The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, the Becker-Rosenthal Case, and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster [Hardcover]

Rose Keefe (Author), Patrick Downey (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

Selig Harry Lefkowitz, alias Big Jack Zelig, was New York's first great gangster boss. Like many of his pre-Volstead contemporaries, his historic impact has been overshadowed by Al Capone and Murder Inc. He is listed in today's crime anthologies primarily because four members of the gang, along with corrupt cop Charles Becker, died in the electric chair for the July 1912 murder of gambler Herman Rosenthal. In New York City from 1908 to 1912, however, Zelig inspired admiration and fear, and he was synonymous with the word 'gangster.' New York editor Herbert Bayard Swope recalled that The Starker (Yiddish for 'Big Boss') threw terror into the heart of the New York underworld like no one has before or since." Based on dozens of interviews and years of painstaking research, "The Starker" introduces readers to a story from New York's criminal past that is dazzling in its audacity and criminal in the success of the people responsible for the murders in covering up their own crimes.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581826028
• ISBN-13: 978-1581826029
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #416,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've written three books that examine the lives and crimes of early American gangsters: "Guns and Roses- The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot Before Al Capone", "The Man Who Got Away- the Bugs Moran Story". and most recently "The Starker", which is a bio of New York gang boss Big Jack Zelig, who lived hard, died young, and could have saved Lieutenant Charles Becker from the electric chair. I'm currently at work on two new projects: the first biography of infamous nativist gangster 'Butcher Bill' Poole (who inspired the Daniel Day-Lewis character in Scorsese's 'Gangs of New York' and a detailed study of veteran labor slugger / gangster boss 'Dopey' Benny Fein.

I've been consulted as an expert on America's criminal history by the History Channel, LucasFilm, and others. Please visit my official site at www.rosekeefe.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Bad Jack, October 29, 2008

By 

Patrick Downey "Author" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, the Becker-Rosenthal Case, and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster (Hardcover)

For far to long the Pre-Prohibition era gangsters have been ignored in favor of their rum running followers but thanks to Rose Keefe that has now changed. Most gangsterphiles know Jack Zelig as the guy who came after Kid Twist Zweifach and before Dopey Benny Fein but there is so much more to the story. Zelig was a complex man who had no asperations to be a gangleader but more or less had the task thrust upon him. Thanks to this book he will move from the background and take his rightful place amongst the gangsters of note. There is also a plethora of new info about the Jewish & Italian gangs from the early 20th Century as well as surprising new evidence regarding the Becker/Rosenthal affair. All of this insures that the Starker will be the benchmark for all future historic gangster biographies.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Jack Rides Again, January 14, 2011

By 

Daniel Waugh "Author" (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, the Becker-Rosenthal Case, and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster (Hardcover)

Lower East Side gangster Big Jack Zelig has spent much of the last century as something of an enigma. Although he had been featured in national newspaper headlines due his unwitting involvement in the notorious Becker/Rosenthal murder case, in modern times Zelig remained largely unheard of outside of brief references in true crime books. For decades, what little was known about him came mostly from Herbert Asbury's gangster classic The Gangs of New York. Now, as the centennial of Jack's untimely demise approaches, Rose Keefe's excellent biography has drawn the most complete portrait yet of Zelig and the world in which he lived.

One of the best true crime writers there is, Keefe has done a staggering amount of research that included scouring the National Archives, dozens of books, census records, newspapers, periodicals, etc. She also conducted extensive interviews with both friends and family of the long-dead gangster. Rose even found an elderly man who chillingly related how, as a six-year old boy, he had the grave misfortune of witnessing Big Jack's 1912 murder on a Second Avenue streetcar.

Zelig himself comes alive on the pages. Far from the smirking skull-cracker that Herbert Asbury made him out to be, the Big Jack of The Starker is well-groomed, intelligent, and articulate. Keefe does a wonderful job of fleshing out not just who Zelig was but why he did what he did. Of how a youthful Big Jack faltered when tasked to assassinate a rival hood (showing that not ALL gangsters can 'push a button' when required). Of how an ill-fated trip to Chicago not only changed Zelig's outlook on the world but nearly claimed his own life. How despite being one of the most feared gang bosses in New York, Big Jack was a devoted husband and father who went out of his way to protect the elderly Jewish citizens of his neighborhood. It is also shown why that while Zelig had every reason to hate the police (after being beaten and framed by them on more than one occasion), he declared to friends intention to testify before the Becker/Rosenthal grand jury in order to exonerate the wrongly accused NYPD Lt. Charles Becker. How, above all, Big Jack Zelig was a man of principles, which he followed no matter the cost.

Rose's descriptive writing style also brings the Lower East Side of old to life, and paints updated portraits of Big Jack's contemporaries, such as Kid Twist Zweifach, Crazy Butch, Lefty Louis, Gyp the Blood, Dopey Benny Fein, and the 'big kahuna' himself, Monk Eastman. The Becker/Rosenthal case itself is given a fresh examination as well, detailing how a nefarious perfect storm of corruption, double-dealing, and scheming claimed not only Herman Rosenthal's life but the lives of several others, guilty and innocent.

All in all, The Starker is an fantastic read and a must-have for anyone interested in true crime and/or New York City history.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, October 17, 2008

By 

Stanley J. Neu (Racine Wi) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, the Becker-Rosenthal Case, and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster (Hardcover)

I have read Ms. Keefe's other books, on Moran and O'Bannion they are both very good. I have read The Starker twice now the first time I could not put it down. I have read many books on the Becker affair and the early New York gangsters, but the Starker is by far one of the best out there.

I learned more about Big Jack and his cohorts and family than I ever did reading any of the Nash books or other smaller works. The insight into his family life and his childhood was very interesting, this book is a must for anyone who reads about the early Jewish gangsters. It has plenty of photos for those that like to see what the guys really looked like. It tells of his marriage and his child, and how Big Jack was a hero to some of the down trodden, I am sure those that came after him looked to him as a role model for thier own exploits.

Ms. Keefe pays very good attention to detail bringing you back to the period, using the vernacular of the time gets you into the swing of things and sets the tone for the entire book, more than likely i will re-read again to see if I can pick anything I may have missed.

If you had any questions about Big jack she has answered most if not all of them here, don't hesitate buy it now it is well worth the read. I can hardly wait for her next book.