This series delves into the dark underbelly of New York City, exhaustively chronicling the rise, reign, and eventual decline of its notorious organized gangs. It meticulously details how harsh living conditions, waves of immigration, and pervasive political corruption in the 19th century fueled the growth of criminal enterprises. The narratives vividly portray the gangs' involvement in everything from petty crime and extortion to political manipulation and violent turf wars that often paralyzed the city.
The Gangs of New York is a tour through a now unrecognisable city of abysmal poverty and habitual violence cobbled from legend, memory, police records, the self-aggrandizements of aging crooks, popular journalism, and solid historical research. Asbury pre