The Kosher Capones : A History of Chicago's Jewish Gangsters / Joe Kraus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kraus, Joe, Author.

Series:

Cornell scholarship online.

Cornell scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish criminals--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century.

Jewish criminals.

Gangsters--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century.

Gangsters.

Jewish criminals--Illinois--Chicago--Biography.

Jews--Illinois--Chicago--Social conditions--20th century.

Jews.

Organized crime--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century.

Organized crime.

Jews--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 225 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The Kosher Capones tells the fascinating story of Chicago's Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. Author Joe Kraus traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin "Zuckie the Bookie" Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate's "Jewish wing."These two men linked the early Jewish gangsters of the neighborhoods of Maxwell Street and Lawndale to the notorious Chicago Outfit that emerged from Al Capone's criminal confederation. Focusing on the murder of Zuckerman by Patrick, Kraus introduces us to the different models of organized crime they represented, a raft of largely forgotten Jewish gangsters, and the changing nature of Chicago's political corruption. Hard-to-believe anecdotes of corrupt politicians, seasoned killers, and in-over-their-heads criminal operators spotlight the magnitude and importance of Jewish gangsters to the story of Windy City mob rule.With an eye for the dramatic, The Kosher Capones takes us deep inside a hidden society and offers glimpses of the men who ran the Jewish criminal community in Chicago for more than sixty years.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION. CONNECTING THE DOTS

1. THE END, OR ZUKIE'S BAD DAY

2. BEYOND SCARFACE, A KOSHER CAPONE FOR MAXWELL STREET

3. THE SUNSET OF 1974: LENNY PATRICK'S CHANGING WORLD

4. LANDING IN LAWNDALE

5. RISING IN THE RANKS

6. ROOTS OF THE LAWNDALE MACHINE

7. ARVEY'S BALANCING ACT

8. SYNDICATE HAMMER

9. SIZING UP THE OUTFIT

10. TENTACLES

11. WHEN SCARFACE MET RICO

12. LENNY'S CIRCUS TURN

Afterword. A QUESTION ANSWERED

CAST OF CHARACTERS

NOTE ON SOURCES

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781501747335

1501747339

OCLC:

1104912713