Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I grew up on gangster stories. I moved to New York to explore the parts of the city where these stories had taken place. I met a few living examples of the genus and species: New York gangster. #2 I wanted to track down and name the first New York gangster, the man behind all the other legends. I found that many consider Monk Eastman to have been the first, but when Eastman turned up in the dives, old-timers were already telling stories about gangsters of an earlier generation. #3 Hicks was a founding father of New York’s underworld. He was a demon, and he had that kind of charisma. He put his arm around the town and pulled its people close. In writing about him, reporters of the time were capturing a new kind of terror: the terror of the metropolis.