New-York tribune., 1919-04-02
Monk Eastman
Wins New Soul
As Fighting g 9 Man
Officers and Hundreds of
Soldiers Who Fought With
Him Ask Governor to
Make Him Citizen Again

Ik1Hu 1ASh VO~Ci 'AOa ~
Make Him Citizen Again
CAMP UPTON, N. Y, April lit is a
long trail from the saloons of Christie
Street to the front line in France, and
in travelling it mans soul may un-
dergo strange transformation. The rat
tie of the gang fighters automatic is
only the faintest echo of the roar of
battle, but one man who has stood up
under the first carries in his heart
something that made him endure the
greater ordeal.
Monk Eastman has come back,
physically and morally. Chieftain Of
one Of the toughest gangs in the his
tory of New York City; owner Of
dozen aliases; gunman, robber and
opium smoker arrested scores of
times, imprisoned thrice, Eastman is
now private in the 1o6th Infantry,
waiting rehabilitation here.
That is the physical part of the come
back. Colonel Franklin Ward OF the
106th, Major Scott Button, Captain
James G. Conroy, Lieutenant Joseph A.
Kerrigan and hundreds of the men
who fought beside Eastman, have
signed petition, soon to be presented
to Governor Smith, asking that Private
William Delaney, of the 1oGth lnfan
try, formerly Monk Eastman, gang
leader, be restored to citizenship.
He Made Good Soldier
For the spirit that brought Eastman
up from a bouncer in a dance hall to
the command of the toughest gang of
"gorillas" that ever staggered along
the Bowery kept him in the forefront
of the battle in France. Crouched in
dugout while the barrage thundered
above, or creeping forward under ma
chine gun fire, Eastman was always
cool and courageous.
Behind the lines, out of the stimulus
of battle, his officers say he was also
GOOD soldier. The man who had
ruled his own gang Of thousand or
more gunner and thugs with an iron
/ hand, submitted quickly enough to the
/ discipline of the army. The hero of a
dozen gunhghts with the Paul Kelly
gang proved the stuff of which he was
made in the greatest gunfight of all
time.
Once while working his way forward
10 bomb out an especially annoying
machine gun nest, the German gunners
caught sight of him. They could not de-
press their gun sufficiently to hit him,
an Monk crawlcd forward on lis stom-
ach and blew them up with a Mills
bomb. In the process, the hail of lead
that swept over him, shredded away the
heavy marching order pack he carried
on his back.
Bullets arc an old story to Monk
diers trade, displaying the innumer-
able scars stamped ON his body BY
lead and steel and boasting that he had
acquired them in "thc battle of New
. York" He lead his gang in many {
shooting afray against the Paul Kcl-
ly's. In one Of these, fought on Riv
ington Street in 1908, more than fifty
gunner were engaged. His longcs
stretch" in prison was five years
served in Sing Sing for a duel which
he fought with policemen on Forty
second Street, near Broadway.
Something besides scorn OF the lead
that whistled past marked the de-
mcanor of Monk Eastman on the bat
tlcfeld, and the story that Major Lar
sen, the regimental surgeon, tells i:
proof of this.
Eastmans company had been holding
an unpcasantly hot part of the line
They had lost heavily before they re
tired TO make way for another com.
pany. Eastman was reluctant to
leave. He approached Major Larscr
and asked PERMISSION TO remain witt
She relieving command as strctchcl
bearer. All through the time that
, men Of his company were resting
Eastman served in the front line
trench, carrying back wounded men to
the dressing stations.
, From the beginning of his career
, which has been written piccemea OIL
the police blotters Of the East Side
Eastman ior Delaneyl or whatevcrnam
: is really his, has been fighter. Ht
first figured in East Side gang socict,
as professional bounccr, and became
so adept in this trade that he rose
rapidly to the command Of a gang
From 1901 to 1904. the Monk Eastman.
were name to reckon with in lower
Manhattan.
(, Accustomed to Wounds
Several times Monk was 80 badl,
wounded in brawls that he was
obliged to lay up in a hospital. He
never accused any one Of responsible
ity for his wounds, and contcntcd him
gcif with saying that he'd "gct even
later. The presumption is that he al.
ways did.
In 1904 Eastman was sentenced tc
ten years for his gunfght with The
police. He was pardoned in 1909, wa
sentenced to eight months In 1912 TO,
opium smoking and two years eleven
months in 1915 for robbery.
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