Customer Reviews

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

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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!

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.

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."

As he did with his previous volume, "Gangster City", Pat Downey has gone off the beaten path of the Big Apple's Prohibition and Depression era histories in favor of reviving and recounting the antics of the bandits, bootleggers, and killers whom most authors overlook in favor of Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Murder Inc. "Bad Seeds" plunges into the shadows of time and casts a searching and compelling light over blackmail queen Vivian Gordon, jewel thief Richard Reese Whittemore, and the botched Tombs prison break of 1926, to name a few.

What's so ironic is that during the period that "Bad Seeds" encompasses, Downey's roguish subjects beat out the gangsters for the NYC newspaper headlines. I suspect that this is because the New York press didn't want to give the impression that gang rule was as deeply entrenched in their city as it was in Chicago. They concentrated instead on the gun-happy nuisances who ultimately faced justice, implying that crime conditions were under control on their turf.

"Bad Seeds in the Big Apple", like its predecessor "Gangster City", is a fast and fun ride through two of New York City's wildest decades. Reading it was a pleasure, and writing the forward for it was an honor.

A fine overview of little known and forgotton criminals, marred only by a rather pedestrian writing style and and somewhat superfiscial treatment of its subjects. A better book would have pared down the number oif subjects by half and written about them in more detail. Also a bit too much dependence on the New York Times as a source. There are other newspapers.

In the years between world wars, New York City saw a crime wave that rivaled the wildest of times in the wild west. Car chases, shootouts, robberies big and small--the headline-grabbing exploits of the Big Apple's criminal underworld mirrored those of famous Midwestern outlaws like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd. But while history (and Hollywood) have remembered Dillinger and Floyd, many of New York's bad guys (and girls) have been forgotten. In this meticulously researched book, author and crime historian Patrick Downey brings these characters and their exploits to life in vivid color. BAD SEEDS IN THE BIG APPLE is a must read for historical true crime buffs and anyone with an interest in NYC history.

Excellent service! really pleased with the book that I purchased from you!

Allan Dawkins

A must read for anyone who wants to know about what the lower echelons of New York's underworld were up to when their big time gangster counterparts were counting the coins from suds spilling over the gin barrels. Patrick Downey has done an amazing job in providing the background and events that led to their antics being printed in the dailies of the era. One things for sure: if the cops think they have it rough now, they need to see what the recruits before them had to deal with. Keep up the good work Pat!

Everyone seems to know the stories of the Capones and Dillingers of the crime world. But there are other criminals of that era who commanded nearly as much press at the time. Patrick Downey covers these other renegades in his book Bad Seeds in the Big Apple: Bandits, Killers, and Chaos in New York City, 1920-40. It's fascinating reading if you're interested in that part of American history. The only downside is that they all tend to run together by the end of the book.

Contents:

Gentleman Gerald and the Dutchman; Let's Misbehave; Ma Flanagan's Boys; Two Worthless Diamonds; Urban Cowboys; Bum, Killer, and Ice Wagon LLC; The Daly Show; The Candy Kid; Red Scare; From Maiden Lane to the Tombs; Don't Cry Out Loud; Seeing Red; Dishonorable Mention 1920-1929; New York's Most Desperate Criminal; Sexy Takes a Ride; King of the Punks; College Boy; It Came from Massachusetts; Bride of the Mad Dog; The $427,000 Payday; FBI vs. NYPD; Messing with the Mob; Dishonorable Mention 1930-1940; Appendix 1 - And in the End; Appendix 2 - Where It Happened; Notes; Resources; Index

As indicated by the title, the focus of the book covers the criminal elements in New York City during the days of Prohibition and the Depression. Rather than rehash all the well-known stories of the time, Downey does extensive research on the "second tier" criminals that were big news of the day, but that didn't necessarily have the story and presence to become part of American folklore. Many of the gangsters took advantage of the common payroll processes of the day to make off with substantial sums of money. Since payroll money was physically carried from the banks to the company buildings for payment to the employees, they were prime targets for planned assaults and robberies. This also happened in reverse, when armored cars would pick up daily receipts from companies to deposit at the bank. The $427,000 Payday story is but one such action planned and executed by seven gangsters. At the time, it was the biggest robbery in history, and Downey tells the story of the long search for the perpetrators. It took nearly five years to track down all who were involved and bring them to justice, and the mixture of detective work and pure chance is an interesting story. Downey also reveals how dangerous it was to be a cop during that time. I was amazed at how many officers lost their lives, either as part of a direct shootout, or by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While we may think we live in a bad time when it comes to crime, we don't actually have a clue as to how much worse things used to be.

My biggest difficulty with the book was how, by the end, all the crimes and criminals started to run together. Since there were few "big name" criminals that we're used to hearing about, names started to blur after awhile. "Dutch" was apparently a very popular nickname, and it seemed that every other crime had some "Dutch" character who played a part. I enjoyed the first appendix that followed up the characters and covered how they lived out what remained of their life. But I think I would have preferred to have that material included at the end of each chapter rather than in a separate appendix. If you didn't read the appendix at the end of each chapter, it was somewhat difficult to remember some of the crime details for each of the "where are they now" parts. Having the material at the end of the chapter would have wrapped up each segment in a clear, concise way.

Even with the blurring of details, the material and Downey's writing ability is well worth reading if you have an interest in that time and place of American history. It was truly a time where criminals loomed large in everyone's lives, and many of them feared little when it came to shooting it out with others.