Monk Eastman: The Gangster Who Became a War Hero
Monk Eastman was born around 1873, apparently in Manhattan. Unlike most of his fellow thugs, he was raised in a middle-class family; but by the time he was six, he had begun his criminal career with a series of petty crimes, quickly ascending to more serious and violent crime, and by 20 heading a feared street gang. He operated with impunity, protected by cops on the take and Tammany Hall. Hanson describes Eastman’s rise in tough, unromantic terms while effectively placing him in the context of the hardscrabble Lower East Side. Monk was physically unattractive and his penchant for violence was so extreme that his political cover deserted him. After a prison stretch in Sing Sing and more petty crime, he enlisted in the army in 1917, when he was 43, and served honorably in combat in France. But, as Hanson illustrates, this was no case of personal redemption; upon discharge, Monk returned to his old habits and haunts, and his life ended violently and ignominiously. A well-done account. --Jay Freeman