Monk Eastman: The Gangster Who Became a War Hero - Hardcover

Hanson, Neil

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0307266559 ISBN 13: 9780307266552

Publisher: Knopf, 2010

Synopsis

An intimate biography as well as an epic history, Monk Eastman vividly recounts the life and times of old New York’s most infamous gangster-cum-soldier as he made his way from the sooty streets and dingy saloons of the Lower East Side to the battlefields of the Western Front.

Born in 1873 to a respectable New York family, Monk was running wild in Manhattan’s rough Lower East Side by the age of eighteen. He found work as a bouncer—when the saloon owner first turned him down because he had two bouncers already, Monk beat them both up and was promptly hired in their place. He soon developed a loyal following of immigrant toughs, and by 1900, he was the most feared gang leader in lower Manhattan, protected by corrupt politicians and crooked cops, and commanding an army of two thousand pickpockets, thieves, prostitutes, and thugs.

But changing neighborhood demographics and shifting political fortunes colluded against Monk: after a pitched battle with Pinkerton detectives, he was sent to Sing Sing on a ten-year sentence, and his territory quickly slipped from his grasp. In 1917, no longer safe from the law—or from rival gangs—Monk joined the New York National Guard. As a gangster, he’d been the equivalent of a general; as an enlisted man, Monk was just another private.

After several months of combat training, Monk’s division of Brooklyn recruits was thrown headlong into the bitter trench warfare in Europe. His experience in gangland combat served him well: he was repeatedly cited by his superiors for his bravery and he received a hero’s welcome back in New York and an offical pardon from the governor. But Monk’s gangland past was not so easily erased and caught up with him in the end.

In Neil Hanson’s able hands, Monk’s unique and compelling story becomes an emblem of a time of upheaval—for New York and for the nation.

About this title

About the Author:

Neil Hanson’s other books include The Confident Hope of a Miracle and Unknown Soldiers. He lives in the Yorkshire Dales in England.

From Booklist:

Monk Eastman was born around 1873, apparently in Manhattan. Unlike most of his fellow thugs, he was raised in a middle-class family; but by the time he was six, he had begun his criminal career with a series of petty crimes, quickly ascending to more serious and violent crime, and by 20 heading a feared street gang. He operated with impunity, protected by cops on the take and Tammany Hall. Hanson describes Eastman’s rise in tough, unromantic terms while effectively placing him in the context of the hardscrabble Lower East Side. Monk was physically unattractive and his penchant for violence was so extreme that his political cover deserted him. After a prison stretch in Sing Sing and more petty crime, he enlisted in the army in 1917, when he was 43, and served honorably in combat in France. But, as Hanson illustrates, this was no case of personal redemption; upon discharge, Monk returned to his old habits and haunts, and his life ended violently and ignominiously. A well-done account. --Jay Freeman

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0307266559
• ISBN 13: 9780307266552
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416