
works out to about a shooting a page. Seriously. There is a lot of
blood flowing between the covers of this book. We start off with Monk Eastman
and Paul Kelly and work our way to Murder Inc's Greatest Hits.
Downey has done his research as there are a lot of side bar characters
here that are actually looked into a little deeper than usual
(Buster from Chicago comes to mind for example). He also has chapters
dedicatied to some of the top gangsters of the period (e.g. Legs Diamond,
Vincent Coll and many more). They are all here and their stories are given a
more indepth treatment than what usually is a couple of paragraphs in
a compliation title. Although Downey seems to have gotten a lot of his info
from contemporary newspapers, which in itself can be dangerous,
most observations are backed by further evidence from other sources.

The book is nicely layouted, as each gangster or mob is given
its own chapter. There are also 2 appendixes added "Cast of
Characters" which is a little too thin for my liking and the other
appendix "Where They Lived and Died", a very interesting section
that provides addresses and locations of former gangsters.
Really, the only thing missing from this book is a bibliography
which, well, we can live without. Recommended!

You can purchase this title directly from the publisher at:
http://www.barricadebooks.com

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Have you read "GANGSTSER CITY"? What did you think? Email
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