One tends to think of crime in America as dominated by Italians, or rather Sicilians, but the Jews, another underprivileged immigrant community, contributed their full share to gang wars and exploitation. Predictably, they were particularly strong in East Side New York, and Rich Cohen's father owned a diner where the Murder Inc gang often hung out; Albert Anastasia, Buggsy Siegel and Abe Reles are a few of the more illustrious names in a profession where mortality ran high. The illustrations to this racy account include photographs of two well-known mobsters, Pep Strauss and Buggsy Goldstein, on their way to the death house in Sing Sing prison. En route, Strauss threw his shoe at the cameraman, and at this stage who will blame him?