The Gangs of New York
A look beyond the movie
Once a forgotten part of American history, Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New
York" has helped pique interest in the Civil War-era Irish gangs which were
the precursors to modern American organized crime. "Gangs of New York"
takes a historically fictitious look at the Dead Rabbits Gang and the
others which followed and made the Bowery such a dangerous place in the mid
1800s. The film's climax recounts the immigrant-led Draft Riots of 1863
which helped bring about social and political change far beyond the Bowery
Slums.
But while Scorsese's film paints a romantic and patriotic ouvere of the
time -- and to be fair the film does not shy away from the era's truly
violent nature -- the gangs of New York were often little interested in
social progress.
One of the more violent New York gangs was the Jewish Eastmans, led by Monk
Eastman. Monk was an ugly rough-and-tumble failed shop-owner who loved
fighting and hurting people more than almost anything else. "I like to hand
out a beating now and then," he was quoted as saying. "It keeps my hand
in." About the only things Monk liked more than fighting were pigeons and
cats. He reportedly owned 100 cats and 500 pigeons and was rarely seen
without a cat or two in tow.
His favorite weapon was his wooden club which he would notch following a
successful beating or killing. Legend has it that Monk made his 50th notch
one evening in a Brooklyn saloon by whacking an innocent patron over the
head. When asked why he did it, he stated that while noticing his club had
49 marks, "I just wanted to make it an even 50."
His face bore the scars of numerous battles which contributed to his
nickname, "Monk" -- short for Monkey. Eastman was born Edward Osterman and
was recorded as having the aliases Eddie Delaney, Bill Delaney, Joe Marvin
and Joe Morris.
The Eastman gang at its peak had more than 1,000 members and was in cahoots
with the political machine led by William Marcy Tweek, better known as Boss
Tweed of Tammany Hall. The Eastmans provided a variety of services for
Tammany Hall, including the usual protection rackets and beatings. But the
most important service Monk and the gang provided for Tweed was his "get
out the vote drive." Come election day, the Eastmans were out early making
sure the good citizens of the city were going to the polls -- and of course
helping them select "the right" candidates.
Long after Tweed fell to the muckraking journalists of the time, Eastman
continued to flourish. His time came, as it does to all bosses, when an
up-and-coming Italian named Paul Kelly took control of the vicious gang
known as the Five Pointers and declared all-out war on the Eastmans.
Despite his nom de guerre, Kelly was as Irish as Enrico Caruso and chose
the name in the tradition of prizefighters of the day who all boxed under
Irish names.
In 1901 Eastman was ambushed by a group of Five Pointers and shot, but
managed to survive. From that point, the war between the gangs was hot and
not a night passed in the Bowery without bloodshed between the two gangs.
In 1904, Eastman and Kelly squared off in the ring to settle their
differences and boxed to a standoff.
The writing, however, was on the wall, and when Eastman mugged the son of a
prominent New Yorker, Tammany washed its hands of him. He served a 10-year
term in Sing Sing and returned to the Bowery a powerless has-been. He
enlisted in the Army, served in France in World War I and was discovered
dead in a Bowery alley with five gunshot wounds in 1920.
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