Bad Seeds in the Big Apple: Bandits, Killers, and Chaos in New York City, 1920-1940 [Hardcover]

Patrick Downey (Author), Rose Keefe (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2008 | ISBN-10: 158182646X | ISBN-13: 978-1581826463

Bad Seeds in the Big Apple' is the first book to profile New York City's notorious bandits, gunmen, and desperados of the Prohibition and Depression eras. While numerous books have been written on the city's organized-crime scene, this book completes the picture by introducing readers to infamous New Yorkers such as Richard Reese Whittemore, leader of a gang of jewel thieves; extortion queen Vivian Gordon; bandit and Sing Sing escapee James Nannery; Al Stern and his gang of kidnappers, the men behind the ill-fated 1926 Tombs Prison break; the marauders behind the 1934 Rubel Ice Plant armored car robbery; and dozens of other law breakers who have never before been covered in book form. Patrick Downey also includes a fresh look at a few characters of the era who have received individual book-length treatments.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

PATRICK DOWNEY has been studying New York City's early-twentieth-century crime scenes for more than fifteen years. He has written articles on the Big Apple's gangster past for newspapers, spoken on the subject at the Museum of the City of New York, and has designed and led a walking tour that highlights criminal landmarks in conjunction with the museum.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 301 pages
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158182646X
• ISBN-13: 978-1581826463
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

If they wore suits, fedoras and carried machineguns Patrick Downey probably wrote about them. He has spent the last two decades scouring New York's archives and libraries in search of the gangsters of old.

Legs Diamond Kindle edition coming soon!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New York's lesser known crimes, a true gem of a book!, June 29, 2008

By 

Mario Gomes (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bad Seeds in the Big Apple: Bandits, Killers, and Chaos in New York City, 1920-1940 (Hardcover)

Amazing book of New York's little known stick up men and bandits. There all here, from the famous Gerald Chapman and Two gun Crowley, to the little known Cooneys, a husband and wife stick up team who robbed at gunpoint to give their child to be a better life. Some may have had legit gripes for becoming criminals, but some were just plain bad. Mr. Downey's accumulated research has weeded out these criminal facts of years gone by. These were some big headlines back in the twenties, but quickly overshdowed by the gangster headlines of the 30's. Some would even have remained lost to history, if not for his due dilligence in saving and turning it into this fine book of NewYork criminal factoids and side stories. Loved the back end of the book with it's "Dishonorable Mention" section of equally interesting side notes of other criminal escapades. Neat photo section. Highly recommended reading. Get the book, sit on your balcony, crack open a cool one and enjoy some of New Yawk's little known and forgotten criminal past!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deliciously Rotten to the Core, July 15, 2008

By 

Rick "Mad Dog" Mattix (Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bad Seeds in the Big Apple: Bandits, Killers, and Chaos in New York City, 1920-1940 (Hardcover)

Pat Downey has surpassed himself with this fascinating rogue's gallery of urban banditry in the 1920-40 period. It's a natural followup to his first book but with a far more varied, violent, and often kooky cast of gunmen, molls, thieves, and general nogoodniks than the early day mobsters who populated Gangster City. The deadly escapades of "Two-Gun" Crowley, Cecelia "The Bobbed-Haired Bandit" Cooney, Gerald Chapman, Reese Whittemore, "Cowboy" Tessler, sexy extortionist Vivian Gordon, the Arsenal Gang, "Mad Dog" Coll's deadly widow, losers like the other Diamond brothers and the Oberst Gang, and many more show that it wasn't only bootleg gangs who made the '20s roar, and makes for lively and entertaining reading besides. It's like the Wild West transplanted to the Big Apple. "Crime in the streets" today seems pale in comparison to the Golden Age of Gotham Gangdom, when drive-by shootings took a back seat to bank and armored car heists.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Companion Piece to Gangster City, July 9, 2008

By 

Michael A. Coluccio (New York, N.Y.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bad Seeds in the Big Apple: Bandits, Killers, and Chaos in New York City, 1920-1940 (Hardcover)

I thought that Patrick Downey had just about covered it all in "Gangster City." I'm pleased to say I was wrong. In this, his latest, effort, Mr. Downey provides us with a detailed, colorful history of "bandits, killers, and chaos in New York City, 1920 - 1940." I've always considered myself reasonably knowledgeable regarding the New York City underworld, especially during Prohibition, but I am frank to admit that there was much in these pages even I didn't know. For instance, many years ago, while perusing the New York City newspaper archives in researching a certain project, I came upon a second-rate hoodlum named Enrico Battaglia, whom then Police Commissioner Mulrooney described as "a known member of the old Ryan gang of Harlem." Okay, fine. But who was this Ryan? Thanks to this book, I learned that the Commissioner was referring to Edward "Snakes" Ryan, who in the late Twenties enjoyed his brief fifteen minutes of fame (or should I say infamy?) when he and a pal, James Nannery, escaped from Sing Sing and later became suspects in the cold-blooded assassination of a New York City policeman, shotgunned while guarding a prisoner at Fordham Hospital. The same holds true for the Flanagan brothers, scarcely touched upon in a book written by former New York City Police Captain Cornelius Willemse, but recorded in great detail here. Excellent chapters also on Leonard Scarnici, Roy Sloane, "Two Gun" Crowley, and many others. In my estimation, when it comes to knowing all there is to know about the New York underworld during the first half of the twentieth century, Patrick Downey takes a back seat to no one. The bottom line is, if you liked "Gangster City," you're sure to enjoy "Bad Seeds in the Big Apple."