"Gangsters, murderers & Weirdos of the Lower East Side," by Eric Ferrara-Book Review

"Gangsters, murderers & Weirdos of the Lower East Side," by Eric Ferrara is a grand tour of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, begins with the chapter, "worth Street to Canal Street" and ending with "East Houston Street at 14."

Ferrrera takes you on a tour of block-by-block of the Lower East Side, with the exact address of where some things really horrible happened to some despicable people mostly. He starts in the time period in which the street gang in New York City, a bunch of cracked head cleverly named Dead Rabbits Irish controlled the streets slummed reserves the right to five points Area before the civil war. The five points area was populated with people so poor and dirty, that the city had to come in frequently to disinfect the streets and buildings with chemicals.

We also meet such individuals as gruff Chinese Tong Leader Mock duck, who terrorized the Chinatown at the turn of the century. You have specified there is the brother of three unforgettable Morrelo, Joe, Nick, and Antonio, who along with relatives of Ciro Terranova and Ignazio Saietta (Lupo the Wolf), started the black hand Society, who extorted money from fellow Sicilians, under threat of death, a punishment which frequently imposed.

If the corrupt politicians are your Favorites Walsh fats and thugs, Big Tim Sullivan, along with the indomitable Boss Tweed are present here too, with the exact locations where they committed their evil doings, all in the name of the law.

Gang leaders Charles "Lucky" superstar October and his pal Meyer Lansky "The Little Man" are all the children of the Lower East Side, along with muscle Lansky, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. Lansky on first met as students, when on October Racquet when he was extorting pennies from skinny pioneers whereby school children in a school of the Lower East Side, in exchange for him not beating them in a frontman. One day, the October took on Lansky, Lansky and fought tooth and nail, starting a friendship lasting, also penetrated into violence.

The bottom line is that "gangsters, murderers & Weirdos of the Lower East Side" is a quick read with the who, what, when, where and how of murders and crime in Lower East Side, right before the civil war, until the end of the 20th century. This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you want a peek at the underbelly of Manhattan's Lower East Side, cannot do better than read this interesting, but sometimes alarming book.

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About Ann Rule - A Writer of True Crime Books

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Ann Rule was born on 22 October 1935 in Lowell, Michigan. She was born Ann Stackhouse. The introduction of Ann Rule to writing true crime stories reads like a very interesting story in itself.

She developed a love for true crime stories by reading True Detective and after this decided to start writing. In 1969 one editor decided to try her out on one story when a vacancy in the northwest became available. Her first story was accepted but she was told to take a male pseudonym because it was believed that readers would not believe that a woman would know anything about police investigations despite having had a short stint herself as a police officer within the Seattle Police Department. She then started writing for True Detective as Andy Stack and the name was chosen from her maiden name which is Stackhouse, people used to call her father, Stack and the Andy is from the name of her son which is Andy Stack Rule.

After proving herself by writing articles for a few magazines including Master Detective, Inside Detective, Front Page Detective and Office Detective she was invited to start writing under her own name which she refused as she was worried about her safety and the safety of her family as by then she was a single mother raising four children. During that time she also decided to add to her BA degree from University of Washington by getting a two year degree in police science. At this time she was only writing articles and then she found the subject which would facilitate her transition from article writing to books.

It was 1974 when several attractive young women had started to go missing in the Pacific Northwest. She decided to start researching this story and at that time the case was still unsolved. As time went by it became clear that the killer was Ted Bundy, a friend of Ann Rule and previous colleague on a suicide hotline at the King County Crisis Clinic. Hence came the book,The Stranger Beside Me, which is about Ted Bundy, the serial killer. This book started off her career as a true crime book writer.

One of her later books which she has described as the one book which has paid all the bills was named Small Sacrifices which is about the mother Diane Downs who tried to kill her three children because the man she was pursuing did not want children. She only succeeded in killing her one child Cheryl but left one paralyzed from the waist down and the other paralyzed on one side of her body.

Ann Rule was also part of the task force that created Vi-Cap which is a computer tracking system designed to identify serial killers. She has since then written many true crime books and also now teaches seminars to law enforcement groups. She prefers writing about cases which are not very prominently reported on in the media which she refers to as sleeper cases. 

For more information on true crime books, reviews on these books, a wish list and a swop corner for readers of true crime stories come browse though
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