Monk Eastman

Monk Eastman, about 1915

Monk Eastman (* around 1873 in Williamsburg , Brooklyn , New York City , † December 26, 1920 in Manhattan ) alias Edward Ostermann was an American criminal, founder of the Eastman Gang and is now part of the Kosher Nostra .

Other aliases were Joseph "Joe" Morris, Joe Marvin, William "Bill" Delaney and Edward "Eddie" Delaney.

biography

Edward Ostermann was born around 1873 as the son of Jewish restaurateurs . In his youth, his father put him in a pet shop on Penn Street , but in about 1895 he returned to the Lower East Side and became a bouncer at New Irving Hall dance hall . However, there are opinions that say that Eastman was born in 1875, but the son of a veteran of the American Civil War , who died early in his childhood. He worked on intrusive guests with a long wooden stick on sensitive parts of the body; after such a brawl he gave the stick a notch. In the end, 49 incisions had accumulated in this way.

After this experience he founded the Eastman Gang . In addition to the usual activities of such a group ( pimping , gambling, etc.), the group also worked for the Tammany Hall , in particular to organize votes in the election campaigns. As early as 1900, around 1,100 members were assigned to this gang.

Monk Eastman had developed a real price list, a brawl was carried out for 15, robbery with knife use (English "stabbing") for 25 and a murder for 50 US dollars. Under ambulance drivers triggered by activities of transition inserts "Eastman Ward" were mentioned. Eastman probably laid the foundations for the later Murder.Inc , in which later, like the Eastman Gang , mainly Kosher Nostras carried out murder as a business.

Conflict with the Five Pointers

In numerous conflicts, the Eastmans and the Italian-controlled Five Points Gang were the only classic gangs in New York City to survive the turn of the century. Groups like the Irish Whyos had perished; smaller groups had joined the larger gangs.

Since both gangs were active in the same business areas with geographical overlap, e.g. B. the organization of spontaneous Stuss card games, a variant of the card game Pharo or Faro , the fight was probably inevitable. A relatively peaceful agreement, as later developed by the Five Families of the American Cosa Nostra , was also a consequence of such profit-damaging bloody conflicts.

The conflict probably started before 1901, but that year Monk Eastman was attacked by five Five Pointers in Bowery and shot down with one hit in the abdomen. In retaliation, a member of the Italian gang was murdered. The gang war was made apparent to the general public by a major shooting on September 17, 1903, when dozens of gangsters from both sides faced each other on Rivington Street . Two men were killed and several passers-by were injured.

Tammany Hall politicians tried to influence both sides. It cannot be ruled out that this is also the real cause of Monk Eastman's imprisonment in Sing Sing on February 3, 1904, which may have been justified with a robbery on the West Side , but was aimed at pacifying the conflict. Up until this point in time, both sides enjoyed political protection that can be interpreted as police immunity. Presumably, however, the Italians then had more to offer politically in the long term, with control over the Unione Siciliana and the resulting secure Italian votes in elections. In addition, the elegant Paul Kelly , who was also easily passed as an honest businessman at his appearances, was apparently better accepted in the Tammany Hall than the coarse-looking Monk Eastman.

The now around 2,000-strong Eastmans were apparently not ready to back off against the smaller Five Pointers , which only reached a strength of 1,500 in 1905. The void left by the imprisonment of Monk Eastman was filled by his protégé Max Zwerbach , who had fatally prevailed against Richie Fitzpatrick .

Max Zwerbach and Vach Lewis were shot on May 14, 1908, the splintering of the Eastman Gang could no longer be stopped and could not be stopped by Monk Eastmann after his release. In 1912 Jack Zelig, the leader of the largest faction, was shot dead.

The end

Eastman now earned his living with thefts, opium trafficking, etc., which repeatedly led to short prison sentences. At the age of 44 he signed up for military service and was assigned to the 106th Infantry ("O'Ryan's Roughnecks") of the 27th Division of the US Army and fought in France in the First World War . In April 1919 he returned to New York City and resumed his criminal activities; on December 26, 1920 he was shot.

The cause was obviously a dispute with his partner Jeremiah "Jerry" Bohan , a corrupt Prohibition agent . Both had been drinking together and had argued in the early hours of the morning. At 3:45 am, Monk Eastmann left the Bluebird Cafe in lower Manhattan . Bohan followed and shot Monk Eastman in front of the subway entrance on 14th Street .

Bohan was jailed for three years for this act, Monk Eastman was buried with full military honors in Cypress Hills Cemetery . Many members of the Eastman Gang are likely to have continued their criminal careers with the Bugs and Meyer Mob from 1921 onwards .

Quotes in literary and cinematic works

• In 1933 Jorge Luis Borges dedicated a short story to him : "A Universal History of Infamy: Monk Eastman: Purveyor of Iniquities"
• 1999 Eastman comes in the novel "Dreamland" by Kevin Baker ago
• 2002 appeared in the film Gangs of New York by Martin Scorsese on a figure which is very similar to Eastman.

literature

• Herbert Asbury: The Gangs of New York . New York 1928, Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 978-1-56025-275-7
• Tosches Nick: King of the Jews: The Greatest Mob Story Never Told , New York 2005, HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN 978-0-06-621118-3

Web links

• Monk Eastman in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Five Points & Eastman Gang. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009 ; accessed on March 11, 2011 (English). 
• Monk Eastman & the Lower Eastside at www.patrickdowney.com (English)
• Gangs of Manhattan on www.geocities.ws (English)
• Pictures on sixforfive.blogspot.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Franklin Abrams: http://www.monk1903.com/index2.php?about . As of October 5, 2008 (English)
2. ↑ ^{a b} The Eastmans ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.mobsters.8m.com (English) 
3. ↑ Five Points Gang ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.mobsters.8m.com (English)