Tough Jews / Rich Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Rich.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish criminals--New York (State)--New York.

Jewish criminals.

Crime--New York (State)--New York.

Crime.

New York (State)--New York.

Jews--New York (State)--New York--Social conditions.

Jews.

Social conditions.

Jews--Social conditions.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

275 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Edition:

First Vintage Books edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Vintage Books, 1999.

Summary:

In an L. A. Delicatessen, a group of Brooklyn natives gets together to discuss basketball, boxing, the weather back east, and the Jewish gangsters of yesteryear. Meyer Lansky. Bugsy Siegel. Louis Lepke, the self-effacing mastermind of Murder, Inc. Red Levine, the Orthodox hit man who refused to kill on the Sabbath. Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, who looked like a mama's boy but once buried a rival alive. These are just some of the vibrant, vicious characters Rich Cohen's father reminisced about and the author evokes so pungently in Tough Jews.

Tracing a generation of Jewish gangsters from the candy stores of Brownsville to the clubhouses of the Lower East Side--and, occasionally, to suites at the Waldorf--Cohen creates a densely anecdotal and gruesomely funny history of muscle, moxie, and money. Filled with fixers and schlammers, the squeal of tires and the rattle of gunfire, his book shatters stereotypes as deftly as its subjects once shattered kneecaps.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Nate 'n' Al's 13

Chapter 2 Abe and Buggsy 23

Chapter 3 The Moderns 39

Chapter 4 War in Brownsville 69

Chapter 5 Delegates at Large 89

Chapter 6 Corners 111

Chapter 7 On the Lam 159

Chapter 8 Dead or Out of Town 195

Chapter 9 The Warriors 241

Epilogue: Nate 'n' Al's 263.

Notes:

Originally published: New York : Simon & Schuster, 1998. With new afterword.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-272) and index.

ISBN:

0375705473

9780375705472

OCLC:

39746756

Online:

Publisher description