A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side (NY) [Paperback]

Eric Ferrara (Author), Foreword by Rob Hollander (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1596296771 | ISBN-13: 978-1596296770 | Publication Date: July 16, 2009

New York's Lower East Side is the birthplace of everything from organized crime to anarchist movements. In the nineteenth century, an influx of struggling immigrants seeking opportunity met the harsh realities of industrialization. Poverty and squalor fueled a vicious battle for power and political clout. Local historian Eric Ferrara reveals the wicked history of America's most infamous neighborhood, where the abounding graffiti is a testament to the soul and spirit of the slum.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: The History Press (July 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596296771
• ISBN-13: 978-1596296770
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,119,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Ferrara is an author, researcher, consultant, and founder of Lower East Side History Project (http://leshp.org), an award winning non-profit organization.

Ferrara -- a fourth generation native New Yorker -- also founded the East Village Visitor Center (74 E. 4th Street), Bowery Cultural Center (308 Bowery) and former Museum of the American Gangster.

As consultant, Ferrara has provided research for dozens of movie & TV projects, including HBO's BOARDWALK EMPIRE, Warner Brothers' GREAT GATSBY, SyFy's GHOST HUNTERS INTERNATIONAL, National Geographic, History Channel, and many more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark Side of the Lower East Side, December 4, 2009

By 

Joyce Mendelsohn (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side (NY) (Paperback)

Eric Ferrara's aptly titled book, A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of the New York City's Lower East Side, reaches back to the crazy days of gangland shootings, street fights, mob hits, extortion plots, assassinations, police riots and various other violent events that once engulfed the turf of Irish gangs, Chinese tongs, Jewish racketeers, Italian tough guys, anarchists and psychos in the immigrant slums of the Five Points, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Bowery, Lower East Side and the East Village from the mid-19th century to well into the 20th - where weapons of choice ranged from revolvers, machine guns, knives, hammers, clubs, hatchets, broken bottles, brass knuckles, poison, acid and bombs. The book is laid out geographically so that walkers can discover surviving sites where all this mayhem took place. For armchair travelers, just sit back and enjoy a good read. The descriptive writing is lively and informative. The mug shots of the likes of Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach, Louis "the Lump" Pioggi, "Waxey" Gordon, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Charles "Lucky" Luciano and John Gotti are delicious. Everyone interested in crime and the dark side of the Lower East Side will be thrilled by this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars real history, real people, August 10, 2009

By 

David Bellel (Brooklyn NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side (NY) (Paperback)

As a native New Yorker I am always struck on the lack of historic markers for a city with such a rich history. E.g. contrast NYC with Philadelphia. This book goes a long way in filling in those much needed gaps for often times ignored neighborhoods and streets where real people (sometimes not so nice people) created real history

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was looking forward to this and was not disappointed, July 13, 2009

By 

ny history (new york, ny) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side (NY) (Paperback)

This is a genuinely unique and impressive piece of work, chock full of intensely gruesome, block by block tales of murder & mayhem. But this is more than that, touching on tales of the bizarre and curious, the famous and infamous, and the everyday man who were victims of their times. I recommend.