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A review by donnieanadarko
The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld by Dan Slater
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
Talk of "immigrant crime" isn't new. At the turn of the 20th century, an influx of Jewish and Italian immigrants into New York City swelled their Lower Manhattan neighborhoods.
In that time, there was truth to the allegations. In the world's most densely populated neighborhood, prostitution of poor, young Jewish girls was so common the pimps had a fraternal organization that provided insurance and burial plots. Some 4,000 women went missing every year, most of them lured into the sex trade. Small-time gangs ran rackets like illegal gambling halls and "horse poisoning" that crippled transportation unless teamsters paid to keep the poisoners at bay.
City officials were unable or unwilling to do anything (the former because of the scope of corruption in the city, the latter because there was money to be made taking payments to look the other way)
But in 1914 a small group of Jewish immigrants led by Rabbi Judah Magnes, lawyer Harry Newberger, and activist Abe Schoenfeld formed a group to do what others couldn't - clean up the Lower East Side.
Obtaining police commissions from the mayor, they found others from the immigrant community willing to help. They raided the brothels and casinos, more interested in disrupting their business than in taking cases to trial. And it worked. Their squad, known as the "Incorruptibles," largely succeeded until the advent of Prohibition in 1919 gave the gangsters a new line of work.
Author Dan Slater, who traces his ancestry to the Lower East Side, also introduces us to the corrupted, such as racketeer Arnold Rothstein (portrayed by actor Michael Stuhlbard in the first four seasons of "Boardwalk Empire") and his proteges, Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano. We also meet prostitute-turned-madam-turned-reformer Antonia "Tony the Tough" Rolnick, who became a sex worker after being wooed by a suitor whom she only learned too late was actually a pimp, and eventually became a vital source of information for the Incorruptibles.
Slater's meticulously researched history reads like a novel. His sources include collections in both New York City and Jerusalem, where Rabbi Magnes would go on to become one of the founders of Hebrew University.
Ultimately, while the squad was successful in uprooting prostitution and gambling, they failed at stamping out all vice in their quarter of the city. Demand for illegal liquor and the new, better-organized criminal gangs that provided it, proved too much for the reformers. Not only that, but the reformers' overreach in enacting Prohibition created an atmosphere of disdain for law enforcement that made the era's colorful gangsters folk heroes among many residents.
In that time, there was truth to the allegations. In the world's most densely populated neighborhood, prostitution of poor, young Jewish girls was so common the pimps had a fraternal organization that provided insurance and burial plots. Some 4,000 women went missing every year, most of them lured into the sex trade. Small-time gangs ran rackets like illegal gambling halls and "horse poisoning" that crippled transportation unless teamsters paid to keep the poisoners at bay.
City officials were unable or unwilling to do anything (the former because of the scope of corruption in the city, the latter because there was money to be made taking payments to look the other way)
But in 1914 a small group of Jewish immigrants led by Rabbi Judah Magnes, lawyer Harry Newberger, and activist Abe Schoenfeld formed a group to do what others couldn't - clean up the Lower East Side.
Obtaining police commissions from the mayor, they found others from the immigrant community willing to help. They raided the brothels and casinos, more interested in disrupting their business than in taking cases to trial. And it worked. Their squad, known as the "Incorruptibles," largely succeeded until the advent of Prohibition in 1919 gave the gangsters a new line of work.
Author Dan Slater, who traces his ancestry to the Lower East Side, also introduces us to the corrupted, such as racketeer Arnold Rothstein (portrayed by actor Michael Stuhlbard in the first four seasons of "Boardwalk Empire") and his proteges, Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano. We also meet prostitute-turned-madam-turned-reformer Antonia "Tony the Tough" Rolnick, who became a sex worker after being wooed by a suitor whom she only learned too late was actually a pimp, and eventually became a vital source of information for the Incorruptibles.
Slater's meticulously researched history reads like a novel. His sources include collections in both New York City and Jerusalem, where Rabbi Magnes would go on to become one of the founders of Hebrew University.
Ultimately, while the squad was successful in uprooting prostitution and gambling, they failed at stamping out all vice in their quarter of the city. Demand for illegal liquor and the new, better-organized criminal gangs that provided it, proved too much for the reformers. Not only that, but the reformers' overreach in enacting Prohibition created an atmosphere of disdain for law enforcement that made the era's colorful gangsters folk heroes among many residents.