Reddit reviews Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York

Murder Inc. was long gone by the 50s. That gang was run by Lepke Buchalter and Albert Anastasia (the eventual boss of the Mangano mafia family that came under the command of Carlo Gambino) after Lansky and Siegel left that group in the 30s. They left after power was consolidated after the Castellammarese War. It was originally a loose affiliation of Italian and Jewish Gangsters that were moving past some of the more traditional organized crime practices carried over by the "mustache Petes" from Italy. Murder Inc. was an especially high profile endeavor that specialized in crimes that drew an extra helping of attention from law enforcement.

While Lansky and Siegel were no strangers to attention they understood that some was better than others. Bootlegging and gambling were quasi-socially acceptable while highjacking, murder and extortion were a ticket to long prison sentences or execution. Buchalter eventually went to the electric chair and Anastasia was murdered getting a haircut. It should also be noted that the Havana conference has been debated and there aren't any accounts of Luciano having influence in the Western Hemisphere after his deportation, a requirement of which was that he not return to the Americas. According to Robert Lacey's book on Meyer Lansky "Little Man.".

According to both the Lacey book and Neal Gabler's book on Walter Winchel is that the FBI after the high profile cases busting members of Murder Inc, Dutch Shultz's group and Al Capone (which wasn't even handled by the Bureau) there was little interest in going after the Mafia.

In both of those books and William Balsamo's History of Organized Crime Hoover was affraid of the corrupting influence of Mafia money and that as a degenerate gambler (horse racing) that he had an interest in not going after the Mob after they withdrew from the more flamboyant crimes of the 20s and 30s. Indeed he actively pivoted and made bank robbers like Dillinger the top people on the "most wanted" list. Keep in mind that Hoover was a fixture at Saratoga Springs in New York, the place of Meyer Lansky's first, for gambling, of only two or so arrests.

Sid Feder's book The Luciano Story reflects the above descriptions of Hoover's motivations and Luciano's influnece in North America. Vito Genovese wasn't really interested in answering to anyone, even Charlie Lucky. Genovese did though continue to make money with Meyer Lansky.

These mobsters were very happy to allow the bank robbers of the 30s take headlines. Most of the hardest of them that grew up in New York's Five Points were happy to make money unnoticed. To the extent that they would rather be seen as doddering or insane, the former being Carlo Gambino and the latter Vincent Gigante.

The men who emerged from the roaring 20s and died old men of old man ailments and diseases were modest and circumspect. They grew up in a neighborhood, Five Points, that according to Luc Sante's book Lowlife had an average life expectency of about 28 years old. There were brothels and bars in business to cater to adolescents because they got started living the outlaw life early and didn't live very long to enjoy the complex desires of adulthood. These men; Gambino, Gigante, Lansky, Costello and Luciano died in bed. For them Dillinger, or Baby Face Nelson or Pretty Boy Floyd were like the many hired guns that floated around in those days. They served a purpose and then they got killed. Watch the movie the Wild Bunch. At the beginning it shows kids poking at a scorpion that is being devoured by ants. I think that visual metaphor pretty much sums up this whole discussion.

Low Life, a book by Luc Sante, about the shifting demographics of the lower class of NYC over the decades, is a must read. https://www.amazon.com/Low-Life-Lures-Snares-York/dp/0374528993
Every neighborhood, in every US city has always changed from one thing to another. And so it shall always be.
Even if you don't want to agree, it's a great book.
I lived at NE 25th in 1987. It was an all black neighborhood.
To me, Portland looks ''gone'' and has been replaced by artsy hipsters, and here come the yuppies to conquer the hip area. It's as predictable as expecting to see homeless people in a major metro area.
It can be easy to depend on myopia to ascertain your position, but the big picture says that cities change, drastically, and always will.

That's actually kind of accurate. You should read How the Irish Became White and Low Life Gangs of New York is really curate, even down to the awful accents of the characters.

For anyone genuinely interested in what crime was really like in New York City when it was mostly of the "European ancestry" /u/senseofdecay keeps going on about, I highly recommend Luc Sante's excellent Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York. Link It's meticulously researched and reads like the historical background to Gangs of New York. Fascinating stuff.

I really love Luc Sante's "Low Life." It tackles the true grit of the LES from 1840-1919.

Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York

By Luc Sante

http://www.amazon.com/Low-Life-Lures-Snares-York/dp/0374528993/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239837639&sr=8-1

Amazon.com Review

There are very few classics in the field of pop culture--the academic stuff tends to be too dry and the fun stuff is too quickly dated. This book by Luc Sante is the exception--in fluid prose liberally sprinkled with astute metaphors, Sante tells the story of New York's Lower East Side, circa 1840-1920. The personal histories of criminals, prostitutes, losers, and swindlers bring to life the social and statistical history that the author has meticulously researched. Not limiting himself to the usual sources, Sante finds his history in old copies of Police Gazette as well as actual police, fire, and social service records. Above all, what really makes this book work is the writing, which brings to life a culture of the streets that continues to form a silent influence on our contemporary popular culture. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In his first book, freelance writer Sante tours the underside of Manhattan's underclass circa 1840-1919. Clarifying his territory, he notes that "New York is incarnated by Manhattan (the other boroughs . . . are merely adjuncts)." Sante's bad old days are populated with lethal saloon keepers, thieves, whores, gamblers, pseudo-reformers, Tammany Hall politics, crooked cops et al. Capital of the night is the Bowery, center of the "sporting life"; bohemia encompasses the likes of short story writer O. Henry, a one-time embezzler from Texas, plus ethnic enclaves (with the Jewish and Slavic bohemians singled out as the most argumentative). East Side, West Side, semi-rural uptown, wide-open downtown, 19th-century Manhattan is presented as the realm of danger and pleasure. "The city was like this a century ago, and it remains so in the present," maintains an author who sees his Manhattan as seamy, seedy and sinister.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Comedian Liz Glazer is not your typical lesbian. There’s no dick envy. There’s no disgust by the male body. It’s more pity, if anything. “If I had a part of my body that was so needy in moments of sexual desire—which I can feel empathy for—I don’t think I can handle it.” The closest she gets is wearing one of her many Realdoes. Liz pops by The Manwhore Podcast breaking down the different seasons of the TV show that is Her Life. Spoiler alert: she gets married in the season 9 finale!

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