Herbert Asbury 
The Gangs of New York [EPUB ebook] 

First published in 1928, Herbert Asbury’s “The Gangs of New York” is probably best remembered today as the source material for Martin Scorsese’s 2002 film of the same name. According to the original publisher’s announcement “this is a history of New York’s underworld, from its beginnings in revolutionary times down to its virtual end as an organized force for evil during the first decade of the present century.” “The Gangs of New York” is all of this and much more, a rogues’ gallery of arch criminals who spread terror in little old New York when the Bowery flourished. Chinatown was lurid with feuds, and Five Points was a place to avoid both by day and night. An important contribution to American criminology at the end of the 19th century, this volume contains vivid accounts of gang methods, the draft riots, the tong wars, the Bowery, Hell’s Kitchen, Tammany Hall’s relation to the gangs, and an amazing glossary of underworld slang.