Tough Jews - Rich Cohen

Once upon a time, back in the 1920s and 1930s, in Brooklyn, there lived a breed of men who exist now only in legend and in the memories of a few old men. Their names were Louis Lepke, Abe Reles, Bugsy Siegel, Dutch Schultz, Meyer Lansky, and they were Jewish gangsters: Jews with guns; tough, fearless Jews who roamed the streets in a time when a Jewish boy could fashion a future that was murderous, daring, and wide open.;Rich Cohen's father grew up in that world; his family owned the diner where the gangsters known as Murder Incorporated hung out. The author tells their stories, evoking their world - a world of street corners, bars and nightclubs; a world where murder was better than cowardice; where killings where planned and executed with precision and finesse; a world of feuds, wars, schemes, where living into middle age was a kind of victory; a world in which, for a brief moment, Jews were among the most important criminals in America.