Eastman Gang

Common card · No. 457491

The Eastman Gang was a predominantly Jewish-American street gang that dominated parts of the underworld in New York City during the late 1890s until the early 1910s. Along with the increasingly Italian-American and Italian immigrant Five Points Gang under Italian-American Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli, best known by his pseudonym Paul Kelly, the Eastman gang succeeded the long dominant Whyos as the first non-Irish street gang to gain prominence in the underworld during the 1890s. Its rise marked the beginning of a period of strong Jewish-American influence within organized crime in New York City. Under the leadership of Monk Eastman, a well known bouncer and hired thug, the Eastman Gang spent the next decade establishing a criminal empire in Manhattan's Lower East Side through criminal activities, including prostitution and illegal gambling. They operated stuss games, and established strong political connections through Tammany Hall.

Read on Wikipedia · Image AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain